Music Soothes the Savage Beast

I love piano music. Who doesn't? It can be light and fun, jazzy and upbeat, peaceful and calming. I've spent lots of time this past year at the hospital when my mother was critically ill. The last 2 days I was there again, my younger brother had surgery. It was the first time I had been back to the hospital since Mom passed. The beautiful piano music being played in the hospital's lobby made me wonder how many piano lessons this woman had taken. It was comforting to listen and watch her play and helped me through the day. Playing piano is a skill I don't have, and one my SIL wishes to have.

If you already play and want to jazz up your style, please take a look at these options for piano lessons. For your ease, there's a toll free number to help you with any questions you might have. You can take lessons on line! I love the idea of taking piano lessons, at a time convenient to me; and it's private! You improve your current skills, learn tricks of the trade with lessons on DVD too. Sheet music is available and printable in a wide variety of music styles. If you want to make your left hand come alive, improve your skills with cords, or jump from an intermediate player to an advance player this is for you. And, I've saved the best to last...there's a free trial. If playing more, improving your skills, or getting back to something you love was a New Years Resolution here's your chance. Music improves our lives in so many ways.

Dinner is served.

Homemade Butternut squash ravioli and my lemondrop martini. The lemondrop was my cocktail of choice before dinner while hubby's prefer's a dry gin martini with a twist. Making Martini's is fun; and I've been working to perfect my Lemondrop. Look how nicely my sugared rim turned out. Nice little ice crytals also in the froth. My best yet.

We had a nice bottle of wine (Gran Tarapaca Pinot Noir Reserve with the pasta dish. The wine is a full bodied (raspberry, cherry & plum) ruby wine from Chile. The pasta my first attempt at making homemade ravioli. A post or two back I mentioned my daughter and I made a ton of pasta. This was 1 of 4 types we made. Butternut Squash Ravioli stuffed with Mascarpone.

1. Cook the squash (slice it in half and cook in the microwave)
2. Cut squash in small pieces, add some liquid (we used juice from mandarin oranges) and make a puree in food processor/blender. We used processor, but I think blender would have worked better
3. Add flour 1/4th cup at a time and mix (regular wheat flour, whole wheat, and semolina). Mix with fork until you can't any longer, switch to mixing and kneading with your hands. This takes quite awhile. Using a whole squash made a very large amount of dough.
4. Refrigerate dough to rest it.
5. Add flour to prepare it for the rolling in pasta machine (I have a hand crank unit). Make long rectangles, as evenly as you can (I rolled several times on each setting 1-2-3 and stopped after rolling twice on 4)
6. Use Ravioli cutter to make squares (remember you need top and bottom). Add Mascarpone to center of one square. Dip your finger into bowl of water and run around edge of the square you've added filling to. Place 2nd square on top, pinching 4 edges. Arrange on counter, cookie sheet, or cloth to dry. Once partial dry, flip over and when you feel they're not going to stick together store in zip lock bag in freezer. Try to keep from breaking by laying flat.

**Remember cooking fresh pasta requires less cooking time than boxed or frozen pasta.
I served this was red and yellow peppers, onion, and small green beans. Mix those items and cook about 3 minutes in the microwave with a drizzle of olive oil. Cut up a dozen little smokies and cook 1 minute in microwave, then add smokies to veggies and cook one more minute. Depending on how much olive oil you used in the cooking process you may or may not need to drizzle a bit more on your pasta. Garnish with fresh peppercorn and grated Asiago Cheese and enjoy.

Christmas Pasta

Don't know if there really is such a thing as Christmas Pasta; but that's what I'm calling this. Above you see pretty green spinach pasta on the drying racks. My daughter and I made a ton of pasta. Really both of us worked on it for about 10 hours solid. We were sure tired at the end. This is just 1 of 4 types we made that day. You need frozen spinach, once it's thawed (which takes quite awhile), you squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Keep the liquid though for later. The spinach is your liquid source. Blend in with fork regular flour, whole wheat flour and semolina flour. I usually add about 1/4th cup at a time as it becomes quite difficult to mix. Once you can't mix with the fork any longer, dive in with your hands. Mix and need, over and over and over again. Keep adding flour as you go. Once you feel like you can't add anymore, cover tightly and put in the fridge for awhile. It let's it rest, and you too. Or would if we hadn't been moving right into another batch of something.
You may or may not need to add a little of liquid you squeezed out. Once you remove it from the fridge you'll need to add more flour as you prepare it for the roller in the pasta machine. I have one of those hand cranks ones. I run it through each number several times and usually stop on #4 for the weight of fettucini we like. Your pasta is cut so next you hang it on the rack to dry. I had 3 separate drying racks set up in the kitchen on this day. Whew! I don't totally dry it, but enough that it's not sticky any longer. Then I store in zip lock bags in the freezer. **When you cook fresh pasta you cook it less than boxed store bought.

The meal I've named Christmas Pasta is the homemade spinach fettucini topped with red and yellow peppers, purple onion, and small pieces of ham. The veggies and ham are warmed quickly in the microwave (3-4 minutes) with a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with a light Alfredo sauce and fresh ground pepper. Pretty and yummy!

Don't forget a nice bottle of wine and bread. No need really for a salad, got your veggies right with your pasta.

Taking Stock

I pushed hard towards the end of year to turn lots of UFO (unfinished objects) into FO (finished objects). I didn't get them all done, but improved the situation 10 fold.

Taking a counting here:
Need to make the mate for this mitten which is crocheted and would be nice and warm. I really disliked doing this pattern, I remember that, which is no doubt why I tossed it aside. Though I didn't remember it, way down at the bottom of my basket. The basket I keep by my chair. Now to make matters worse, I don't have the hook I used with it, so wonder what size I used? And I need to find the pattern. Normally...I'm better organized and have the pattern and hook or knitting needles with the unfinished object (UFO)

Finish my scarf (which I didn't get done for New Years like I planned), but fingers crossed I'll get it done by the wkend. This is the 2 different sized needles, Condo Stitch I've blogged about in the previous post.

Finish Candy Corn (which is the longest running unfinished project I've ever had). Seriously I found where I had blogged about this in the starting stages way back in June of 2008. It would be constantly pushed aside when I was working on other things. It's crocheted, a big granny, but piecemeal and irregular in design as you can see. I like funky things.
Finish The Circle's in a square ghan for a co-worker. I love the look, but this isn't an easy carry along and do elsewhere type project. So...I need to work on it here at the house. I have brought the bag, pattern and yarn being used for this up from my storage shelves....hint hint.

Yummy Baby Alpaca, Chunky and Fabulous

This beautiful luscious red scarf is made with 2 different sizes of knitting needles, 10 and 17. This stitch is called Condo stitch and is straight garter stitch knitted alternatively with the 2 different sizes.

You can see how lacy the stitch can be in this photo where the scarf was held up next to a light in order to see through it. The suggestion is to use the size needle suggested on the yarn wrapper for your small needle and then go as big as you like, depending on how open you want the lace to be. I like this 7 size difference. My daughter made this fabulously soft scarf for her school secretary as a special gift to thank her for all the extra things she's done. The yarn is Cascade yarns, Baby Alpaca Chunky ( a bit pricey but this is a special gift).

Below is my start using the same technique but with size 8 and 15 needles and some rather nice high end wool. I say high end, because I rarely purchase fiber of this nature; but am treating myself. I've not made myself a scarf in about 5 years and those I have are looking pretty pathetic. I love the fun colors in this yarn. Crystal Palace Taos 100% wool. Daughter needed to take needles with her so I'll knit this off onto my round Denise needles and attach a different size to each end.

Happy New Year

The photo is of wine and flowers, not champagne as I've not yet photographed a bottle of bubbly though I'm sure we will have some.

New Years is a time of reflection, out with the old and in with the new. Some make goals, some make resolutions, some party, some stay in, some have a special meal. What's your New Years Tradition? Generally we go out for a nice meal, have champagne at home afterwards and watch the ball drop. After we kiss for New Years, we call family. Then go to bed.

This New Years will be the first without Mom, as she passed in April. I'm writing this early, scheduling it to publish so am unsure if we're staying in or going out this year.

I'm hopeful the year 2010 will be a better year than 2009 was. It was a long and difficult year for us. My Mother was very ill for an extended period of time, in and out of nursing facilities, multiple surgeries, multiple hospital stays before she mercifully passed. My younger brother had surgery and has not yet recovered. My daughter moved from Baltimore to St. Louis (some of which still isn't resolved); and switched jobs. Hubby and I both had a less healthy year than normal. All in all, it's been a stressfilled year.

I am pleased with the progress The Bridge and Beyond has had with donations and membership and hope that continues to grow. Sadly, the need has grown.

I learned how to do a few new things here in the blog world, though I hope to learn a few more in the coming year. I started this blog way back in August of 2005, though I've deleted the older posts to minimize bandwidth. My Alexa ranking is 2,159,176, hope that goes down in the coming year (lower is better) while my Google page rank is currently 2 perhaps that will improve and go up (higher is better). I've enjoyed getting to know some new bloggers and hope that also continues.

I'm trying hard to improve my knitting skill and would like to learn to knit socks in the year 2010.

Happy New Year to all, may you be happy, healthy, and safe in the year ahead.