Pumpkin ravioli

I made ravioli last week. It's one of those things I had listed in my bucket list, so was taking the kids to the circus apparently, which I can cross of the list too. I had forgotten until I actually went and looked at the list this week. 

I was in love eating this, and if someone had of been standing at the door it would have sounded like I was having an orgasm on the kitchen floor. It was that good, I'm a legend in my own lunchtime  Almost. I didn't have butter, but crisped up some sage in margarine. Sue me. It was bloody delicious!

500 grams pumpkin

2 cloves garlic

olive oil

1 heaped tablespoon of bread crumbs.

Peel and slice pumpkin and place on a baking tray with some olive oil and whole garlic cloves(in skin). Bake until soft.

Pop garlic out of skins and mash together with pumpkin. I just used a fork right there on the tray.

Mix in the breadcrumbs and let cool. 

If there any hard bits(edges of pumpkin) that wont mash properly just discard them or eat them! You should be left with at least a cup of pumpkin filling.

400 grams plain flour

4 eggs

pinch salt

Make a well in the flour and break in the eggs and add salt. Use your fingers to break the eggs and mix in the flour. Combine to make a dough. Knead until smooth and shiny, it will take at least 10 minutes.

Cling wrap it and set aside for 20 minutes.

Use a pasta machine to roll out dough until it is on the thinnest setting, make strips with a width of about 9 cm. 

Place small teaspoons of filling about 10 cm apart. Brush around the filling with some water. 

Place another strip on top sealing around the filling first and then out to the edges.

You could just cut them into squares, but I used a cookie cutter to cut out the ravioli.

I kept the off cut pieces together and wrapped them in glad wrap, rolled them all together and cut them into fettuccine with the machine at the end. If you have any left over pumpkin, knead this with some more flour back into the pasta for a pumpkin tainted pasta. Cooked with a cream sauce would be nice. Happy days :)

The circus

The nuns at primary school had so much valuable wisdom to impart. They were Sisters of St. Joseph, an order started by Saint Mary MacKillop and Father Julian Tenison Woods. I went to St Josephs in Nangwarry for most of my primary school years and Tenison College for all of my secondary education.  So I was imparted with much wisdom, which at the time was oblivious to how valuable it was.

One of the fantastic things they imparted to me, was to show full appreciation and always be the last person applauding. It's good manners, or something like that.  I wish I had of jotted everything down in a notebook, hindsight is a bitch. 

Over the weekend we went to a show, Loritz circus was in town. It took Izzy a while to warm up, as is the usual with things and people she doesn't know well. As I watched her in the second half of the show clapping along with the crowd when something amazing happened, I recalled what the nuns had said. I think it was before an all schools concert or maybe it was that time we bussed it to see Peter and the Wolf, preparing us to be good and grateful audience members. 

What a thrill it must be to be performing under the big top and hear that applause after you've done something quite amazing, and daring. What amazed me, is through all those daring feats, the performers, jugglers and acrobats smiled through it all. I found myself with a dumb smile on my face too, a circus will do that to ya. Some hot bodied acrobats helped, like a smack in the face when they tumbled out in a fanfare at the start of the show. 

It was the same reaction as if the cast of Magic Mike had of burst out onto stage, kinda took my breath away for a second. I quickly got over it, hubby was sitting next to me, I didn't want to seem too enthralled by them. The acrobatics soon took over the show, it was pretty amazing.

The little dynamo, Americus Wilson, famous for being on the Oprah show and New Zealands Got Talent, wowed everyone with her Lyra routine and world famous hula hoop tricks. Izzy was enthralled after already loving to watch Rachaellust on youtube. She's been practicing!

Loritz is only a small circus, but it was worth the money for the hour and three quarter show I thought, if only to watch your kids enjoy the circus.

The circus moved on to Mount Gambier; we saw this big fella and heaps more scattered around town when we went on Friday. There's nothing much on in the holidays, no kindergym, no playgroup. I drove down to go to the indoor play cafe with some other mums and kids.

Bucket List

I have seen a few posts lately about bucket lists. I am sure in the past I have had things I would have loved to achieve, experience or conquer. The only problem is I haven't written them down anywhere, so when I try to think of things, I draw a blank. I thought it may be time(in my 40th year!) to set some things down and get some stuff done!

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1. Make ravioli. Successfully.
2. Volunteer for something. A community project maybe.
3. Go cable hang gliding. I had psyched myself for this one when we visited Tassie. Too bad the day was too windy and it never happened.
4. Get to 60 kilos and stay there! I haven't been below 60 since before I fell pregnant with Izzy. Sixty seems maintainable to me, just have to get there.
5. Take the kids to a cinema on mums and babies day. Sucker for punishment, I know. 
6. Get enough stuff together to one day have a market stall. Just once. Whether it be used stuff or made by me crafty stuff.
7. Take the kids to a circus.
8. Go and holiday on the NSW south coast.
9. Holiday in Tassie, again.
10. Enter something into the local show for judging. A rose out the garden or maybe a photo or two.

Hoping to tick some of these off this year, and adding some more to achieve and strive for.