Ravioli Cook-off!

The phase of the moon is the most barren right now--until March 19--so I have no planting news to share. And I have no camera (that will change by this weekend) with which to take new photos, so I'm pulling a pic from about a month ago.

I know. It's St. Patty's Day, which would call for something Irish, but this is what you get instead. I hope to inspire you with the notion that making your own pasta is not an insurmountable task!

Yes, you see a drill. Our dear friends, Deli (in the pic with me) and Lucas come to family dinner from time to time, and we make it a cooking Event--yes, with a capital "E"! On this particular day, we decided we would make home-made ravioli with our own pasta rather than won ton wrappers, which may be perfectly fine but why not use the real thing? The dough was made--he made one and I made another--when we discovered that I could not find the handle to my manual pasta maker. Oh my! What would we do! Anthony came up with the solution: Why, use the power drill, of course! So that is what we did. That was the biggest challenge of the day, so ANYBODY can make pasta. We started at 2 p.m. and ate by about 4:30 p.m. Not too bad.

I call this a cook-off, but it's really in fun that we have our "challenges". Lucas is a marvelous cook, and he made a sauce he concocted years ago. It was Divine--yes, with a capital "D"! We had three types of stuffing: sweet potato; lamb; and brie, mushroom, shallot, and garlic. We also had a brown butter and sage sauce.

Deli is our dessert goddess and made a wonderful chocolate cake. Soooo good!!

So, next time you have a free afternoon and a couple of friends, break out the pasta machine (and a power drill if necessary) and create a wonderful meal with wonderful memories. You'll know exactly what went into the food you made, and you'll have fun, too.