I intended to start the post with something clever – like some little-known fact about ravioli, compliments of wikipedia. Alas, I looked there and briefly on google and came up with nothing terribly exciting. So, I might as well give a shout out to a family favorite children’s book, related to making pasta: Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola. For those of you not lucky enough to have a librarian as a mother and not introduced to this delightful little classic, Strega Nona has a magic pasta pot, but shh!!! It’s a secret.
http://www.tomie.com/books/spotlight_on.html
But, back to the raviolis. Let’s get this straight from the beginning, I do not intend to make these again and again. While delicious, it was quite the project in the end. Where’s Strega Nona’s pasta pot when you need it, eh?
Initially I bought the pre-made wonton wraps at the beginning of the year thinking that I could use leftover spinach filling made from some previous project. It was a brief, snap decision while trolling Fred Meyer. At home, I discovered that the spinach filling was more than questionable at the back of the refrigerator. I stowed the wonton wraps in a drawer thinking “ah, another day.” A quick check of the calendar, however, reminded me of Lent — which I strangely observe, though not technically Catholic, by going vegan. As a result, all sorts of baking seems to happen in the weeks preceding Ash Wednesday in an effort to rid the fridge of the temptation. The wonton wraps are made with eggs, so they too must go.
I recalled a recipe with spinach raviolis, using the wonton wraps and did a few google searches of recipes to come up with something I wanted to make. Here we go:
Ingredients:
1 package of wonton wraps (approximately 48)
1 16 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 small onion, diced
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
3/4 c. of cottage cheese
1/2 to 3/4 c. of shredded mozzarella cheese
2-3 TB of pesto
1 egg white, beaten
To make the filling, saute the onion and garlic with a little olive oil and salt until barely translucent.
Hhm... how many times can I take a picture of sauted onions?
Combine the onion mixture with the thawed spinach, cottage cheese, and mozzerella cheese in a food processor and pulse to combine. Once thoroughly combined, add pesto and combine again.
My food processor - the best Lexis Nexis Points ever spent.
Gather your equipment for your ravioli station:
filling, egg whites, & wraps
Drop approximately 1 TB of filling at the bottom third of one flat wrap. Gently moisten the edge with the beaten egg whites and fold over and press to seal. Doing this one by one became very tedious, so I ultimately created an assembly line of sorts by doing 8 at a time.
one, two, three
only a portion of the 48
To cook, drop in boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes. When the raviolis rise to the top of the pot, they are fully cooked.
bubble, bubble, toil and trouble
Drain and serve with a drizzle of olive oil or marinara sauce.
Where's the marinara?
I would have taken a picture of the complete meal, the piece de resistance shot, but I cooked it all together, on a whim at my friend Jamie’s after the long assembly. The meal was just an accompaniment to the slabs of beef cooked on the Traeger by her brothers. The boys next door piled over too, so I felt a little foolish “food styling” my ravioli with six hungry guys waiting to devour the steak.
Another option is to saute these little raviolis. I discovered a couple days later when I pulled out some leftover, but uncooked, raviolis. They were getting close to spoiling and were a little stuck together. I heated a little oil in a skillet and sauted briefly with garlic till light brown. My, they were tasty! A little less healthy, but tasty.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Pane Siciliano. It seems to be one of the more popular BBA breads. (Alas it is the last bread before sourdoughs start, and as I haven’t had much luck with that, there might be some disobedience here as I skip out of order a bit. I have tried my own sourdough starter a few times and I guess that the wild yeast in these parts aren’t much for my attempts at domestication).
But digressing–the Pane Siciliano is a bit different than other breads in that it uses semolina flour. There are two types of semolina you can use–regular and fancy/extra fancy. Surprisingly it was a bit difficult to find either one (I’m talking to you, my nearby Whole Foods), until I realized that my Hodgson Mills pasta flour from Stop and Shop (which, ahem, has not been used for pasta despite good intentions and the existence of a pasta machine stashed somewhere on the upper shelves of the kitchen) is actually a blend of semolina–the coarser and finer grinds.
Except for perhaps the sourdough breads, I think this is the only bread (and certainly the only bread so far) that takes more than two days to make. The third day really isn’t much other than baking it, but you’ve got to find the room in your fridge for the overnight rise on day two.
I don’t think my bread turned out quite as it should–it’s supposed to have a “beautiful blistered crust” and “large irregular holes.” My bread was fine, but rather dense and certainly not a blistered crust (which I imagine crackles deliciously as you bite in). As usual I am blaming this on not enough hydration, but perhaps there is some other reason for this? I certainly let it rise long enough–I shaped early Saturday AM and baked it off Sunday morning. (In fact, I wonder if I could have baked it Saturday night–it was well over 8 hours by that point which I think of as the “equivalent” of overnight. However, how could I have opted not to have freshly baked bread in the morning, the warm aroma filling the kitchen on a January morning?)
Maybe it’s because I didn’t do it right, but this almost made me think of a good option for a “vegan” challah–no eggs, no dairy. Must be the extra-robust flavor and color lent by the semolina as well that little bit of special Greek honey we have. Also, the reason the challah reference popped into my head? I bet this would make tasty challah bread.
Finally, while I don’t think the bread turned out quite right, I did manage the shaping better than I thought. I had to let the lengths of dough rest a bit as I pulled them long enough to form, but other than that there’s no trick to it! Here’s the pre-rise photo:
Followed by my finished loaves.
And one more of the underside–also just as pretty!
Apparently, I have just been sitting around and sewing buttons on/weaving ends into knitted baby items (actually, not just knitted items, but more on that later). This is making me look really productive, but in fact think about how few knitting projects have appeared on here lately and you get an idea of how much time these have been buried in one of my bags beside the couch).
This pattern is the Provence Baby Cardigan (from the Classic Elite people in nearby Lowell MA), and the yarn is Berroco Comfort DK (yes, a synthetic yarn! Horrors! And what’s more, I actually liked it!) in #2723, that I picked up last year in Seattle at this store. I liked this cardigan as it reminded me of Kate Gilbert’s Pea Pod Cardigan, which I made for little E pre-blog but which is sadly no longer available. Pink is beacuse I planned to make it for a friend’s baby (who I then realized may not be a girl and who got this instead, and who is now too big for this sweater anyway). In other words, pink is not for “my” bun in the oven–the male female balance is expected to tip even more out of my favor. (Three clever sisters not to be repeated for this little branch of the family tree).
No immediate plans for this little sweater, therefore, but at least I can mark it off the “to be completed” list.
Another Vintage Baby Knits finished project! This sweet little hat was essentially done a while ago, but for adding on the buttons and sewing in the loose ends. As usual, for me those last little details are the ones that take the longest. You would think that after all the work that goes into a project, this little bit extra would not be an obstacle to completion…but it is.
This hat was started and (mostly) finished a while ago for baby marburyvmad (aka Kathryn’s new little boy, expected any day now). It wasn’t too difficult to make, or, it shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone to make, though it took me quite a bit of extra time as I misread the pattern and had to rip nearly the whole thing out. At least it was a baby hat, not a sweater for an adult.
I don’t remember what this yarn is called, but it’s some sort of washable sock yarn and it’s quite nice to work with–soft, even stitches, no splitting. I have a good amount left over and can certainly get at least another hat out of it.
Despite the fact that it was the finishing touches that kept this in the unfinished pile so long, at the end of the day I am fairly taken with them–the yellow jellybean button and the first use of my personalized tags!
I figured I would like this next bread in the BBA Challenge. I generally like the French style breads, white but with a little “oomph” thanks to the pre-ferment. And no exception. This starts out, like so many others, with a pate fermentee. And as I have done so many Friday nights since beginning this challenge, then, I made a starter dough to rest overnight in the fridge. (I think this makes me sound kind of pathetic. I am in my third trimester with a toddler. There’s only so wild I can get).
The photo included with this recipe included an assortment of many beautiful loaves–so while I could have just made a regular loaf I was inspired to try my hand at more artistic dough shaping. I ended up making the three following shapes, with the help of a knife and kitchen shears:
A scissor cut boule (back), a couronne (front)
a fendu.
…and I learned that I should have been a little less dainty with my snips and indentations–I failed to remember that (at least if things go as planned) the dough is going to rise quite a bit as it rests (and even more in the oven).
This resulted in what should have been little spikes on my loaf looking more like moon craters. (Maybe I was supposed to do this AFTER the second rise…)
I don’t typically prepare the oven for artisan baking (adding a pan of water to the base of the oven, and then spritzing at 30 second intervals for the first few minutes of baking, creating a steamy environment that allows for even more oven spring). While it’s not necessarily that much trouble, my oven is pretty old and I don’t really want to test it by trying to create a miniature steamroom in there. I wonder if people find it makes that significant of a difference? I don’t doubt that it does come closer to replicating a boulangerie loaf, but how much?
I left the bread in the oven a bit too long (little E’s bath taking a bit longer than anticipated) so here’s a photo of some very well browned loaves. Still, they turned out well. The dough contains a little bit (just a quarter cup) of wheat or rye flour (I used wheat) which I think is a nice touch (and apparently makes it de campagne, i.e. “country style”). It’s still firmly within the white bread genre, but has a bit more complexity. I had quite a few nutella slathered slices while it was still warm from the oven.
Then, I went ahead and completely forgot to wrap the loaves in plastic. The next day they were pretty tough. To salvage this (because not to use this bread would really be a waste) I used one loaf to make bread crumbs and the remaining 1 1/2 loaves to make apple cardamom bread pudding. Yum…I may have to “forget” to wrap up my bread more often!
As you might have expected, there is some baby knitting going on here as well–thus I present another finished project from Vintage Baby Knits, the Dewey Cabled Pullover. The yarn is Louet Gems Fingering Weight Merino in Irish Cream.
I chose this pattern not just because I thought it was cute (what baby pattern isn’t) but because of the large neckhole–after some previously featured projects that encountered difficulties getting over a rather large noggin, this seemed like a safer course of action.
However, this was not without its “drama”–despite the fact that I should have had enough yarn to make a long-sleeved version of this sweater, after using up two of my three skeins to make the body of the sweater, I decided it would save me a lot of frustration to knit up a short-sleeved version. I wasn’t sure just how short to make the sleeves, but leafing through the book I noticed some other short-sleeved patterns that measured in around 4 inches or so–sounded good to me!
I didn’t enjoy this project very much–not because of difficulty, nor was it too boring. Rather, I was not very happy with the yarn. As I worked on the project, I just couldn’t imagine the finished project looking very nice. The color was bland, the stitches looked uneven to me, and it looked rather lopsided. But–the magic of blocking! Once the pieces were shaped and sewn up, I was very pleasantly surprised.
So here’s the Dewey Cabled Pullover–size 18-24 months; to be modelled at a later date.
I understand that this is not a question and answer blog, but I want to put it out there that I hate arugula. I really do. I got some arugula two weeks ago for this pasta salad I made with gorgonzola, walnuts and arugula. I have been searching for other things to do with it and have been quite disappointed with the outcome. Tonight I made quite a tasty dish which called for arugula, tomotoes, shrimp and pasta, but again it called for such a small amount I still have half the bag! When will it end?! I understand there are countless salad possibilities with arugula but it such a bitter green that I only like it hot and wilted.
If anyone has any suggestions or just wants to jump in with my pain. Feel free.
P.S.: I would have added a pic of my dish but the arugula is just so boring I don’t think anyone would care to look at it.
It might be surprising to admit that I’ve only just recently acquired Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I can’t explain the delay–I initially thought there was too much overlap with his non-veggie book, but was quickly disabused of that notion. I then decided I had enough vegetable-themed cookbooks. Maybe, but there’s always room for a Mark Bittman! After both Kathryn and Andrea told me the had it and liked it, and seeing it on display at my local bookstore, I finally caved–and I’m loving it!
I’m not a vegetarian, but am quite happy to eat vegetarian dishes (especially if they have cheese). However, whenever I do try make something entirely plant-based, it always comes off a bit like a side dish to me. Cheese and eggs often solve that problem, but there has to be more to it than just throwing in goat cheese or making an omelet, right? Beans are obviously a great source of protein, but beans and rice, chili–there’s not the “side dish” issue here but they can wear out their welcome.
You know what I’m going to say next–my newest cookbook has a lot of great solutions I”m looking forward to trying. Last night I made one of the variations for Provencal Potatoes and Beans. And it was great: the combination of beans and potatoes is hearty enough, and well-rounded enough to stand as a main course. The potatoes are meltingly soft and velvet thanks to the way they are cooked, and this delicious texture surprised me not only the day I made it but the following day eating my leftovers. For me, as I didn’t use stock but rather water, the use of pimenton de la vera was also key to ensure the dish was complex and satisfying enough to stand on its own. (I was reminded that I needed to make better use of my pimenton after Amy’s post here, and am happy to report that as Mark Bittman appears to be a fan, I’ll be getting plenty of opportunity). It is uncanny to me how pimenton seems to be Spain in a jar. And suprising to me that it took so long for me to figure that one out.
I am calling this a weeknight dish even though if you add it all up, it takes a lot of time. If your beans are already cooked, it’s about 1h 45m start to finish. However, once you get the dish assembled (the most time-consuming bit of which is peeling the potatoes) you stick it in the oven and can almost forget about it. So you can do all that other weeknight stuff that is waiting for you. Perhaps that’s not such an appealing prospect, but sitting down in January to an earthy, simple, satisfying meal certainly is!
Provencal Potatoes and Beans with Spanish Paprika (Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)
- 3 cups cooked white beans (I used Mayacoba from Rancho Gordo, which are not technically white beans)
- 1t dried thyme (or 2t fresh)
- 1T pimenton de la vera / Spanish smoked paprika
- 3 medium russet potatoes (or other baking potato, I used 8 small red roasting potatoes)
- 1c stock (preferable) or water
- 3T butter
- salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 325F. Mix half the thyme and most of the pimenton into the beans and spread in a baking dish. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the surface. Peel the potatoes and slice thinly–if using larger potatoes, slice into half-moons, if using smaller potatoes, just slice. Arrange these on top of the bean mixture and pour in the stock. Dot with butter; sprinkle on the remaining thyme and pimenton; season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes, then remove the foil and bake 45 minutes more, until nicely browned and crisp on top.
As mentioned here, I am participating in the Tigress Can Jam–January challenge, citrus! I hadn’t thought I’d be hauling out the big ol’ canner until around six months from now, when the snow that is visible from every window in our house has melted away and the winter boots are safely stashed in the closet. But as much as any fruit is in “season” in winter, citrus is currently at its peak. (Nevermind that any kind of citrus tree would never stand a chance in Massachusetts–remember the Christmas luxury that oranges were for the March family in the most recent film adaptation of Little Women?)
While citrus was just the sort of sunny ingredient to bring a little warmth into the relative dark of winter, when I started to think through my options, I had to admit to myself that my enthusiasm waned a bit: I am not the biggest fan of marmalades. Despite using copious amounts of sugar (of which I recently became aware reading through a number of recipes), the cutting bitter taste is far too overwhelming and has meant that I have studiously avoided marmalades of all sorts.
But a challenge is a challenge! I decided on the three citrus marmalade from Eugenia Bone’s Well Preserved. Not only because I have a signed copy of the book, but because of one of the great features of her cookbook–each recipe comes with several ideas as to how to use it. Since as I admitted above I’m not a marmalade maniac, I thought having some ideas as to how to use my upcoming stash of marmalade would be quite helpful.
Tigress says that one of the reasons for starting a canning challenge in the midst of winter is to work out all the kinks and be ready to go when summer’s bounty is coming in by the bushel. I don’t know what other’s participants’ experiences with this are, but it was definitely the case for me. This challenge took far more time than I expected–but not because of the recipe itself but due to my rusty preserving skill set (in my defense–I’ve really only canned three times before this so I can’t quite say I had it all down). More specifically, it’s time for an equipment upgrade!
This recipe calls for one grapefruit, and three oranges and lemons. The peels of one orange and two lemons are reserved for use in the marmalade as well. Funnily enough, this marmalade recipe actually takes much less time than most. The majority seem to require that the peel steeps overnight, while this one shortens the process by having you boil the peels with sugar and then steep for two hours. Still, peeling the fruit, followed by scraping as much of the pith that remains from the peel is a bit tricky. Or maybe my knives are too dull. In any event, I learned I could be a bit less delicate with the peeling process and trust my knife to follow the curve of the rind so as remove the spongy white bits. I probably could have done a bit better, but was satisfied with the following pile of rinds:
The prepared rinds are cut into matchstick sized pieces and set to cook, and then I continued removing pith–this time from the fruit itself–grapefruit, orange (I used cara cara) and lemons (regular, because I wanted to use organic). Grapefruit in particular was the toughest to pick clean (and at the same time the fruit I was most concerned about getting clean to avoid lending too much of a bitter flavor). Once I had gone through this process, all the fruit went into the food processor. I snapped a photo before whirring the flavors together–isn’t the mix of pink, orange, and yellow just like something out of a candy shop?
I ended up with four cups of puree–the recipe estimates five, but requires you to measure so that you know how much sugar to add: a 1:1 ratio. I figured that, as usual, I was going to end up with less preserves than the recipe was expected to yield. So I didn’t bother to heat that extra jar just in case (as is advisable…)
Here is where I really learn that my canning equipment needs a little tune-up. A watched pot never boils was perhaps never more true. After about an HOUR I think we hit a low simmer. At this point I started to wonder (hey, I had a lot of time to think)–even though I bought the ‘beginner’ size canning kit last year, perhaps there was some other SMALLER option. After all, my canner has always had FAR more space than I have ever needed (in my, um, long canning career). Meanwhile I slowly brought the pulp to 220F, the temperature required for it to gel (thanks mom for the candy thermometer!)
Cutting ahead, yes, it did eventually boil and I was, at about 10:45 PM….at least the water was hot enough at that point to quickly come back up to a boil (hearing the rattling of the jars in the bubbling water is a great sound!) Notice the color change–from soft pastels to jewel-tone:
Not only did I easily fill four jars, I had enough leftover to fill another jar and a half! Surprise, surprise…As you can imagine I was in no mood to sterilize, and then process, another jar so I just poured the extra jam into a spare, cleaned-in-the-sink, jar and popped that in the fridge. So it’s not exactly “preserved” in the pantry, but will be good for quite some time in the fridge, so no waste there
As for the taste–it’s a bit bitter, but not in the way of marmalade–to me it is much like a “ruby red” grapefruit juice — clearly the grapefruit note dominates, but it’s just sweet enough to not leave you with a permanently puckered mouth. (OK, so clearly I am not a fan of grapefruit juice here). But it’s good. I do understand why the bitterness is necessary–I think without it you’d have a remarkably cloying product, but I suppose for me the balance is often off. Here I think the flavors balance each other well, so I am quite pleased with this marmalade and it certainly exceeded expectations. As further proof, my son loves it, and I don’t think you find too many toddlers with a fondness for grapefruit…I believe it might fall into the category of an “acquired taste.”
Oh, and I have solved, prospectively, the issue of the pot that never boils. Immediately after finishing (late) I went on amazon trying to see if there was some other size canner I could buy, or even just a pot big enough to can a few jars in (and make my own rack out of lids). Success! I found an 11 1/2 quart canner that can process up to 7 pint jars (and likely more half-pints, which is what I’ve mainly used). Now that I understand a bit more about canning, even that sounds like a huge capacity to me. But it turns out I have a medium size 22 quart canner (as I later related to my shocked husband)–you can go up to a 33 quart monster that can process 9 quart-sized jars. That’s a serious canner (and one that is impossible for me to imagine transporting from my sink to stove, much less finding a burner to handle it).
Also, if you are on a citrus kick, as if by magic, Eugenia Bone posted a recipe for meyer lemon marmalade. I almost made that this weekend but after a bit of a leg injury it got postponed.* I guess the Can Jam is releasing a bit of pent-up canning fever in me!
*(Yes, just what is called for in the third trimester of pregnancy, but after two days I am able to walk again so no complaints! The pain is just getting me prepped for the big day I suppose…).
While in Cycle class on Saturday morning, I had a spark of panic and then a spark of creativity. For a moment I was convinced that I had forgotten — completely forgotten — my friend Becky’s birthday. The landmark of MLK day and a previous birthday celebration in 2008 over the long weekend concerned me and my timeliness. That was the panic part, then I decided that I might as well get a little crafty over the current long weekend, knowing Becky would easily forgive me. Throughout that class and the next one, I played around with what to make and how to make it. Yes, I was THAT excited.
As it turns out, I hadn’t missed her birthday at all, and there were a lot of exciting ideas on thelongthread.com to explore. After perusing the options, I decided to craft up some potholders, adapted from a tutorial on sew mama sew. Going through my crate of scraps, I came across the fabric from my Sampler Quilt — which is still incomplete, ahem. The fabric is predominantly Amy Butler’s designs.
After looking at the pieces available I decided to start with 2 1/2 inch strips of varying varieties. I cut a few strips and sewed a lot together (yes, that’s my approximation) along the 2 1/2 inch width side. It was just one long string — almost looked like a flag.
I snipped apart each sewed piece and then sew them together, again, until I had one long continuous strip of fabric about 2 1/2 inches in width.
The next step was to iron or press along the folds. Ideally, I would have finger pressed and then iron pressed, but I just didn’t care that much for accuracy. This is a tedious step, but 30 Rock On Demand certainly helped.
I then cut the 2 1/2 inch strips into 9 inch segments. I sewed about 4 or 5 strips together, along the 9 inch length side. I managed to get about 4 squares out of this. I “squared” up the squares making sure that each was a true square with straight edges. One pattern suggested having the front and back of the patchwork, but I opted for quantity over quality and used large 9 inch square solid pieces for the back. I pinned the patchwork square and solid square together on a 9 inch square of batting.
The fabric fronts were facing together first and then that was pinned on the batting. Imagine it this way: Place one fabric square, right side up, on the backing. Next place another fabric square, right side down (the right sides are essentially facing each other) on top of the first square. Pin.
I probably should have used some specialized insulation batting, but Becky, just beware.
Next, I sewed three of the four sides together, and then turned it inside out. This made the batting inside and the right sides facing outward. I pressed the loose ends inside with about 1/4 inch seam and sewed tight. I opted to sew a fabric loop in the end in case Becky wants to hang it…
Next came the quilting part. I opted to quilt length wise across the quilt rather than every single square. I pressed the entire potholder beforehand which made this much easier, especially with the help of the quilting foot.
And, Voila! The potholders are completed! I wish I could say the same for the quilt.
Sara
kclever
mclevering
