Linds' Hot damn, that's a really good Penne Pasta Cassarole!

This is a massive layered pasta dish, with approximately 6 to 10 servings. Or my 2 regular servings and the rest for my boyfriend after a long day at work. He loves Loves *LOVES* this dish, and it's super easy to make.

I use a 5 by 9, 4 inch deep ceramic cassarole/lasagna dish to bake it in.

Ingredients required

1 bag of Penne Pasta
1 large white onion, diced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, diced fine
1-2 pounds of lean ground beef (or ground turkey, or tofu, or whatever rings your bell)
1 to 2 pounds of shredded mozzarella
1 large container of either ricotta cheese or relatively dry cottage cheese
1 large can/jar of premade tomato based pasta sauce (any kind you prefer)
1 small can of tomato paste (I use garlic tomato paste)
various italian seasonings for the meat while browning.

optional ingredients

8 to 10 white mushrooms, sliced
1 large green and 1 large red pepper.


Directions

Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees.

Boil water with a teaspoon full of salt and add penne until it is al dente. Drain completely and take off of heat. It's okay if the pasta cools.

Sautee onions and garlic in a large deep sauce pan until onions start to get translucent. Add hamburger, browning until it is fully cooked, adding spices until you get it seasoned to your preference. This is where you would add the optional ingredients at this time, and let cook for approximately five minutes, on medium heat, until flavours start to mix.

I usually premix the canned pasta sauce and can of tomato paste, to make it easier to pour on top of the meat and ingredients in the sauce pan. Let meat sauce simmer on low heat for approximately 10 to 25 minutes.

As I mentioned before, this is a layered dish. Put a layer of penne on the bottom of the cassarole dish, until it's just under halfway full, and then spread the entire amount of ricotta/cottage cheese and half of the mozza on top of this pasta. Spoon half the amount of meat sauce onto the pasta.

Repeat the layer of pasta on top of this and then top the dish liberally with the remaining mozza. Place in the center of the oven, and let bake for at least 20 - 45 minutes, checking periodically to ensure that the cheese is not overbaked. It should be bubbling and the cheese should look nice and browned in places on the top, but not burnt!

This goes great with a salad, and though it's a bit high in calories and carbs, it's the best comfort food you can imagine when it's blah outside and you want some good ol' italian fare!

Enjoy!

Safety First!

There's nothing as exciting as working in a "family oriented" shopping center, and experiencing the entire marvel comics cadre dressed up and MIC'ED up, blasting children's safety information at top volume throughout the mall.

Eugh.

Whilst I appreciate the whole 'safety oriented' factor involved, nevertheless, I'm quite sure it doesn't need to be that damned loud.

Whaaaaaaat....

The Holy hell?

Crotcheted crotches. I've seen it all now.

(Highly NSFW)

Yes...

She still lives.

Busy, busy me! Lots has been going on lately, and sadly to say there's not been a lot that I've been willing to write down, because it's not ready to be written yet...

I know it sucks for blog fodder, for you guys, and I'm sorry.

April 20th brings about the return of the Wiggler!?!, visiting his REAL hometown for a couple of days. I think Miss Ultrahonig, (the lovely Allison) and I plan on going out with Mr! Erik for dinner... I think. I'll need refreshment on the discussion. I think it's time to send out an email...

I've inducted Cliff into the addictiveness/triviality/internet cesspool that is Myspace, and hes got a whole 8 friends! Yay Cliff! I think a majority of my friends discovered Facebook at exactly the same time, from the looks of it, since we all started adding one or two friends over the past week.

I am learning more hockey knowledge than I know what to do with, now that I live with a hockey fan whose hometeam is in the playoffs. I learn it so that I don't look absolutely dumbfounded when he lists off a bunch of players names, or curses at the referee from the living room. I think I've outgrown the age where I can be sufficiently addicted to the sport known as hockey, which makes me a piss poor Canadian, doesn't it?

I've bounced back to my old job, finding that benefits, (given certain circumstances) play a more important role in my life at this moment in time, and the overall comfortability (is that a word? I don't think it is... Whatever.) of my position to be more suited to my desires.

Today's dinner special consists of Chili on a bed of rice, with a non-sardine inclusive Caesar salad and a glass of whole milk. Mmm. I'm hungry.

grmph...

Today, I'm cranky, tired and don't want to be at work. I want to be in bed. I CERTAINLY don't want to be talking to people. Ugh.

That is all.

All Dressed Up, and Nowhere To Go...

This whole entry started with me being curious as to what a Partial birth Abortion was, and the lovely informative Google.

I decided to fill out the "survey" attached at the end of one website rather "pro-life" website, and along with questions like "which political party do you associate yourself with?" (the answer is democratic, or liberal, if I have to...) and what's my opinion on Gun Control (For, Duh.) and the Death Penalty (No definite Answer, it depends on circumstance.) it had a segment on where I could write my own "additional comments." I wrote and toiled and laboured on this, and finally, happy with my decision, clicked "submit" even sacrificing my valid email address, only to be greeted on the subsequent page with "Error... Error... My limbs are flailing wildly... Error, Will Robinson. Must kill Robinson Family... Destroy, destroy..."

Well, Fuck. I hit the back button, copy and pasted it into notepad, and here I am. Pissed that I wrote a pretty sharp arguement, and had nowhere to put it. It was all dressed up, and had nowhere to go.

So, I decide to post, in a rather more open forum, and hope I'm not going to kick myself in the ass because there are people out there who LOVE to argue and argue and argue this point until death. I decided "Here we go, Linds, let's piss some people off, because they disagree with my opinion... I'm probably inviting the vampires right into my humble abode by doing so.

Just remember, boys and girls, I'm TRYING to maintain a rather neutral standpoint. I CAN see it from both perspectives, I just choose to not agree as much with one over the other. I know you fuckers are going to bitch at me for it. Just refrain from saying stupid stuff like "why is it that you whining liberals always have to.. ..." into my comments box, please. I don't reply to assholes. Play nice with the commie pinko, okay? I promise I'll play nice with you, too, if you keep your discussion nice and mature, rather than cheap shots at the fat chick who writes on a website that only 12 people come to a day.

Without further Ado...

Let me start with saying that I have read your website from front to back, excluding the page that is quotations from the bible and religious officials, which being non-religious in any aspect, did not hold much relevance for me. Sorry if that seems close-minded but I honestly don't feel that it would have changed my opinion either way.

While I am still pro-choice regarding the right for a woman to choose abortion, I personally do agree in first trimester abortion, and do not agree in abortion after the first trimester. I definitely do not agree with the notion of Partial Birth Abortions. This is only my opinion however, and here is my reasoning.

If you haven't made up your mind that you're going to keep your baby or not within two months (most women do not know if they are pregnant until they miss a period, usually 1 month after conception and into their first trimester) then there are methods to go about to give a baby a safe home via adoption. I fully embrace adoption as a viable option for a woman to make. It is not an easy decision, but it is one that when taken into consideration and well thought out, can prove to be beneficial for all parties involved. Mother, baby and adoptive parents.

I consider a fetus a human being. I do not consider a fetus a person. To me personally, there are differences.

A HUMAN BEING is someone who is created from two human beings. You are human from conception. Yes, Human from conception! Man and Woman are human, therefore creating human offspring. That's it. Male dogs and female dogs make puppies. Male cats and Female cats make kittens. It's simple species definition. They bump uglies, sperm and ovum do a little tango, and zygotes happen.

A PERSON, is someone who has had experiences and a life outside of the one that is inside the womb. A person has an established identity, a name, a place in the world, and a life outside of being concieved and the symbiotic relationship with the mother. It may seem cold and scientific, but it, at least to me, is relevant and accurate.

I've sat next to my best friend while she had an abortion 2 years after having her first son, and now is pregant with her third, (and planned pregnancy with her husband,) and it was a complicated and intense situation, that no woman should take lightly. She felt no regrets regarding her decision, and knew that it was not yet time for her to have her second child. Now she has a happy, healthy 7 year old and a new baby on the way. It's all a matter of circumstance, and to blanket judgment an entire countries decisions based on what quite possibly might be the majority of the populace who does NOT believe in abortion, does not make this country a democracy, it makes it a dictatorship.

To make abortion illegal DOES take away the rights of women to make a choice. Not all women that find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy choose abortion, and that is what makes me the saddest about this debate. I think that women should be counselled regarding the options available, but sadly from my own personal experiences, most "counselling" is very biased, either in one direction or another, which is not the way it should be.

My personal experiences with the Pregnancy Crisis Center left me with a woman who sniped at me that I was an "angry little girl", (I was 20, terrified, pregant for first time, and I found this rather insulting, and completely unhelpful in any situation...) and who threw pamphlets at me when I had informed her of my leaning toward, but not fully decided to have an abortion, when I had arrived there for advice and hopefully, answers. The stress from this along with the confusion and nervousness caused me to miscarry a day later, a month and a half into my pregancy, thus negating the need to make a decision, but leaving a very sour taste in my mouth regarding the supposed "methods" of the Crisis Pregancy Centers.

The same center, when helping the previously mentioned friend who had decided to keep her first baby, treated her like a gem, and supplied her with many things. I found the responses from the "counsellors" in these centers very biased and negative. I was not decided if I was ready to have a child, and she was, therefore I get treated like dirt, and she gets treated like royalty? Support should be given regardless of decisions. They are both difficult and hard to make when a pregancy is unexpected and would be hard to care for after the baby was born.

I do not think religion and politics should play a role in a difficult, very personal decision like this. Women should be given the correct, unbiased facts and let them make their own educated decisions, regardless of the personal leanings of the "counsellors" involved. It is a disgustingly cutthroat society that would terrify and bully a scared, single woman when all she is asking for is help and advice.

I am not one of the raving, "bra burning" uber feminists out there, but I believe that when you take the rights of women away and safer methods of removing "problems" or "unwanted" pregancies from her, you are opening the doors for "coathanger" abortions in dirty, unsanitary places, and while yes, infections, deaths and the like DO happen ocassionally from legal, supposed "safe" abortions gone awry, it is a safer place when women are not trapped and terrified when they miss a period, that the time they are going through at that moment is going to change their life forever when they are not ready for it. (and even just getting pregnant is a life changing thing, wanted or not) Children born to parent(s) that are more prepared socially, economically, or emotionally to raise children, do better jobs and give those children better lives.

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting...

But this is cheap Tuesday night entertainment.

From the ever so delightful Seanners, showing me what fantabulous delights he can do with the "face tracking" feature on his webcam.

Henceforth, you can call him "Sir Elton".

Love you, sweets. *giggles.*

Digging Through My Bookmarks....

Uncovers three different web comics that have snagged valuable hours from my life, when I discover them, giggle, and then decide to read the entire thing from the first strip.

Danielle Corsetto's fantabulous "Girls with Slingshots" I got a message from "Jaime" on myspace a couple of weeks ago asking if I was her twin. (I grinned my fool head off and replied that my boobs weren't nearly that big, but that I was flattered she'd see the similarities.)

Paul Taylor's multicultural and crazy plot twisting "Wapsi Square" took two nights after work to browse through his entire 2001 to 2007 strips, but it was well worth the read and lack of sleep with the references to ancient mayan/aztec cultures, mixed in with modern life and the depths and heights of human emotions.

Bernie Hau's clever and creatively done "Alien Loves Predator". How can you not like a comic that takes two of the most vicious creatures in movie-kind, and gives them names like Preston Predator and Abraham Alien (Abe, for short) with a penchant for speed dating, naked chicks, and Chinese Food in New York City, that had Jesus for a room mate? ALP has permanantly ingrained the Engrish term "Frip-frops" in my head forever.

Good stuff.

A Thought...

When Cliff and I were born, both of our births were greeted with sorrow. Granted those auspicious days were a little over 16 years separated from each other, and sorrowful for completely related reasons. Both encompassing the loss of a child.

His because he was "unwanted" (but never in my eyes, or his adoptive parents and sibling...) and given up for adoption. Not that I think any less on a woman giving her child up to someone else, it is a huge sacrifice, and one not made lightly. He was given unto the care of an adoption agency.

When I was born, my twin sister was stillborn. Needless to say amidst the joy of birthing a whole, hale and wailing baby girl, the loss of the first, I think, at that moment overshadowed the birth of the second.

I hope, that one day when I have my baby, nothing but joy surrounds that birth.

The Weirdest Thing...

So far about working my new job, is that most people come into the store, only to turnaround and get into a heated discussion with whoever they came in with. It's very odd... They walk in, look at something for a few seconds and walk out. Or they walk in this general direction, enter the store, and then sort of veer off into the direction of another location, and it seems that they have difficulty walking in straight lines, like they have an inner ear imbalance going on that prevents them from one place to another unless they walk like drunken idiots.

That's about it...