More Spring

For about a week, the tree in our backyard was pink. Then the petals fell and we had a pink back yard. It was oh-so-spring!
Nora was looking cute in her church clothes and sat on the swing I put up
Ella. Also cute.


She looks like she's asking God a question

The girls got sleep mats for our overnight trip to CT. They are obsessed with them. It was no problem getting them to sleep in those things.
My kids are weird sometimes (okay, most of the time...). Nora cuddles with this touch-n-feel book with furry pages. She was walking around like this. Sometimes she lies on it. It's so weird.
I can tell how humid it is based on the curliness of Nora's hair. This was a sticky day!

Making Ravioli Round Two

I have no intention of making this a food blog (Andrew thinks I should start one), but I love making food, eating food, and taking pictures of food. So it might just happen from time to time.

This was my second, more successful, attempt at making ravioli by hand. I still havent rolled the dough out by hand yet, but once I get just the right thickness figured out, I'm going to try!






Homemade pesto/white wine sauce.

May Day Party

This weekend we went to North Haven, CT for our friends' annual May Day party. It was a lovely weekend. Some of the photos I am posting are from Teri as she got some choice shots that I did not.

I took a couple of pictures on the ride up.

Nora was drooling.
Ella, of course, was huffing Night Night Man.
Nora got herself all ready to play outside.
Group shot from the weekend.
Andrew is in the back giving his friend, Jordan, a smooch.
(front: Josh, me, Teri, Jake. Middle: Heather, Susan, Sunday, Francis. Back: Jordan, Andrew, Paul). Everyone here is "book person" except me and Jake, Teri's brother. Oh, and the tortoise.





We brought the pirate tent. Here the girls play with Henry and Sophia, 1 1/2 year old twins!
Here are the other twins with their parents, Jackie and Tony.
When Russ the Tortoise arrived she was the big hit of the party.
Ella was immediately intrigued.

Jordan, Andrew, Heather, Teri: Indiana University library school comrades.


There was one point in the afternoon when four of the kids decided to go shirtless.

By the end of the day, Russ had enough and went to sleep in a corner.
Josh and Sunday were teaching Texas Hold Em Poker to Andrew and Francis.
Andrew did surprisingly well...
...and won!
I was there, but I really dont recall why they were dancing. Josh's face says it all.
Sunday had a good poker hand.
The next morning, Ella immediately went for the tortoise and watched her...closely!
Mother's Day pancakes breakfast. I was the only mother there. But everyone enjoyed the pancakes!

Making Pasta (and other goodies)

I have recently started trying to make pasta by hand. At some point I hope to be able to do every step by hand. Currently I use a pasta roller I got for my birthday to roll out the sheets. My goal is to do it with my large rolling pin. But I want to get the steps down before I put all of that time into it.

Here Ella is watching me make the first batch. I went with Farfalle (bow ties) because it seemed relatively easy to make by hand as I dont have a pasta cutter. I think it rolled out a little thin for this shape, but it was delicate and delicious.
The next shape I tried was Orecchiette, or "little ears". I wanted to try something a little more substantial for a pasta salad. It turned out to have a texture similar to gnocchi and may have been a little thick cold (in the pasta salad), but was still tasty.
I didnt get any pics of it, unfortunately.

My most recent attempt was ravioli. It was hard. I ended up throwing out at least half of it because it was so sticky and did not want to pull apart. I learned I needed a whole lot more flour to keep them from getting so sticky.

Here is a picture of the ravioli after I rolled it out. I made large sheets of pasta, spread it with the filling (ricotta, spinach, goat cheese, and garlic), then rolled over it with the ravioli pin to make the shapes. And I also decided to pull out my "pasta board" for this batch.
I then took a pasta cutter to cut out the individual pieces and laid them out to dry. This round was sticky and hard to pull apart without ripping them.
By the end, I learned more flour was the key.
We had ravioli for dinner that night (in appropriate dishes). They were very yummy and very delicate. I think next time I will roll out the pasta thicker to give it a more substantial bite.
And just to round out this food post, this weekend I made an asparagus tart...
...and a rustic plum tart.
Both were delicious and I plan to make them again!