Girlymama

This is one of our favorite recipes! SOOO yummy. It makes a TON, though, so I usually only make half for our family.

Linguine with Shrimp Scampi

Vegetable oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt plus 1 1/2 teaspoons
3/4 pound linguine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1 pound large shrimp (about 16 shrimp), peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 lemon, zest grated (I do not use this.)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced in half-rounds (For presentation purposes, don’t bother for family.)
1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Cook linguine with 1 tablespoon of salt according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large saute pan or skillet, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic. Saute for just 1 minute. Then add the shrimp, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and the pepper. Saute until the shrimp have just turned pink, about 5 minutes. Stir often.

Remove from the heat. Add the parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and red pepper flakes. Toss to combine. (I don’t bother with the lemon slices unless it’s for company. And I eliminate the lemon zest. I feel it’s plenty lemony without the zest.)

When the pasta is done, drain the cooked linguine and then put it back in the pot. Immediately add the shrimp and sauce. Toss well and serve.

recipe origin: Barefoot Contessa Family Style

• sleeping in on saturday AND sunday

• going to barnes and noble, ordering a large starbucks cup o' yummy and perusing design magazines. all. by. myself.

• laying on the lawn with my kids and looking for cloud shapes. we saw a puppy, a dragon, a pirate ship, a spaceship and a helicopter.

• getting saladworks for lunch

• going to the zoo and watching colin's fascination with all the animals.

• rocking my baby to sleep for his nap

• getting beautiful pink tulips hand delivered by a very excited little girl

• taking a nap (sleep was a recurring theme this mothers' day)

What did you do?

Holding a ten-hour-old baby is heaven. Pure heaven. It made my uterus hurt. He is sooooo cute!! Here's Colin and his future partner in crime:

It's the Greatest Show on Earth! And we're going!!
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is coming to Philadelphia and our family is super excited to go see the all new Zing Zang Zoom circus playing at the Wachovia Spectrum!

Just the other day, Ellie asked me out of the blue if we could go to the circus someday because she really wanted to see one and she had never been. How excited was I to tell her that we actually were going to the circus the very next week!! We'll be going the evening of May 15th.

Thanks to Mom Central, you can purchase a 4 pack of tickets for only $44 by logging onto http://www.comcasttix.com and entering the coupon code: MOM**. (Seriously, for the cost of a MOVIE you can go see the circus!!)

Hope to see lots of you there!!!

** Tickets can also be purchased by calling 1-800-298-4200. Minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4, can be purchased for $11 each. Special Promotional pricing not available for VIP Gold, VIP, Circus Celebrity Seating or combined with any other offers. Other service fees may apply.

Philadelphia Show Dates:
Wednesday, May 13th at 7:00pm Thursday, May 14th at 7:00pm
Friday, May 15th at 10:30am
Friday, May 15th at 7:00pm
Saturday, May 16th at 11:00am
Saturday, May 16th at 3:00pm
Saturday, May 16th at 7:00pm
Sunday, May 17th at 1:00pm
Sunday, May 17th at 5:00pm

Remember how timid Ellie was at her first soccer game? Well last night, we realized that was a fluke and Ellie is totally her daddy's girl.

Not only did she SCORE A GOAL but she is a fierce soccer player! She was running right into the fray, body checking kids that got in her way, getting tripped and jumping right back up and even ELBOWING HER OWN TEAMMATES out of her way to get to the ball.

Um… 'kay….

Can you say "Athletic Scholarship?" Hee hee hee…..

You may have noticed that I haven't been blogging much lately.  There was a reason. A good one. Something I wasn't ready to blog about yet, despite the fact that it was slowly taking over my life. No, I'm not pregnant. Remember those posts about being really, really busy? And those posts about working on the house? Well…

We're buying a new house.

I KNOW!

We've been looking around for a few weeks – just to see what is out there. And we fell in love with this absolutely adorable neighborhood. An amazing neighborhood. It looks like a movie set, its just so cute. And its a fantastic location. Then we found a house in it. And, on Friday afternoon, they accepted our offer.

Holy cow.

We're super excited. Its a great house with an amazing yard!! It's a fixer-upper, so be prepared for some great HGTV-ish posts involving us trying to do things, getting in wayyy over our heads, then having to hire someone to fix what we messed up.  Seriously – it has one of the ugliest kitchens ever. EV-VER. (New kitchen – WHOOT!) And lovely wood paneling. Ugh.

Now there's just one problem. We have to sell our current house. And quick. We've been working like CRAZY for the last two weeks trying to get it in tip-top shape. But then Friday we learned we had to get our house on the market by Tuesday. As in TODAY.

Excuse me for a moment while I breathe into a paper bag. And collapse in a puddle of exhaustion and sore muscles.

We did it, though! Our house is on the market and our inspection on the new house happened this afternoon. So we're seeing dollar signs and lots of work. But also was reminded of all the things we loved about this new place! Like a great layout and hardwood floors and gorgeous moldings and huge closets and the YARD and the space – ohmygoodness the space! Anyway, get ready for some crazy posts!!

Know anyone looking to buy a delightful, adorable little house in the Philly suburbs? 

I'm kind-of known for this recipe. Ahem.

Margarita

1 can frozen limeaid
1/2 can triple sec
1/2 – 1 can tequila

Blend with ice. Serve in glass rimmed with salt. Designate a driver.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, here's some Mexican recipes I've posted:

guacamole
beef fajitas
tequila lime chicken

and a few yummies from other sites I like:
carnitas
taco salad with creamy lime dressing
spicy shredded pork (pioneer woman at her best!!)
lime-jalapeno grilled chicken wraps
leftover steak fajitas (I never thought of marinading steak after its already cooked!)

Once again, Ellie barely caught the bus this morning. This is happening much too often. Our typical morning goes like this:

sometime between 5:30-7:00 – Ellie and/or Grace comes into our room to announce that they are awake. Thank you for sharing, now be quiet.
6:30 – alarm goes off
6:39 – alarm goes off
6:48 – alarm goes off
6:57 – alarm goes off, drag self out of bed
7:00-7:15 – put in contacts, quickly get dressed, get Colin, change diaper
7:15-7:25 – make breakfast
7:25-7:45 – eat breakfast
7:45  - some sort of time-warp takes place and suddenly I look at the clock and it says:
8:10 – start yelling at Ellie to "Hurry up! The bus will be here in 2 minutes! Hurry, hurry, hurry!!" Throw on her shoes, coat and backpack. Tell her to stop crying about me grabbing the wrong socks and assure her that she can wear the pink Hello Kitty socks tomorrow. Argue why she needs to wear a coat. Grab Colin, who LOVES the school bus and gets sad if he can not wave to it. Run outside.
8:13 – Bus arrives.

I think I need a more efficient system. Perhaps cutting out one or two of the "alarm goes off" steps out of my morning schedule would help. Going to bed before midnight would probably help that….