New Recipe & Craft Project monthly challenge . . . you can do it too??

Greetings all,

Lovely Sheridan from Chalet Girl has this great One Per Month Challenge going on. So happy to be reunited with Sheridan, a fun customer from a few years ago, with a great family & excellent ideas. The simple rules are . . . to try one new recipe & one new craft project from all those cook & craft books you have on your shelves, which you may not have opened, attempted or bothered to use yet!! http://chaletgirl.wordpress.com/

First up, i'm offering this cooking effort from The Silver Spoon cookbook - not the famous Italian one from the 1950s, but their Children's adaptation for beginner cooks like me. Yes, beginner, me, after 12+ years of marriage & 4 children i'm still not a great cook, i'm a have-to type, not a want-to. So with many trips away for my husband this year, he is our enthusiastic chef who cooks with flavour, style & passion . . . i feel with an older audience now (read: judgemental children who let me know they could cook better) i should tighten my apron strings & get my act together. In the words of my grandmother Alice May, "i'd rather be sewing than stirring", but that excuse can't fly any longer. New year, new attitude & an actual inclination to cook. So yes, read between the lines, my husband bought me a children's cook book & i'm not offended in the slightest.

Ravioli, yes, first up, which requires ravioli filling, fresh pasta & a tomato sauce, effectively 3 recipes!!

After living in Darwin (tropics) for 2 postings totalling 6 years, i soon loved making my own dough for pizza & bread, the humidity makes everything rise so easily, very rewarding . . . so my pasta making came naturally & my husband insisted i did a better job by hand, than what he usually does in the KitchenAid. He taught himself & the children how to make pasta in July when i was in Sydney at Magnolia Square, thus all these fancy attachments for the mixer conveniently at my disposal.

300gm Italian 00 pizza flour & 2 happy eggs, that does a family of 6

an egg ring did the trick for good sized ravioli, however, will do smaller ones next time, these were a challenge in cutlery skills for children

simple ravioli filling of ricotta, ham, parsley, mozzarella, egg, parmesan, mixed up

hungry helpers, patting down the edges, we made about 35 from one batch

Can't actually claim the tomato sauce as my culinery work, our eldest did the lot (chopped tomatoes, sugar, garlic, basil & olive oil) don't judge me on my unpolished kettle!!

Won't you join in?? I got applause, yes really, it was delicious & remember, fresh pasta cooks so quickly - i'd actually make it from scratch than hang around waiting for dry pasta to cook, really!! When i say i am not a great cook, i am excellent at preparing, it's when heat is involved that i get distracted & things go wrong. I mean, i cook while doing spelling homework, checking emails, planning my tomorrow & starting on lunch box assembly. No i can't slow down, do you know my workload?? Multi task until i'm 45, when my 4th child leaves school and i'm taking a break!! My husband should have retired by then, oh, imagine . . . early retirement . . .

Anyway, Italian cooking with their simple fresh ingredients are so easy. All the herbs are home grown & any day now our tomatoes will ripen & we'll be cooking with them too. Now what craft project should i attempt . . . Thanks for the inspiration Sheridan, a good little nudge in the right direction. Love Posie