Nonna Rose Creates and Cooks

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Spaghetti is Love

It must be an Italian thing...."Spaghetti is Love" as Mario Batali once stated is a statement I have to agree with. There really is little else that makes me feel "at home" than the smell of spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. The scent takes me back to being a little girl and feeling loved at home with my mom, my dad, my brothers, sister, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins and when I was really young my maternal grandmother. Sunday was not Sunday without sauce and family!

When my children were growing up we'd often go to my parents' house on Sunday for spaghetti, and then later, when my children got older, I would make sauce every Sunday and family would gather here for Sunday dinner.

Times change, children grow up, they move away, and what once were traditions become memories. Good, happy memories.

This past Sunday, I decided to make a large pot of spaghetti sauce, and the house filled with the aroma as my husband and I were cozy in the family room, with a fire in the fireplace watching football, and my mom was comfy in her special chair reading.

It was just the three of us for Sunday spaghetti dinner, and that was fine, because I was definitely "home!"

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Computer Techy....NOT!

Sunday I decided it would be fun to update my blog. I wanted to add 'widgets' and 'gadgets' so it would look more like my old blog "Knightly Knitter." I did just that. I added "Linkwithin" so you could easily find other posts you might be interested. I added "Follow me on Pinterest" so you could see other things that interest me and might interest you as well. I was able to highlight on the right sidebar most popular posts, and a few other extras. However, while working on my blog, I noticed there were 'share' buttons under my posts, which would allow anyone to share my posts and information on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google. Well, the whole purpose of deleting "Knightly Knitter" and starting this blog, was for the sake of privacy, so certainly I didn't want live share buttons on my new blog.

Being the motivated person that I am, I decided I could fix that!

I proceeded to go into the HTML portion of the blog's template and look for the area in the data that might mention share icons. The computer dialogue looked something like this:

</b:includable>

<b:includable id='postQuickEdit' var='post'>

<b:if cond='data:post.editUrl'>

</a>

</span>

</b:if>

</b:includable>

Greek to me, but I still thought I could figure it out so, I began to cut and delete what I thought would take care of the issue. WRONG!

After going onto a blogger discussion board a very kind person told me all I had to do was go to the layout page of the blog and click on the post edit link there and a pop box would give me the option of turning off the share buttons. Great!

That worked, but guess what? With the cutting/deleting I did prior to the helpful suggest, I lost the "leave a comment" ability under my posts. Sigh!

I read a bit more, and discovered I could revert the template to default settings, which I have done. So, after I post this today there is a SLIGHT chance posting comments will be possible, but I am not holding my breath. So, just in case, you will notice on the right side bar, I embedded a template for readers to email me comments and messages as I continue to work on resolving my problem. Sigh again!

Morale of the story...."Keep out from where you do NOT belong!"

Friday, January 9, 2015

Grow Your Blog

My name is Rose and as you can guess by the title of my blog, I am an Italian grandmother, and proud of it. I enjoy knitting, cooking, writing and being busy, so I do a lot of volunteer work. I have been knitting for 30 years and finally consider myself an expert knitter. I do hope if you find my blog you will become one of my followers. I have linked my blog to some very talented and creative people, please check them out too!

One of those talented people I have discovered is the very talented and creative Vick over at '2 Bags Full.' Vick is hosting a "Grow Your Blog" party in a few weeks, and I am so happy to be among those joining the group. If it was not for Tanna at Brick Street Bungalow I would never have discovered Vicki or this event.

The few of you following my blog, know that I had a pretty progressive nine year old knitting blog prior to starting this blog, as well as, a cooking blog and a photography blog. Life happens, and I made the decision to take down all three blogs. However, I missed blogging and felt sad that my readers must've wondered what happened to me, THE KNIGHTLY KNITTER! Although, it is doubtful that everyone who previously read my blog(s) will find me again, this is a new day, a new blog and time to find new readers. So, with that, I am joining the "Grow Your Blog" party and I encourage you, if you have a blog to join me, all the particulars can be found HERE.

Thanks again to Tanna for alerting me to this great idea. She is one of my original followers who found me because I never stopped following her! She so inspires me.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Sorelle Lace-Edged Pullover

On my needles, with no big rush to finish is Sorelle Lace-Edged Pullover by Angela Hahn. It is a very easy pattern to follow, at least to the point I have knitted so far. The sweater is for me, so when it's finished it's finished. In the meantime, there are a few baby gifts I'd like to get started on, so stay tuned.

Garlic Shrimp Scampi

This evening we had Garlic Shrimp Scampi for dinner. It was really delicious and only 5 pts+ (10 shrimp per serving)! I served it with brown rice and a side of steamed broccoli. Jim and my mother both really enjoyed the meal; both cleaning their plates. I will definitely repeat this dish since it was both delicious and easy to prepare. Next time I will serve it with a baked potato instead of the rice, since the rice soaked up much of the cooking juices.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Point Worthy Foods

My husband made his annual resolution to lose weight and I am happy to help him with his goal. I like when he decides to lose weight and eat better because it motivates me to do the same. I do NOT like, however, when I am cooking, baking and working to help him and I discover candy bar wrappers in his pockets or in the car. He has promised to eat what I provide and stay away from junk. I will keep you posted on how long he lasts! In the meantime, I have started stocking up on foods that I know he can quickly and safely eat without doing damage to his waistline.

Egg McRosie

Jim gets up early for work and doesn't like to eat as soon as he gets up, so I have prepared and froze 6 egg sandwiches that he can warm up in the microwave at work on his morning break for 8 points+ breakfast.

Each sandwich consists of an english muffin, one egg, a slice of cheddar cheese and a slice of deli ham.

If Jim doesn't have a dessert after lunch he will feel deprived, so I made pumpkin muffins which are sweet yet low fat and have a low point value (4 pts+)

Mix together a box of spice cake mix, 1/2 c unsweetened applesauce and 15 oz. can pumpkin puree; divide into 14 muffins and you have a great treat! Make the muffins smaller to if you want lower point value, but I like a larger muffin.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Projects of 2014

Because I removed my previous blog, I thought I'd show pictures of the projects I completed in 2014 in a single post here today. Looking back over the year, it was not my most productive knitting year and certainly, by far not my best cooking year. Perhaps I will do better in 2015, or maybe my interests are taking a turn; time will tell!