Anyone who knows me well knows that I love food, but I especially LOVE ITALIAN food . My favorite is ravioli or tortellini usually with some type of cream sauce. Marinara just won't do. I went to my friend Jacqui's home for a small cooking class with her mother-in-law (whose parents were both from Italy). She taught us how to make the homemade ravioli and sauce from scratch. I was so inspired that I opted for the faster way and bought a manual pasta maker, the Atlas 150 straight from Italy, which presses the dough flat and also cuts noodles. I also bought the Della Donna ravioli form which makes about 8 ravioli at a time instead of one.

A few weeks ago my sister, Cheslie, and I tried out just a spinach ravioli with marina sauce and store bought Alfredo sauce. It was delicious. I looked online and found a bunch of recipes, one of my favorites was the Olive Garden Portabello Mushroom Ravioli in a creamy sundried tomato sauce. My parents were visiting so I let my mom pick which one we would try. I must admit I was a bit disappointed she didn't pick the Olive Garden recipe. However, I would say the one she picked turned out to be just as good.

We had roasted squash ravioli in a sage brown butter sauce. Words cannot describe just how delicious this dish was. Here is the link to the recipe : www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/roasted-butternut-squash-ravioli-with-a-sage-brown-butter-sauce-recipe/index.html. And let me just forewarn any of those dieters out there - this definitely will max out those calories for the day. The sauce is made of pure butter...Mmmmmmmm...The filling is the absolute best and yes, it is made with some heavy cream. Delicious. Now you know why I am no bean pole. Anyway, I am really excited to continue using my pasta maker. It is very time consuming, I think it took us anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours to make dinner for 5 adults and 2 kids, but I must say it was well worth it, and fun bonding with my mom and sister.

I had a lot of fun cooking for them while they were here for a short few days. I made a sour cream apple pie with streusal topping (Paulette taught me when she was here). The best apple pie in the entire world. We also had roasted squash/vegetable soup with a three cheese asparagus and cherry/pecan scones. Yummy.

Can't wait to make those Olive Garden ravioli. I'll let you know how that goes!!!!

Wow. We have had some busy weeks. Very fun weeks though. First, Aunt Jana and Cousin Paulette came and visited us for about 4 days from California. We had lots of fun. We went to the coast with them and we had some good cooking! Paulette made her famous apple pie and Aunt Jana made her delicious fettuccine alfredo. Paulette and I made fresh fettuccine noodles with my new pasta maker. It was pure heaven!

The day after Chris' aunt and cousin left my parents arrived for my bros graduation. We were able to sit through extremely stimulating speakers for over an hour in a prehistoric building with no air conditioning, and then watch for another equally stimulating hour as the graduates were "hooded". Congratulatons Cameron! We were glad we were able to make it.

Right after graduation we all headed to the coast for some R & R, so I thought. Chris had to work and didn't want to drive back, and he ended up having the better weekend with the house to himself. We arrived in the evening and were able to take a walk on the beach before bed. The kids loved it, as usual, and managed to soak themselves in the first few minutes of the walk.

The next morning Maddy had a fever and was not very interested in moving. And just as I was going to take Nixon out to the beach, I found that he also had a fever. Needless to say, it was not too fun taking care of two sick kids on my own. We sat in the house that entire day, while everyone else was out. BOOORRRRRING!!!!! Later during the day, Maddy really was ready to go out despite not feeling well. You gotta love Tylenol. She found her wetsuit, towel and shovel and got ready to go. Unfortunately we didn't.
And unfortunately through the night I was giving Motrin, getting up, up a lot, didn't get much sleep. And they were still sick in the morning. But, none of us could take it any more so we went to the beach and played. The kids loved it.
Of course the morning we were supposed to leave, the kids were fever free and feeling great, and I was sleep free and feeling miserable. But, we went to the beach again for about two hours. Then we went to the tide pools and saw urchins, anemones, and starfish. The kids loved touching all the sea animals.
Nixon and his cousin Bryton loved to be on the front porch.
Below, family enjoying the view.



We came back home from the beach, and Chris was well rested and bright eyed. I was grouchy and tired and went to bed for an hour. I actually was glad I could spend time with my family, but it would have been so much better if the kids hadn't gotten sick. We have spent the last few days playing with Papa and Grandma and making good food which I will post later about.