Pasta Friday, Frugal Friday

My family are getting a treat tonight. Fresh Pasta. Ravioli to be more specific. Sausage ravioli with tomato sauce.

Cost for a family of five - approximately $6. Add salad and baguettes for perhaps another $2. The most expensive thing here is the sausage. It helps that I had nearly free eggs and canned my own tomatoes. Buying it all from the store - probably about $10 ($12 with the salad/bread). I am fortunate to live somewhere where I have access to plenty of local, delicious produce, meats and grains. This meal could be 100% local (except in my case, salt -can you actually get table salt from the Goderich mine?) in this case, the only thing not is my olive oil, parmesan and mysterious table salt. Parmesan can sometimes be found locally depending on where you live. At the very least, it is probably found in your country.

I decided on the fly this morning to spend my day making dinner. You read that right, the day. This isn't something that I can, or really anyone can do everyday. However, once in awhile, for a special treat or occasion - why not? I write "day" because I started this at about 11 - but it only took about 2 hours. Not bad, however it is better if you are able to do this early, even the day before so the ravioli has a chance to dry in the fridge or freezer. Cooking them from frozen works great. Similar afternoon cooking adventures at my house include making perogy (these take hours also, believe me), and flour tortillas. Tortillas don't take nearly as long - but they do take awhile to roll out and fry. Much like naan. These are simple foods, but you really need time to prepare them.

I should add a disclaimer now - the following (and preceding examples) would be much easier if you have a partner or team with you. I didn't as I decided to do this on a Friday when no one was home. I am still learning to use my pasta maker too. It was my special Christmas present - a splurge really. Mine is the deluxe model with ALL the attachments. Today I will only be using the roller however because the sausage is too heavy and not ground enough to make it through the ravioli maker. So I will be making hand cut ravioli.

The recipe for the pasta and sauce I used is adapted from Michael Smith at the Food Network.

Pasta:
4 cups of all-purpose flour
6 eggs
1 tsp olive oil

Filling:
3/4 lb Italian sausage, bulk or with casings removed
1 large shallot, chopped
2 T chopped sage
grating of nutmeg (optional)
1/2 c Parmigiano, grated
1 beaten egg

Sauce

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 jars (24 oz) of canned tomatoes, Italian seasoned (or add your seasonings of choice)

1 jar (8oz) tomato paste

First thing. Assemble as many ingredients and equipment as you can.  I used home-canned tomatoes and tomato paste, because I had them, but you can use any canned you have available. This is also a great way to use up eggs - our ladies are still laying quite a few eggs despite the weather.

I am using my Christmas gifts - new pasta maker and handmade (by my husband and son) pasta drying rack. You could use a dowel or broom stick over a couple of boxes as a drying rack.

You will also need a pizza cutter and/or pastry cutter for cutting the pasta out later. I knife would work, but not as easy.

Start with the pasta first - by dumping the flour right out on a clean counter - believe me, it is easier than using a board. The link to the food network above has a great little video on making pasta you might want to check out.

Crack the eggs right into the centre. Use a whisk or your fingers to beat the eggs into the flour.

 What the dough looks like at this point is a sticky mess - don't worry, it gets better! The dough must be kneaded for 10 minutes. If you are a bread maker, you will find this dough very stiff. Makes for a pretty good workout.

Alternatively, pasta dough can be made in the bread maker. If you are unable to knead dough, this might be a good option for you.

After kneading 2 minutes

After 5 minutes

After 10 minutes

At this point, the dough must rest for 30 minutes.Most people cover with plastic wrap, but if that offends you - you could put it into a floured container, use wax paper, etc.

This is when I started the sauce. This sauce is very simple. Sauté chopped onion until softened, add minced garlic and sauté another couple of minutes. Purée the tomatoes in a blender until smooth, add to pan. Add the tomato paste. Simmer several hours. I didn't need to add salt because salt was added when I canned them. If you are using canned tomatoes with no salt, add salt, pepper and seasonings to taste.

Now is time to make the filling. Sauté sausage and onion until nicely browned. Add sage and nutmeg. Cool slightly and add the parmigiana cheese. When only warm add the egg. Set aside until ready to stuff the ravioli.

This is the point in the post where I have to apologise because I didn't get any good pictures of rolling out dough in the pasta maker.  Really, it isn't that exciting in still pictures anyway. Slice off a small piece of dough - about the size of a quarter of an orange. Flatten it out and lightly flour. Put through the widest setting of the pasta maker. Flour, fold over and put it through again. Do this a few times. Then you are ready to go up to the next setting (#2). Keep feeding in the dough in at progressively narrower  settings. I stopped at #7.  You can hang this up on the pasta rack and continue with a few more pasta sheets. I usually did three or four sheets at a time (and hunks of pasta dough) and hang them up between settings on the machine - that way I don't need to keep adjusting the settings. When I get a few sheets done, it is easier to file.

The easiest way to do ravioli is to put a spoonful of filling with a space in between close to one long end and then fold the pasta sheet over.

Folding over, pressing down at the sides and cutting - super easy. 

 I ended up with 42 ravioli. Not bad. However, I had only used about half of the dough. So, I made some spaghetti for another meal.

Put the ravioli in the fridge until dinner time. You could put the ravioli on just a floured pan, but I used parchment. Don't worry, I reuse my parchment several times (until it is pretty much black from baking). Fresh pasta only needs to cook for about 2-3 minutes, so when dinner time comes, with the sauce ready, it will be a cinch

Now I have to go make some baguettes to go with  this - will post later when I have cooked our dinner.

I admit I am cheating on the baguettes because I am making them in the bread maker (or at least the dough). More pictures soon!





~Update~ Our dinner was a big hit.

The baguettes are always a hit anyways, but as you might imagine, I don't make them often because they are entirely white flour. Not too nutritious. But, fine for a treat.

Recipe for Baguettes

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/3 cups water

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

If you are making these in the bread maker, put into the pan in the following order: water, salt, flour, sugar, yeast. Set for dough cycle, remove from pan when finished, punching down. Cut into two pieces. Set one aside. Roll the one half out into a 12x14"  piece and cut in half again. Roll up starting from long edge. Pinch edges and ends to seal. Repeat for rest of the dough. Allow the four baguettes to rise covered in draft-free environment until nearly doubled (30-60minutes). Preheat oven to 400F with pizza or baking stone. Bake baguettes for 10 minutes, brush with beaten egg and water and bake again for 5 minutes.

Lovely. We froze two baguettes for another meal - probably to go with the spaghetti I made with the extra dough. 

Finishing Up with the Knifty Knitter

Well, everyone is back to school and work, except me. I don't start back to school until next Monday. So, my plan for today is to finish up some projects I had started or planned to start before Christmas.

These mittens are first on my list. They are for my 8-year-old daughter. I bought the wool before Christmas and thought I would have time to whip them up before the big day. I did manage to get done a pair for my granddaughter (who is 3) in a lovely Shrek-green wool (I was told that was the colour by one of my other kids) with a similar flower.

The mittens were made by modifying the ONE LOOM MITTEN pattern.  Note that the blue loom in the picture is the same size as the Knifty Knitter blue, just a different colour. I was able to start them during the Corner Gas marathon on the Comedy Network this weekend. :)

 Personally, I don't care at all for E-wrapped mittens (knit using the E-wrap stitch) and nearly all the Knifty Knitter mitten patterns use this stitch. The problem with E-wrap is it results in a pretty "holey" mitten in a very loose stitch - too large for most hands. It is rather sloppy. I have made three pair like this and was pretty disappointed. The first pair were for me and they came out so large I had to give them to my husband. They really aren't warm either with the large holes between stitches.

One pattern, Fitted Mittens, makes for a really lovely mitten, however, I found the shaping for the fingers very difficult. The result is very comfortable if you have no problem with the complicated shaping, but on my second mitt I was ready to give up. For my last few pair of mittens, I ended up combining the usual patterns for the Knifty Knitter mitts by knitting in the round, but using the U-stitch, and Flat stitch and Purl for the rib (Frankly, I am too lazy to do the proper Knit stitch - an  upside down Purl). Then using the usual bind off by gathering. It isn't ideal for a mitten - a bit bulky at the top, but it is very easy. Most pattens have the mittens end this way. My modifications result in a tight, even stitch which looks like regular knitting. In the near future I plan to experiment with easier finger shaping and bind off. Perhaps an amalgam of various patterns.

All in all, these mittens take me a couple of evenings. The U-stitch is sufficiently tight as to cause me to slow down a bit or risk a blister.

The ones to the right are the first pair I made in the U-stitch - a pair for me with idiot strings. I would hate to lose them and frankly, I lose things, a lot. My favourite leather gloves were lost somewhere between the Leeky Canoe restaurant and our van out front last year. I knew they were gone but even that short distance I couldn't find them. No amount of crawling under tables would help me.

**Lots of help with loom knitting may be found at http://isela.typepad.com/loomknitting/.

Best Christmas Present Ever

It's true. It came early.

I was on the phone this evening with my mother (and feeling impatient during the call because she likes to call right when I ought to be cooking dinner, and talks about nothing important at all) when I got the dreaded call waiting beeps. Usually I ignore them since I am terrible at interrupting people.

This time I took the call. I had to when I saw that it was a business where my husband had been for a job interview just yesterday.

He got the job. His first day is January 3rd. Yes, this is the best news, and present, we could have asked for.

Here is to more happy days ahead.

Pelee Island, August 2010

Productive, Unproductive Day

I am working on my last term paper. It is getting ugly now - my ultimate plan is to stay up tonight until this puppy is done.

Remember my mantra - FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT. Finished is productive. Finished is useful. Finished is freedom. I am desperate to remember it myself. It is the only thing that can save me.

A mediocre finished paper is still much better than an unfinished, late, weight-on-my-shoulders term paper.

I stayed up until 4am last night. Today, I needed a slight break so I decided the best thing ever would be to sew FIVE PAIRS OF PYJAMAS! It had to be done, really. If there is one thing my kids need it is PJ's. The best thing about these is they were made entirely out of my fabric stash. I was just fortunate that I was able to match enough fabrics to coordinate tops and bottoms.

Most of my homemade Christmas gifts are sitting unfinished (is there a theme here??!!). Some are really close to being finished, but not quite. Thankfully, teacher gifts are done and given. Phew.

Not having much to wrap is a sad state to be in.

Those who know us, know that my husband has been out of work for five months. My own income is pretty shabby since I finished my contract job last summer and I don't have much time with my full-time classes. So, I have to make a WHOLE lot of gifts this year (every year actually, it never really is that different).

I know a lot of you out there are in the same boat. Maybe some choose to make things because they believe in it - it is from the heart truly then isn't it? Perhaps others would like to be able to buy a few things, but it just isn't happening this year.

Here is my Christmas UFO and TO DO list:

1. Vanity and Chair (it already exists since it was purchased from Kijiji, but needs paint, some repair and to recover the cushion)
2. PJ's pants for one older child 
3. Camisole and panties - Jalie 2568
4. Girls Nightgowns  (from peasant style dress instructions)
5. Mock Crochet market bag
6. Zombie Knit Hat (making this up)
7. More Bath Bombs (finished one batch - turned out awesome!)

Stuff that was planned but will not get done:

1. Knifty Knitter Socks
2. Knifty Knitter Mitts (2 pair)
3. Knifty Knitter Poncho
4. Monster Pillow Copy
5. Dress up clothes
6. Jalie 2919 - Cardigan
7. Knifty Knitter Sweater

Since I have much to do. I will get to it.

Quit stalling.

First Snow Day

Today was the first REAL snow day this year. And there was no mistaking it either. Everything in town screeched to a stop. The municipal office closed. Some roads were closed. The mail was not delivered. The snowplows were pulled off the road.

My chickens were snug in their hen house. They refused to come out into their covered run today (let alone the uncovered run!). There are wind gusts up to 50km per hour.

This is a great day for hot chocolate, baked beans (in the oven baking as I write this) and a good book, Christmas movie or anything else comforting to do. It isn't a day for building snow forts or skiing.

Looks are Deceiving

Okay, as a follow-up to last week's post I am writing a review for the cinnamon bun recipe I mentioned Clone of a Cinnabon.

As you may remember from the last post Lazy Day, Sunday I wrote that I tried out a scratch recipe for cinnamon buns (among other things) and that while it took a really long time to rise, they came out fabulous. Tender, sweet, fluffy, flaky - although they were somewhat small and hadn't risen that high.  They didn't LOOK like the most wonderful cinnamon bun, but they tasted great.

This week I decided to break down (it is the holidays after all and I want the perfect cinnamon bun for breakfast Christmas morning - a tradition in our house) and try another recipe. I was hoping to find one that worked in the bread maker, assuming that it would be faster, easier and perhaps better.  You are right to point out that no one NEEDS cinnamon buns two weeks in a row.  They aren't healthy and most of their ingredients are not local either. :( However, we can't be perfect every week can we?  I feel good in not buying Pillsbury dough or supermarket premades (I am pretty sure that should be a word).

These buns look absolutely picture perfect. They are huge - you get 12 rolls in the batch (compared to 16 in the last recipe). But that is more of a method, not the recipe itself - which is actually a 4 1/2 cup of flour recipe,  versus the 3 1/2 of the other recipe - since it instructs you to cut them into 12 rather than 16 for the previous ones. You could cut them into 8, 13, 27 or whatever and have larger or smaller buns. 

In the moment of  truth - they aren't as tasty. They are fluffy and flaky, but they seem a bit bland and they are a little drier. In fact, I found that they didn't have enough icing  and they were really just TOO BIG. I wasn't enjoying the last few bites. And, that is a bad thing. 

Consider them side by side:

                 1st try                                                                                2nd try

So, next time I will compromise.  The first scratch recipe could easily be made into 12 larger rolls - then they would be higher and perhaps more visually appealing, yet with the smaller batch of that recipe, they would not be as large overall as the Clone of a Cinnabon recipe. Sort of in-between. I would still get the flavour and moistness of my preferred rolls but just a little bigger.  

Can't wait to try it - when I can convince myself that we need to try another batch. Right now we still have to eat another 10 HUGE rolls.  So off I go...

Lazy Day, Sunday

Today is a really lazy day. I am still in my PJ's. There is talk of us watching the Grey Cup and eating Chicken Quesadillas tonight.

 However, we are also running a stomach flu through our household - today it is my youngest daughter Allison who is sick. So, we also have plenty of laundry.

To be clear, when I stated we were lazy (which I thoroughly meant) my husband and I have been baking most of the day. AND, the best part is that our hand mixer broke (I haven't been blessed with a stand mixer yet) and we mixed everything by hand. Elbow grease is a good thing.

~ If you are on a DIET in any way - STOP reading now. Seriously. ~

It started with the cinnamon buns recipe discussed on Foodess.com. However, there is very serious error in the recipe (see note later in post) which has caused a delay in our consuming these.  Then came a couple loaves of 5-minute Artisan Bread started yesterday (yummy).  After allowing those to cool we turned to Chocolate Mint Cookies also from Foodess.

These cookies are totally addictive. I thought with the ridiculous amount of cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate that they would be decadent enough to prevent over eating. Wrong. 

As it turned out, I was running out of chocolate chips. So instead I used 1 cup chopped semi-sweat chocolate squares. The recipe instructs you to make 1" balls of cookie dough, slightly flattened. I found this to be best, especially if you wish to take these to a Christmas party or give away as they make lots (we got about 112 small cookies).  Alternatively, I think these would work well if you wished to extrude in a cookie press and add a chunk of chocolate (or other garnish) to the centre before baking. In any case, if you like chocolate and mint - these are worth a try. A very easy cookie with enough decadence to impress guests, a hostess or a teacher for a lovely, edible holiday gift.

Okay, now to the cinnamon buns. Note these are risen yeast rolls, not the biscuit type cinnamon buns (which, by the way I hate, and yes, you can read this as full hate - if you really love cinnamon buns, biscuit-style, rip-off cinnamon buns are NOT going to cut it, no matter how desperate or how bad your baking skills are. At this point you are likely to go Pillsbury on me since I have digressed - my bad).

This recipe is also featured on Epicurious.com with many raving reviews. This is where I found out I wasn`t in fact crazy - at least not this time.

When I started making the recipe, I realised right away there was a serious problem. It calls for 2 1/4 tsp of  rapid rise yeast with "2 envelopes" in brackets. Any baker will tell you that 1 packet is 2 1/4 tsps, not 2 packets/envelopes and packets of yeast are pretty standard. My question was - which one is it? Some people will likely measure without worrying about packets, some will just use 2 packets and others will question this whole thing  (and probably over complicate things for several hours - I am the latter).  I realised after making the dough that because of the rave reviews, most people probably used the 2 packets without question (or measuring). As it turns out, reading the reviews more closely, this is likely what has happened. Those who were more exact, realised their mistake and that the dough does not rise on 2 1/4 tsp yeast in 2 hours. Because I am exact myself, I needed to wait a full 4 hours for this dough to rise to double. And, for the second rise, I also had to double the time. This means that all told, it needed to rise for 5 1/2 hours! WOW. 

After contemplating for hours and looking at another bread recipe on Robin Hood I finally thought of a possible answer for the mix up.  The Robin Hood recipes have the packets listed first and then the size in brackets, like this: 2 envelopes (2 1/4 tsp/11 ml) whether it is one or two envelopes it has the same "size of the packet" clarification listed - what would happen if you mixed up the order of the words? It would look like you meant the packet size for the quantity or: 2 1/4 tsp (2 envelopes).  If I am right, it means this recipe is being passed around without correction and many are suffering as they either a) give up in the middle with a hard dough, b) pay no attention to if it has doubled and bake hard dough balls, or c) wait 5,000 hours and at least come up with something edible. Serious bakers might tell you it has more to do with instinct, experience and common sense than exact times and measurements - so the extra waiting is likely worth it if you need to wait longer for your dough to rise.

Lovely cinnamon buns - much yummier than a phone pic can show

Thankfully, the extra rising time did the trick. These did work. So by 3 in the afternoon, we were eating luscious cinnamon rolls (I started at 8am).  Actually, they were quite easy - the worst part was them not rising despite my putting them in a nice warm oven with the oven light on and my whittling away the hours attempting to figure out who and what went wrong with the recipe.  Too bad some of my crew can't eat them right now (heh, more for the rest of us).

The best part was that this is my first attempt at a yeast dough that actually worked. I haven't tried bread making from scratch for about twenty years. Back then, when I was a mere babe (ha) I was not successful at making from scratch bread. My results were very discouraging and I hadn't tried again since.

At this point, I must also be frank in that I have many times made the cinnamon bun recipe that came with my breadmaker. In fact, it is a family tradition in our house to have this for Christmas morning, and I love to start them the night before and pop them in the oven in the morning for a no-mess easy breakfast treat. However, that recipe has really let me down for flavour and texture. It just wasn't as good as a great bakery cinnamon bun (or Pillsbury) and I never knew what to do - it was dry too. For several years I had this Clone of a Cinnabon recipe from Allrecipes.com saved  to my recipes. What I loved about it was that it was a breadmaker recipe that I knew I could handle.  It has even more than rave reviews and I still plan to try it out soon for which I promise to post an update for those of you who aren't ready to try rolls without a breadmaker. For now, I am happy at what I accomplished for our lazy Sunday at home in our PJ's.

~Ciao

PS: The purse organizer I made for my aunt was verified as "perfect" so, despite my misgivings, I actually did measure correctly. She just has the mother of all purses. :)