A Love Story and Ravioli Primitivo

I have come to the conclusion that each plant in my garden has it's own personality. I reached this conclusion yesterday, when, like every morning, I began my day in my garden. I like to come downstairs before everyone is awake, begin making coffee, and venturing outside to greet the day with a few green friends. Yesterday I realized that there was a love story "blooming" right before me...

The cucumber is married to the cayenne pepper. This is a fact. How do I know this? They are always touching leaves! This is a phenomenon I've noticed amongst a few of my plants; they all have companions. However, these two plants are all about the PDA! The cucumber is definitely the wife in this relationship. Aside from the fact that the cucumber is "curvier", the cayenne pepper is much more... erect. When I bought the two of them as baby plants, I planted them together and have kept them side by side. As they've grown, I've noticed that they've literally grown together, as in they've grown towards one another. Plants are helio-autotrophs. Photosynthesis allows them to combine carbon dioxide and water to make sugar. As the sun is necessary for this process to occur, plants, specifically their leaves, follow the sun's rays. Much like a sunbather follows the sun to get the most even tan. Well Miss Cucumber and Mr. Cayenne do that, but some of their leaves reach out towards another. I know this sounds crazy, but two of my plants love each other!

In other news, yesterday was quite a culinary adventure for yours truly. I tried again to make homemade fresh from scratch egg pasta. This time, it was edible! I did a bit of research and found a recipe that called for all-purpose flour and olive oil. I found that the olive oil acted as a solvent and a lubricant. The dough was not as sticky and the kneading went considerably smoother. I made the dough old-school style (aka by hand without the aid of a food processor or a dough hook in a KitchenAid) and even rolled it out by hand. You want an upper body workout? Roll out egg pasta to 1/16" and tell me if your back is sore the next day. 

I used my fresh pasta to make veal ravioli. It was decent, but next time a pasta machine is absolutely in order. None of the raviolis were the same size or shape, so mother named them "Ravioli Primitivo." Next time I'm not making meat ravioli, I think vegetables and pasta go together much, much better than meat. Well, we'll see what the day holds!