Pasta!

Last night I was sitting around thinking, "What on earth am I going to use all this delicious homemade ricotta that I just whipped up for?"

If you saw my last post you'll know that the ricotta I made, while initially it tasted a bit salty, ended up with a fantastic mellow flavor that I could have easily used interchangeably with a store bought variety. This gave me the issue of having too many options! I know, boo hoo, such a big issue... but I started to narrow my options down when I remembered we were supposed to have company over today so I wanted something that I could prepare ahead for everyone to enjoy as soon as we got home from church, and I wanted to give them the best chance to enjoy it, even if they weren't whey-cheese lovers. Pasta!

As I mentioned previously, I bought a ravioli stamp while we were on vacation last month, and a pasta maker from the charity garage sale I was working at a few weeks ago. And this was clearly the chance I was waiting for to try them out! Any time previously that I've thought about making up pasta, I didn't have what I needed to make a yummy filling (which sounds ridiculous given the wide range of things you can stuff in there, but honest! I didn't!). This time I had no excuse. There was a delectable bowl of fresh cheese sitting on my counter begging me to wrap it up in fresh dough, newly rolled out.

Care to hear some wisdom I garnered from last night?

Rolling out pasta with a pasta bike is not something one masters on their first try. Like, not even close. I knew I was supposed to 'catch' the dough on the underside of the bike, but between rolling too slow, my dough perhaps being a bit too sticky, and just not bothering, I very often got my dough torn up from wrapping around the rollers. The worst part was the number of times I did this when I was almost completely done rolling a piece. You start a pasta bike on the #1 setting, gently feeding through a slightly flattened lump of dough. You continue to feed it through #1 for a few turns, folding it in half each time, before you progress to #2, then #3, then #4 and #5 and, finally, #6 (there are more numbers but I was pushing my luck getting to #6!) Each number goes a bit thinner until you have a sheet resembling phyllo on your last crank. And about 4 times I got up between #4 and #6, and halfway down my sheet something would snag and tear a big line down the center. ARGH!

Which brings me to garnered wisdom point #2:
Rolling pasta is a two person job.

That's not a strict rule. I successfully finished 2 out of my 4 lumps of dough all by myself (after a couple tries). But there's just no denying how much quicker everything went when I fed it through the machine and caught it, while Matt turned the crank.

Point #3: Don't be a chicken - turn that crank like you mean it!
I started getting skittish about having my pasta snag, and so I started turning the crank slower to make sure I had the bottom, but somehow, that just made it worse. Turning the crank at a nice, even clip helped push the bottom clear.

Point #4: Don't start making homemade pasta for the first time at 8:20 at night.
Yikes. This is a pretty big one. If I were more skilled with a pasta bike, this might not have been an issue, but for a newbie who had to continually redo some pieces, this was rough. My children were tired. My husband was exhausted. I was beat! But I couldn't stop and come back to it later because the dough would dry up, so I had to keep going. I was done by 10:30, and if I had more skill it would have been sooner, but as a reward for their patience (??!?!) I let the boys sample some of the finished product (which I overboiled so it was rubbery - whoops!) But note the mess in the picture? I still had to clean that up before bed!

The verdict? That was some flipping delicious pasta filling!

Ricotta Ravioli Filling:
1 c. fresh ricotta
1/4 c. grated parmesan
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
zest of a lemon
1 egg

Oh, and it sounds fabulous and all to make homemade ricotta and fresh handmade pasta, but if you judged kitchen skills by how well you make Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, I'd get a failing grade. Half of them were burnt and the ones that didn't burn were squished, and somehow when I was flipping one, the top came off and the cheese folded in half (yah, I really don't know...)

A sure sign that I should stick to cheese and pasta.

Mrs. VanderLeek ;)

Store-bought Hacks

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, a 'hack' is taking something that already exists, and modifying it into something better, but still maintaining the integrity of the original design (as opposed to an 'upcycle', which would modify the original purpose of the product and make something completely new).

Hacking store-bought products is a popular trend right now, one of the most prevalent that I've seen being Ikea Hacks. People take bookcases, tables, or anything else they can get their hands on, and they improve them through different degrees of painting, cutting, glueing, etc. One person went so far as to order 60 bookcases and lined an entire landing with them, making a built-in library.

However, my hacks that I will be talking about today, revolve a bit more around food. We will be talking about how to buy something from the grocery store, and turn it into something much better, with just a few ingredients.
If you're unclear on what I'm doing still, keep reading. You'll catch on.

First up: canned soup. Mmmmmm, soup. This is what inspired me to write this post actually. A few days ago, Matt was home early from work and I was exhausted with a splitting headache. I hadn't made supper, or even thought about supper, but now was the time to do so. So, I started rooting through my cupboards and found a can of cream of potato soup. I'm not even sure why I bought it in the first place, but there it was. I threw the soup in a saucepan and heated it on the stove. I'm not gonna lie - it didn't smell good. It didn't really look good either. Okay, I was dreading eating it. But I never give up that easily on a recipe. So I did what I always do: keep adding things until it tastes good. Turns out, it didn't take much! I added about half a cup of aged cheddar cheese and sprinkled bacon bits on top and suddenly there wasn't enough soup to go around! Matt adored it and I was more than a little surprised at how good it tasted (especially compared to how it tasted at the beginning). He welcomed me to make that any time, and I suddenly felt the need to keep cream of potato soup as a pantry staple in our house! Don't believe that it was that good? Try it for yourselves! And while you're at it, try these varieties:
Smokey Gouda - 1/2 c. grated smoked gouda and 1/2 tsp paprika (or chili powder if you prefer)
Loaded Baked Potato - 1/2 c. grated cheddar, 1 big spoonful of sour cream, top with chives and bacon bits
Stuffed Potato - 2 tbsp french onion cream cheese (whisk to make sure it mixes in properly!) and chives

Don't like potato soup? Here are some ideas for cream of chicken:
Ranch - 2 tbsp ranch dressing
Waldorf - 1/4 c. plain yogurt, chopped celery, chopped apple

Next: Cake mixes! My mom always made these most fantabulous (that's a word) cakes, usually in bundt pans, and they were beyond moist. And everyone would always ask her for the recipe and she would sheepishly say, "Well, you start with a cake mix..." Cake mixes come in lots of varieties, and many degrees of quality - it's true. Some add more questionable ingredients than others, and some just don't taste quite right. But there are some many things that you can do with them, besides the basic eggs, oil and water that can redeem nearly any box of cake mix. For example - my mom's 'secret' recipe - Company's Coming's Almost-a-Scratch Cake. Take 1 box of cake mix, 1 box (4-serving size) of instant pudding, add 1 cup water, a 1/2 cup of oil and 4 eggs. Mix and bake in a bundt pan at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. The moistness is most remniscent of a chiffon cake, and you can do this in a variety of flavors - chocolate cake and chocolate pudding, lemon cake and lemon pudding, or mix it up a bit - white cake and lemon pudding, spice cake and butterscotch pudding, chocolate cake and banana pudding... All would taste amazing!
If you want more ideas, check out the testing that Hungry Girl did - they made up cake mixes by adding things like yogurt, pureed pumpkin, and even diet pop, so see how each one tasted!

And then: Coffee! Do you pay extra for flavored coffees that taste stale or have a funny aftertaste? You really shouldn't... Coffee is a super-simple thing to play with. By simply adding fresh ingredients directly into the coffee grinds in the filter, you can make some very yummy java without any funny aftertastes.
Ideas:
Festive Brew - 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice for 8 cups of coffee
Chilly Morning Brew - 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a 1/4 tsp cloves
Toasted Nut - roast a few hazelnuts in your oven, crush fine
Mocha Java - add 1 tsp cocoa (make sure you stir the cocoa into your grinds, and don't use dutch process to avoid clogging issues)
Christmas Orange - add 1 tsp cocoa and 1 1/2 tsp orange zest

Lastly: Pasta Sauce! I hate jarred pasta sauce :) I've only found a couple that have intruiged me, but none of them have ever wowed me before. There is, however, one pasta sauce that I could eat every day for the rest of my life and I would die happy: my Uncle Doug's pasta sauce. The secret to the sauce is the add-ins, and while you can make it from scratch, the traditional recipe is 1 jar of original flavored Ragu. The secret ingredient? Brown sugar. Now, I could never remember the actual amounts or ingredients so I kind of made up the rest of the ingredients over the years, but the brown sugar makes it. Oh, and make sure you put in the Bay leaf.
Uncle Doug's sauce - 1 jar Ragu, 1 lbs ground beef (optional), 1 - 2 bay leaves, 3 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp chili powder, 3 splashes of tobasco sauce.

I'm only posting one Pasta Sauce hack because, well, I've never had a desire to try any others!

Are there any things that you improve by adding a couple of ingredients? Let me know!

Mrs. VanderLeek ;)

Ricotta Gnocchi

Being back to normal life is so nice! After every day for a whole week being primarily about planning a toddler party, it's nice to just worry about the every-day things, like making supper, and doing yardwork.
Sunday night I was kind of hitting that 'normal' stage again. Matt had to stay home from church (which is at 3 p.m. for us) because he wasn't feeling great and I left one of the kids with him and the other with my Mom while I went and lead worship. As soon as church was over I rushed home to take care of my family, and make them some food. Everyone was getting pretty hungry so I wanted something quick, but I didn't have a load of things in my fridge, but I did have some ricotta that needed to be used up.
So, I ran to Pinterest for help and I was pleased to find a recipe for Ricotta Gnocchi from Budget Bytes.
If you remember, I adore Budget Bytes. Every recipe I've tried out of there has been fabulous and surprisingly quick. So I decided to undertake the task and make gnocchi for the first time.
The recipe was very simple: Container of ricotta, egg, tsp of oil, salt and pepper, and about 2 cups of flour. My ricotta container wasn't full but I used it up and watched how much flour I put in. Literally I just had to stir everything together. Then you roll it out into ropes, cut it up into tiny bits and boil it for a few minutes. I realized as I was making this that the only time I've ever had gnocchi is when I've stolen a bite of some of Matt's at a restaurant, so I wasn't sure how it would taste. Since I wasn't sure what gnocchi would taste like, I wasn't sure what to put on top of it. Budget Bytes recommended browned butter and garlic, so I followed suit and got the butter melting while the gnocchi was boiling. As soon as all those little morsels were floating, my butter and garlic were ready. I kept my pan on high, tossed those bad-boys in, and within a couple of minutes they were crisped and yummy looking. I sprinkled some grated parm on top and served with my fingers crossed!
The result? AMAZING!
Matt ate about 3 times as much as I did; it filled me up fast, and when I couldn't finish my bowl I figured we'd have leftovers. Oh boy was I proved wrong. I was worried that the browned butter and garlic wouldn't be enough flavor, but they were perfect. I was also a little wary about the texture too, not really knowing what to expect, but it was more bready than I thought, and less pasta-like than I was concerned. Oh, and apparently you can make and freeze them, so a quick meal can be made even quicker. But considering it only took me half an hour from when I pulled the ingredients out, to when I set the finished meal on the table, I think unless I'm making a huge batch, I wouldn't bother making these ahead. I should say, rather, that I wouldn't bother making these ahead for myself, because I'm definitely adding these to my freezer-meal menu for friends who have babies or are sick.
I'd like to say that this first experience with gnocchi has encouraged me to try more varieties, but, truth be told, I loved this one so much, I don't know when I'll ever try another!
Today was filled with unforeseen productivity, from checking a load of things off of my own To Do list, to getting some Lillies of the Valley planted in my yard, to voting in the provincial election, and even making new plans for a kitchen reno (opening up the wall dividing the kitchen and the living room and adding another wall of counter tops!). Even when I thought I ran out of time to be productive after Matt got home from work, I gave the baby a bath after supper and still had time to go outside with Matt and rake out our front flower beds! I just hope tomorrow will be a similar day!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)

Recipe Recap

Well, St. Patty's Day has come and gone, all of the fudge has been eaten and all of the green food dye has finally washed off my hands.
I spent Saturday in the kitchen, listening to The Irish Descendants (Raggle Taggle Gypsy, anyone?) and making a load of yummy Irish-themed treats. I started the morning off with potato pancakes with cheese baked into them and bacon and sunny-side-up eggs on top. As soon as the dishes were all cleared I got to work on whipping up some Irish Soda Bread. I made up two loaves; one loaf stayed at home with us, and the second loaf went to my sister in Calgary along with some of the Irish Cream Fudge I had made up the night before. The Soda Bread recipe I used was a true, traditional Irish Soda Bread - no raisins, no sugars, no eggs. Just flour, salt, baking soda and buttermilk. It was quite yummy.
Since we had slept in quite late (rough night with the kiddos), we more or less skipped lunch, save for munching on fudge and soda bread, so I got to work fairly soon on the Steak and Guinness pie - something that was quite highly anticipated by my husband. Matt loves pie, however it comes, and pie with steak and beer? He was thrilled! The meat in our pie was super, super tender, not just because you simmer it for hours on the stove, but also because we actually used venison, from the young deer Matt got this fall. Young meat = tender meat, and this was melt-in-your-mouth tender meat. My only beef (ha.) with the recipe was the use of Worchestershire sauce - I have an extremely low tolerance for it (Thanks to Denny's, but that's an old story) and I could have subbed it out but I thought I'd leave it in and see if I still hated it. Yep, I do.
Well, I took the next couple days off from the kitchen (we had fish sticks the next night and A&W last night!) but today I'm right back into it. I fortunately had a thought last night that I would like bread today. I have often lamented my lack of foresight when it comes to bread making because had I taken 5 minutes the night before I could have whipped up a sponge, but there's just no rushing a sponge to compensate for that lack of foresight. So when I thought about it last night I threw three things in a bowl, gave it a quick stir, and set myself up to make a great loaf of focaccia today! When you make something like a nice, herby focaccia, you really plan your meal around it, rather than vice versa, so for supper we're having stuffed manicotti with a meaty tomato sauce, so our bread has something to sop up. This meal will involve winging it; I don't use recipes for meat sauces or pasta dishes typically, unless I'm trying to recreate something. And as it goes, I make a mean manicotti, so why would I try to make someone else's?
Here's a general idea of what I did for the manicotti tonight:

Stuffed Manicotti
1 lbs ground beef
1/2 lbs ground pork
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/4 c. red wine
1 can crushed tomatoes
Basil, Oregano

1 1/2 c. cottage cheese
1 egg
1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar, divided
salt and pepper

15 manicotti pieces, cooked and slightly cooled

Cook up beef and pork in a skillet, set aside in a medium bowl. Cook onion in a bit of oil until tender. Add garlic and heat until flavors release. Deglaze with wine. Pour in crushed tomatoes and add spices. Cook over medium until heated through. Pour half of the tomato sauce over the cooked meat and stir to combine.
In a separate bowl combined cottage cheese, egg and 3/4 c. shredded cheddar. Season with salt and pepper. Fold cheese mix into meat mix.
Stuff manicotti with meat and cheese mixture and lay piece in a casserole dish (make sure the manicotti pieces aren't touching in the dish). When all of the pieces are stuffed, pour remaining tomato sauce over and top with remaining shredded cheddar. Bake at 350 for 30 - 40 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
This makes A LOT of food. Matt and I ate until we were totally full, and we each had 3 pieces of manicotti, so if you're not cooking for company, divide the manicotti between freezer-safe containers before you top them with the remaining sauce and cheese. These freeze great!

As a bit of a disclaimer, sometimes I post healthy meals that pay attention to calories and fat content... this is not one of those times. I don't know the fat content of this meal, nor do I want to, but I know it tastes great, and so while you shouldn't eat this everyday, once in a while is great!

Mrs. VanderLeek ;)

Mrs. VanderLeek ;)