One of the first Christmas presents given to me by my husband was a hand-crank pasta machine. Through the years this pasta machine has given us great joy from the wonderful pasta that comes from using it. Just one thing—although it was a gift to me, I have never used it! Rick makes all the pasta in this house. It just always seemed too fussy for me. But Rick likes to cook and he does it very well. He likes to make gourmet meals [we auctioned one off for United Way one year for $265.00 for four people] and I am usually the sous-chef. In other words, I get the chef a glass of wine, grate cheese, get ingredients out, do the washing up, etc.

We don’t eat much pasta anymore, but once in awhile we get a craving. One of my favorites is ravioli stuffed with ground veal, spinach, and Parmesan cheese. It’s sheer heaven. Just the smell of the veal and spinach mixture cooking on the stove is almost as good as eating it. You can bring up the memory of exactly how it tastes just by taking in the aroma wafting up from the pan. We used to have difficulty finding ground veal in grocery stores in Colorado, but here it’s as common as hamburger.

I’ve made a few small movies of the process with my new baby camera. I am thrilled at the quality!  The first one (imbedded in this entry below) shows making the sheets of pasta. The other two links are short clips showing the stuffing of the raviolis and the final step. I urge you to follow through and watch all three.

Once boiled, the raviolis are then put in a baking dish, topped with a very simple tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese, and baked in the oven just until the sauce bubbles.
Bon Appétit!

I should have posted these photos a long time ago of the Katrina damage I saw while in New Orleans. I kept searching for the right words to put with them, but those words never formed in my head. Instead, I’ve decided to let the images speak for themselves. [Note: I took all the images from inside the van we were touring in, so they are not the greatest shots in the world.]

The 9th ward. Where neighborhoods once were, driveways lead to nowhere.

All houses had this marking that you see on this garage door. The top of the “X” is the date the house was entered and searched, the left-hand side is the task force that searched it, right-hand side was for number of hazards inside, and finally the bottom of the “X” was for victims (either people or animals).

The lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain.

In the area where the 17th street canal levee failed, one house still sits abandoned, while right next door life goes on. Many neighborhoods were like this. Some FEMA trailers were parked in driveways while work was being done on houses, while others sat on the foundation of where a house once stood.

I hope these images have had some impact on you. I saw much more of the devastation that Katrina left behind, and every time I try to put it in words I fail. The slogan “We’re coming back” printed on t-shirts and caps tells us that the people of New Orleans have great courage and heart. But as you can see, some people have nothing to come back to.

I had some people express a further interest in our grilled artichokes. I took some photos of them throughout their journey that I’m posting along with a link to the recipe. These were especially large artichokes, complete with stem. Our produce guy pulled them out when he saw us looking in dismay at the small artichokes they had out that day. Bless that man!

The recipe is here.

Here they are fresh out of the boiling brine (and no, I didn’t stage this photo; the thyme spring and bay leaf just fell there naturally) :

On the grill:

On the plate:

Check out my Bear Diary for a short movie of the bear’s visit from yesterday afternoon. They haven’t been since over a week ago, so I was glad to see them.

We pulled out the barbeque this weekend and grilled up some Scotta Dita and artichokes. Yum! I’m having some fun with the movie feature on my new little camera! Thanks go to husband Rick, computer wizard extraordinaire, for making it all work. Let me know what you think!