Making Ravioli from Scratch

I know, I know... Harry and Mer, you guys are just too wild; making homemade ravioli on New Year's Eve. What can I say, we live on the wild side.

So, Harry got me a ravioli maker for Christmas and tonight we decided to test it out by making some cheese ravioli. Here's how we did it...

Step One: Pour some wine (cooking is so much more fun when you can drink).

Step Two: Make the dough and roll it into thin strips. (Yes Harry did help with this part, but I ended up doing most of the rolling. It was a pain because the dough is really tough.)

Step Three: Place the rolled out dough on the ravioli maker mold and fill with cheese.

Step Four: Cover the mold with another sheet of rolled dough.

Step Five: Roll a rolling pin over the ravioli mold containing the dough and the cheese. (The mold acts as a cookie cutter that pinches the edges of the ravioli together and cuts them apart.) Harry really liked using the teeny tiny roller, he said it made him feel like a giant.

Step Six: Shake the ravioli out of the mold.

Step Seven: Celebrate freedom from the mold with your ravioli!

Step Eight: Boil your ravioli for 10 minutes. You should probably go ahead and make your sauce now too; otherwise your ravioli will be a little dry. Delicious, but dry. Oh, and check out my new stainless steel pots. Fancy, huh? (Also, see if you can spot the product placements.)

Step Nine: Plate and enjoy!

Our ravioli was YUMMY! You can really taste the difference between homemade/fresh pasta, and store bought/frozen pasta. We ended up making 58 ravioli and freezing 36 of them (some ravioli were lost in the transfer to the freezer, they will be missed).

Poor Phoebe was too excited about the ravioli and the New Year, she just passed out. Oh well, we will celebrate without her!

Happy New Year Everybody!!

WE ARE...

A lynch mob? Rioters upset about the McRib only being available for "a limited time"? Nope. Sorry...we were looking for "Marshall". Marshall.

Meredith and I saw We Are Marshall this evening and were quite impressed. While rather emotionally draining (I admit, my eyes welled up several times during the movie), it does a great job of retelling the tragic story. While in some respects it was indifferent from many other sports movies (the team overcomes adversity and wins the big game), the fact that it is a true story sets it apart from the crowd. They even managed to expose the little known tidbit that Bobby Bowden does in fact have a soul. We give this movie 4 thumbs up.

I do have one side note though: If I'm ever waiting to board a plane and I notice Matthew Fox is on the same flight, I'll take the later flight and free voucher in a heartbeat. He narrowly escapes a fiery plane crash in this movie, and on LOST he ends up as a castaway on a tropical island full of unanswered questions and "the others". I'm sure this scenario is bound to occur with my frequent travel, so I think it's good that I've developed an action plan.

Oh, and Saddam has been hanged. Please keep your celebratory gunfire to a minimum.

Tigers Flushed Down at the Music City Bowl

What happened? Kentucky hasn't been to a bowl game in how long!?!?!?! 8 years!!!!! COME ON! I'd like to blame this all on that joke of a quarterback, Will Proctor, but it actually wasn't all his fault (hard to believe since that nancy boy is terrified of getting touched). Could it be that Duane Coleman was too busy smoking the marijuana and forgot that Clemson actually did get a bowl bid? We really enjoyed the part of the game when Clemson was compared to Ohio State, I guess we were the only 2 teams in the nation with both our offense and our defense in the top 15. That's the similarity; the difference, Ohio State doesn't suck.

Well, congratulations Kentucky. You earned your spot at at the Music City Bowl.

Happy Kwanzaa!

Ok, so this post doesn't have to do with Kwanzaa, but today is the first day of kwanzaa (Phoebe is all excited, she won't shut up about it). This post will actually deal with images from our Christmas celebration.

On Friday, Harry and I went over to visit Martha, Edward, and Madison. Madison was really excited because she got to open even more presents early.


Of all the things that Harry and I got Madison, she seemed to enjoy these alphabet magnets the most. Here you see her filling up the tube the magnets came in and shaking them all out. Edward seems to really enjoy this.

Here you see Madison opening "Care Bear Tub Island". She has a unique present opening method. She takes off tiny pieces of wrapping paper and hands them to somebody. If you look to the left you see Martha's hand about to take the teeny piece of paper from Madison.

Madison really liked "Care Bear Tub Island". As you can guess it is a tub toy. The island has an umbrella, a spinning wheel, and a slide for the Care Bears to slide down. On Saturday (Madison's first day bathing with "Tub Island") she ran out into the living room (where Edward and I were sitting) naked, dripping wet, holding "Tub Island", and grinning. A true test that she liked the gift.

Here you see Harry unwrapping gifts just like Madison (handing the tiny piece of wrapping paper to me on Christmas morning). As you can tell by Harry's face he still wasn't feeling all that well.

These are my Christmas gifts from Karen, my Huffman family secret santa. A really nice Columbia fleece, a t-shirt that says "Smooth Like Butter" (cause I am), a picture of Harry and I (with Karen peeking around a tree in the background), and a Hershey Kiss fondue pot.

THANK YOU KAREN!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!


Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Luke 2:14
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Check out "Operation Christmas for Clay" on Karen's Blog.

Blogging tastes better with Cool Whip!

We've had some complaints about our lack of updating. Why not make up with it with 2 posts in 1 day? A 17mp record! (Yes, I realize the abbreviation is stupid...but if you keep complaining, we will go on hiatus again.) I thought since I've never posted a video before, I might as well give it a shot.

The Best and Worst of VB

Harry and I have compiled a list of the best and worst Christmas decorations in our neighborhood. We have noticed that MANY of our neighbors have really gone overboard with their decorations. Here are the best, and the worst, that Victoria Bay has to offer...

First off, here is our house... not the most elaborate, but we feel like it conveys the Christmas spirit. Harry's car in the drive helps, he has reindeer antlers on the front of the Passat.


Next, we feel this house has tastefully decorated using icicle lights, lights on the railing, and lights in the bushes.


We also enjoy this house which, again, has not gone too far.


Now, as you have probably noticed, we don't go for the really overboard decorations. We don't have any blow-up creatures, nothing moves or blinks, and we do not have a landing strip on our front lawn for Santa Claus. However, the people who own the following houses LOVE to really go wild with the decorations.

At this house, please notice the 10 foot polar bear wearing a sweater and cap sitting on the roof. You can't really see from the picture, but he is sitting on a teeny tiny stool. Why, because everybody knows that at Christmas time polar bears lumber south to sit on your roof.


Ummm, hello multi-colored lights thrown everywhere.


Yikes, what's the theme?? I think it might be "half off at Big Lot's".


This has been one of our favorites for the past 3 years. We just learned this year, via flier stuck in our newspaper box, that this next house is dedicated to the fight against breast cancer (I guess the red streams of lights are actually pink, I just don't see it). But hey mom, this P.O.S. is for you! (and yes, that is a snowflake bleeding the red, errr... pink, streams from the roof)


This one is fabulous because the back of their house is visible from our house. When we step out on our front porch we can see the reindeer and the tree that is light, up on the roof. I think that the picture speaks for itself.


And last but absolutely NOT LEAST, these people have really rocked out with the Christmas spirit. I don't really know what to say other than yes... those ARE 2 blinking landing strips of lights with a sign that reads, "Santa, Land Here!".


Oh yes... the side view, where the "Santa Land Here!" sign is visible on the left side.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A confession...

A year ago, I never would have imagined saying this, but I now like John Mayer. There, I said it. I know we made fun of Karen for posting one of his songs on her blog a while back, but after hearing that song a few days afterwards, I realized it is actually a good song. And there are several other good songs on his latest album (I'm particularly fond of "Gravity" and the "Bold As Love" cover). Please note that this does not mean that I forgive him for any of his work before Continuum, but it's a step in the right direction.



- Harry (I had to specify, as Mer has yet to turn the corner on the subject)

Dad -1 / Cancer - 0

Today Dad had his surgery to remove his prostate. Everything seems to have gone really well. The surgeon said that there doesn't seem to be any nerve damage or any muscle damage, which is really positive; and the cancer doesn't seem to have spread (we won't know for sure until the pathology report comes back). He didn't lose much blood during the surgery so he didn't need a transfusion, but as of a 6:00 conversation with my Mom, he was bleeding some internally and might need a transfusion later tonight. My Dad, always displaying a great sense of humor, told me that he didn't realize that he was supposed to be working of stopping the bleeding, so he was going to get right on that. He predicted that no transfusion would be needed. I hope he's right. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Dad vs. Cancer

Tomorrow Dad will have his surgery to remove his prostate and begin his fight with cancer. Cancer should know not to mess with this family... 5 years ago Mom kicked cancer's a** and tomorrow Dad is going to do the same. His surgery will take place a Duke medical center. I will not be going to work so I can be with him, Mom, and Martha after the surgery. I'm nervous for him, but I know he's going to be fine. Please keep him in your prayers. I will post an update on his status hopefully tomorrow.

The following picture represents what cancer will look like tomorrow after Dad is done with it.

More Snow for Afghanistan

Snow continues to fall on Clay's base in Afghanistan. As of Clay's last email there is 3 feet of snow on the ground! Clay also sent another hilarious picture; here you see Clay in the center of the picture surrounded by the ANA (Afghani troops). Clay is the one holding the AK47 high in the air and smiling... very typical Clay. I miss snow and I miss Clay, wish they both were here! :-)


PS... click on the picture to see a larger view.

Clay's Winter in Afghanistan

Winter has begun in the mountains of Afghanistan and Clay, being the a sledding expert, took full advantage of a foot of snow. Here you see Clay flying down the mountain on a medic back board (no sleds in Afghanistan I guess) towards a ramp. Clay loves to build sledding ramps; however, a lot of times they don't really work out that well. Clay can usually get one "jump" out of his ramps, and then he just ends up falling off the ramps. We are all just happy to see Clay having some fun during his deployment.

The Buckeyes did it, now it's the TIGERS turn!

Last weekend Harry and I held an Ohio State vs. Michigan party. We had a lot of guests, 12 to be exact, a lot of fun... and best of all, the Buckeyes won! Take that Michigan! Tomorrow, the Clemson Tigers will do battle with our biggest rival... the gamecocks (yuck). Harry and I can't wait to watch the Tigers smack the stuffing out of the gamecocks.

Harry's cousin, Russ, cheering on the Buckeyes... he's not even from Ohio!

My friends Megan and Joanne sit with Harry before the game... Megan's dad went to OSU and Joanne graduated from Ohio State.

Tomorrow, noon, remember to cheer on the TIGERS... Harry and I will be doing it here!

Blue Man Group

On Friday Harry, his cousin Russ, and I went to see Blue Man Group at the Charlotte Bobcat Arena. I really didn't know that much about Blue Man Group, I really had only seen them in commercials and of course Tobias on Arrested Development wanted to be a part of the group.

We sat all the way at the top of the arena, literally, we were in the last row. However, our seats were right in the center of the arena and we could see everything. I will have to say that it was GREAT performance. The theme of the event was how to be a superstar and Fred Armisen (from Saturday Night Live) was playing the roll of Ron Popeil's (inventor of the Showtime Rotisserie) brother selling a "How to Be A Superstar" DVD and the Blue Man Group was following instructions of the DVD. I would recommend Blue Man Group to anybody, they were great!

Shopping With the Girls

Before I start, this is a Meredith post. Harry thinks this topic is too girly so I want to begin by saying this was written by me.

Last weekend I went shopping with my friends Megan and Joanne. We went to lunch at Thai Lanna (yummy) and then headed to Concord Mills for some outlet shopping. One thing I love to do while shopping is try on hideous clothes. Last weekend was no disappointment. Check out the fugly clothes and shoes we found.

We started at TJ Maxx where I found this little number. The shirt (and I use the term shirt loosely) only cost $5.00. What a bargain for half a shirt, or maybe it's only a quarter of a shirt since the back is see-through.

Next we were off to Burlington Coat Factory, because they are more than great coats, to try on shoes.

Megan tried on the camouflage wedges and I tried on the leopard print wedges. Can you believe they make shoes this ugly? Don't worry Martha and Karen, I did get you both the camo wedges.

Next Joanne tried on the red satin cabaret inspired heals in an attempt to bring sexy back. I think it worked.

Megan found this treasure, a green snake skin leather sling back with netting (you know, to keep your feet cool). How great! Stylish and practical!

Last, but certainly not least, I found these fabulous gold clogs. I'd give them a gold medal for style, but they are so gold do I really need to?

Fight Tigers!

No seriously, fight! Last weekend Martha, Ed, Harry, and I headed to Clemson to watch the Tigers play. This is the second time this year that Harry and I have been to a Clemson game, but this was Martha and Ed's first in a long time. In fact, they hadn't been back to Clemson in about 3 years. Madison didn't get to make the trip, but of course L.C. did.

We were really worried about the traffic since it was a 12:00 game, but between the 4 of us we knew enough short-cuts and the best places to park that we got their with relatively little hassle. We parked in front of (what Harry called) the photography staple, the bridge in front of the Strom Thurman Center.


Here are Martha and Ed in front of the bridge.


Harry and I enjoying some tailgating.

One thing we noticed this year that we hadn't seen previously at Clemson games were crazy religious people. There were a lot of signs about the Devil coming, the end of days, and even telling us not to go to church but to worship Jesus (????).



And here... the most exciting 15 seconds in college football!


RUNNING DOWN THE HILL!

As you can see, our seats were pretty far up, but they were actually pretty good. We could see all of the action and we got just enough sun to keep us warm. The only problem at the game was apparently row R in our section was the BEST row in Death Valley because we were crammed in there! Some dumb witch decided that our row was better than the row in front of us with all the extra room. She was also TONS of fun yelling sweet comments at the players, coaches and refs. Despite our fun friend, we had a really great time.


Tiger Band spells out Clemson.

After the game we went downtown for some shopping and stopped in at Keith Street for some dinner (yummy!). Oh how we miss Clemson.

On the way back to the car we stopped by to take a beautiful picture of Tillman hall at sunset.



And Edward visited with some of the local wildlife. (Edward is the one on the right, an opossum is on the left.)

Thompson Family Reunion

This weekend Harry and I attended the annual Thompson Family Reunion. The reunion began on Friday. Many family members took the day off work and met for lunch. Harry and I were unable to take the time off work so we joined everybody else Friday evening. It was a cool, rainy evening but that didn't stop us from having fun!


Once we arrived we sat down to have some "Travelers Stew". Pictured above (from left to right) are Mama, Dale and Edwina Grant, Mom, Laura, and Harry.

The "Travelers Stew" has always been difficult for this yankee to describe to others.



Here is a picture of the stew. Dad cooks the stew each year outside in a big black pot and stirs it with a stick. It is delicious!

On Saturday the Thompson men arrived at the reunion site early to start a fire and begin cooking the pigs.





Here, the cooked pigs are being cleaned and chopped. On the left Sam, Dave, and Andy are cleaning the meat off the bone (Russ, in the green shirt, is doing nothing to help.) On the right Bob and Harry are chopping the meat.


Here is a better picture of Bob, Russ (who finally jumped in to help), and Harry chopping the pork.


While the meat was being chopped, Dad, Janice, and Betsy prepare cabbage for the homemade slaw.


During the food prep Mom got the van stuck in the mud so Harry and Russ left to help push her out. At this point Janice and Elaine jumped in to help out.

Harry and I both enjoyed the BBQ, slaw, and desserts Saturday night, despite the fact that we both got chemical burns in our mouth from the BBQ sauce (made by Uncle John)!