Best children's book...The Sky Was Blue

This is my favorite children's book.  I can still remember sitting on the couch with my mom reading it to me, and making me pigtails.  Charlotte Zolotow is a master of tugging on your heart strings.  This is a simple story of a mom and daughter looking through a family album, going back through the generations and comparing how things change, yet stay the same.  Charming.  Published in 1963, it is now pretty hard to find.

Great new recipe for tonite: Sausage Spinach Stuffed Shells (can you say that 5x fast?).  I did add a little tomato sauce (from a jar that I had on hand), and I used fresh spinach, because frozen spinach grosses me out.

Sausage Spinach Stuffed Shells

Ingredients

• 16-18 jumbo pasta shells
• 1 pound fresh pork sausage links, casing removed
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeeze dry
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and fill a large bowl with cold water and ice, set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta shells and cook according to package directions. Drain well then add to ice water until ready to stuff.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork sausage then use a wooden spoon to break up the sausage, cook 5-6 minutes until browned. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds then add tomatoes and spinach; cook 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and stir in ricotta cheese.
3. Using a spoon, fill pasta shells with pork filling and arrange in a baking dish (9-inch x 9-inch baking dish works well). Sprinkle tops with shredded cheese then bake in the oven 25-30 minutes until cheese has melted and tips of shells begin to crisp and brown.