The Art of the Ravioli- Wild Mushroom and Sage Ravioli with Lemon Cream Sauce

Wild Mushroom Sage Ravioli with Lemon Cream Sauce

I love garlic. I love butter. And boy do I love carbohydrates. Put them all together and what do you get? Pasta. Lots of it. There are so many ways to make pasta and so many ways to enjoy it. Lasagna, fettuccine, angel hair, penne. I love it all. But probably my favorite member of the pasta family is the ravioli.

Ravioli can be simple with sauce (straight up from the Safeway frozen section with Ragu) or super fancy (butternut squash something or other with a sauce that has three ingredients I can't pronounce. I love that you can dress it up or dress it down and it still tastes fantastic. I wanted to try to make my own raviolis with my own filling, so I concocted this Wild Mushroom Sage Ravioli from a concatenation (word of the day win!) of multiple recipes. Actually, most of this came from my own brain, with inspiration from other places, so I'll just take full credit for it.

Doesn't even require that much stuff!

Sage is an underrated herb. Don't skimp on the fresh sage! It really adds that bourgeois (another word of the day win!) flair to it, adding something to the mushrooms. It isn't very expensive. I think I got a bunch for $2.50, and it was so worth it. As far as the mushrooms, I used crimini and porcini in this particular recipe, but feel free to experiment with oyster mushrooms or shiitake. Just don't do the regular boring old white mushrooms. Lame sauce. You can do better than that! Mushrooms are cheap, so get some good ones. I used dehydrated porcini and rehydrated them in a bowl of water before using them. They worked great and I think they added something to the ravioli.

Important note on constructing the ravioli. The first time I made this recipe, I made my own pasta dough and attempted to make the ravioli from scratch. That's when I found out that a ravioli press really is necessary. As this blog is called the Tiny Kitchen Adventures and not the Fully Stocked Kitchen With Every Single Piece of Equipment You Could Ever Need Adventures, I definitely don't have a ravioli press. I don't think its physically possible to roll out the dough thin enough to make good ravioli, so I substituted wonton wrappers. They worked like a charm and saved a bunch of time.

Let me know in the comments if you make the recipe, or if you have another great idea for ravioli!

So tasty, so fancy, so easy. And vegetarian, if you're into that sort of thing.

Wild Mushroom Sage Ravioli with Lemon Cream Sauce
Ravioli
2 tbl olive oil
1 package dehydrated porcini mushrooms, finely diced
4 oz crimini mushrooms, finely diced 
1 small onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbl fresh chopped sage
2 tsp lemon juice
2/3 cup ricotta
salt and pepper to taste
wonton wrappers

Lemon Cream Sauce
3 tbl butter
2 tbl olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
3 tbl lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute diced mushrooms, onion, and garlic in a large skillet until tender, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly. In a
large bowl, combine mushroom mix, sage, lemon juice and ricotta. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put approximately 1 1/2 tbl mushroom-ricotta mix in the center of a wonton wrapper square. Wet the edges of the square and place another square over the top. Crimp all edges firmly with a fork. Repeat with the remaining mushroom-ricotta mix.

They are done when they float.

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan. Add olive oil. Saute onion in butter and oil until tender. Add chicken broth, heavy cream and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then simmer until reduced by half and mixture begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add three or four ravioli at a time, making sure they do not stick to the bottom of the pot. Boil ravioli until they float to the top of the pot, approximately 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. Repeat with remaining ravioli.

Serve ravioli with Lemon Cream Sauce. Garnish with fresh sage.

Note- if you want, you can freeze ravioli before you boil them. Store in an airtight container or ziploc bag in the freezer. To serve, boil for 5 minutes.

I Earned My Cookie Badge! Homemade Samoas.

Homemade Samoas- for those dark times when you have no Girl Scout cookies left.

It's that time of year again. That time when you have to make some extremely important decisions. You are going to make one of the most important financial transactions of the year. Yes, it is tax time, but that's totally not what I'm talking about. It's Girl Scout Cookie Season. That wonderful time of the year when you have to make the hard choice between Thin Mints and Trefoils, Samoas and Tag-a-longs. I know that I, personally, can support an entire county's worth of troops with my Thin Mint purchases. Boxes keep in the freezer for a long time, but usually they only last about a week in my house.

So what does one do when you are out of cookies and there are no Girl Scouts to be found? Don't panic! Apocalypse averted! I found several recipes online for these cookies, and I actually found that my Samoas are just as good (dare I say, better?) than the ones you can buy from that nice girl outside the grocery store. I modified my recipe from Instructables. (Just want to take a moment and congratulate this girl (link) for her ingenuity. I bet she outsells her entire troop. Young capitalist for the win.)

Samoas are the coconut caramel chocolate cookies. I am not a huge coconut person, but I really love these. They are my husband's favorite. The cookie base is really just shortbread, the same shortbread that is used for Trefoils. This recipe makes WAY more shortbread than you need for the samoas, but you can use it for just plain shortbread cookies if you like when you run out of coconut caramel mix.

A word on the use of caramels. For some reason, Safeway stopped selling baking caramels, which wounds

Seriously Safeway, why?

my soul. I loved those things. So convenient, and way easier to unwrap than the other ones. For this recipe, I used two bags (about 11 oz total) of Werther's soft caramels. Any type of soft caramel will do, just add more or less milk to get a soft and spreadable consistency. You don't want it to be too soft or it will just run off the cookie. It can be pretty difficulty to goop the coconut-caramel mixture onto the cookie with any type of utensil, so I went caveman and just used my hands. It was messy, but it ended up working out pretty well. It may not seem like the caramel is sticking at first, but let it sit for a few minutes and it will adhere to the cookie pretty well.

Ready to fix your cookie-cravings!

Homemade Samoa Cookies
1 cup butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour (plus more for rolling)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbl milk

2 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
12 oz (approximately) soft caramel candies
1 1/2 tbl milk
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Cream together sugar and butter. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to the butter mixture. Slowly add vanilla and milk. Form dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until firm and not sticky.

Yeah...it's messy.

While dough is cooling, spread coconut thinly on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 deg F, stirring frequently, until coconut is browned, about 10 min. Unwrap caramel candies and place in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1 tbl of milk and microwave in 10 second increments, stirring in between, until caramels are melted and milk is incorporated. Add more milk if it seems like the caramel is too stiff. Combine coconut and melted caramel in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Once dough is cooled, take out one ball, leaving the other in the fridge. Roll out the ball on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin until dough is approximately 1/4 in thick. Cut into donut shape and place on a greased baking sheet. Collect scraps and roll out again to make more cookies. Refrigerate the dough if it starts to get sticky. Repeat with other ball of dough. Bake cookies for 10 min at 350 deg F, or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 min on a wire cookie rack.

Just need to set up a bit and they are ready to go!

Place cooled cookies on parchment paper, tin foil, waxed paper, or other non-stick surface. Spread
coconut-caramel mixture onto cookies. Let set for 15 min. Heat chocolate chips in the microwave in 10 second increments until melted. Dip cookie bottoms into melted chocolate, or use a fork to spread chocolate onto the bottoms. Set on a non-stick surface. Drizzle tops of cookies with remaining chocolate. Put in the freezer for 1 hour to set. Store in an air-tight container in a cool place. Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day! Homemade Marzipan

Every small child eats PlayDoh. Don't deny it. Two-year-old you indulged in the blue or red. Mom and dad always said no, but you just couldn't resist the sticky, colorful goop. Why create a tree and dog sculpture when you could just eat it. Unfortunately, PlayDoh doesn't taste good. At all. In fact, it tastes awful. Downer. I discovered marzipan as an adult, and my inner two-year-old was ecstatic. It's colorful! You can build stuff with it! And it tastes AWESOME! My real life twenty six-year-old realized I could use my new-found edible PlayDoh to decorate things and make them all fancy and stuff. You know, because it's pretty.

The options with marzipan are basically limited by your imagination. And probably your almond supply, but really you can buy more. You can dye it any color you feel like and form it into any shape you can imagine. Traditionally, marzipan is used to make fake little fruits to decorate cakes. You can make little animals, flowers, hearts, stars, and anything else you can come up with. When working with it, it may get soft and too sticky. Just add more powdered sugar. You can also store it in the fridge for 3 months, or in the freezer for 6 months, just thaw before use.

Roses can be any color. Violets are always blue, though.

Valentine's Day is coming up, and I wanted to do something fun for my friends. I decided to make some chocolate cupcakes from scratch and decorate with marzipan roses. My marzipan recipe is adapted from about.com. The chocolate cupcake recipe I used is from The Sophisticated Gourmet and really is just as easy as a boxed recipe. You probably have everything you need in your pantry already! You can decorate whatever you want with the marzipan, but it really does seem to go well with chocolate.

What kind of shapes will you make? Let me know in the comments!

Valentine's Day treats for my very best friends!

Homemade Marzipan
1 1/2 cups raw, unsalted almonds
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided
3 egg whites, lightly beaten, divided
Food dye

1) Blanching almonds
To blanch your almonds,  bring a small pot of water to boil. Add almonds and boil for exactly 1 min. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water. Carefully squeeze almond to separate the skin from the nut.

2) Almond Paste
Using a large food processor, or working in batches in a smaller processor, grind blanched almonds with 1/2 cup powdered sugar until the almonds are finely ground. Be careful not to over-process, or you will have almond butter. Once the almonds are very finely ground, add an additional 1 cup of powdered sugar and process again to mix. Add one egg white and process. The mixture should start to form a thick paste. If it seems too sticky and unmanageable, add additional powdered sugar.

3) Marzipan
Transfer almond paste from food processor to a stand mixer. Add remaining 3 cups of powdered sugar to the almond paste and mix at a low speed until almond paste has a more fine, sandy texture. With the mixture on low, slowly add remaining two egg whites until mixture forms a ball. You may not need all of the egg whites. Dust a surface with powdered sugar and knead marzipan until a soft, pliable dough forms. Add additional powdered sugar if the dough seems too soft.


4) Marzipan roses
Divide marzipan into a large ball and a smaller ball. In the large ball, add 3 drops of red food coloring and knead until ball is uniformly pink. Add more food coloring if you would like more red roses, or less if you want pink roses. Add 3 drops of green food coloring to the small ball and knead until uniformly green. Tear a marble sized piece of red marzipan off and flatten to form an oval. Roll up oval to form center of the rose. Take pea sized pieces of red and flatten into smaller ovals and add around the outside as petals. Take a marble sized piece of green, flatten into an oval and shape into a leaf. Score slightly with a knife to make leaf veins. Stick to the bottom of the rose blossom. Use to decorate cupcakes or cakes.

More Beer is the Best Beer! Beer Roasted Chicken and Beer Braised Collards

Beer and chicken: Best friends forever!

If you don't drink, or are under 21, don't read this post. Because everything has beer. Tasty, amber alcohol, full of barley goodness. While you may enjoy drinking beer, you may never have had the pleasure of eating it. Okay, maybe you've tried beer bread, or maybe beer battered something or other, but I feel like those just scratch the surface of the wonders of cooking with beer. Both of these recipes are easy and go great together or on their own. They are even fairly healthy! Just make sure you actually use the beer in the recipe and don't just drink it.

Get that butter mix under the skin.

Mmmm...beer bath for my chicken.

While visiting family for Thanksgiving, I went and visited a local (here), and is seriously easy to do. You don't actually need to use Sam, but definitely use a lager of some kind. I've used Third Shift, and it worked out great. Don't ruin your chicken with IPA or some other sorry excuse for beer. Use good beer, because it will taste so much better.
brewery. We were discussing our favorite ways to cook turkey. Mine is hands-down deep fried turkey, while my husband tends to like turkey baked with stuffing in the bird. The bartender chimed in to tell us he actually braised his turkey in beer. While I won't give up my fried turkey for anything, I had to try this bird-booze combo. A bit of internet searching and a small amount of trial and error resulted in Beer Roasted Chicken. My bird is based off of the Samuel Adams recipe

Keeping Sam Adams in business.

If you are eating boozy chicken, you probably need an alcoholic side to go with it. In an effort to find dark leafy greens that I actually like (full of antioxidants...or something...I guess) I discovered Beer Braised Collards. Collards are much better than kale in my opinion, and you can buy them in bulk at Safeway. Winning! My recipe is roughly based on the Bon Appetit version, (here), but I don't go all out with it. Mine is much simpler. Serve the collards with your Beer Roasted Chicken, or maybe with steak.

Put it all together! And serve with beer. Obviously.

Beer Roasted Chicken
1 3-4 lb chicken
3 tbl lemon juice 
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp pepper
4 tbl butter, softened
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbl dried thyme
1 1/2 cup lager beer

Preheat oven to 425 deg F. 
Rinse chicken well, removing gizzards. Pat dry with paper towels and place in a roasting dish. Rub with lemon juice outside and inside the cavity. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt and all of the pepper over bird. Combine softened butter, garlic, thyme, and 1 tsp salt. Raise the skin carefully and put some butter mixture it. Repeat over all of the bird. Spread the remaining butter mixture over the outside of the skin. Pour beer over the bird.
Roast bird breast side down for 40 min. Baste with beer every 10 minutes. Turn bird, and roast breast side up for an additional 25 min. Baste every 8 minutes. The chicken will be done when the temperature of the thigh reaches 165 deg F. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 min. Carve and enjoy!

Beer Braised Collards

5 pieces bacon
3 cups coarsely chopped collards
1 12 oz lager beer
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon in a large skillet until done but not crispy. Remove bacon, but leave grease in the pan. Add collards and saute in bacon grease until collards are bright green and wilted. If there is not enough grease to wilt the collards, add a small amount of vegetable oil. Add beer and simmer until collards are tender, about 20 min.  Chop up cooked bacon and add to collards. Add balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to collards and serve warm.

Wanna Wonton? Fried Wontons and Wonton Soup.

Fried Wontons with sweet and sour sauce

I love Chinese food. Somehow I have convinced myself it's healthy, even though it's usually full of carbs and MSG. All those green onions and all that ginger... can't be bad for you right? Please ignore the salt in the soy sauce or the cholesterol in the pork.... Anyway, for a while now, I have been on this quest to make authentic Chinese food with only ingredients found at Safeway. Not exactly easy. I found this recipe on Pinterest (here) and it actually was pretty easy, and pretty authentic to my Western taste buds.

No weird ingredients here!

Unfortunately, it's labor intensive. Time to recruit your favorite significant other or child. Make it a game! Who can wrap up the most wontons in the next 30 minutes? Loser has to do dishes! Fortunately you have me to give you the skinny on the best way to wrap wontons, so you obviously won't have to do the dishes.

The key is to not stuff them too much. Two teaspoons, and no more. It is IMPERATIVE that you do not let the stuffing touch the edges. They won't seal if you do. Follow the steps to a tee and soon you will have some tasty wonton soup and a pile of dishes you won't have to do.

1) Wet two edges. 2) Fold in a triangle. 3) Fold in the corners. 4) Fold down the top. 5) Marvel at the fruits of your labor.

Okay so now you have a bunch of wontons. At this point, you have some (really tasty) options. Option 1 is to make Wonton Soup. Awesome soup, pretty easy, slightly difficult to eat. Seriously, have you tried to eat Wonton Soup with a spoon? A wonton always sneaks out and splashes down, throwing soy sauce and broth into your lap and staining your clothes. Try to use chopsticks, and you leave the tasty broth behind. I find that a combo spoon-chopstick approach is best, but I'll leave you to your own devices to figure it out. Still, I love Wonton Soup and it is wonderful no matter the difficulties I have with eating it.

Watch out for flying oil!

Now on to your second option. Fry your wontons. These wontons are far easier to eat, and open up the possibility of amazing dips and sauces. The issues with these is the necessity of hot oil, and my propensity to burn myself. This blog is the "Tiny Kitchen Adventures," not the "Adequately-Sized Kitchen Adventures" so that means I don't have room for extras like, say, an oil screen, subjecting myself to popping oil and painful burns. If you have an oil screen, please, please, please use it for this part.

Let's say you can't decide between Option 1 and Option 2. Lucky you, you have an Option 3! Freeze your wontons for a rainy day. Really easy. Stick them in a well-sealed Ziploc bag and throw them in your freezer. When you want to make soup, just put the frozen wontons into the boiling broth. If you want to fry them, make sure you thaw them first before frying them up crispy.

Wonton Soup

I usually opt for all three options. Directions for Wonton Soup and Fried Wontons are below!

Wontons
1 lb ground pork
2 tsp honey
2 tbl soy sauce
6 green onions, chopped
wonton wrappers

Combine pork, honey, soy sauce, and green onions in a bowl. Mix well. Wrap wontons as below.

Wrapping a Wonton
1) Put 2 tsp of filling into a wonton wrapper. Make sure not to put in too much!
2) Wet two adjacent edges of the wonton wrapper with a small amount of water.
3) Fold up the wet edges to their opposing edges so that you have a triangle.
4) Press the edges firmly. The more firmly you press, the less likely your wonton will be to fall apart.
5) Fold up the corners of the triangle and seal with a small amount of water.

Wonton Soup
5 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 inches of fresh ginger, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
5 green onions, chopped
wontons

Combine all ingredients through fish sauce. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 min. Add green onions. Return to a boil, add wontons one at a time. Boil for 10 minutes, or until wontons are al dente. Serve immediately.

Fried Wontons
Vegetable oil
Wontons
Soy sauce
Sriracha sauce
Sweet and sour sauce

Heat 3 inches deep of vegetable oil over medium-high heat until temperature reaches 370 deg F. Working in batches, add wontons and fry until a deep brown color. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Serve hot with soy sauce and Sriracha.

Everything's Better with Bacon- Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

I love the Super Bowl. Thanksgiving is the day of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pies, but the Super Bowl is the day of appetizers, grills, and beer. Combine that with grown men hitting each other has hard as humanly possibly, and you have the most American of all holidays. I guess the only way it could be more American is if we added explosions, but that's already covered by the Fourth of July. I seriously think that we should move it so we get Presidents' Day the Monday after. Think about how much more productive Americans would be if they had a day off to get over their hangovers and food comas!

Anyway, we had a small party at our apartment, which means food, food, and more food. And beer. One friend made beer brats (literally brats boiled in beer), another made amazing cookies and guacamole, and everyone brought beer. I provided pretzel bites and oysters, but what really stole the show was the bacon- wrapped jalapeno poppers.

You can get these tasty, spicy wonders for so cheap! 12 of them for only $1.12!

I had spotted these on Pinterest last year, storing the idea for a future Super Bowl party, but I hadn't gotten around to making them until now. The original recipe was on the Doughmesstic food blog (click the name for the link). But, me being me, I didn't have everything for the recipe and kind of made up parts myself.

All stuffed, but missing something...

Everything's better with pork fat.

The flavors really come together nicely, with the cream cheese mellowing out the spicy jalapeno (but not too much!). The bacon adds what bacon always adds: awesomeness. And fat. The bacon fat seeps into the jalapeno itself, making it even better.


One bit of advice: for the love of God do NOT touch your eyes or nose while you are cutting the jalapenos. It's basically like macing yourself. Wash your hands REALLY well after handling them. If you have extra cream cheese filling, use it on bagels for breakfast.

Make these up for your next major party and let me know how they turned out!

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers
12 jalapenos, halved lengthwise, stem and seeds removed
16 oz cream cheese, softened
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small yellow onion, finely diced
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
 12 pieces of bacon

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Combine cream cheese, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder in a medium sized bowl. Fill jalapeno halves with approximately 1 1/2 tbl cream cheese mixture and put on a greased cookie sheet. Cut bacon strips in half. Wrap each jalapeno half with half a piece of bacon. Bake at 350 deg F for 40-45min, or until jalapeno halves are tender. Serve warm.