pasta with brie, basil and tomatoes

Pasta with Brie, Basil and Tomatoes

Serves 8

 photo credit: thepioneerwoman

Ingredients:

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes quartered

4-5 cloves garlic minced

1 lb brie, with rind removed torn into (1-inch) pieces

3/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground pepper

1 pound penne pasta

1 cup fresh basil leaves julienned

Put tomatoes, garlic, brie, oil, salt and pepper into a large bowl and toss gently to combine. Cover and set aside at room temperature to let marinate for 2 to 3 hours.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add penne and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain well (don’t rinse) and transfer hot pasta to bowl with tomato mixture. Add basil and toss gently to combine. Serve immediately.

Recipe from Linda Allen, Tampa Florida

grouping

Every Sunday after church we have been going out to breakfast

trying a new restaurant each week.

Two weeks in a row we have been offered a seating choice new to us . . .

"Good Morning.

I have a small table for two in the corner or . . . 

we are doing grouping at the round table"

We have met some very friendly people during these breakfasts.

I say - give grouping a try.

{by the way: There are a lot of Canadians spending the winter in Venice}

between colorings

I totally have to thank Sunny Simple Life for this great tip.
Seems like I need to color those pesky grey roots more often these days.
Here a a temporary solution that I recently tried and was amazed that it worked so well.

Take an eye shadow that is close to your hair color. 

Use the applicator to "paint" the hair near you part where the grey shows. 

It will last and last until your next shampoo.

Hard to believe but true!

Leisure House 01

After much ado of which I will spare you the boring details

we have finally moved into our new 

winter get-away home in Venice, Florida.

I look forward to blogging about it in future posts

but for now this quote from Southern Living Magazine 

is a perfect introduction . . . 

{master bedroom}

"I never wanted the seriousness of a real house or anything 
in it to be so precious or valuable that it must be revered.

We like to think of ourselves as living as if we were on vacation."

times three

A new necessary bathroom accessory in my house is a magnifying mirror.

I recently bought one while shopping for our guest bathroom and decided to take a look.  

First of all – ouch – wrinkles are bad enough but magnified X3 they are painful to look at.

This winter we are spending four months in a retirement community and I have seen a lot of makeup mishaps on our new “older friends”.  I bet you can just picture what I am talking about.  

Hopefully my new mirror will help avoid these.

So . . . I put on my make up as usual and then looked in the mirror.

Woops – get out a Q-tip and clean up all the mascara smears.

Then smooth out that eye shadow.

Now blend both eyebrows with a brush.

A little more concealer under the eyes.

Much better. {why didn’t someone tell me?}

I guess I will have a love-hate relationship with this magnifying mirror.

A new necessity.

prayers

We are saying prayers for our friend's sweet little granddaughter. 

She is having some pretty serious surgery tomorrow and our hearts go out to them.

{Nissen Fundoplication and g-tube placement}

Everything will be all right in the end... 

if it's not all right . . . 

then it's not yet the end.

We love you guys.