Homemade Raviolis .....

With all the crazy things going on in my life, I have to sometimes just slow down and breathe, which for those that know me, I don't do very often.  Just eating lately is something I have to remind myself to do.  I had some sheets of pasta left over from the spring rolls from the catering job and wanted to use them some other way.  I made these huge raviolis with a filling inspired by the puttanesca I made a few weeks back.  To ricotta cheese I added finely chopped oil cured black olives, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, capers and a small squirt of hot sauce.  I added a handful of parmesan and mixed it up.

A glob in the center of the pasta sheet...

then wet all the edges, about 1/2 inch...

fold over and seal the edges while pushing any air inside out.

Now I have a nice container of frozen ravioli for when my house guest arrives.

However, I did need to cook and try them to make sure they were okay to serve to my guest.  Rather than use a deep pot I thought they would be easier to work with in the shallow pan, fresh pasta tends to be very delicate.  I cooked them for a few minutes in the water and then drained them and cooked them for a few more minutes in sauce.

They are good enough to serve to my guest, however these three were two meals for me...need to remember how filling they are and not cook so much next time.

More than I can chew.....

I think I have finally bitten off more than I can chew.  I have so many projects going on at once and the way I am dealing with it is the same way I clean my house.  My method is complete and utter insanity .... but somehow it works for me.  When I clean lets say I start with the vacuuming and half way through I notice that there is a smudge on the woodwork in the living room.  So stop the vacuum and go get a rag and some cleaner and then start looking for other smudges on the woodwork.  Now I'm in the dinning room with the rag and cleaner and see a cobweb in the corner of the ceiling oppppps get out the step latter and so on.  3 hours later I am back in the living room with the vacuum.   This crazy method has spilled over into all other areas of my life....and now this is how I am handling my projects.  Mostly because of the weather .... it's been raining so often that I can't seem to get the damn switchbox painted.....I worked on it for an hour this afternoon.....until the sky threatened to open again.  Then I had to run home and throw a tarp over what will be my biggest, mother of all challenges, of my 48 years......(in my head there is Darth Vader music playing)

This is an antique sofa that belonged to the grandmother of Erika and Carl.  Joyce passed away a few months back and it has been a very difficult time for them.  Every time I visited Joyce I would comment on how much I loved this sofa, Joyce couldn't understand that because to her it was just "that old thing".   So when the family was cleaning out the house I offered to buy it from them and they gave it to me.   The inside will have to be pretty much rebuilt and springs restrung and it will cost a pretty penny for the new material and snow is coming folks....so I need to get it done.....my mother taught me how to upholster years ago....you remove one piece at a time, take notes and use the old pieces as patterns for the new ones and lots and lots of little tacks. I have done other pieces but nothing this large.

I did my dinning room chairs

 This old chair that was my grandmothers had to be redone because my cat like to scratch the old fabric...

 Turns out she likes the new fabric just as well....

 I did this little overstuffed chair it's beside my bed and for some reason the cat doesn't care for it...

 Oh look some sort of smudge on the wall gonna get the rag and cleaner and go get it....

 and I made these curtains to match the chair.....

These things were all easy compared to a sofa....but my mom has done a sofa ...so I can do a sofa.  I know, I know.... if your mother jumped off a bridge would you?.....

So now there is another thing under a tarp in my back yard.....somebody really needs to stop me before I hurt myself......

One of those days......

Did you ever have one of those days that everything seems to go wrong.  Today was one of those days.  I should have gotten up at 7:00 a.m. when I woke up and gone and painted on the switchbox.....but I didn't, I lounged around and did nothing.  The house needs to be cleaned ...... but I was lounging, so I didn't clean either.  I finally took a shower and called Erika and said let's have that meeting. We needed to meet to talk about a catering job she got for me in November. We like any excuse to go to a restaurant and be food bloggers. Before we went to lunch we stopped by to see my sister who was working on the Harvest Moon Festival in town.

 Members of the Zonta Club of Malden

 Erika informs me that this is a popular food truck

 Erika's very cool jacket

We did our good deed for the day ..... so now it was time for our reward!  I have had this gift card to Artichokes for several years and Erika has always wanted to try it ... so today was the day!

Or so we thought....

Not open for lunch....

That's OK I have another gift card to O'Sullivan's in Somerville....known for their amazing gourmet burgers.....I got on the wrong highway and headed in the wrong direction....finally got on the right highway and headed in the right direction and the car started making a funny noise so we got off the highway and the noise stopped.....so we took back roads to Somerville......Finally find the right street but it's blocked off with detour signs everywhere......Apparently today is the day every city in the greater Boston area decided to have Harvest festivals.  For a few very scary moments when Erika and I decided to abandon ship and screw O'Sullivan's we headed up a side street with cars parked on both sides and coming at the car in front of us was a line of cars...not two lanes just one...and there were twenty cars behind us.... pure unadulterated gridlock....the old me would have started searching for those little pills I keep in my purse that the doctor gave me for panic attacks.....we finally escaped Somerville and headed towards home......I was hungry at noon because I only ate maybe 5 baby carrots for breakfast (I know, I know carrots aren't on a breakfast menu) and now it was around 3 p.m.  with nothing left to do we settled on Bertucci cause it was there.  Stood there waiting for a table for what seemed like an hour (cause I'm hungry) finally get seated by a woman who can only be described as Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein "walk this way"....... ahhhhhhh finally seated....food ordered....sipping on my ice tea....the waiter finally says and "who had the chicken piccata" and I say "that would be me" and as he sets the plate down he knocks my ice tea into my lap.... to which I responded with the sound you make when the ice cold sea connects with your privates.....and then I started laughing and could not stop.... the poor waiter was horrified....I think he may have thought I was crying......once I was ehem cleaned up  and was able to sit back down I asked Erika (who was still laughing) if the entire restaurant was watching me during this and her response was that she didn't know cause she was too busy watching me and laughing at me....it's the sound I know I made, and the volume, that had me concerned....

The chicken picatta was not good ....and I make really good chicken picatta ..... so that pissed me off ...but the ice cold beverage on the private, not one bit....it was like the icing on the cake that was our day...well that and the fact that "the moves like jaggar" came on the radio every 5 minutes.... at first Erika just rolled her eyes and laughed at me but by the end of the day her hands were up and the girl was gyrating!  Even though this was "one of those days" I didn't mind it....it was a great day!

The floor and my ice tea.....

Boston.....

I live in a town located 5 mile north of Boston.  Bostonians are a rare breed.  We are fiercely loyal to our sports teams....(even those of us that don't exactly understand the sport) and yes we talk funny (we know it get over it) and we are notoriously bad driver.  I don't go into the city often which is a shame because there is so much to see and do...Last night I was invited to dinner with my sister and her friends Andy, Dean and Susan.  Lisa works in Boston and drives to work everyday (what she pays for parking is close to my salary) so she drove.  

This is the famous South Station ...... home of the most romantic scene every played out in my life.  I felt like I was in a movie......it was 23 years ago.....very few people know this story and it's going to have to stay that way....to protect the innocent........

The restaurant we met at was in South Boston a little Mexican hole in the wall. 

I had the best time with this group.  My sister has great taste in friends, I felt as if I had known them my whole life.  Dean had me a hello...... the guy is like a life coach.... I walked out of there feeling better about myself than when I walked in.

Recently my friend (she hates it when I call her that .....because we are family she says) Katie Delaney (Joe's cousin) told me I should never look at my 20 years with Joe as bad in any capacity, just because he and I didn't work out. I have sooooo many wonderful relationship that were created through those years and if I hadn't married him I wouldn't have Katie in my life today.  On the flip side if Joe and I were still together I never would have gone out to dinner last night and made new friends.  So I guess the lesson in all of this is when life hands you lemons make lemon sorbet.....and also take any opportunity to meet new people and have new experiences.  Hell .... maybe I'll be back at South Station someday............     

I did it.........

I did it......have been stressing about it for a few months now.......stressing but also so excited!  My friends Liz and David Hart hired me to cater a fund raising event for them.  Liz is the Founder and Executive Director of Tailored For Success, Inc. http://tailoredforsuccess.org/ They have both been so wonderful to me, and the confidence they have in me is so amazing.  We had a little tasting party at my house a while back and hammer out the menu.  I hired my little assistant (my pretend daughter) Erika to help me out.  I do believe she never wants to see a skewer or a spring roll again in her life.  We couldn't get in until 11:30 and the function began at 1:30.... that's not a lot of time when you have to cook 5 billion spring rolls, and 4 million sausage cups...in the end 12 sausage cups remained and not 1 damn spring roll....Things seemed to be going along fine when someone poked their head in the kitchen and said "is the food going to come out soon?"  I said "David told me nothing was to go out until exactly 1:30."  "It's quarter of 2 dear" was her response.... Ooooops..... It went out pretty fast.

Erika kept calling me Sandra Lee because I was obsessed with the table design and the centerpiece.

 Can't take any credit for the card...David told me to make it ....my sister Lisa told what to write and my good friend Katie Delaney did the editing....I printed them and cut them out ....

 Sausage and cheese cups (heart attack...but very popular)   

 pate a choux (like a tiny popover with parmesan and chives)   

 Erika was a life saver .... she kept making me repeat these annoying little thing like...."I will not burn the spring rolls"  ... "I can do this" and my response would be things like "shut the hell up and get back to work."

She really did so much for me and I could not have done it without her.

 Skewers with prosciutto, artichoke heart, mozzarella, tomato, basil and balsamic drizzle 

 I think the moment when I finally thought okay this is a success is when I heard this older lady say

"I don't know what this purple stuff is but it's delicious."  That's beet hummus and it's very tasty...

 White bean dip with basil, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini.

 5 billion vegetable spring rolls and not 1 left...

These are my life savers.... 

My friends Katie, David (the Boss) and Erika

Katie came to the fund raiser as a guest and worked the entire time .... love her!

 

So it's over ...and now it's tucked under my belt with bunch of other things I never thought I could do.... My waist keeps shrinking but this belt keeps getting bigger.....I'm starting to think there is nothing I can't do.....and that my friends may be a very dangerous way to think.....but this was an empowering day for me and I'm excited about the future.... and that, I'm sad to say, is a feeling the old Sharon never felt.... move over Mary Tyler Moore I'm throwing my hat up in the air......