Some finely chopped onions, and a little black-pepper added tot he tomato also gives it a nice taste to compliment the pasta.

I’ve just finished writing about some more tasty bites, most are quick-n-easy adn can be done in 15 minutes. Please check it out, and comment on what you think. Thanks, I appreciate it.

http://drcorner.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/this-labor-day-barbecue-like-a-rockstar/

Unfortunately, like several people I know, my tomatoes plants have been lousy this year.I’ve had very few of them, most of them have been very small and they only ripen one at a time. Broken hearted is not an exaggeration.

I’ve always liked to use this word after I learned the great Emily Dickinson poem in junior high (one of the few poems I know by heart):

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

mix chunks of fresh tomatoes with a couple of chopped garlic cloves, lots of minced fresh Italian parsley, quartered artichoke hearts (I usually use canned), a dash or two of cayenne pepper with a bit of freshly grated nutmeg. Mix lightly together and set aside while cooking pasta noodles. I use cappellini when looking for a quick summer meal.
Serve with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.

Before we had kids, my wife and I would make a lot of homemade pasta. I’d make the sauce, and she’d make the pasta. It actually took us less time to get the food on the table than with dried pasta, because she could have the pasta ready before the water came to a boil and it only took a couple of minutes to cook. Plus, we used a food processor to start it and we have a motor that connects to our old Atlas crank machine. It’s very helpful.

With 4 kids, however, we don’t make fresh pasta nearly as often as we used to. Making enough for 2 is a piece of cake. Making enough for 6, including 2 teenagers, is a fair amount of work.

1. There’s probably nothing better you can do in the kitchen with kids. My 6yo and 4yo love it!

2. I strongly recommend the kitchen aid pasta maker. Not the extrusion one, but the rollers which fit on the front of the mixture. It takes care of the turning the crank part for you and speeds the whole process dramatically.

3. I kept my hand rolling pasta machine for cutting. I prefer hand cut, but the kids get a real kick out of the crank-n-cut method.