Shrimp and Feta Pasta

Last night, I made one of my favorite dinner recipes. It's so quick and easy, with such subtle, great flavors. Honestly, boiling the water (on my crappy stove) is the hardest part.

I call it Shrimp and Feta Pasta, and apparently I got the recipe here originally.

Here you go:

1st step=5 minutes

Start pot of water on high heat. Start some olive oil in a skillet onmedium heat. Defrost big frozen shrimp under cold water.

2nd step=3 minutes

Add garlic and shrimp to skillet. Opens cans (regular can of petit diced tomatos, and small can of sliced button mushrooms) and jars (artichoke salad). Drain diced tomatos and mushrooms.

3rd step= 6 minutes

Hopefully, your water is boiling by now and you can add 3 cups or so of dry penne pasta, mine never is. Add tomatoes, artichoke salad, and mushrooms to skillet and cook for 3 minutes. Add 1 cup crumbled feta cheese to skillet and cook for 3 minutes.

Last step!

I usually have time to set the table and wash up the dishes in the previous step. Then wait for the pasta to finish (12 minutes total boil time for me and my crappy stove), then drain and add to the shrimp feta mix, and dinner is ready.

This is so good! Simple and subtle and elegant.

New (Old) Music Monday: Led Zeppelin

Yep, I know. But I've not ever actually listened to a Led Zeppelin album before, other than when I was a child and forced to on car (van) trips with my dad. Led Zeppelin reminds me of my dad, in the same way that Rod Stewart reminds me of my mom.

But, even so, I decided to give them a try since hubby loves them very much and, so, a few years ago I bought like 5 cds fully intending to listen to them. Hadn't gotten around to it them until last weekend, when we spent most of Sunday's 12-hour drive listening to them.

Verdict: I like them. They have few songs that I don't care for, a few songs that I really like, and all-in-all I can now tolerate, and even enjoy, a drive set to Led Zepplin. (Does this mean I am old?)

In addition, I think the dudes looked way cool:

(Especially Robert Plant. I mean, anyone who goes around practically bare-chested when everyone else has their big coats on is all right in my book.)

And I always love when people have interesting Wikipedia entries. (The song lyrics referencing Lord of the Rings totally freak me out though. I mean, I like LOTR too, but c'mon...)

Labor Day weekend

Spent a nice long labor day weekend in New Orleans, full of family and parties and (possibly) the last swimming of the summer...

new (Old) Music Monday: Muse

This isn't so much a band that I like, because their songs are either love/hate for me, so it's more like a few songs I really like. Here's a few of my favorites:

Undisclosed Desires

Uprising

Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)

Starlight

I also love the way so many of their songs have space-related titles. And this is so mean, but I don't like to think that it's this middle dude singing:

because he looks a little creepy to me. I kind of hate it when people don't match with my preconceived notion from their voice.

Is it weird to love a band's music, but not like the band?

Cinema movies: The Dreamers+NINE

So often movies seem to accidentally fall into themes. These two were actually very similar: both dealing with people so cinema-obsessed that they sort of hide in it away from the real world (they actually both even had black and white "movie" clips interspersed throughout), both somewhat lacking in the story-line and plot, but beautifully shot and well-acted. Worth watching for the visuals alone, especially the city street scenes of Paris and Rome.

The Dreamers

NINE