Monday, June 14, 2010

New Furniture & Wishful Thinking

Posted by MandaMac at 2:01 PM

So, as I mentioned before, I have had some computer problems this weekend, which, for a computer addict like me, was a potential disaster! I missed being able to blog! BUT, there were also some good things that happened this weekend; Dale took me out shopping and bought me some new furniture for our anniversary, which is Wednesday. So I thought I would share a few pictures of the new stuff we got. We got two recliners, a coffee table and two end tables.



Living room new furniture
My coffee table: pretty cool...it has four pull-out stools
A little blurry, but here is one of the recliners and one of the end tables

All in all, I was pretty pleased. The recliners are really comfortable, and they were on sale. Dale's favorite part is the fact that not only is there room in the arms for remotes and stuff, but one side has a drink holder and a cooler for canned drinks. Must be a man thing, because I didn't think it was that important. At least we were able to get rid of that awful couch! now if we can just get rid of the loveseat and chair.... I need to find some wall decoration for my living room; I've been looking in my At West End catalog for some ideas.
I particularly liked this:
And this:


There were some pretty groovy sconces I have a thing for, too:


You should all check out this catalog; it's one of my very favorites. I'd love to furnish my whole house from At West End. AND, since I'm totally into recycling, it's a doubly good deal. and speaking of recycling, they have these plastic recyclables holders. I HAVE to have these; all they give us here is one big bin for everything, which is sort of annoying.

Anyway.
Just to clarify from my post on Herb of the Week: I will be doing those posts weekly, despite the fact that the actual post said every day. I'd never get to say anything else if I did an herb every day!
So that is my post today, I will leave you with a great recipe out of my recipe collection, Cannelloni with Spinach and Ricotta.



Cannelloni with Spinach and Ricotta

12 dried cannelloni tubes, 3 inches long
olive oil spray 

FILLING
3/4 cup frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup ricotta cheese 
1 egg
3 tbsp freshly grated romano cheese
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

CHEESE SAUCE
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the cannelloni tubes, bring back to a boil, and cook for 6-7 minutes until almost tender. Drain, Refresh under cold water, and drain again. spread tubes out on clean dishtowel.
Put spinach and ricotta in blender or food processor and process for a few minutes until combined. Add the egg and romano cheese and process again until smooth. Scrape filling into a bowl and season to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a casserole dish or baking pan with olive oil spray. Spoon the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch tip. Pipe the filling into the cannelloni tubes. Putt filled tubes into casserole or baking dish.

To make cheese sauce, heat milk in a pan until just below the boiling point. Meanwhile melt the butter in a separate pan over low heat. Add the flour to the butter and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in hot milk. Return to the heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to the lowest possible setting and let simmer, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes, or until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in gruyere cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spoon the cheese sauce over the filled cannelloni. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until cheese sauce is brown and bubbly.


 

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