Cooking Together: Homemade Ravioli

Valentine's Day 2010: a night at home cooking, eating, and watching the olympics!

Homemade Ravioli.
Homemade pasta is a breeze if you have a pasta roller - but you still should hand knead for 10 minutes for proper elasticity.

While letting the dough rest for about 30 minutes - H made the filling for our ravioli: a mixture of Ricotta, Parm, ground pork, ground veal, basil, and garlic.

I rolled out the small nougets of dough - about 2x bigger than an egg. I rolled as we needed it to avoid drying and help it stick together without water. H. got to work filling, folding, and squeezing.

IMPORTANT: when filling and folding, you must get all air out of the pocket - this prevents tearing or splitting later.

We froze most of the batch - and kept out enough for dinner. Freeze flat on a sheet for about an hour, then transfer to a ziplock in serving sizes. Do not thaw before cooking.

Cook at a HIGH SIMMER [not a rolling boil]. The rolling boil is too violent for the little handmade wonders and they tend to split.

Served with butter and parmesan. YUM.

What's for Dinner? Thai Chicken Burgers!

It's january. I want healthy. I also want SPICY to deal with the cold weather. I want COLOR to combat the white [turning dingy] Minnesota landscape. I want EASY to deal with a law school schedule.

Chicken Burgers - and damn good ones at that. Hits all the elements that are required for this particular dinner - with the added bonus that I got to use some fun kitchen gadgets [though not required!]Check out the recipe here and see how I fared.

Friday Night Special: Roasted Root Veggies and Steak au Poivre

You know its Friday when you can open the bottle of wine while getting the ingredients together - and not in any hurry or rush, but just enjoying the act of making dinner. I love making dinner when time is not an issue, it just isn't the same on a school night.

This particular Friday night's menu included slow roasted root vegetables, and a relatively quick steak au poivre paired with a bottle of old vine red that was on sale at Surdyks. The vegetables needed 90 minutes in the oven, so I wanted to get that started first. This recipe is quite easy - and can be adapted to include things you might already have onhand. Read more for the recipes.

H's Deep Dish Pizza for the Big Night!

How do you find the right spot?

Right spot to eat? Right spot for a "fun and spontaneous" date? Right spot for a lazy Sunday afternoon? Right spot when you were too busy all day to find the right spot but still want to have a fun night with someone special?

"plug and play" tool for Thanksgiving Dinner

This is a must to check out! A simple quiz to see how exotic or traditional, easy or gourmet, many or few people - all to kick out a great menu for the great fall get together.

Justice by way of Annie's Shells (pep'd up!)

I'm doing an A-1 job studying tonight. Feeling the first signs of a sore throat today (ACK!) - I decided the full-force attack plan had to get enacted, then I could study better.

Step 1: Target pit stop after school. Load up on Zicam stuff, they're out of echinacea???

Step 2: Don't touch anything or anyone on the bus ride home. Pop a zinc lozenge.

Step 3: Get my sweat on - run 3 miles with bursts of speed. It will help get blood moving, i'm sure.

Step 4: Shower. Run salt water through cavities to find and DESTROY the bad bugs. Pop a zinc lozenge.

Step 5: Incorporate peppers into a "comfort food"/study dinner.
Step 6: Mango sorbet and sleepy-time tea. Hope this leads to a good night of sleep!

Annie's Shells and Cheese - they used to be the fancy mac n'cheese that families had in Boulder when I babysat (in undergrad). Organic food was so young and new, but in Boulder - it already had a strong hold of the market in the late nineties. Somehow, eating "organic" mac n'cheese makes it seem healthy. However, it does not manage to take away the "i'm a student now!" fun dinner.

This past weekend, I spotted these great peppers at the farmer's market. They were sold as "sweet, and creamy" when cooked. Hmmm... i've never had a 'creamy' pepper before. Sounds good. Looks even better sitting on the counter ALL WEEK waiting for a dinner to call home.

Since I was just cooking for my self tonight - into the Annie's shells it went! This was so tasty! I threw an all-beef hot-dog and one of the peppers into a little non-stick pan while the noodles boiled. I let the pepper and dog get all dark and cooked through - pulled it off the heat just as the noodles were done. Drain the noodles, slice the dog and pepper (can keep all of these seeds - not spicy at all). I stirred in the pepper and hot dog before the sauce ingredients. I'm not sure it would really matter - I was hoping that the pepper would help flavor the sauce. Maybe it did - but not noticibly.

Tasty for a Thursday while going over my Lawyering Skills material. I came up with a great mnomonic device to remember all of the US Supreme Court Justices:

The Super Active Girl

Sails, Bikes, Runs*

and Sometimes Kayaks.

(Thomas, Stevens, Alito, Ginsburg, Scalia, Breyer, Roberts (CJ), Sotomayor, and Kennedy).

Who knows - it could be on the test tomorrow. Even if it's not - it's something every law student SHOULD know!

Favorite MPLS Burger Joints

*** HOME: I have yet to taste a burger that beat's H's magic recipe. With freshly ground beef (ground with butter) - they are juicy and tender. I'm trying to find something that will beat it - but have not had luck yet. I understand that not everyone lucky enough to have their own H. with a magic homemade burger, so here are my favorites found on the quest so far.

#1 Firelake: Located in downtown, around 7th and Lasalle. This was the truest burger that brought me back to childhood memories of pickles, tomatoes and mayo. Juicy, upfront with taste, and not pretending to be anything but a darn good burger.


 #2 Busters: located in south MPLS next to a Baker's Wife. H had the read burger, I tried the buffalo burger. Typically dry, as buffalo is lean, this was so juicy - i had to ask. Did they pour bacon fat all over this? Lo and behold, bacon is chopped up and mixed in with the buffalo meat! Good thing I didn't really want a LEAN burger! Tasty though...

 #3 Burger Jones: The white trash burger for H and the house-made Veggie burger for me. The WT burger was a little over the top with deep fried cheese curds, 1/3" slab of velveeta, and chicken fried bacon. The veggie burger - unreal. Whole beans - black and kidney - and cornmeal to help hold it together really add a wholesome and filling burger. Mushrooms add deep flavor, good quality swiss and a bit of pico de gallo with cilantro help pull the tastes together. Worth a drive out of downtown,

 #4 112 Eatery: Brie on anything makes for a good evening. This is a place where you can get a rare hamburger if you can handle cool meat. It's big and on an english muffin - all for about $9. Can't beat that with a stick.

Best Burger in town? Burger Jones?

On a quest to find the best burger in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area, H and I checked out Burger Jones this past weekend.

It got off to a great start when our waitress dropped off a free terrine of fries! It included seasoned waffle fries, russet fries, and sweet potato fries. Along side of the threesome was a trio of dipping sauces. All housemade - the ranch was my favorite, but the seasoned sour cream and chipotle aioli held their own on the table. The terrine could have fed 12 people - this photo was taken after we made our dent.

On to our dinner. H ordered the "White Trash" burger and I got the housemade veggie burger - a weak attempt to keep it healthy.

WT burger: juicy, medium rare beef topped with fried cheese curds, chicken fried bacon, and a thick slab of velveeta.

Veggie Burger: a mix of mushrooms and beans with cornmeal to hold it together. The cornmeal makes this stand apart from other house-made mushy burgers. It wasn't crunchy - but not mushy either. A tomato slice under the burger and topped with a little pico and cilantro.

We didn't have the stomach space for one of the 'hard shakes' on the menu. It would be a really fun thing to do on a hot afternoon HH on their patio. Maybe next time.

So - there it is. Check out the tally on the sidebar. You can see this wasn't our favorite so far - just the lucky one that got a few photos taken during dinner. Looking for suggestions! Where should we go next?

Law School Prep: Drinking down a Patty Melt

Law School. 1L. I can count the number of days of summer left on my fingers.

The best way to ease the anxiety is to make dinner with my husband, dear H. What better way to deal with stress than to EAT and drink?!?

Calendar Girls: biking, pie and fun dinners

Biking through southern Minnesota (from Lanesboro) over a long weekend with two girlfriends: 140 miles biked, 5 pieces of pie, 1 day kayaking and great food throughout the weekend.

Morels and Sweet Potato Risotto

Basic Risotto
(from Everyday Italian)
4 cups homemade chicken stock
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup finely chopped onion (about 1/2 an onion)
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

My add-ins: 7-8 dried morel mushrooms soaked in hot milk, 2 diced and roasted sweet potatoes, 1 pork chop

Before getting the risotto started, I diced the sweet potatoes and tossed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt/pepper. I roasted them on a baking sheet at 425 for 35 minutes (stirring after 25 minutes). Be careful not to let these cook too much. You don't want too hard of a crust on them. The mushrooms also needed to be reconstituted - so I heated up some milk until almost boiling and covered the mushrooms with the hot milk. The bowl was covered and left for about 30 minutes.

The pork chop had been sitting in the fridge with a rub on it for 24 hours (was meaning to use it for something else). It was grilled on high for about 3-4 minutes per side. It remained VERY moist while getting such a pretty crust from the sugar in the rub (used a sweet commercial rub). It was sliced and served on top of the risotto.

Add-in instructions: the mushrooms (and the milk they soaked in) were added to the onions after they turned translucent. The sweet potato was stirred in with the parm at the very end.

Directions from recipe

Bring the broth to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cover the broth and keep it warm over very low heat.

Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent, about 8 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook for about 2 minutes until the rice is toasted. Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Repeat, adding 3/4 cup of hot broth 2 more times, stirring often, about 12 minutes longer. At this point, the risotto can be made 4 hours ahead. Refrigerate the risotto (the rice will still be firm) and remaining broth, uncovered, until cool, then cover and keep them refrigerated until ready to proceed.

Bring the remaining broth to a simmer, then cover and keep it warm over very low heat. Stir 3/4 cup of hot broth into the partially cooked risotto over medium heat until the broth is absorbed and the risotto is hot, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining broth and simmer until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, about 5 minutes longer.Add the 1/2 cup of Parmesan. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Spoon the risotto into bowls. Sprinkle additional cheese over and serve.

Ultimate White Pizza: beets, walnuts, mushrooms and goat cheese

This pizza - admittedly - had a lot going on. I love beets - and wanted to find a way to incorporate them into a vegetarian dinner for dear H. and myself.

So - I came up with a pizza idea. After picking up a ready-made whole wheat pizza crust from Trader Joe's and some goat cheese - I had everything else in the cabinet and was ready to go.

Ultimate White Pizza
1 TJ raw pizza dough
1 red onion
1 pkg mushrooms (used shiitake)
3 garlic cloves
2 handfuls of toasted walnuts
1 small package goat cheese
1-2 cups mozzerella (to taste)
olive oil
salt and pepper (i used sea salt)

1. Let dough rest at room temp for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 F with pizza stone in the oven.
2. Scrub and peel beets. Cut into small half-moon slices. Cut onion in small half-moon slices.
3. Drizzle onions, beets, mushrooms and garlic with olive oil. Spread onto baking sheet lined with tin foil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 25-35 minutes until soft - stirring about halfway through cooking.
5. Increase oven temp to 500 and move pizza stone to middle of oven.
4. Build Pizza: Stretch dough to desired thickness and size. Drizzle a good amount of olive oil over crust (this is the only sauce). Layer with toppings. Sprinkle with salt - including the edge of the crust.
5. Bake pizza for 12-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the crust and toppings. Pizza is done when the middle of the pie is melted and hot.

Note: I layered the roasted veggies and walnuts under the cheese. Next time, I would put the cheese on the bottom and the veggies on top for a prettier presentation.

That's the beauty of pizza - you can get a little creative and it will probably work out well. This was really tasty and was a fun way to get in a few servings of vegetables and whole grains. This also held up well for a leftover lunch the next day.

First Time Smoker and Hooked for LIFE!

Menu: Sweet and Fruity Pork Tenderloin with Jalapeach Barbecue Suace, Roasted Kale, and french fries

Smoking a pork tenderloin is said to be tough. I only heard that after it was plated and formed the opinion that it was decidely moist, tender, and delicious. I was happy not to have the preconception of this being difficult - because it really just needed time.

Using a smoker instead of a grill is true

BBQ. Smoking the meat lets the fat render and flavor the piece. Meat that has little fat can be more difficult. This was offset by using a great rub and basting liquid called a "Mop." Recipes for the rub and mop can be found on the recipe page. The white basting tool was made from an old t-shirt cut into strips and braided together at the top. This mop tool has lasted 2 summers now - and is washed in the dishwasher.

The tenderloin smoked for a bit over 3 hours at 200 - 220F.

So - I did it! I mastered the scary smoker that has been in my husband's domain since we got married three and a half years ago. This is an achievement that will really take me places - at least to new cookbooks for dinner ideas! You can use a grill like a smoker -but I am not the expert on that. You'll have to look elsewhere.

Go forth - and smoke!

Homemade Lemon Ice Cream with Angel Food and Strawberries

How many women host dinner parties when 4 weeks away from bringing their first child into the world? I hope I am as much of a super woman as our friend Heather (someday - not today. Mom, don't get any ideas!) Along with her husband Matt - they hosted a great Sunday dinner with a few friends. All of the food was fantastic - but the dessert was the perfect end note and effectively stole the show (or my memory at least!)

The lemon ice cream was refreshing - but still creamier than a sorbet. I have been promised the recipe (M&H - feel free to post in comments or email me to post!) This recipe has the feeling of a family secret - so I feel lucky to be granted access. Another bonus with the dessert - the angel food cake was drizzled with a powder sugar glaze (milk, butter and pwd sugar) with lemon juice and lemon zest added. Perfect!

A lovely summer dinner. Thanks!

Festival de Corn Dog

The 7th Annual Sutton Corndog Festival

Below is the email information from the event that took place last weekend. It was a small affair - we all tried to convince Mr. Sutton of getting into the Great Minnesota State Fair with these babies... Maybe next year! There is no way to accurately represent the information in a better way - so here it is in the original form (The Cheesy Obamba was the winner by far!)

It’s 2009, a year of discovery and “change”. The country has a new President, the Viking’s have a new quarterback, and the Corndog Festival has a cause. So listen up!

This year we turn our eye to our attention to a worthy, and local, cause. We are proud to donate proceeds to the Miracles of Mitch Foundation http://www.miraclesofmitch.org/. A Minnesota based 501c3 organization, whose sole purpose is to improve the quality of life for children, and their families, who struggle daily with cancer.

Obviously the economy has scared the bejesus out of most of us. If you are like me, you flinch before reaching for your wallet. I know you are excited to and look forward to debauchery that takes place every year at the Corndog Festival. If you are a cheapskate, you can still look forward to the free ride by my blood, sweat, and tears. However, if you have even smallest of hearts, we ask that you donate what you feel comfortable with knowing that your money will go to a good cause, the foundation and corndogs.
Your heart will cry for mercy, and your soul will cry for joy.

Notable Menu items this year:
The Corndog: Really, this is why we are here folks. Need I say more? If you need an explanation please do not come.
The Cheesy Wonder: Believe it or not, it is making a comeback. A deep fried hotdog cloaked in american cheese, battered with my famous corn dog mix, and lovingly served on a stick.

The Obamba: The jury is still out… I think we really pushed the envelope on this one last year. Wrapping a hotdog in pastrami not only challenges culinary wisdom, but also defies the laws of physics. We are asking a lot out of that stick.
The Cheesy Obamba: Now we’ve gone too far by promising too much too fast…
The Red Dog: Let’s just say this one might burn a little. It is a delicately deep fried hot link that is sure to spice up your night, and likely the following day.
The Whitey: A unique experience indeed. Taking New York’s famous white hotdog and embracing it in a warm hug of fat, flour, and other secret herbs and spices
Tots and Fries: Served with genuine ketchup. "Is that real tomato ketchup Eddie?"
Pam's Queso: Velveeta makes everything taste better. Just don't ask what's in it
Beer: And lot's of it
Soda: Because not everyone drinks beer
Water: Because it’s free from the hose

Dog wrapped in bacon and american cheese, breaded, and fried. This is called the Obamba because it has "too much going on." It was my favorite.

Pepper and Cherry Sausage

We were looking for a quick weeknight meal. No boxes, nothing frozen, and ready in 20-30 minutes without any cooking or babysitting. One of my favorite neighborhood places is Kramarczuk's. A Polish Deli and Sausage Company - they have fantastic sausage of ALL SORTS. Last night - we found a hot pepper and cherry sausage that seemed to fit into my current cherry obsession.

Topping this with mustard (housemade with a bit of horseradish) and good ol' Franks Kraut is all that is needed. The cherries were nice - chopped preserved would be my guess. The pepper presence was lacking - i like hot food.

So - we threw these on the smoker for about 30 minutes - and in the meantime, started happy hour. It was a great night and another easy, tasty dinner.

Goat Cheese and Spicy Sausage Ravioli

Homemade pasta is divine. It is not difficult - although it can take some time. However - the result is worth every minute. This is my dear H's Ravioli.


This was the perfect way to use up some leftovers in the fridge! He stuffed it with things we had on hand already: 1 spicy italian sausage, 1 uncooked hamburger patty, basil, and an egg. H only had to buy some goat cheese for this - and it was ready to go.


While the pasta dough (click here for recipe) was resting - H browned the two meats. Then, he rolled out one section of dough at a time - and filled it before moving on to the next section.

He cooked this up for me as a 'Pre-Race' dinner the night before my half marathon. It was so tasty - I didn't want it to end. After cooking - the pasta was tossed with butter and parmesan. Just thinking about it now is making me hungry again.


Tips for success:
* get all of the air out between the filling and the dough with your fingers
* When cooking - do not let the water boil. A hard boil will knock your delicate Ravioli's around too much
* Make extras! This freezes really well - and you can have a weeknight meal ready to go!

Fav Things: Home ground burgers at the cabin

A few of my favorite things:
* Summertime
* Quiet cabins on the lake 
* Dinner with friends
* Meat Grinder for the kitchen aid to make our own ground beef!

This meat grinder was a thank-you gift from some friends. H has been putting it to great use by grinding his own chuck to make hamburgers.
By grinding the meat yourself - the meat doesn't have time to settle and air pockets still remain to hold lots of juice. If you want to kick it up a notch - just add in frozen butter cubes, salt, and pepper. It's really amazing. These are the best hamburgers I have ever had.

Into to the grinder: chuck steak cut into rough cubes and butter cubes that have been frozen
After meat is ground: add 1 egg yolk per pound of meat, salt and pepper. Gently pat into disc shapes with indent in the middle. Grill as normal.

For this dinner, we also grilled up zuchini and corn. Pair that with a potato salad - and you have TOO MUCH to enjoy. Perfect for a weekend at a friend's cabin.