29 for the 2nd time!!!

Where have I been? You might have thought you lost me or maybe you thought I was at the beach all day. I really should be at the beach all day! Funny how that is that when you can be at the beach you aren't really at the beach. Don't get me wrong...I'll take every opportunity to take a deep breath of that wonderful ocean air that makes the cost of living skyrocket here every day. I just don't get around to it much lately, which brings me back to the original question: Am I hiding with Waldo?

No, the truth is somebody just turned '30' recently and it wasn't Waldo!!! I'd like to say it was my 2nd 29th birthday and where else to party but in Las Vegas, am I right? Yeah I pretty much traveled from Dallas, TX to Las Vegas and then to Fresno, CA but more about that later.

Being sick in Vegas during my 30th (cough!) birthday party did to me what a missed episode of 'The Office' does. It bums me out. It's like being in Disneyland but not able to see Mickey.... I made it through and had fun. It was great to celebrate with the family and a couple of friends. I received this absolutely gorgeous mini birthday/wedding cake from Jean Philippe Patissserie in Las Vegas.


How pretty is this? Yeah, you want my friends? I don't blame you.. :)) So the question is, what to do now? Some people might say: "Oh don't eat it, too good to be eaten, too pretty to be eaten, bad Feng Shui to eat it"
Other's might say: "Don't save the great stuff for too long, make every day count, don't let the chocolate go bad, how can you not eat this?"

I'd love to hear whether you want me to eat it and let you know how it was or whether you want me to keep it as a keepsake and memory. Feel free to add a comment with your thoughts.....

Homemade Sweet Potato Ravioli

After I had cleaned my kitchen spotless on Friday I came up with the great idea of making home-made ravioli on Saturday. I knew it would mess with my kitchen, but I had no idea. I am still trying to get rid of flour all over the place. :)) It's a shame that my love for cooking comes with piles and piles of dishes that I have to fight for days, especially when I'm cooking back to back twice a day. It can be overwhelming at times, especially with a dishwasher that is barely functioning. I saw this tasty looking recipe for Sweet Potato Ravioli the other day and was really eager to try it.



I have made raviolis from scratch only once before and so it's still quiet a task for me and I'm sure it's taking me much longer still than it should. The dough consists only of flour and hot water and next time I'll try it with a different ravioli dough recipe in order to enhance the dough itself a little bit. I had a hard time to use this kind of dough with my KitchenAid Pasta Attachment and it might just have been something I have done wrong, but I want to confirm this.

The filling and sauce is really easy to make. If you didn't have too much practice with making your own ravioli it might take you a while. For me it took really long but it turns out very 'gourmet!'

I will use a little less of the herbs next time and change up the dough but it's a real treat. The sweet potato taste combined with the nutty butter flavor works very well and cheese makes everything better, especially Parmesan. :)

Have you made your own raviolis from scratch yet? Any good recipes to share with me? Now let me go back to my kitchen and dust off all the flour.....