Homemade Ravioli with Ricotta and Spinach

This is my second time making homemade ravioli, but I haven't been that impressed with the outcome.  I even bought a special ravioli rolling pin, but I don't really like how small it made them so I didn't end up using it this time.  Last time I made them I put too much filling in and it was coming out the sides.  This time I made them my own size, but they were uneven and didn't have enough filling because I was worried about last time.  I also think it was a lot of work and not worth it.  The filling was good though.  I got the filling recipe from Pioneer Woman, and I made up the sauce on my own.  Maybe I just need to look at a few more blogs to find an easier way to do it, and give it one more try.  Anyone had success with ravioli? 

Four Cheese Crustless Quiche with Spinach and Mushrooms

I like breakfast food and this is a great dish to also have for dinner.  A lady on my mission gave me this recipe and I make it often.

Four Cheese Quiche

In bowl combine:                                     In skillet:               

1/2 c Bisquick *                                        Saute 10 oz pkg mushrooms

4 oz cream cheese                                    1 small onion

1/2 c cottage cheese                                 2 T butter

1/2 c cream

4 eggs

1 c grated swiss cheese

1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

salt, pepper, pinch of nutmeg

1 pkg 10 oz frozen spinach 

   defrosted and drained

Add skillet ingredients to bowl and mix.  Put in pie pan and bake 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees F.

*Bisquick has hydrogenated oil which I don't like to use, but I had some on hand.  I found some recipes online where you can make your own homemade Bisquick without shortening, but I haven't tried them yet.  Next time I make this I will try it out.  

Within the last year I read the book In Defense of Food and really liked it.  It has changed my eating and made me more aware of ingredients in food.  I like to make lots of stuff homemade now because it won't have high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, preservatives, and a ton of ingredients I can't even pronounce.  The less processing, the better.  I highly recommend the book.

Pumpkin Waffles and Buttermilk Syrup

I had some left over pumpkin puree in the fridge from making gelato and decided to use it up.  My friend gave me this recipe years ago, and I hadn't made it in a long time.  They're great on a nice fall morning.

Pumpkin Waffles

Batter

2 c flour

2 T baking powder

2 T cinnamon

1 T sugar

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Mix ingredients together, then add:

4 egg yolks (save whites)

1 c pumpkin

1 T vanilla

1 1/2 c milk

3/4 c melted butter

Then beat 4 egg whiles until stiff peaks form and fold them into the batter.

Cook in waffle iron.

Buttermilk Syrup

1/2 cube butter (not margarine)

1/2 c buttermilk (or substitute 1 T lemon juice + 1/2 c milk)

1 c sugar

1 tsp light corn syrup

Bring to a boil and take off heat.  Add 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp vanilla.  It will bubble up quite a bit, so make sure your pan is large enough.  Stir until it settles.

Serve warm over pumpkin waffles!

Pumpkin Spice Gelato and Chocolate Coconut Almond Ice Cream (Vegan)

 

I bought this book back in June and have made a few recipes from it that were delicious.  I just tried out the pumpkin spice gelato, and it tastes just like pumpkin pie.  Next time I want to add little bits of pie crust to it.  I bought some cute little pint containers and gave it to my visiting teachees for a treat.  I also made chocolate coconut almond ice cream.  Back in June when we were in California we went to the well known Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco.  The two flavors we tried were salted caramel ice cream and chocolate coconut ice cream (vegan).  They were both delicious.  I tried making salted caramel a while back, but I still need to perfect it.  I looked at some recipes for chocolate coconut and they all mainly have coconut milk, cocoa powder, and some sweetener, but I changed the measurements and added some ingredients of my own.  The chocolate coconut tastes just like regular ice cream.  You would never know it was vegan unless someone told you.  I'm not on a vegan diet or anything, but it is a little lower in fat.  Here are the two recipes below.  The gelato takes a bit longer to make, but the chocolate is easy and fast.

Pumpkin Spice Gelato

Plain Base (see below)

1 c pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix), chilled

1/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of ground cloves

Make the plain base and chill as directed.

Place the pumpkin, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and cloves in a blender and add half of the base.  Blend until smooth, then whisk into the remaining base.  Pour the mixture into the container of an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

Plain Base

2 c whole milk

1 c heavy cream

4 large egg yolks

2/3 c sugar

In a heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the milk and cream.  Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally so a skin doesn't form, until tiny bubbles start to form around the edges and the mixture reaches a temperature of 170 degrees F.

Meanwhile, in a medium heat-proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth.  Gradually whisk in the sugar until it is well incorporated and the mixture is thick and pale yellow.  Temper the egg yolks by very slowly pouring in the hot milk mixture while whisking continuously.  Return the custard to the saucepan and place over low heat.  Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and it reaches a temperature of 185 degrees F.  Do not bring to a boil.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean bowl and let cool to room temperature, stirring every 5 minutes or so.  To cool the custard quickly, make an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water and placing the bowl with the custard in it; stir the custard until cooled.  Once completely cooled, cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Chocolate Coconut Almond Ice Cream

3 c coconut milk (Not low fat.  I used Thai Kitchen organic coconut milk, about 2 cans.  I refrigerated my coconut milk, but I'm not sure it's necessary)

6 T cocoa powder

10 T sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 c shredded coconut (Mine were kind of long pieces so I chopped them a little bit)

1/4 c chopped almonds

Blend the first 4 ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Freeze in your ice cream maker.  Add the shredded coconut and almonds the last five minutes.  Eat right away or transfer to an airtight container and freeze. 

While I was looking in my viewfinder, I saw Hazel's hand come into the picture.  She couldn't wait any longer to get her share.

Bath Time

Hattie is just a little over 3 months now, and is such a good baby.  She smiles so much and loves to coo.  She still sleeps through all 3 hours of church from nine to noon, which makes it nice for me.  My visiting teachers came over and Hattie was awake and playful and they said it was the first time they had seen her because she was always in her car seat sleeping.  I would say she was the perfect baby except for her spit up problem, but I'm hoping that will go away soon.  Yesterday we had over an older man from my home ward visiting from California.  He was playing with Hattie while someone else was holding her, and he said he would hold her except that he had seen the two previous people holding her get spit up all over their clothes.

Hattie is very strong and loves to stand up and look around.  Her eyes always get big when she's excited.  When she's laying on her back, she is usually kicking her legs and swinging her arms.  Whenever Hazel is doing something to Hattie I usually tell her to stop attacking Hattie.  The other day while Hattie was doing her kicking and swinging on the bed with Hazel next to her, Hazel said to me, "Mom Hattie is attacking me."  I couldn't help but laugh. :)

Rigatoni with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese

I recently joined facebook mainly so I could sign up for pinterest.  I found this recipe on there and decided to try it.  I changed it a little though.  I used organic whole wheat pasta with homemade wheat bread crumbs and put them in cute individual ramekins (which I just purchased at Winco for a great deal.)  It was a tasty entree.   

Pass of all Passes

We recently renewed our Pass of all Passes, and it now includes the Seven Peaks Ice Arena.  For our  Family Home Evening activity we took Hazel ice skating for the first time, and she had a lot of fun.  We went with Brendan's family.  Brendan's parents were nice and watched Hattie on the side and Christopher and Brianna switched off skating with Hazel.   She liked cruising with the cart, but it hurt our backs after a while to do it with her.  We will definitely be going again.  

Barnyard Boo

Last Week we went to Thanksgiving Point's Barnyard Boo.  It is located inside the farm, and they have lots of little Halloween activities for kids.  We met up with Tabitha and Sawyer for a good time.  

Fall Break

 Brendan has Fall break at the U, and I really like it.  This year we decided to take a trip to visit his biological grandpa, Clell, in Cody, WY.  It's kind of a long story, but Brendan met him for the first time 15 years ago and then saw him once right after his mission.  Clell is getting old and wanted to see us.  We decided to make it a fun trip on the way up.  The first night we drove to Rexburg and had dinner over at our friend's house.  We also went out to ice cream at G's.  It was delicious.  We stayed the night in Rexburg and drove to Jackson Hole the next day.  We stayed a night in Jackson Hole and then drove up through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks on our way to Cody.  We stayed two nights in Cody.  It ended up being a fun little road trip and a good time with relatives.

Jackson Hole

Grand Teton

The leaves were beautiful!

We spotted a moose around Jenny Lake.

Yellowstone

A buffalo by the road.

It was so nice to go in the Fall.  Usually the roads are so packed with people stopping along the road, but there was no one around.

Cody, WY

Brendan, Hattie, Hazel, Bernadine (Clell's sister), Toula (Clell's wife), and Clell.

Brendan driving Clell's old Scout.  He also had to buy a nice cowboy hat to fit in around town.

Snow White or Sleeping Beauty?

Hazel is going to be Snow White for Halloween and was so excited when her costume came in the mail.  She would like to wear it everyday if she could.  One day Brendan was babysitting Hazel, and he turned on the Lion King for her to watch.  He said she was sitting up straight and tall and very attentive to the first 2 minutes of the movie when he went into the kitchen to get a drink.  When he came back she was sound asleep on the floor.

BYU Homecoming Parade

The parade goes right past our house, so all we had to do was walk out front.  

Hazel loved collecting all of the parade candy in her pumpkin bucket.  She actually got a lot of candy, but most of it was salt water taffy.  I think each group needs to switch up a little next year.

Of course Hattie had a great time too.

Sesame Street Music Videos

Brendan emailed these videos to me a while back, and  I think they are cute.   Hazel likes to dance to them.  The artists change their songs for Sesame Street.  Here are two I like.  

Key Lime Tart

Tastespotting is a great website to find delicious recipes, and browsing at all of the pictures gets me excited to cook or bake something.  I needed to bring a dessert to dinner yesterday, and I found this key lime tart recipe on there.  It was super easy, and turned out just like the picture.  I used Betty Crocker's filling recipe though, which is just slightly different.  I used 3 eggs instead of egg yolks and added a teaspoon of lime zest.  I served it with whipped cream on top.  I will definitely be making this again.