Red Pepper Cheddar Shells

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bowl of red pepper cheddar shells, topped with paprika and garnished with sour cream and chives

RED PEPPER CHEDDAR SHELLS

I am a graduate of the Youse Whatchoo Hav School of Eezee Pee Zee Cooking. I’m also – generally speaking – not a fan of spending lengthy amounts of time preparing a meal.

So taken together, those two characteristics mean that – for me – Fast and Easy is good. Faster and Easier is even better.

The photo above is what I ate for dinner last night. One (count them: 1) single serving took less than 20 minutes of my life from Beginning of Prep to Finished Eating.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED:

  • small sauce pan
  • some kind of stirring doohickey
  • strainer
  • measuring cup
  • knife
  • bowl
  • eating utensil

FOODSTUFFS REQUIRED:

  • 1 cup (dry) pasta shells
  • water (in which to boil the shells)
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
  • 1/2 of a red bell pepper, finely chopped
  • paprika
  • sour cream
  • chives (diced)

DIRECTIONS: Boil pasta shells to al dente perfection (or, y’know, whatever ‘perfection’ looks like to you), then remove from heat. Strain. (Or drain, or whatever you call it.) Put pasta back in still-warm pan. Pour cheese and chopped bell pepper on the top. Stir until cheese is melted and pepper is evenly dispersed throughout. Dump the whole concoction into a bowl. Sprinkle paprika over the top. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and chopped chives.

Eat.

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Feve’s 5: Points To Ponder & Thinky Things

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Things that make you go, “…hmnh.”

There are a lot of things I enjoy about blogging. Often though, I think, the conscious ‘enjoyment’ bit is wrapped up in the things I am on the ‘giving’ end of. As in: I like creating content, participating in memes, organizing projects, etc. The doing bits. But there is a more… I dunno, passive is NOT the word I’m looking for… but there is a part of blogging that I also enjoy that could be considered ‘receiving’. Like, I really like reading other people’s ideas. When someone writes something or explains something or shares their experience with something that makes me go, “…hmnh.” I love that!

It can be very easy to fall into a mindset of “I agree with this so therefore it is good” when it comes to any form of social media. (And regardless of my antipathy toward social media as a whole, I fully understand that blogging is a form of social media. 🙂 ) I don’t find the *nodnodnod* and “Of course! This person thinks exactly like I do — therefore, they are brilliant!” practice of taking in new information to be particularly edifying.

Rather:

When someone says, “Hey, what about this?” and whatever ‘this’ is, is something that makes me think? That makes me look at my own opinions/experiences in a new way or shines a light on something that I’ve not thought about before? Or just thought about differently before? THAT, to me, is Brain Foodâ„¢, and it always makes me hungry for more.

If you are the same way, perhaps you will enjoy what’s on offer below. These are all posts that have given me pause to ponder – my husband calls these types of things ‘thinky’ – over the past month.

Perhaps they’ll stir up a thought or two for you too. 🙂

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A Little Behind

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black and white off-center image of nude woman's bare behind seated on her feet

This time of the month, especially in February, it never fails that I feel like I’m running a little behind.

It can be hard to keep up, right?

(Especially with my buns. 😉 )

(Errr… I mean puns.)

😀

Sinful Sunday

After All These Years

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My husband’s birthday was yesterday.

Seventeen years ago, on his birthday, I gave him my phone number.

Two days later – the anniversary of which is tomorrow – we spent the day together.

We call that day “Day One.”

What started as lunch turned into an entire afternoon, which led into a whole evening and then an overnight.

Overnight became almost every night and then a weekend away, which led to shared lease and a shared life and a lifetime of weekends — and week days and plain old days and every days — for 17 years.

And you know…

No matter what we’ve been through, however hard some of it has been…

I still like him.

Like, I genuinely LIKE him – flaws and all – after all these years.

‘Love’ — Well, in some ways love is a given, yes? But love – in its ‘given’ must-do form – can be a wretched thing. It’s so often tied up with duty and laden with unwanted responsibilities; it supposedly conquers everything but quite often means nothing, because our (‘our’ being ‘any two people who think they experience this nebulously-defined, non-specific emotion’) shared definitions so rarely match up.

Do I love him? Yes.

Do I believe he feels love from me? Yes.

Does he love me? Do I know this because of his actions? Yes and yes.

But LIKE… Genuine, un-possessive, this-is-who-you-are-and-I-enjoy-your company LIKE…

Especially liking someone over a period of 17 years…

I think that’s far more rare than ‘love’.

And maintaining that liking for one another, no matter the hardships we’ve encountered, has been what has seen us through the entirety of our relationship.

So to my husband — who I know will be reading this at some point (though honestly ‘some point’ may be months from now; he’s not always a consistent reader, but a reader he is 😉 ):

I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else.

I love you.

And I am still madly in like with you.

Even after all these years.

🙂

And I’m proud of all the blessings you have given me
The mountains we have climbed to get this far
We’ve learned to take the laughter with the tears
After all these years