Spaghetti Casserole

I LOVE spaghetti but I have been looking for a slightly different spaghetti recipe. I came across this one & I was feeling adventurous so I tried it. It's SO good!

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces spaghetti
• 8 ounces sour cream
• 8 ounces cream cheese (cut up)
• 1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained (crumbly)
• 30 ounces spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• season with salt and pepper (or anything else as you see fit)

Directions:

Prep Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

1. The recipe calls for a 9x13 casserole, but I usually split it between two 8x8 pans (increasing the spaghetti, beef, sauce and mozarella slightly if needed) and freeze one of them for another time.
2. Cook the spaghetti and drain, but don't rinse.
3. Put it right back in the warm pot and add the cream cheese.
4. Blend the cream cheese until melted with the spaghetti and then blend in the sour cream.
5. Put spaghetti mixture into greased pan.
6. Layer some of the mozarella, then the beef, then a little more mozarella.
7. Spread the spaghetti sauce across and then put the rest of the mozarella on top.
8. Bake at 350 (or maybe 375?) for 30- 35 minutes- until a knife comes out clean.
9. Let it stand for 5 or 10 minutes.

I added roasted red peppers to the spaghetti, cream cheese & sour cream. I froze one to make for dinner later. Josh wanted it again like 2 nights later...I guess it was a success :-D

Still Playing Catch Up!

I hate that I don't feel like blogging when I get home :-/ I'm always so far behind now! This was definitely easier when I was a housewife! Man, I really miss being a housewife! I was so much more organized less stressed. I'm still applying & hoping for a better job to come along. I know I have to be patient & eventually it will happen...that's just not a strong point for me. Anyway...

I was supposed to work last Saturday but we ended up being closed because a Dr. wasn't available. Since I was on the schedule for Saturday I had Friday off. That happened to be an off Friday for Josh so we had a 3 day weekend together!

We decided to go to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I LOVE that place! We have season passes that get us into the one in Baltimore & DC. This was our second time going. The first time was the Sunday before labor day...BAD idea! It was SO crowded. I don't think we'll ever go on a holiday weekend ever again. We found super cheap parking only a few blocks away. I was kind of excited. It was only a quarter for an hour & 15 mins! We usually go on the weekends when street parking is free. Most places the street parking during the week is closer to $1 an hour. haha. We ended up staying for about 2 hours because we wanted to make it out before rush hour. It did get a little crowded during the end of our trip last week. Turns out, we picked a field trip day to go. They have an awesome jellyfish exhibit we were seeing for the first time. They have SO many different types. When we got in, there was literally one other person in there. 5 minutes later, there were hundreds of elementary school aged kids running around. I don't know how teachers do it! After that, we walked through the Australia exhibit...of course I LOVE that part! I saw some things I never saw in Oz then some that I did. It's obviously not the same but it still brought back some memories. I took tons of pictures, unfortunately I can't find that memory card right now so I have absolutely nothing to show for it.

One of my favorite parts of going to the aquarium is seeing their sea turtle. She was found off the coast of NY with an infected leg that had to be amputated. Her other leg was all broken up. Of course a turtle with no front legs can't swim so something had to be done about that. I'm not sure if I've ever talked about what kind of work is done at my work but we do orthopedic surgeries. I found out last week that my boss fixed her other leg! That's so awesome & it made me like my job a little more! haha. I LOVE sea turtles. If we ever make enough money for us to accomplish all our goals without working that's what I want to do...save sea turtles :-)

After we left the aquarium, we walked around the inner harbor. It's so peaceful when it's not super crowded. We love just hanging out, looking at the boats & looking for jellyfish & crabs. We didn't see any crabs but we saw several jellyfish. The weather was absolutely perfect!

The rest of our weekend was very relaxing but we still got a lot accomplished. I started unpacking our warm clothes since fall is definitely here! We still get some really warm days but it's starting to cool off. The mornings are a little too cool for me most of the time...Josh LOVES it. I typically don't care for fall because of the following season. This year I'm actually excited for winter. I guess just because we're in a different place. I'm not really sure why. I'm sure it won't last too long though. Haha.

So, last weekend was one of the most productive & peaceful weekends we've had in a while. It was perfect! I wish we had more 3 day weekends. I'll post some pics from last weekend when I find the card they're on. I don't know how I lost it :-/

Baked Mac n Cheese

Mac & Cheese is probably one of my favorite comfort foods...I can't do the blue box stuff though. I love to make baked mac & cheese...with tons of real cheese!

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1 tablespoon salt
• Fresh black pepper

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk & onion...simmer until thick

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

This time I didn't do a bread crumb topping. I wasn't really in the mood for a crunch. I also used penne because I didn't have enough elbows.

DC

Last weekend my dad, sister & niece came to visit Josh and I. We took them to DC on Saturday. It was a perfect fall day...a huge improvement from the last time we took them. We took them to the National Aquarium & to look at some of the monuments & museums. It wasn't as crowded as it was when we took Josh's family so that was nice. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Josh and I...I love my sister, but she isn't the greatest photographer ;-)

Me with my dad, sister & niece...Josh is a little better but he still didn't get the top of the monument


Trying to be artistic...I don't remember taking this so I guess Josh did it...I like it :-)

Pretty coralish stuff & a fish.

You can't really tell in this picture, but this lobster is HUGE!!!

Overall it was a great weekend! I made dinner for everyone on Friday. We had a great time Saturday in DC. It was really good to get to spend some time with my family since I don't get to see them much anymore. We went to TGIFriday's for dinner & it was delicious as always. I'm not huge on chain restaurants but that's one I do like. They left out early on Sunday & Josh & I spent the rest of the day relaxing. The only thing that kept last weekend from being perfect is State losing to ECU & UVA losing to the Holes :-/ It was NOT a good day for football. Unfortunately, our record is 5-2 now. UGH!

Raleigh!!!

This post is SO late. I'm super behind on blogging. I sit behind a computer all day at work. The last thing I want to do when I get home is touch a computer or a phone. Soooo...this weekend I'll try to catch up a little.

Josh and I drove down to Raleigh 2 weekends ago to visit some friends & go to the NC State v. Boston College game. We had such a great time! It was great to see all our friends together again. It was a long weekend for Josh so I took Friday off. We drove down Thursday evening. Thursday night we went out for my best friend's birthday! Friday we ate at Melvin's on Hillsborough St. Melvin's is a burger place Josh and & both know from our childhood. The original restaurant is in Elizabethtown in eastern NC. My family used to eat there on the way to the lake in the summer. The burgers are still good but they're not the same as the originals. Anyway, we were both very excited when a location opened in Raleigh. We walked around on campus, got some Howling Cow (I miss NC State ice cream SOOOO much!) & went to the bookstore.

This is Josh being ridiculous, biting the wolf's ear. One of the 97393217 reasons I love him!


Friday night we had a party to celebrate everyone's birthday since we all left Raleigh. We had a great time! We had plans to go to bed early since we were going to be tailgating at 7 am Saturday...of course we didn't go to bed until WAY too late!

Saturday we tailgated with some old friends & went to the football game. I miss tailgating so much! It's just so laid back & carefree. We had a little mishap with the grill so food pretty much just didn't happen. We still had a great time catching up. It was kind of like we never left :-)



44-17...not bad :-D

It was so good to be in Raleigh for a little bit. It was nice to re-live the old college days a little. I know my body definitely could not handle being a college kid anymore. I don't know how I ran off so little sleep back then! I finally came to terms with the fact that college is over, I'm finally ok with it. I still miss it but life is great now!

On the way back home our tire blew out. It set us back quite a bit but we still made decent time considering we had to drive so slow on the donut.

A Late Weekend Recap

This past weekend Josh and I drove down to NC to see 2 awesome people get married! It was a perfect day for a wedding. It was warm during the day & cool at night...a typical fall day :-) This wedding was on a farm in the country. I'm a country girl & after being away for so long I sometimes forget how much I miss it sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love MD & I love Raleigh...but there's really nothing like a clear sky in the country during the night. It's just so quiet & peaceful. :-) Anyway, the wedding was absolutely beautiful! Here are some pictures :-)

The GPS took us down this gravel road for about 2 miles.

When we got to the Britton homeplace there were a series of signs. I LOVE stuff like this!



Sorry the last one is a little crappy, there was a truck coming up behind us & we didn't want to hold them up. We stopped for all the rest but I told Josh to just keep going for this one.

The groom

My favorite bridesmaid & groomsman

Flower girl...she was adorable
Ring bearers...they were TOO CUTE! They're twins
Sealed with a kiss!
This are was flooded the day before the ceremony. They had to pump a ton of water off.

Loved this! You can't really tell in the pic but the flag says "The Wagners". Josh & I have to get one!

Our escort cards & favors...too cute!

Cute pic of the hubby & I :-)


These 4 boys fought over the garter until Brandon finally broke them up. It was hilarious.


On a less happy note, State lost on Saturday :-( I was definitely heartbroken! It was just a horrible day for college football. I've been so excited because we were 4-0 for the first time in FOREVER! We were ranked for the first time in FOREVER! UGH...life goes on.

Friday's Dinner

Josh and I both LOVE seafood. I decided to make some seafood alfredo on Friday. I thought we had some linguini at home...of course we didn't. haha. We had spaghetti & fettuccine, I didn't want anything really thick so I just used spaghetti & it was great.

I picked up some frozen mussel meat in a garlic butter sauce. I LOVE mussels & Harris Teeter had these buy 1 get 2 free so I had to get them! I sauted them with baby shrimp then added a little bit of garlic, butter, cream & parmesan cheese to make an alfredo sauce. I added some fresh basil & it was delicious!

Crab Cakes Again!

Josh and I had crab cakes again early last week. They are the exact same recipe from the first ones we made. This time I decided to fry them. You can saute, fry or broil them. Until last week we had only had broiled crab cakes. Josh wanted to try them fried so we could compare & see which way we liked them best. We both like them better broiled.

I got some Phillips cream of crab soup to serve with it. This soup was SOOOO good! I sprinkled a little bit of Old Bay over it & it was delicious! I definitely recommend it, you can find it at Harris Teeter.