Prize Winner #2! UBP10

So the first pair of earring has arrived safe and sound to Miss Sarah at Little Boy Green, so it’s time to send the next pair out!

This time, our winner is Holly! of Footloose Designs.  Holly is Mom to a beautiful girl, and is a big fan of living well, while living frugally! (We know how I love that, right?) Holly was kind enough to share some of her favorite website for saving money.  They are Time 2 Save. Totally Target and I CVS.

They also have mad pumpkin carving skills and I might have to steal that design for next Halloween!

Connect with Holly on Facebook.

So what did Holly win?  The beautiful “Stop Traffic” earrings! Chock full of Swarovski Crystals, these things light up your face with all the light that they catch.  I hope Holly enjoys them!  They were sent priority this morning and should arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Enjoy Holly!

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pasta with Basil

Some of my favorite flavors are tomato, garlic and basil.  It’s my favorite pizza, my favorite salad, my favorite pasta.  Sometimes, the simplest flavors are best and sometimes you need to switch it up a little bit to keep things interesting.  This one’s a little bit of both.

2 pints grape tomatoes
5-6 cloves of garlic chopped
30-40 basil leaves, julienned
1 lb. pasta (I used whole wheat penne)
Olive Oil
1/2 c. vegetable broth
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450.  On a high lipped baking sheet, spread out the tomatoes and garlic, pour a bit of olive oil over it and toss with your hands to coat.

Put in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes, or until the tomatoes start to split.  Remove before the garlic burns.  A little brown is ok, but we don’t want it burned.

Meanwhile, put up a pot of liberally salted water for the pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Remove and drain as soon as they’re al dente, they’re going to cook a tiny bit more later, so don’t worry if there a little too al dente.

Wash and dry the basil leaves and julienne them.  (Pile them high single file, roll up like a cigar and slice thin).

Put the pasta pot back on the stove, add a turn or two of oil to it and let it heat up.  Add the tomatoes and garlic making sure to scrape all the oil from the pan into the pasta pot – don’t want to waste any of that flavored oil.

Add the vegetable stock and the pasta.  Toss to coat.  At the very last minute, add the basil and toss once more, remove from heat and plate.

Simply roasting the tomatoes and garlic before adding to the pasta, gives this dish an entirely new dimension; a deeper layer of flavors.  Add grated locatelli, salt and pepper if you wish.

Mahi Mahi and Green Beans

It’s hard to find fresh fish where I live, there aren’t any good fish markets and the grocery store leaves a lot to be desired so I opt for frozen fish and it usually leaves me feeling uninspired.  Until…

We went to Target the other day and while we were browsing, I came across the Archer Farms frozen fish.  The picture on the front looked so good that I purchased one package of Mahi Mahi, figuring that we’d give it a shot.  I came home, put it in the freezer and tonight when I was thinking about what to make, I remembered it.  I also had some green beans that needed to be eaten so I came up with this…

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Sauteed Green Beans, Toasted Almonds and Dried Cranberries.

1 pkg. frozen Mahi Mahi
1 handful slivered almonds
2 lbs. fresh green beans cleaned and trimmed
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 handfuls dried cranberries
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
lemon juice to taste

Open the package of fish and put the two vacuum sealed packs into a large bowl filled with cool water.  Allow to thaw for about 20 minutes, until you can feel that they’re no longer frozen.

When the fish has been in the water for 20 minutes…

Heat a dry, non-stick pot on med/high heat.  When it’s hot, add the almonds and toast, shaking the pan often.

When they start to brown slightly, remove from heat.  Pour into a container and set aside.

Heat the same pan back up to med/high heat.  Add the olive oil and when that’s hot, add the garlic. Allow to saute for a moment, just till you start to smell the garlic.  Add the green beans and let saute, stirring occasionally. These will probably take about 25-30 minutes.

When some of the beans start to blister and bubble, the fish should be thawed.  Open the packages, put the fish on the plate and pat dry with a paper towel.

Looks pretty good for frozen, right?

Heat your grill pan to med and when that’s hot, add your fish, grill for about 15 minutes, turning one or twice (carefully), till the meat is white and flaking.

Add the almonds and cranberries to your green beans and cook for another couple of minutes, just till the cranberries are warm and plump.

Put the fish on the plate, and put a nice pile of string beans along side it.  Squeeze some lemon juice over the whole plate and serve.

This fed three people very well.  The Archer Farms fish was really good and the sweet/tart cranberries paired with the sauteed garlic and the lemon really complimented each other.  The kids have even agreed that we should add mahi to our weekly meal plan. Yay!

Prize Winner #1

Remember the Ultimate Blog Party? Well, I offered up four prizes, to four different people for the party and I thought it would be fun to send each prize out, one at a time, and feature the winner here on ColorMePink!  Fun, right?  Ok, here we go!

Our first winner is Sarah, LBG’s Mom from Little Boy Green, a relatively new mom, inspired to live a green life.  She has a beautiful son and lots of terrific ideas for more sustainable living.  Give her a visit, say hi take a look around at all that she has to offer.  (I love the idea of crocheting your own dish cloths and I might have to brush up my crochet skills and follow suit.

She’s also having a garden party, May 17th-23rd and I just might have to play along with my humble little herb garden. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Sarah’s Prize?  She won the Denim and Lavender dangle earrings, luscious baubles of denim lapis lazuli and lavender flourite beads, with a lavender quarts briolette.  I hope she loves them! The were sent priority today so she should have them by Wednesday.

Lash Out!

It’s no secret. I’m a girly-girl. One of my favorite things to shop for is makeup. I have more make up than I can use and now that my daughter is getting older, one of my favorite things to do is teach her how to use makeup.

I definitely have my favorites.  Urban Decay shadows, Lancome Juicy Tubes lip gloss, and something I can’t live without is Smashbox’s Layer Lash Primer.  This stuff is wonderful.  Put it on under your mascara and it gives the mascara something to hold on to. Makes the color truer, the application smoother and really makes a difference!  It’s $16 at Ulta, and I just love it.

The one thing I never seem to be happy with though, is mascara.  I need a volumizing mascara, not a lengthening mascara.  Unfortunately the only parts of my body that are too skinny are my lashes and it’s hard to find good, volumizing mascara that isn’t also lengthening.  I wear glasses and my lashes already hit the lenses, I do not need help there. I also hate gloppy mascara and don’t have time to separate each lash after I apply mascara.  I don’t know anyone who has that kind of time, do you?

So yesterday I went to Ulta because I needed more Layer Lash Primer and while I was there I asked the woman working in cosmetics if she could recommend a really good volumizing mascara.  Without hesitation she walked right over to a display and her exact words were, “This is the best mascara for volume that I’ve ever used.”  Wow.   I figured with a recommendation like that I had to try it right?

Cargo Texas Lash Mascara was $20 and I purchased it and went home.  I couldn’t wait to try it!  It was a beautiful, velvety black and the brush was nice and big.  I applied a coat of primer and then a coat of the mascara and I was thrilled.  Nice, thick lashes, not at all clumpy, and once dried, very soft to the touch and not at all crunchy.  All in all I was really pleased with the product and at $20, it’s not exactly cheap, but I’ve certainly paid more money for mascara that wasn’t as good.

What do you think?

cute, right? And in case you’re wondering, the liner is Urban Decay’s shadow in Ransom, applied with a liner brush.

Full Disclosure:  This is my experience, I was in no way compensated for this review.

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