Heaven help me

The Master Bath project is going to be DIY. Hopefully, it will not be followed by a DIY divorce.

Haha, just kidding, honey!!!

Master Bath - Before Pictures

Homemade Seafood Ravioli

M and I had a delicious dinner on Saturday at Ristorante Fratello located in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose. This Italian restaurant got good reviews on Yelp, is fairly close by, and has many reasonably priced menu options. When we arrived, we were a bit taken aback by the restaurant's location (strip mall) and the very apparent lack of dedicated host/hostess which leads to guests aimlessly milling about just inside the entrance. Fortunately we got past these minor idiosyncrasies and enjoyed a very pleasant meal.

There are several homemade pasta options on the menu, including my entree of choice: Ravioli Mare, a sumptuous blend of crab, shrimp, and sole-stuffed pasta served with a sauce of shrimp, asparagus, and fresh cherry tomatoes.

It occurs to me that pasta (stuffed or otherwise) is not something that I've ever attempted "from scratch" and I am entertaining the idea of trying this out in the coming weeks. Update to follow (I promise).

In the kitchen, terrible things are happening all the time

I just made a recipe called "The Best Brownies." However, I forgot to add the walnuts. I believe I just voided the warranty. Does this mean they are "Second-best Brownies"?

Ahem...

How did 3 years pass without a blog entry? Oh, yeah... he's sitting in the living room right now, watching "Wow Wow Wubbzy"

Since our last episode, the family moved to a new abode. Settling in has been a process, and there is still more fixing up to do, but we are making progress. The house was a foreclosure, and was therefore slightly neglected while empty. We have had the interior and exterior cleaned and painted, cleaned up the yard, and started dreaming about renovations. Priority number 1 is a new master bath; sharing with the small humans is OK for now but I expect it will become tiresome in the short haul. Any suggestions for bathroom "must-haves" are greatly appreciated. All suggestions must be cleared by the management (me) before implementation, however.

Hope to give you all some tasty goodies to ogle in the coming months. Ciao!

Happy Birthday to me

Chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream frosting and bittersweet chocolate.

Cherry Mousse Cupcakes

For this recipe, I made whipped cream for the first time with the KA, and used one of my new large icing tips from Sur La Table. It started with Chockylit's take on Vanilla Cupcakes, iced with what was essentially cherries cooked with a little sugar and water, folded into barely sweetened whipped cream.