Skype and play dates

Being a parent and grandparent is wonderful - the only regret is that we don't have everyone living closer.  Today we were able to Skype with Nathan, Abby and Elise (Sarah and Chris too!)  What a blessing technology is - I know it isn't the same as being together in person, but we get to see them!

Saturday we picked Miriam up while Simon was napping for a play date.

making cookies with Grandpa

Miriam loves to make cookies - and our course eating dough and a few extra chocolate chips is a must.

YUMM

 Simon and Vanessa arrived at the perfect time - the cookies were just coming out of the oven.

We played with play dough and paints, jumped from the beanbag to the couch and read books-

Simon loves to feed Gus

 Feeding Gus is something Miriam and Simon love to do, but today Simon wanted to watch Gus eat.  He got down on the floor and face to face with Gus as he ate...

Watching Gus eat

Someday we hope to be able to have special play dates with all the grandkids - We love our family

Getting our Italian On

So today we decided to try and make some homemade ravioli.  We brought out the KitchenAid attachment we got years ago but never had used them.  We found a pretty standard pasta recipe and used some semolina flour.  Kneading for 15 minutes tires out the arms!  The roller worked great..

Can't imagine rolling this by hand!

So this is what a ball of dough the size of a baseball looks like when its rolled out

Pretty thin, eh?

Mom made a very tasty filling made with ricotta, parmesan and mascarpone, a few herbs and some salt and pepper.....yummy!!!   We folded the dough over, removed the air and sealed up the ravioli.  We picked up a cutter yesterday and sealed things up nicely...

Getting the air out in important

Finishing up the raviolis

Ravioli with marinara and parmesan, broccoli and fresh, hot artisan bread.  WOW!!

What a plate!

We've been experimenting over the last couple of months with some simple yet very tasty bread recipes.  Mom has perfected the process and the bread is outstanding.

You can practically smell this!

Does this look good or what?

And only 200 calories!!!    Right....

Best part is we have extra made up in the freezer...more dinners to come :)