I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions. But I do believe in fresh starts.

So when we moved into our new house, I resolved to make a few fresh starts. The move was in November, which was close enough to the New Year to be another motivating factor, but NOT New Year’s resolutions. I need to be very clear about that. Because we all know New Year’s resolutions fail. Which is why we have to make them again each year.

Now that it’s been a few months, I thought I could share my progress.

Fresh start #1: Keep new house clean.

Have you ever moved before? It will really show you what a pig you are. (Or maybe it was just us?) When our stuff left the old place, I was appalled at the filth that was left behind. Dog hair, piles of dust bunnies, dirty bathrooms … I could go on, but you might vomit. How could we be so utterly disgusting as human beings?! That was it. I was converted to a cleaning-type person….Every counter, both toilets, floors, sinks, under beds….they were all going to stay clean. And, um….yeah. About that…

Grade: C- (Not an F because I do keep my new kitchen fairly clean, and because I swept the other day.)

Fresh start #2: Make bed daily.

Ok, so it’s not a big deal, but don’t things just look nicer when your bed is made? Everything just seems fresher and it feels more complete to turn down the covers at night, vs. fall into the pile where you slept the night before. I’m doing pretty well on this one. Mr. Q has even contributed a few times, and there were claims of a made bed even while I was away on my last business trip.

Grade: B+

Fresh start #3: Recycle glass

I can’t tell you how many conversations I had in my last house that went like this: Guest with an empty beer: “Do you recycle your bottles?” Me: “No. We are evil people. Please put that in the trash.” It was true. We were evil. Our piles of glass bottles will sit in landfills for years reminding the world of our failure to recycle in the old house. But along came the new house, and I decided that I could no longer live with my non-recycling ways. It was quite frankly laziness at it’s worst. Do you know how easy it is to recycle glass? Well let me tell you about Kansas City, at least. It’s really stinking easy. (And it does kind of stink. More about that in a second.) Near our grocery store, is a big blue dumpster. You put your glass in your car. Drive your car to the grocery store, (because you were going there anyway.) Stop your car for a second. Get the glass out and put it into the dumpster. (It might be loud, but you’ll survive.) Then, get back in your car and continue on your way, a better person.

Now here’s the part I wasn’t prepared for. Since most of our glass bottles do involve a booze of some sort, there was a bit of a problem with the return drive home the first two times I did this. As in the car reeked. As in, I probably would have gotten a DUI for the smell alone had and officer pulled me over. So, now I have to add the extra step of rinsing my bottles out with soapy water after each use, but it’s still totally worth it. I sleep better at night now.

Grade: A+

Fresh start #4: Cook more. Eat out less.

I’m ROCKING this one. Right before we moved, Mr. Quirky and I had gotten into a terrible habit of eating out all the time. It was bad for our wallets and our waist lines. Since moving in, I must say I have done a tremendous job at planning meals ahead, doing a weekly grocery store trip and cooking our meals. It works out really well for me because I work from home, so I just have leftovers for lunch. My favorite cooking sites are www.Macheesmo.com and www.skinnytaste.com. I like both of their recipes and cooking styles.

Fresh start #5:

Blog again.

Enough said.

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Over a year ago, My Kitchen Aid Mixer drew a line in the sand.

It was all, “What? You want a piece of this? Are you afraid of my new fancy pasta making attachments?”

I was.

I was so afraid that I didn’t even remove them from their packaging. (Which by the way, made them very easy to pack up when we moved to the new house.)

Don’t get me wrong. I wanted to step up the the challenge. But I was a big fat chicken. (Sqawk begawk! <---That's my Arrested Development chicken dance.)

But yesterday, I dusted the dust off that beautiful red kitchen appliance and grabbed my flour. It was on.

At first, it was ugly. I mean U-G-L-Y. Round one went to the mixer. I had peas. That's right, peas. You know how when you make pie crust, the dough is supposed to look like it has little peas in it? Well that's what my pasta dough looked like. It also crumbled in my hands when I tried to work with it.

And into the trash.

So, we had to start alllll over again. Luckily round two was looking a lot better for Queen of Quirky.

Especially after I I discovered something marvelous. Why didn't you food people tell me how much fun it is to play with the roller attachments?!

It’s like play-dough for grown ups. But when you eat it, it tastes good! (Of course I ate my play-dough. Didn’t you?)

I blame you for not telling me and keeping me from a whole year of pasta making bliss. (My hips, on the other hand are thankful.)

I think it’s safe to say Queen of Quirky won the battle. So what did I make with my new carb-factory?

Great question!

So, there is this blogger named, The Pioneer Woman. She cooks things sometimes and is on T.V. and stuff. I hear people like her.

Also, she has a recipe for stuffed mushrooms that I have adopted into my party repertoire. I really wanted to change the recipe, and put my own spin on it, but darn it, they are pretty much perfect. I wish I had invented them.

I wish I had invented a lot of things. Like snuggies and that little hook carry in your bag to hang said bag on when you are sitting at the bar and having too many martoonies. And yes, you say martoonies if you have had too many.

Focus.

So these mushrooms. Always a hit.

But always way too much filling. (I tried to over fill them, but then they tip over and you have to burn your fingers scooping the hot filling off the pan. I learned. Don’t overfill.)

However, thanks to my brilliant friend Elam, I had the leftover filling in my freezer from my last batch.

Have I mentioned Elam? He is awesome. He helped me cook my menu for my holiday party this year. We pretended like we were on Top Chef, only we were only in my kitchen and I was wearing my silly Cookin’ Clause apron.

Elam had the idea to freeze the filling. Normally, I would have eaten it in my bathroom with a spoon, but Elam is smart about food. He has ideas and stuff. He also has a blog, but I don’t know the URL and so I’m practicing horrible blogiquette by not linking to him.

So thanks to Elam, I had this filling which I decided would be amazing ravioli filling!

Guess what? I am smart about food too!

It was amazing. I whipped up a little mushroom wine sauce to go with it. I kind of felt like I was on a cooking show because “deconstructing” delicious things is the hot new trend, right?

So just in case you don’t want to eat the rest of your Pioneer Woman mushroom filling with a spoon alone in shame, here is a great use for it.

Queen of Quirky’s Pioneer Woman Stuffed Mushroom Ravioli

What you’ll need:
Leftover mushroom filling. Thawed, if frozen.
1 1/4 lb of Basic Egg Pasta sheets from the Kitchen Aid pasta roller attachment booklet thingy. (Or just 1 1/4 lb of basic egg pasta your way.)
1 egg white in a splash of water for an egg wash.
Large pot of salted boiling water.

1 stick of butter (I know. This is a treat.)
8 oz of baby bella mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic finely minced
1 teaspoon of finely minced fresh sage (Or more, if you love sage. It’s a strong taste, so use your nose to guide you.)
A generous splashy of Pinot Grigio (Sorry, I forgot to measure. Maybe 1/2 cup?)
Salt/pepper to taste
Fresh grated parm to taste

What you do:
Assemble your ravioli by cutting two squares of similar size out of your pasta, placing a dab of the filling in the middle, brush the egg wash around the square with the filling, and place the second pasta square on top, securing the filling by pressing on all four sides. Then trim. Repeat until you are out of pasta.

While your water is reaching boil, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add your garlic, mushrooms, sage and wine. Bring to simmer.

Carefully drop your ravioli into the boiling water- probably about 8 at a time, but no more.

Cook pasta for about 2 minutes. When each “batch” is done, use a slotted spoon to drop into the sauce. It’s okay if pasta water gets in too. It helps bring the sauce and the pasta closer together, like wine on a first date. Stir your pasta into your sauce each time. Add salt and pepper to taste and grate your cheese over the entire pot (to taste.)

When all the pasta is in the sauce, give it a good but gentle stir and serve quickly while piping hot.

Tada! You’ve used your mushroom filling to make something that everyone can enjoy! (Serves 6-8, depending on how hungry your gang is.)

The Kitchen Aid twitter people are nice and sometimes will tweet with me, but they in no way had anything to do with this blog post. My mom gave me my Kitchen Aid as a wedding present. It’s the second time she has gifted me a mixer. The first mixer did not survive my divorce, but I did. So in many ways I’m much stronger than the mixer.

Pioneer Woman said hi to me in the hall twice at BlogHer 2010, but she doesn’t know my name, or that I like to save her mushroom filling and cook with it, or eat it secretly.

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