Happy Valentine's Day!! I hope your day went well and you were showered with LOVE! I wanted to share what I did for the day for my Matthew! I had a lot of fun coming up with stuff I wanted to do and the dinner I wanted to make him. I thought about it a long time...and actually came up with the idea in December. I decided I was going to make him homemade ravioli!! So this is how I did it :)
I have become the somewhat official dough maker for our family Pierogi recipe. We make them each year now around New Years. They are amazing and I love them. They are, after all, like raviolis! And they have bacon. Yummy!! Anyway, so I decided since I know the feeling of this dough and how to make it without messing it up, that I'd used that recipe for the dough. And I did it exactly like my grandma would. Without any bowls or anything and all by hand!! It's a simple dough recipe with flour, eggs, water, oil, etc. It gets a little messy...but it's all worth it in the end! Especially when you see the results and say to yourself, "I did that!"
See....messy!! You knead the dough until it's soft and elastic. And then you take a bowl, run hot water in it, dry it off and set it inverted over the dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes!
PS Some Raider Brigade pride there behind the bowl. :) I used the 30 minutes to clean up the counter and to make the filling for the ravioli. It was to be a 4 cheese, but it turned into a 6 cheese because I used a 5 cheese blend. Awesome, right?? More cheese the better!
The filling consists of ricotta (~1/2 cup) and then I used, like I said, the 5 cheese blend from Kraft which has Parmesan among the cheeses. Super tasty! :) 1 1/2 cups of that. There is also pepper and salt, along with basil, oregano, and parsley--all dried and finally yummy GARLIC!
Once the dough was ready, I halved it--setting once half under the bowl again. I rolled out the dough to the consistency I wanted...and here's the fun part! I used a HEART shaped cutter. Oh yea. Heart shaped. You just cut them out and roll out the dough again until you get enough out of it. I believe the first half brought out about 18 hearts and the second, about 20. Not bad really!! So all in all, about 16 raviolis total since you put them together.
For each ravioli, I put about 2 teaspoons of filling.
Then took water and with my finger spread it around the edges of the dough. Finally laying the other heart on top and pinched the edges to seal it.
Boom. Heart shaped ravioli. :)
When it was time for dinner, I cooked them in boiling water until they started to float up to the top. Which was about 5-8 minutes give or take a few. Pretty pretty!!!
They were super tasty and worth it!! I served it with salad and of course some pasta sauce that had meat in it. I don't know the calorie count and honestly...I don't care! It was Valentine's Day!! :) We had some champagne and it was lovely!
For surprises, I created two cards for Matt along with a Heart Attack box (full of hearts cut out of red and pink construction paper with reason why I love him written on them) and I also made brownies for him! Which were delicious and decadent! And super easy! Using a store bought brownie mix, prepare the mix as directed.
I used an 8x8 pan. Pouring the mix into it after making sure you spray it with cooking spray. You then mix together an egg, 1/3 cup of sugar and 8 oz of cream cheese. Take this mix and dollop it onto the brownie batter. Grab a knife and swirl it into the mix.
Then taking about a 1/2 cup of raspberry jelly, whip it until it's a little thinner. Dollop this onto the mixture and using the same technique with a clean knife, swirl it as well. Bake it according to the package directions. For me, it was 38 minutes or so. It ended up being a bit more though (high altitude problems!) and I believe it was about 50 minutes in the end.
Yummy!!! Baked and delicious!
Here are the two cards I made for Matt (I also bought him a nice one).
And the Heart Attack box....which I made from a feminine pad box...HAHA!!! I covered it up though...you're welcome Matthew. I hid the cards and the box in his truck and he found them throughout his day.
I have also been busy with another project this past week, but I can't share yet because it'll ruin the surprise!!!! :) I wish I could because I'm super excited about it!!!
Here are the two recipe links if you're interested:
Four Cheese Ravioli
Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies
I hope your Valentine's was great like mine and that you enjoyed seeing what I did! I will post more later, but it's pretty late and I think it's time for some sleep!!! Until next time! :)
I have become the somewhat official dough maker for our family Pierogi recipe. We make them each year now around New Years. They are amazing and I love them. They are, after all, like raviolis! And they have bacon. Yummy!! Anyway, so I decided since I know the feeling of this dough and how to make it without messing it up, that I'd used that recipe for the dough. And I did it exactly like my grandma would. Without any bowls or anything and all by hand!! It's a simple dough recipe with flour, eggs, water, oil, etc. It gets a little messy...but it's all worth it in the end! Especially when you see the results and say to yourself, "I did that!"
For surprises, I created two cards for Matt along with a Heart Attack box (full of hearts cut out of red and pink construction paper with reason why I love him written on them) and I also made brownies for him! Which were delicious and decadent! And super easy! Using a store bought brownie mix, prepare the mix as directed.
Then taking about a 1/2 cup of raspberry jelly, whip it until it's a little thinner. Dollop this onto the mixture and using the same technique with a clean knife, swirl it as well. Bake it according to the package directions. For me, it was 38 minutes or so. It ended up being a bit more though (high altitude problems!) and I believe it was about 50 minutes in the end. 
