When I Grow Up I'm Gonna....

When I grow up, I'm gonna be? What? This yummy, super soft baby alpaca yarn is waiting to be something. My daughter selected this when we had a yarn shopping day. She loves green and purple. Most of her clothes are green and purple. Her room where she's living will be green and purple (still hasn't technically moved in).

This yarn is too pricey to buy much of it, so one skein of each limits what it came become. She asked for a scarf and while she knits herself; she wanted something beyond her current knitting skills. So, it's not really a question of what it will become; but the details of what type of scarf. So, when you shop for yarn, do you know ahead what you're going to make? Or do you buy colors, textures you like and figure it out later?

She asked for stripes, so currently I'm thinking about whether or not I want each color to have it's own texture, or maybe only one color have a pattern/texture with stitches in contrast to a plain 2nd color....Thoughts? I don't think I want both stripes be the same stitch?

Kindness, something we're taught

It's been awhile since I've posted a memory of Mom. Guess I'm only about half way into the alphabet at letter K. Kindness is something I remember Mom talking alot about. She'd often say put yourself in their shoes, treat them as you want them to treat you, But for the grace of God go I. I must admit when real young I didn't understand the last quote; but remembered her saying it anyway.

I remember her always saying to be kind, not to pick on people, not to say mean things, and to stand up for the underdog. When I was real young, I had a friend with a brace on her leg from polio. I remember her being a whiz with puzzles, something I wasn't good at at all. Kids were pretty mean to her, guess they didn't know any better. I also remember how excited I was when my friend got the brace off her leg and for the first time we were able to go down the slide together. I probably wouldn't have that fond memory if it weren't for Mom, teaching me how to be kind.

I had a little boy in my class named Frankie who had seizures in class, even the teacher wasn't kind to him. One day when an incident happened and I was upset about it, my mother showed me again how kindness pays off. She went to school and explained to the teacher what was going on with little Frankie. The teacher had actually punished him for not paying attention. Mom knew from my description about what happened that he had seizures, it wasn't that he wasn't paying attention. After that, things went better for little Frankie.

Thanks Mom for those important life lessons, and the memories they've given me.

The picture is of hubby, my young daughter and I years ago. Just a picture I thought I'd share.

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.