Monday, February 25, 2008

Fun Monday - A blog by any other name...

Fun Monday this week is being hosted over at Mariposa's Tales. It is a two parter this time around:

(1) Please share to us how the NAME of your BLOG was made? I can't wait to hear interesting funny stories!

(2) Please share to us (in words or photo, though a combination of both will be a bonus!) your favorite/ most common dish!

I'll start with the name of my blog, but I'm afraid I don't have a clever or funny story to share about it. Let's see...Karina is my name (well, okay, my middle name, but I've always wanted to use it so I love that I get to in the blogosphere). I've always been a fan of alliteration, so when creating my blog, I looked for a word that would sound good along side Karina and would describe what I meant to do with the blog. Candid fit perfectly. In keeping with my love for alliteration, when I began a second blog, for my creative writing, Creative Karina made sense. And recently, when I had a story too juicy to spill in these pages and needed password protection, Covert Karina was born (but is now on hiatus since the need for covertness has been extinguished for now). I also have an idea for yet another blog (Frances, you're rubbing off on me), so I'm looking for another name that will be fitting...stay tuned.

Onto part 2. I'm forced to bend the rules a bit here, because A) I could never pick a favorite dish, I have so many, and B) I didn't have time to make any of those in the last week. I did, however, try out a new recipe on Friday night, so figured I'd give you that instead. I got this recipe off a magazine I just bought, but can't remember the name of it right now...I'll add that later. You should be able to click on the photo to embiggen (I hope):
Of course, being me, I always have to edit and add to recipes, so I made some changes. First of all, to the shrimp I added scallops:
I couldn't find the creamed spinach it refers to (and believe me, I searched high and low), so instead I went with this:
I chose to use whole wheat pasta, and since I'm lazy, pre-minced garlic:
So, at one point, I had three burners going at once...that's the spinach in the back, the pasta on the right, shrimp and scallops on the left:
Possibly because the spinach was the wrong type, following this recipe exactly let to a pretty bland tasting meal. I don't do bland, so I added some salt, a bit of hot sauce, and since I was still pretty bored with it, at the very end I added a couple of tablespoons of a light alfredo sauce I had kicking around. That worked. This is what I came out with:


DELICIOUS!
Stop by Mariposa's for the rest of the Fun Mondayers, and be sure to visit...you know what, I don't know who's hosting next week yet...can someone let me know?
Enjoy!

20 comments:

Jill said...

i love cooking via the 'on hand' method, where you just dump stuff in! i've made up a few dishes for hubby that way and he's never disappointed. i usually end up making way more than necessary, so he even gets leftovers!

Beckie said...

Zowie - that looks really good!

-Ann said...

I don't like shrimp but I do like your pictures. It looks very swish and posh. Must be the wine glass!

Rebecca said...

It looks so pretty :-0...

Happy Monday!! :-)

P.S. SHAME ON YOU for pre-minced garlic!!! ;-)

Sauntering Soul said...

Hmmmm, Covert Karina sounds really interesting!

I'm no fan of fish or seafood so I can't really comment on your dish.

ChrisB said...

I'm not very good at altering recipes~ however I do always have fresh garlic that I often add to dishes~ not too friendly except for blogging!! I certainly like the look of your meal :)

Hootin Anni said...

...and it does sound good together for you title. Karina is a beautiful name, middle name or not.

ANA said...

I love to cook. Will try my this. Looks great.

Faye said...

I'm so sorry you don't need Covet Karina very much any more. . .maybe things will pick up. . .

Pasta Florentine--had it last night w/o seafood--still yummy.

Sayre said...

You're my kind of cook! Spinach might be my favorite vegetable - I eat it at least 4 times a week. And this recipe looks really good. Perhaps you needed more garlic - or more pepper...

Sandy said...

Wow, that looks terrific! I always try to do a recipe exactly according to the directions the very first time and then I just tweak the heck out of it.

Great job.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

That looks divine, Karina - I'm coming over next time...

Fun to hear how you came up with Candid Karina. I started my blog on a complete whim. I didn't have any time to debate what I should call it, and I had an hour time limit because I had booked the time on the library computer and had to come up with something quick.

Michelle said...

Looks yummy!!

Pamela said...

Good thing you wrote it down - so you won't forget it. Those wonderful accidents usually don't get recorded and therefore never recreated.

so there you are Cooking Karina.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Sauntering Soul - "Covert" sounds mysterious - like you are really not supposed to be doing what you are doing. If nothing else, you can pretend to be really shady and delve into the dark recesses of the mind, or be like me and make up stuff.... ;) NLM

Sai Hijara - Ferraris said...

Nice blog name...candid...it's like I'm seeing you in that word!

Glad to share likes with Jap food with you!

Melanie said...

I love the name of your blog- it's so cute!

Jannis said...

What is the wine you drank with the yummy looking dish?

Irish Coffeehouse said...

Covert Karina sounds oh so juicy and intriguing! I love it!

Your recipe sound awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

looks like peter north made this