Make an Easy, Tasty Italian Dinner For All Sausage Lovers!

These are the ingredients you will need. Two pounds of Italian Sausage, 2 onions, 4 Bell peppers, water, salt and pepper and a couple of bay leaves.

This delicious dish was passed down to my family from an old Italian friend years ago. I'm not Italian and never ate much Italian food growing up, but when my mom made this dish for our family, I just loved it. If you like sausage, once you taste this Sausage and Peppers recipe you're going to want to prepare it for your family and friends often. When I take this dish to a Pot Luck supper, I always get rave reviews! If you work all day, you can prepare the sausage, peppers and onions the night before and put everything in the slow cooker in the morning. When you get home, your house is going to smell wonderful, and your supper will be just about ready!

The menu for this dinner is very simple; Sausage and Peppers, Italian Green Beans with Mushrooms and a loaf of crusty white bread. You'll be amazed at how satisfying, filling and tasty this meal is. The peppers and green beans are loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants, the garlic is proving to help promote good health, including helping to prevent cancer by stimulating the immune system, and of course the sausage is just plain delicious!

When you do your grocery shopping, you'll need to pick up a few things for this meal. In the meat section, look for Italian hot sausage. The sausage must be the Italian variety, and not any other type. If you're not sure if you'll like hot sausage, you can use the sweet or mild Italian sausage. Sometimes I use one pound of the hot, and one pound of the sweet. Pick out the type of sausage according to your family's tastes. The original recipe calls for all hot sausage. You'll need two pounds total.

Next, go to the produce department. Pick out four or five nice large bell peppers. My mom used the green ones, but you can also substitute the red or orange peppers, or even mix them up for more color. A green bell pepper is simply an unripened red, yellow or orange one. These ripe peppers contain much more nutrients and vitamins than their unripened green counterparts. Now pick out two large yellow onions, 2 ½-3 pounds of fresh green beans, one pint of fresh button mushrooms and a bulb of garlic. Lastly, find a nice loaf of crust bread in the bakery. If you don't have butter and onion powder at home, pick these items up now.

When you get home, put your groceries in the fridge until you're ready to prepare the meal. The green beans, peppers, mushrooms and onions can be prepped ahead of time if you wish. Simply wash and trim the green beans on each end, and core, seed and slice all of the peppers into strips. Rinse the mushrooms lightly with cool water to rinse off any dirt and pat dry with paper toweling. Slice the onions into rounds. Store the veggies separate and covered in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to cook your Italian feast, you'll need to slice the sausages into about 1-1/4 inch long pieces. Put them all in a large skillet with no water or oil added and fry them long and slow. Keep turning the sausages as they're cooking. This will take about an hour. While the sausages are sauteing, cook the green beans. You can boil, steam or microwave them. Add a bit of butter, salt and water to the microwave-proof dish if you microwave them. Make sure the beans are crisp-tender, (about 8-10 minutes after boiling them). Microwave ovens and steamers will vary so check every couple of minutes or so.

Next, separate 3 cloves of garlic from the bulb, and skin and mince them. In a large non-stick skillet, saute the garlic and mushrooms with about 1 ½ tablespoons of butter until tender. Drain the beans if you boiled them and add to the skillet. Next add salt and pepper and onion powder to taste, (about ½ teaspoon of each spice is a good starting point). Heat the bean dish through, and cover and keep warm on low heat while you finish the sausage and peppers.

When your sausages are nicely browned and cooked, drain the skillet of its excess fat and add the sliced peppers and onions. Add to this about one-half to three-quarters of a cup of water, and salt and pepper to taste. Fry on low for about ½ hour (or until peppers are crisp-tender). You can cover the pan with the cover askew if you would like to keep the splattering down.

Lastly, add the finishing touches to your fabulous Italian Sausage and Peppers feast. Set the table and pour your favorite beverages. Using a bread knife, slice the loaf into even slices. Take the butter out of the fridge to soften. Ladle the sausage and peppers and the green beans and mushrooms onto each plate. Then sit down, relax, eat, and enjoy the compliments!

For 700 other restaurant favorite recipes that you can easily cook yourself with fantastic results you can visit http://www.americanhomestylecooking.com. This cookbook "America's Most Wanted Recipes" will show you how to save money while you enjoy these delicious, easy-to-prepare dishes at home! These are exact replica recipes from your favorite restaurants including Red Lobster, Burger King, KFC, The Olive Garden, The Cheescake Factory and many, many more. So if you love good restaurant recipes visit us!

Easy Shrimp Salad

One of my favorite summers meals is a cold shrimp salad. First you need to boil some fresh or frozen headless and deveined shrimp in the 20 - 30 count range. This means there will be about 20 - 30 shrimp per pound. I usually only need one pound to make this salad.

To cook the shrimp, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil and then toss the shrimp into the boiling water. Keep the heat on high. Wait until the water begins to boil again, then shut off the burner heat and wait 5 minutes and the shrimp should be cooked. They should look pink if they are cooked. Drain off the hot water and start peeling the shells off the shrimp. This is the hard part of the preparation so you could just take the time to let the cooked shrimp sit and cool off in your ice box for a while. That way it is not as hard to peel them.

After peeling off all the shells, chop up the cooked shrimp into small bite sized pieces. Put all the sliced shrimp into a bowl and add a splash of lemon juice, two large spoonfuls of salad dressing and two small spoonfuls of sweet pickle relish. For a large spoon, use a serving spoon and for a small spoon use a normal sized table setting spoon, like you would eat with, not a soup spoon. Mix everything up in the bowl and then serve on lettuce. Salt and pepper is optional.

Also, it is recommended that crackers be served with the salad. Another way to serve the salad is on a toasted muffin with the lettuce on the bread. The lettuce will help keep the bread from getting wet from the salad and then falling apart. This is a great sandwich for having ready after chores, it keeps well for 4 hours or so. Make sure of safe food precautions, such as not leaving anything sitting out a long time, the food must be kept cold or it will spoil.

To find more shrimp salad recipes visit the website http://www.weloveseafood.com/

20 Quick and Easy Make-Up Tips

Here are quick and easy make-up tips. Anybody can use these as they are not targeting anyone with special features.

- If you do not have time for a full make-up, but want to look great. Paint on a bright red lipstick. At least its happy and glamorous color will immediately brightens your face.

- Sweep a little loose powder under your eyes when applying dark shades of eye shadow to catch any falling specks and prevent them from staining your skin.

- Make your lips look larger by wearing a bright, light lipstick. Or make them appear small by wearing dark and more muted colors.

- If you do not have a specialized contouring product for cheeks, simply use an ordinary face powder a couple of shades darker than your usual one to slim down the cheeks.

- Add a drop of witch hazel available in all good drug stores to turn ordinary foundation into a medicated one, it will work wonders on oily skin, which is prone to acne and pimples.

- Mascara your lashes before applying false ones to help them stick properly.

- If you look tired then blend a little concealer just away from the outer corner of your eye - it will make you look as though you had a good night's sleep.

- Never apply makeup before blow-drying your hair - the heat from the dryer can make you perspire and cause your makeup to smudge.

- The color of powder eye shadow can be made to look more intense by dipping your eye shadow brush in water first.

- Keep eye lashes smooth and supple by brushing them with petroleum jelly before going to bed at night.

- Apply cream blusher in light downward movements to prevent it from creasing in specks of color from catching in the fine hairs on your face.

- If mascara tends to clog on your lower lashes then try using a small thin brush to paint color on to individual lashes.

- Make sure you give moisturizer time to sink in before you start applying your makeup as it will help your makeup go on more easily.

- If your eyeliner is too hard and drags your skin, hold it next to a lighter bulb for a few seconds before applying.

- Lip gloss can look sophisticated if you just apply a dot in the center of your lower lip.

- If you are unsure where to apply blusher, gently pinch your cheeks. If you like the effect, apply blusher in the same area.

- To prevent lipstick from getting on your teeth, try this tip. After putting it on, put your finger in the mouth, purse your lips and pull it out.

- Women who wear glasses need to take special advice on makeup. If you are near-sighted, your glasses will make your eyes look smaller. So, go for brighter eye shadows and lots of mascara to ensure they do not disappear.

- A little foundation lightly rubbed through your eyebrows and brushed through with an old toothbrush will instantly lighten them.

- For long lasting blush on sunny days or hot nights, apply both cream and powder blusher. Apply the cream formulation first, set with translucent powder then dust with a little powder blush.

Have fun discovering your new colors.

Katie Moran

Katie's Wellness & Beauty Corner

www.monstergiftstore.com

Katie is an ex-model and has appeared in several infomercials. She has years of experience working with make-up artists and using cosmetics.

Get Hot Women - 3 Techniques

In order to hook up with attractive, knock out looking women, you need to master your confidence, period. If you think about it, you are going after women who already have a high level of confidence due to their physical appearance. You need to not only match that confidence, but surpass it! And you don't have to do it through your own physical appearance, you can do it through mental confidence, developing these three mental strengths:

1. Know sexual positions up, down, left, right, and diagonal! If you can develop confidence in the sack, then you can use that confidence in the real world. And the best place to start is by studying and learning the various sexual positions. Once you get positioning down, you can move on to other areas, such as:

2. Learn arousal techniques. You want to separate yourself from average man. In order to do that you need to learn sex skills which are so effective and pleasurable that women will be impressed and place you high on the list of memorable intimate experiences. Again, when you develop this knowledge through studying and learning, you can walk around with this important knowledge. And walking around with this kind of knowledge is going to create an enormous amount of confidence within yourself.

3. Learn how to last long and strong during sex. There are many techniques you can learn to become an incredible lover during sex. Learning how to last both long and strong can make all the difference in the world, both beforehand and during the act itself. Maintaining and building your confidence won't be a problem for meeting women; you already have the knowledge that a great lover has, so the big hurdle of impressing a woman between the sheets won't be a problem. And with this kind of confidence, meeting that attractive, drop dead gorgeous woman, will be a thousand times easier than ever before.

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Meet Girls In College - 3 Easy Ways To Do It!

To those of you that are starting college, the first week of school is the best time to meet new people. Trust me, it's NOT a good idea to walk around with your ipod headphones on and not taking advantage of the opportunity you have. Everyone is eager to meet people, but you have to take the initiative and go out to introduce yourself. Some Good Ideas

1. Go to as many rush/social events as possible. All the frats / clubs are trying to recruit people and are friendly as hell, not to mention that they give out free food. When I was a freshmen I'd go to every single frat house just to get a free dinner the first week. The schools also host many activities just for freshmen so be sure to take advantage of them.

2. Meet Your Dorm mates. Go down your hall, knock on the door, and introduce yourself to everyone. You'll thank yourself when you see Josh's girlfriend stopped by to visit his dorm and brought some of her friends.

3. Meet the hot girls in your class. See a hot girl sitting by herself? Just go over and sit next to her. It's really easy to introduce yourself and go through the general questions like "What's your major" blah blah. The main advantage is that it'll be very casual and not like you're hitting on her, compared to doing this in the middle of the semester.

Remember to focus on meeting everybody and not just the hot girls. Also don't be afraid of adding them on your Facebook. The bigger your social network, the more chances you'll get into the future to meet new people.

Enjoy this article? Be sure to check out my website for over 40+ free articles including how to Meet and Approach ANY woman

The Quick and Easy Formula for Starting a Conversation with Any Woman

When it comes to dating, every man wants to know how to start a decent conversation with a woman, well, here's how to do it...

1. First of all, it's crucial you establish good eye-contact. Eyes are the windows of your soul, and having a visual connection with a women shows tells if she's also interested.

To establish good eye-contact, look her in the eye, and keep looking just a bit longer than you normally would. If you catch her looking at you a couple of times, that's all good. You want to get her attention, so stay connected with her.

But be careful not to stare, you don't want to look like a complete idiot, especially if she's with her friends.

2. Secondly, take a look around. What's going on around you? At this point, the key is to find a topic, from which you can start a decent and light conversation.

Is there something special you've noticed, and that most people probably haven't?

3. After a couple of minutes, ask her name, and from that point on, you can start to relax because you've done a great part, which is initiating contact with someone you didn't know.

As a general rule, stay away delicate topics, such as politics, religion, ex-girlfriends and sports (unless you're in a gym or you know she likes sports).

Try not to talk about negative things, stay as positive as possible. Remember, keep it light and cool.

4. So now she knows you exist, and that you've had a light conversation, you don't want to be talking too long, at least not the first time. Picture Will Smith in the Hitch movie, when he's at a bar.

He takes a seat, and has a light chat with Eva Mendes. They talk for a couple of minutes, and just at the peak of the conversation, Will Smith gets up and leaves.

And just after he leaves, you can see Eva getting up and looking in the direction he left. This is a great technique that successful daters use: let the woman have a peak and shut the door. The goal is to make her wanting more.

A lot of guys get good things going by having a good conversation, but after a while their conversation becomes lame and by the time they ask her number, she's already gone, maybe not physically, but mentally.

I know this may seem crazy, but it's a must. So politely thank her for the conversation, and tell her you have to get back to your friends/ family/ home, whatever.

Knowing how to start a good conversation with a woman is vital to more success in your dating life. Plus, displaying the right attitude by not showing her that you're desperate will automatically get you more dates than you could have dreamed of.

Matthias Mazur is the author of the free report, “How To Avoid the 10 Killer Mistakes that Destroy Your Success with Women”. Drop by at http://www.seduceandkeep.com for your free copy.

Easy Home Made Hot Garlic Dill Pickles

Years ago in Sacramento, California, I ran across an old man selling pickles at a swap meet. He made the pickles in his own kitchen in large plastic barrels and sold them on week-ends. I went to this swap meet every Saturday all during the summer and noticed the lines of people gathered in front of his booth, but I always walked by.

Then, one Saturday, I stopped. He had many types of home made pickles, with bite-sized samples of the various pickles laid out for tasting. They were all good but when I tried the Hot, Garlic, Dill Pickle... I was hooked. So, for what would have been the equivalent of about six dollars in today's money, I bought a quart of pickles served up in a cardboard Chinese take-out carton. They were the absolute, best pickles I had ever tasted.

I made pickles myself several times over the years, but they were nothing special. In fact, pickles from the store were better. I thought, if only I knew how he made them, I could make my own. But I was sure he would not give out his recipe since he made his living selling them. So, I never asked.

Instead, I went through every recipe book in the library looking for pickles. I tried dozens of recipes, but never came close to the old man's formula.

Several years passed with me buying pickles from the old guy until one Saturday, he was not there. Nor was he there the next Saturday. So, after several weeks, I went to the Swap Meet Office and asked what happened to the pickle man. As I feared, he had died.

So, I accepted the fact that I would never taste those fabulous hot, garlic, dills again. Until, one morning, as I was reading the Sunday paper, I spotted a small article on "The Pickle Man Passes Away". The old man's daughter provided her father's life story and to keep his memory alive, she included his best pickle recipes. She felt that he would want his pickles to continue being enjoyed.

When I read the recipe for the hot, garlic dill pickles, I was not sure it was the real thing. It was too simple. There had to be some exotic, secret ingredient. But there it was... with no secret ingredient.

Of course, I made the pickles that same day and they were perfect. They were the old man's pickles!

Since they were so simple, I wondered why my efforts over the years were never as good as his. After much thought, I concluded that the secret is not only the ingredients, it is also the procedure.

The first secret is, FRESH INGREDIENTS.

Like the pickle man, I grow all the ingredients, except salt and vinegar, in my own back yard. The cucumbers are picked and processed within one hour of leaving the garden. Likewise, with all the other ingredients. I am convinced that this freshness adds a little extra something to the flavor and crunch of the pickles.

Another tip is in the processing (hot water bath) of the pickles. The cucumbers are processed only a short time so they are not "cooked". While experts on canning may quarrel with the procedure (I do not know), I have made (and sold) pickles for years this way.

O.K., ready for the recipe? A note first: this recipe assumes you are familiar with the basics of canning food. If not, you should probably read an article on canning before making pickles (see link at bottom of this page).

INGREDIENTS:
Quantities of ingredients vary according to how many pickles you want to make. It will be clear as you read the procedure below.

FRESH cucumbers (how many?...how many pickles do you want to make?)
water
pickling salt
jalapeno peppers
grape leaves (fresh)
whole peppercorn
whole garlic cloves (peeled)
fresh dill sprigs
white vinegar (5% distilled - commonly sold in stores)
crushed red pepper (optional)

NOTE 1:
This recipe makes a pickle that is too salty for many people. Others love it. If you prefer a less salty flavor, reduce the salt in step 2 below to 1/4 cup. If you just want a hint of salt, use 3 tablespoons.
NOTE 2:
Select cucumbers that are about 3-5 inches long, with no blemishes! You can use any type cucumber, not just pickling cucumbers. I have always made the pickles using whole cucumbers, like the Pickle Man did. I have never tried slicing the cucumbers (length-way). I believe this would take away some of the crunch.

PROCEDURE
1. Prepare jars and lids in boiling water. Allow to stand in boiling water at least 15 minutes
2. In a LARGE pot, combine two quarts water, 1/2 cup salt, two cups white vinegar. Bring to a boil until all the salt is dissolved.
3. In each sterilized jar place: one large sprig of dill weed, 1 medium jalapeño pepper (sliced length-way), 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorn and 2 grape leaves.
4. Fill jar with cucumbers (previously washed in cold water) and pour hot vinegar mix in jar to within 1 inch of top.
5. Seal jars and process in hot water bath 15 minutes.

One good thing about making your own pickles is that you have control over how they taste. You like them hotter? Add more jalapeño or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper. You want them milder? Use only 1/2 jalapeño. You like strong garlic flavored pickles? Use 5 garlic cloves per jar.

The point is, do not be afraid to adjust the recipe to make the pickles you like. The recipe above is basically the original and what I like.

You can start by making just one jar (use original ingredients for salt/vinegar mix, even if making only one jar). The pickles can be tasted in about 3 days and you can adjust the ingredients to your taste when making a full batch. Just be aware that all the flavors will intensify slightly over time.

Final note: The grape leaves give the pickles their crunch. You may have trouble finding fresh grape leaves, since they do not sell them in stores. If you can not grow your own or have a neighbor that grows them, I do not have a solution. I would not use alum as a substitute in my pickles. You will still get a pretty good crunch without the grape leaves if you do not over process.

Good luck with the Hot, Garlic, Dill Pickles.

Ken Miller is a free lance writer and webmaster for Homemade Pickles where you will find more pickle recipes and preserving techniques. Ken also manages www.olsouthrecipes.com where you can find recipes for the most popular, authentic Southern dishes like fried chicken, fried okra, biscuits and gravy, cornbread and many more. Oh, and they are all free.