Lotsa Pasta! (Oh Muh-tha, you are soooo witty!)

Mama Jo:  We have discovered (a special thank you to the cooking class!)

RAVIOLI!

Everyone knows that practice makes perfect.  I have been "perfecting" up a storm.  In fact, Go-Bot said recently, "Mama Jo (that's me)...we sure have been having ravioli a lot lately.  I'm not complaining or anything, it's just that we've never had it before and now we have it, like, all the time."  My reply:  "Shaddup and eat!"

Ravioli, from start to finish!

Roll out the fresh pasta in your handy, dandy pasta maker! 

Notice that there are two different recipes of filling. 

One is a cheese filling and the other is italian sausage and sundried tomato.

 You roll it out several times getting it very thin.

 You place one piece of pasta on the ravioli form!  Add your favorite filling. 

(I have two different forms so you can tell which filling you're choosing!)

You can spritz a little water (to make the dough "stick" to itself) before adding layer number two of fresh pasta.

Roll the top of the pasta to form the raviolies.

Pop them out and then... 

 ...put them into the pot to boil!

 Before the fancy, schmancy ravioli form, you lay out your first layer of pasta on the counter, place dollops of filling, spritz, place second layer of pasta, seal and cut with a fancy ravioli dough cutter (meaning it isn't just straight and boring!)

 These raviolies, because of their imperfection, have lots of character!

Not to mention their yummy, delectable goodness!

Buona Pasta!

Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha' got Cookin'

Jemima:  I eat dog food (with only an occasional table scrap from Mama Jo).  The rest of the family eats like kings!  Behold...

I don't know why it is sideways, but, Spaghetti Carbonara, with homemade pasta!

   A braised onion with really smelly gorgonzola cheese!  Thank you Readers' Digest.

 An awesome lentil dish, with a pound of bacon in it!  Not for the faint of heart!

 French Onion Soup to simply roll over and play dead for!

 Baklava!  A little dab would do you.  Very rich and luscious.

  Black Bean Soup.  Notice the (homemade!) Creme' Fraiche on Top.  How could you miss the artfully displayed cilantro?  I was told this soup was a "10" on the yum factor scale!

Bon Appetite!

When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie….

Mama Jo:  I’ve been taking my news year’s resolutions more serious this year. Well, I only made two. Still, I’m taking them more seriously!

Resolution #1. Stop being a hermit.

Resolution #2. Make a new recipe every week. Mama Mia! This has been fabulous. Most have been wonderful. A few we were grateful for the experience, but probably won’t serve it again. I’ve been taking some cooking classes (definitely helps with resolution #1) and also creating some major yum from some delightful cook books. I’ll share more about them later. In the mean time, bon appetite!

In regards to Resolution #1, I decided to sign up for a Block of the Month at the local quilt shop.  The blocks are from the book "Sylvia's Bridal Sampler," by Jennifer Chiaverini.  It has been brutal.  I can honestly say that I am a fairly advanced quilter, but I'm not impressed with the instructions, etc.  We have to make seven 6" blocks every month.  If I hadn't pre-purchased 10+ yards of background fabric I would drop it.  So BOO to this resolution.  (Although, the blocks that I have made are really pretty...more on that later!)

Resolution #2 is going well, in part, due to a series of cooking classes that I have taken.  I have taken a home-made pasta class, soup, sushi, artisan bread, cupcake, crepes, etc.  It has been fabulous.  Below is some home-made ravioli with two sauces:  Marinara and a butter sage sauce that is to die for!   

Ciao Bella!

FORBIDDEN FRUITS

Mama Jo:  Actually, I should title this post “Forbidden Words,” but perhaps it wouldn’t have caught your eye.

In every household there are “inside jokes” or “inside family stories” that No One else quite gets, but the family just thinks that they are hysterical.

For instance, when we lived in England, it was forbidden to say the word “wonderful” in a prayer. Why? you ask. The answer goes something like this…

“Thank you for this wonderful day. We are so glad to have this wonderful food. Please bless us to have a wonderful night’s sleep,” etc. etc. etc. So I suppose that we started the “think of another adjective” game at that time. Our family prayers were more “adjecta-tive,” that’s for sure, but it overall it made certain members of our family “think” more about the things they were saying.

That all changed when Go-Bot was in 6th or 7th grade. He and his not-so-amazing friend Grant got into their heads that everything was “diseased.” When that particular word also became “forbidden” then they just made up other annoying words. One particularly annoying set was “Chicken Rice.” You could insert those two words into any problem, sentence, or situation and immediately those two would laugh and soon these two, perfectly innocent sounding words (chicken rice) were on the “Forbidden Fruits, er, Words” list. Makes no sense at all, does it?

By the way, would you like some Rice-A-Roni? Maybe I should rephrase that…Chicken Rice, anyone???

Chilled Monkey Brains, anyone?

Mama Jo:  Picky Eaters. They make me CRAZY! I can’t imagine anything I couldn’t choke down if I were eating at someone’s home, even if it weren’t my favorite. I mean, come on…if someone were to invite you into their home, it’s not like they are going to make the grossest meal they know how, right?

It’s true. I am offended when I have guests in my home who won’t even “try” what I have prepared. Or else they feel that they need to “dissect it” before eating. It’s one meal. Deal with it.

Determined that we would not raise a household of picky eaters, Mr. Incredible and I used various tactics. The most common one was that each child had to eat some of everything. If they didn’t eat it, it went into the refrigerator until the next meal where it was served up cold. I might add that there was NOTHING else offered as a inbetween meal snack. We only had one thing last until lunch the next day, and so I would say we have raised a household of non-picky eaters. (I’m not saying that they have loved everything placed in front of them, but, nonetheless, they will eat anything!)

Another tactic was bring up the rules of any future missions they might serve. “When you are on your mission you will offend the person feeding you if you don’t eat what they offer you. If you offend them, they might not EVER invite the missionaries back into their home for dinner. Think of all the hungry missionaries that will be mad at you because no one will offer to feed them. You need to practice now eating everything on your plate, blah, blah, blah.” This conversation invariably would turn to terrible things you might possibly get served on your mission.

One day, whilst (isn’t that a great word???) I was volunteering in Scooter’s kindergarten class, I overheard him telling one of his little classmates about “how my dad ate chilled monkey brains on hims mission.” I about busted a gut!

But, sure enough whilst (there it is again!) Scooter was on his mission, I saw this box in the store. Do you think I sent it to him?

I suggest serving it chilled!

Procrastination--OR--I think I'll warm my hands by the fire!

Jemima:  Go-Bot is the master procrastinator. I think mostly he is the master irritator! Any time he is asked to do something, he will say, “But first, I must warm my hands by the fire.”

Mama Jo:  We fell for it the first 37 times he said it, afterall, it is freezing in most sections of our home. I, myself, have succumbed more than one to the urge to stand in front of the fire until you are toasty warm and then running up the stairs and climbing into bed.

Ahhhh. Nothing beats warming up your hands (or body) by the fire!

Mama Jo loves Jemima

Jemima:  How else would you describe the love and dedication she has for me?

Notice the snow. Are you noticing how deep it is?

In case you don’t realize this, Corgi’s have microscopic legs, so if there is any amount of snow on the ground, chances are that my stomach is going to be dragging in it. (not to mention my other body parts that are also close to the ground!)

This winter has been the winter from the neither-world. Mr. Incredible has been irritated because I haven’t been overly excited to go outside and do my “dooties.” But Mama Jo understands my needs. She shoveled a path out to the nearest tree for me.

 Yes I was grateful.

Of course I love her best!