oopsies!

Oops I did it again.

There I was again. I stepped out of the grocery store and I was ready to load the bags of groceries into my car. As I approach the trunk, my fingers quicken their search through my belongings and I frantically think to myself, "where are my keys?" 

So  I start to look for it. With one hand holding up the purse, my other hand is free to dig into the purse and jumble through all my stuff. Frankly, I don't know why we ladies love to carry around big purses all the time when we know it just leads to painful shoulders and lost belongings; but we do it anyway. Just as I begin to panic, I notice out of the corner of my eye that the cluster of keys are in my other hand. Yay! I found them.

I don't know about you, but I get these types of episodes more often now that I'm in my 40's. This may just be what you call forgetful at 40? Oh now I know, that probably the reason why people say that life begins at 40 is because you tend to forget what happened before that age... LOL!

My forgetfulness has even affected me in the kitchen. My plan was to make paella sans meat, as it was a Friday during Lent, so I had my rice soaked and ready in a separate bowl. For some reason, I took out a package of noodles from my pantry and without thinking, I grabbed a pot, filled it with water, and cooked it. I realized too late that I was, in fact, cooking paella and not pasta. Since I had already cooked pasta, I discarded the initial plan and had to use the pasta. Sometimes accidents do happen for a reason and in this case, it was a blessing in disguise since this accidental pasta (as we love to call it) is now without a doubt one of my family's favorite dishes. And so I'd like to share with you my seafood pasta a la paella.

Seafood Pasta a la Paella:


Ingredients:

Seafood mix (mussels, shrimp, squid, etc.)
3 tbsp olive oil
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup shrimp broth (boil shrimp heads, crush the head or use an Osterizer, then drain)
1 pkg pasta linguine (cook as directed but use shrimp broth to boil pasta)
1 medium red/green bell pepper (cut into strips)
1/2 tsp saffron
100 grams sundried tomatoes (optional)
1/2 can tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a skillet, add olive oil over medium heat.  Saute onions and garlic. Add the seafood and shrimp. Brown the edges and set aside leaving a little amount on the skillet.  Reduce heat to medium.

Using the same skillet, add tomatoes saute until tomatoes get limp. Add saffron, make sure not to burn it.  Stir in tomato paste.  Bring back the rest of the seafood mix.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Add a little of the shrimp broth.  Toss the pasta together.  Add sun dried tomatoes and pepper make sure not to overcook them.  Season with salt and pepper.