Mushroom Ravioli

I apologize to those of you without pasta rollers.  I'm having fun with my new kitchen gadget and tonight the most wonderful mushroom ravioli came from it!  Well, the ravioli tasted amazing, but it looked kind of funky.  I think I still need to get the hang of the consistency of pasta dough and rolling the dough thinner.  Or maybe I just need to remember that pasta expands a lot when you boil it, so I should make my ravioli and dumplings a lot smaller.  Ha ha!  Oh well, no matter.  Who doesn't love a giant ravioli right?  Especially if it tastes amazing!

I found the recipe for Mushroom Ravioli from foodgawker (it was submitted by a blog called "These Days") and I didn't make too many adjustments.  Just a few. 

Like....
- I didn't have cognac, so I omitted it.
- I didn't have semolina flour, so I used all purpose (I can't seem to find organic semolina anywhere either.  Anyone found this somewhere?  I usually get my flours from bulk sections because they're cheaper, but organic semolina is always absent)
- I had some portabella mushrooms, so I used crimini and portabella.  I LOVE portabella mushrooms.  You may not, it's purely a taste thing.

- I didn't have fresh thyme or parsley, so I used dried.  I'm sure the dish would have been really enhanced by the presence of fresh herbs.

-I had already bought ricotta cheese assuming that every recipe for mushroom ravioli I found on the internet would use ricotta, but low and behold this one asked for cottage cheese.  Whatever, the ricotta tasted great!

I think that's it. 

The pasta portion of the ingredients called for "oil", I used coconut oil.

Well, that probably looks like a lot of adjustments, but in my mind they were pretty minimal. 

I don't usually feel that I should write all the ingredients and the method on my blog if I haven't changed that much in the recipe and if I get the recipe from someone else's blog.  So here are the pictures from the ravioli process that happened tonight! 



I chopped the mushrooms in the food processor.  So much faster!



I also made the pasta dough in the food processor.  This was the consistency of the dough right before I started adding water tablespoon by tablespoon.

 

Pasta dough ready to be balled up for rest.  I think I ended up adding too much water again, but this time we're talking like, maybe a teaspoon or two instead of like half a cup more than needed (as in the dumpling fiasco).





Dough rolled out and mounds of filling ready for action!



Being a newbie to the pasta world, I had a bit of trouble making sure all the air was out of the ravioli.  I also brushed the surface of the pasta with a bit of water as I've seen done on cooking shows before.  While the water made the pasta stick better, it made getting air bubbles out a pain.  Any advice here?



The finished product!  Super yum. 


I just threw some extra mushrooms and garlic in a pot with some tomato sauce and italian seasoning and it made a great simple sauce for the ravioli! 

**Just a note!  I probably won't attempt to make this on a weeknight again.  At least not until I'm more proficient at working with pasta dough.  It always looks so uncomplicated, but it also always takes three times longer than I expect.  From start to finish, I think this took me about 2 hours total.  Way too long for a Wednesday night dinner prep, in my opinion.


In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear heavenly Father,
  thank you for little mouths to feed and little hands to hold.  Please bring our little Gregory into the outside world safely and soon!  Amen.

Pel'Meni Russian Dumplings

There's this little hole in the wall sort of take out restaurant in Bellingham, WA (where I went to college).  I was introduced to this place late one Wednesday night after funk night at one of the local bars during my senior year in college.  At this magical little take-out spot there are only two options:  Beef or Potato dumplings.  One mouthful and I was hooked.  They were fantastic!  They were cheap!  They were the best post-bar food EVER!  I didn't remember what these things were called because everyone just called the shop, "The Russian Dumpling Place".  So I just knew the little bites of awesomeness as "russian dumplings".


Didn't Jon garnish his nicely?  Mine bowl did not look so good.  I must have been too excited to dig in!



A few weeks ago I was wasting time on facebook and I noticed my friend talking about something called "Pel Meni" and how amazing they were for dinner.  She thanked another mutual friend of ours for them.  So.....being the curious hungry pregnant lady that I am at the moment I happened to ask said friend, "Molly, what are pel meni?"  Lo and behold!!!  Pel Meni are russian dumplings!!!  SHE MADE THEM FROM SCRATCH!!!!  GAH! 

So Molly (as she described it to me) took on this personal challenge to find a great recipe for recreating the dumplings in our beloved Bellingham because our Campus Ministry Chaplain said something like, "You paid $5 for this plate?  I bet you could make these for $1 a plate!"  So the search began for the perfect recipe. 

Now dear readers, I pass the russian dumpling phenomenon on to you.  I'm not russian, I don't know anything about russian food, but these things are addicting!!!!

I will say though, tonight's pel meni making experience almost ended in pregnant lady food disaster tears.  I did not have such an amazing time making the dough for these dumplings.  I thought it would go faster if I made them in the food processor.  It probably would have, if I had added the water slowly, instead of adding the amount of water called for in the recipe as though that amount were set in stone.  To make matters worse, I was making a double recipe so that I could have some to freeze for an "I don't want to cook" sort of day.  UGH!!!  Just imagine a soupy mess!

This was also my first attempt at using the pasta roller I received for Christmas, which apparently doesn't have the most accurate dial settings!  Otherwise it works great!  Thanks Aimee!

But once I figured out the pasta roller, added another 2 cups of flour, and kneaded that chunk of dough until my arms hurt, we were in business. 

So a few tips on the dough.  Don't add all the water at once!!!  Add the water little by little until you get a dough that just comes together and isn't sticky.  If it gets too sticky and doesn't roll out properly add more flour little by little.  It should come together well in the food processor, just be careful about the water!!  I can't stress it enough.  When Clare saw the dough in a bowl after it had been made she asked, "Mama what's that sauce?"  That will give you an idea of how horribly wet it was to start out when I added the full amount of water.

See how sticky it looks?  Not good!

Other than that, happy dumpling making!  It goes much faster when you have someone helping!  Jon got really into it by the time we finished.

Pel'Meni Russian Dumplings
Adapted from HERE

Ingredients
dough

1 1/2 cups flour + extra for rolling and consistency

2 eggs

1/4c water (start slowly!!!!  Just watch the consistency of your dough! The original recipe said 1/2c!)

1/2 tsp salt

filling

1/2 lb  ground beef

1/2 lb  ground pork 

2 red onions minced

2 cloves of garlic minced

salt and pepper to taste

topping (sort of like the Bellingham place's toppings)

2tsp Sriracha sauce

2tbsp red wine vinegar

generous sprinkling of curry powder

sprinkling of cilantro

serve with sour cream!

Method:

1.  In a food processor combine flour and salt.  Add eggs one at a time pulsing to combine with flour.  (You can do this by hand on a board, or in an electric mixer with a dough hook as well.)

2.  Add water one tablespoon at a time, pulsing until you get a dough ball that comes together without being too sticky. 

3.  Take out the dough and knead it by hand until it comes together nicely.  Let it rest for 30 minutes.

I had to add about another cup of flour at this point.  It was much too sticky. 



4.  Combine all the filling ingredients and mix well!  

I recommend using your hands for this.  Everything seems to stick together better when you're doing it by hand rather than by spoon.



5.  Roll out your dough in sections with a pasta roller or by hand.  Cut out 2 inch circles.  Alternatively you could pinch off dough balls and roll out each one.  Make sure you put some parchment paper in between layers of dough circles so that they don't stick to each other!  I was not so smart about this.

The bottom layer of dough circles stuck togeher horribly.  They'll get rolled out again tomorrow after the dough scraps have rested more.



6.  Fill half of each piece of dough with a lump of filling (maybe a tablespoon) and fold half over creating a semi circle.  Pinch the edges together and bring the sides together and tuck them under.  They'll look like giant tortelloni.

7.  When you've filled all your dough circles boil the pel meni in salted boiling water for 7-10 minutes until the pel meni are floating to the top. 

Enjoy with all the toppings!!  Don't skimp on the curry powder or sour cream!

I'm going to have to find a recipe for the potato version of these for Fridays in lent.  I expect that the recipe would be something like hungarian perogies. 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father,

  thank you for fun college experiences and great friends.  Help us to continue to support each other in our faith and lives after college.  Amen.

Salmon with Pesto Sauce

I think this blog is good for Friday meals.  I'm getting more creative with the fish!  We had Salmon smothered in Pesto Sauce with Pesto Pasta on Friday night.  I surprised myself, I didn't think it was going to be too fantastic, but the Pesto sauce turned out very well and it paired really well with the salmon.

Usually Pesto sauce is made with pine nuts, but the price of pine nuts prohibits me from using them!  So I went with walnuts and I think they worked really well as a substitute.  I made the sauce in our magic bullet, but I imagine that you could make a larger batch in a food processor.  You might also be able to use an immersion blender for this, but you'd probably have to start with the olive oil, garlic, and nuts, then add the rest of the ingredients slowly. 

Pesto is a great sauce because all of the ingredients are raw (which means more nutrition!) and it's not incredibly rich like white sauces.   The raw garlic cloves are immune boosters, walnuts have lots of omega 3's, extra virgin olive oil has good plant fats, and basil aids in digestion and is a mood booster!  For me personally pasta is a mood booster (ha ha ha!) just because I like it. 


Salmon with Pesto Sauce
from my own brain (since I know the ingredients that go in pesto I never really looked at a recipe for it)

Ingredients
1/2 salmon filet (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2tbsp butter
1tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

(pesto sauce)
4 large cloves of garlic
2 handfuls of fresh basil roughly chopped
1/3c extra virgin olive oil
1/4c parmesano reggiano
1/4c walnuts (I've also used pecans and almonds with success too.  Traditionally pine nuts are used.)


Method
1.  Place all the ingredients for the pesto sauce in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Add more extra virgin olive oil if it gets too thick. 

2.  Dot the salmon filet with butter, then sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

3.  Bake the salmon in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

4.  After 30 minutes take the samon out and pour on some of the pesto sauce so that most of the filet is covered.  Return it to the oven for 2 minutes.

5.  Serve the salmon with pasta tossed with pesto sauce.

Yum! 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear God,
  thank you for a relaxing evening with friends on Friday.  Help us all to treasure the people that you put into our lives and always treat them with love and respect.  Amen.

Spinach Alfredo Pasta with Garlic prawns

Since my parents gave us some prawns to take home last week, I figured I'd make them for our Friday meal.  I am sure there are some great spinach alfredo recipes out there, but I just didn't have the energy or interest to go looking for one tonight when I figured I could wing it. 



I did have more prawns than this, but I was trying to make a fancy looking picture!



This is another one of those really simple meals that someone would probably pay a good $13-15 for at a chain restaurant.  This also probably has 1000 less calories or 1000 less mg of sodium or something crazy like that.  Sometimes Jon finds nutrition facts at the restaurants we go to and I always wonder how the heck they get all that stuff in there.  How on earth can you fit that much fat and sodium into some dishes?  It's crazy. 

I really hate when he finds the nutrition facts.  Hee hee! 

But anyways, tonight I was looking for a way to fit in some spinach and I thought it would work well in a garlic alfredo type sauce and I am pretty sure that seafood and pasta with white sauce have been friends for a long time.  The great thing about spinach is that you can't taste it when it's cooked, so it's like sneaking in veggies (except you can still see them of course).  Oh and I probably would have used linguine or penne, but I only had this vegetable radiatore laying around, so the presentation wasn't as lovely.  But hey, it tasted good, and that's what matters most.  Sorry, no procedure pictures tonight.  I was in a rush and my hands were pretty goey from handling the prawns and trying to de-shell them.  So here's what I did.

Spinach Alfredo Pasta with Garlic Prawns
(I winged it, I'm sure you can find a recipe for it somewhere on the internet)

Ingredients

Sauce
1/2 c half and half
1c milk
1c chopped spinach
1/2c shredded parmigiano reggiano
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
2tbsp butter
3tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste.

Prawns
1lb Prawns
1tbsp butter
2 cloves of garlic (or 1tsp garlic powder)
salt and pepper to taste


Sauce Method
1.  Saute the garlic and butter on medium-low in a saucepan.  Once the garlic has softened as is fragrant add all the chopped spinach.

2.  Mix together the flour and half and half until there are no more lumps.  It's better to add the liquid into the flour slowly so you can prevent clumping.

3.  When the spinach is wilted and some of the liquid (if any) from the spinach has cooked off add the half and half mixture and the milk.  Increase the temperature to medium.

4.  Continue stirring until it has thickened slightly and then add in the parmigiano reggiano.  Stir until everything is combined and the sauce is thick.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.


Prawn Method
1.  Heat a saute pan to medium heat and add your prawns.

2.  When the prawns are almost completely pink add the butter and garlic and continue sauteeing until the prawns are fully cooked.

3.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the prawns with the pasta and sauce. 

See?  Easy right? 

Enjoy!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

   please bless the efforts of 40 days for life and help everyone in this country realize the beauty of the gift of life and the horror of abortion.  Amen.

Penne with Meat Sauce. aka Spaghetti sauce with different pasta.

Well tonight I get to give you an extremely basic recipe.  Cooking 101.

Spaghetti Sauce.

This is about as basic as I get people.  If I can muster up the energy to cook, but I still don't really want to cook, this is what is made 99% of the time. 

It's easy, it's satisfying, and most of the time I have ground beef in the freezer.

I don't think you're going to find anything fancy here, so if you're new to the kitchen, try this on for size.

Spaghetti Sauce
(I wouldn't know who to give credit to for this, maybe mom since this is close to the way she makes it)

Ingredients
1lb of ground beef
1can of tomato sauce
1 can of tomato paste
4 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup of red wine (I used water tonight because we didn't have any wine around)
2 bay leaves

1 tbsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.  Brown the ground beef in a pot on medium heat.  If there's a ton of fat drain that off.

2.  Add the garlic and saute for a minute or two.

3.  Add the bay leaves and oregano and mix until well combined.  Make sure to break up the ground beef well so you have even small pieces and not large chunks.

4. When the beef is completely browned add the tomato sauce and tomato paste.  Mix it all together until the texture is uniform and you can't see any more chunks of tomato paste. 

5.  Mix in the red wine, turn the heat down to low and let everything simmer for 20 minutes to half an hour stirring occasionally. 

6.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve atop your favorite type of pasta.  Tonight we had penne.

If you're really on top of it, you can boil your pasta first in the same pot you use for the sauce.  Less dishes that way!!  Just make sure that when the pasta is drained you toss it with some extra virgin olive oil so it doesn't stick together.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father,

  please keep everyone safe amid all the "Occupy _____" protests.   Please help all the elected officials in these countries to do what is just and right.  Amen.

  

Chicken Cacciatore

This is a bit of a strange dish for me to start off the blog with since I don't make it often, but I guess the blog is about what I'm making every day, so I'm being honest with you!

I'll tell you the truth about this dish....there's no real history to it for me.  One night about 2 years ago I was trying to find something to do with the chicken thighs I had sitting around and I just didn't feel like making adobo or breaded baked chicken or bbq chicken or chicken pot pie (my usual chicken staples) so I did what any rookie wife, non meal planning, inexperienced with recipe winging person would do.  I started thumbing through recipe books. 

I have that old school red and white checkered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that never seemed to fail me with standard recipes, so I went there first and just happened to find this recipe which seemed relatively easy and sounded pretty tasty.  The greater miracle, was that I also just happened to have all the ingredients for it sitting in my fridge.  I don't know about you, but when I find an easy, tasty sounding recipe that has ingredients that are usually sitting in my fridge I'm all over it.

The original recipe said any meaty pieces of chicken.  Tonight I used chicken breasts, but I've used thighs in the past.  Someone will have to let me know how it turns out with drumsticks!

So here it is for your own recipe repertoire. 

Chicken Cacciatore.
Adapted the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book the 75th Anniversary edition

2 chicken breasts

1tbsp sunflower oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 medium onion sliced
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes (undrained)
1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
1/2 cup sherry

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp dried oregano

black pepper to taste

snipped fresh parsley for garnish

cooked pasta for serving with it!

1.  Brown the chicken in your oil of choice.  I use sunflower oil for higher heat cooking because of it's super high smoke point.  Remove the chicken from your pan/pot/skillet and set aside.

2.  Add mushrooms, onion and garlic to chicken drippings and cook until just tender.  Return your chicken to your pan/pot/skillet.

3.  Add herbs (I didn't have them all fresh, but I'm sure they would make the dish even better if they were all fresh), diced tomatoes with all the liquid, tomato paste, water, sherry (the original recipe called for 3/4 cup white wine and 1tsp sugar, but I had to substitute today, so sherry and no sugar), and pepper.  Combine together well and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer.  Let it simmer covered until the chicken is done.  I let it go for about 30 minutes. 

Serve atop pasta and sprinkle with parsley.  We added a touch of shredded grana padano on top!

Oops, I need to improve those photography skills!  Ha ha!  Can you see my shadow?

Bon Appetit!