Pasta and Rose Sauce Recipe

 I love this recipe Pasta with Rose Sauce is extremely delicious unfortunately (or fortunately) the only way to make it economically is to make it in bulk. Another unfortunate aspect of it is that it is probably not so healthy (doesn't it always work that way?) However it is an extremely tasty recipe and takes under 20 minutes to prepare and is great if you are trying to feed a lot of people on a small budget.

**Sauce is enough for about 3 Lbs of pasta.**

Pasta with Rose Sauce

Ingredients:
- 4 teaspoons Minced Garlic
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 2 Cups Crushed Tomatoes (1
- 5 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 2 Cups Heavy Cream
- 1/4 Cup Parsley, Chopped finely (more if you want some as a garnish.)
-  Shredded Parmesan (hardened Parmesan tastes better in this than fresh.) 

Pour the Olive Oil in a medium-sized saucepan and heat on medium heat. Saute the Minced Garlic in the Olive Oil until golden brown. Add the Crushed Tomatoes and Tomato Paste. Heat for 10 minutes, add Parsley and Heavy Cream and heat for an additional 5 minutes on low heat. Serve over Farfalle (Bow tie) Pasta, add a sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese and Parsley. 


Andy and I had this for our Valentine's Day Dinner which we had on Sunday and we both enjoyed it very much. My family has been using the sauce up for meals since and there's still some left over. The sauce is cream based, so I do not believe it will freeze well-- it rarely gets to that point anyway, my family attacks it. The fact that my family eats it is something in itself as most of them refuse to touch my cooking due to their very limited palates. :D 

Valentine's Day Cards

Giving valentines has been popular since the 1700s. They started out as slips of paper with messages on them but soon they began to be commercially produced in the mid 1800s.  By 1862, according to the New York Times in an article after the Civil War, 21,260 valentines were delivered to post offices in New York City even with the paper shortages caused by the war.











This number jumped to 86,213 in 1866. These numbers did not even include valentines mailed in envelopes. The 1867, article in the New York Times noted that the manufactured valentines had been using the same few poems had been using the same few poems and sentimental notes for at least 30 years prior.

Victorian Valentines were sentimental, comical and normally contained beautiful imagery. Mass produced cards often had spectacular artwork and were inserted in family photo albums.

 Some fun Valentine's Day Superstitions:

•  In the late 1500s, it was thought that birds chose their mates on Valentine's Day.
• In the 1770s it was thought that if a girl pinned five bay leaves to her pillow the night before Valentine's Day and she dreamed of her crush, that they would be married within the year. 
• Another 1770s superstition was that if a girl put all of the names of her suitors on slips of paper and put them in water, the name on the slip of paper that rose to the top first would be her Valentine.
• From the 1700s- 1870s it was believed that the first person you saw on Valentine's Day would be your Valentine.  
• In Scotland in 1866, the young girls and boys would put their names into two separate boxes, if one person drew the name of another person three times, it was thought that the two would be married.
• In the 1900s people believed that if a lady entertained gentlemen the night before Valentines Day, that she would soon lose her social standing.
• Another superstition from the 1900s was if a girl looked through the keyhole of the hen house and saw a rooster and a hen together that she would be married during the year.
• It was believed in the 1900s that if a lady went walking on Valentine's Day that she could predict who she was going to marry by the first bird that she saw: Blackbird: Clergyman, Robin or Sparrow: Sailor, Goldfinch: Millionaire, Yellow Warbler: a Wealthy man, Bluebird: a Poor man, Woodpecker: She would be an old maid.

 

A Valentine to Send to Your Valentines:

Read About the Language of Flowers.

Colonial Games: How to Play Leap Frog

Leap-frog is a game we used to play as very little kids. I don't think we ever really knew the rules but it was still fun. This is a game I probably could not play anymore.

This is played in a line of players, all players except the last one in the line, squat down with their hands on their thighs. The last player in line runs up behind the player directly in front. The end player then places his hands on the back of the player in front of him while simultaneously jumping over the back of the player. The player then continues to jump over the backs of all of the players until he reaches the front of the line.

The new end player then restarts the game. This game seems very simple but the difficulty comes when players fail to make the jumps.

An Alternate Way to Play from 1833:

A Funny College Reminiscence about Leap Frog:

http://americangardenhistory.blogspot.com

Homemade PVC Whistles

Finally I got Andy to play his low D whistle. I am not very happy with the sound quality of the recording, I recorded it straight on the computer using the built-in hardware. It sounds like it is being played on a phonograph.

Andy is very nervous when playing in front of people or when he is recorded. The recording really doesn't capture the richness of the whistle sound that you hear in person.

*******Please vote in the poll on my sidebar if you are interested in knitting a Civil War Era reticule.  I had a lot of people interested in making them and asking me for a good pattern. Please vote so I know when it is best for most people.

Colonial Games: How to Play Peg-Farthing

Library of Congress

Peg-farthing, peg-top, or "ring" is played on a flat surface on which a circle is drawn about a yard in diameter. Another circle is drawn around this one for the players to stand on.  A farthing (coin) or other flat marker is placed in the center of the circle. A string is wound around a wooden top and pulled quickly to propel the top to spin on its own. Players start their top at the coin and try to get their top out of the circle by spinning it. If a top spins out of the circle, the owner can pick it up.

While the first person's top is within the circle (spinning or stopped,) the other players take turns to throw the pegs of their own tops at the top in the circle in an attempt to hit the top out of the circle or to "split" the top--separate the top and its peg. The player who successfully does this gets to keep the peg of the other player's top. The point of the game is to get as many pegs as you can.








After one round of throwing, if no one successfully "splits" the top, another player releases his top into the circle to be pegged at also. If all of the tops are "dead" in the circle, the first person removes his top and starts the game again.

It was written that the tops infequently "split" but it never stopped boys from trying. Most boys tried to hit their own top out of the circle to prevent it from being broken by another player.