So lately, I’ve been on this giant egg-on-a-sandwich kick.  When I made this BLT last week, I couldn’t help frying up an egg and putting it on top.  I wish I would have taken a cross-section photo because let me tell you, it was gorgeous – but the sandwich was too good to stop eating it and sorry to say, food comes before photos.  There is also a slice of pepper jack cheese under the lettuce.  Man, what a great sandwich that was.  I want to eat another one after looking at this photo but I ran out of focaccia bread.  The bread, oh hey, I made the bread!  It’s super good.  Let me show you the recipe.  It is here, at King Arthur.  I didn’t have any pizza dough flavor, so I added 1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder, 1/2 tablespoon of dried minced onions, and a few sprinkles of basil.  The recipe is in the egg post below as well, because bread you see, is multipurpose.

Hmm… would it be wrong of me to whip up a few slices of bacon for an afternoon snack right now?

In an attempt to cook healthier foods, I came up with this fennel and turkey ravioli dish.  It was inspired by a fennel and artichoke ravioli recipe, but I have no artichoke, and plenty of ground turkey in my fridge.  It was one of those nights, scrounging in the fridge for whatever that’s left, and try to come up with something that doesn’t taste like dog barf.  This definitely did not taste like dog barf, I enjoyed it a lot.  During the making of this, I had an egg emergency – I had 3 eggs total, used them in making the fresh pasta.  This is usually not enough for 3 cups of flour, so I had to put in some extra olive oil and extra water to make it come together.  Then as I was preparing the stuffing, I realized… hey… most people would use an egg to bring the stuffing together… I HAVE NO EGGS.  Despite the fact that the grocery store is about a mile from my house, going outside is just a terrible terrible option.  I live in Minnesota, it’s cold out there!  Also, if I went out to get just eggs, I would feel like it’s not efficient, and I would try to buy other things, which would take an hour, and I was hungry.  So in place of an egg – I used feta cheese as the binding agent.  It turned out delicious, and one less egg is always good for my waistline.

Evie’s Fennel and Turkey Ravioli

Ingredients:

Pasta Dough:

• 2.5 – 3 cups of flour
• 4 large eggs (or in my case, 3, and some water… )
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• fennel frond, minced

Ravioli Filling:

• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 1/2 cup diced fennel
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds

Pasta Sauce:

• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 cup sliced fennel
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 3/4 cup red onions
• 2 tablespoons capers (or olives)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions:

Pasta Sauce:

1. In a large pan, heat up a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the fennel, fennel seeds, onions, and garlic.  Cook for 6-8 minutes until soft.
2. Add can of tomatoes with juices, tomato paste, and the capers.  Cook for about 5 minutes more.  Sauce your raviolis right away to prevent sticking.  Make sure you time your raviolis and sauce to be done at the same time.

Raviolis:

1. Mix the pasta dough by combining all ingredients, and then mix by hand or mixer, I use a mixer.  More in depth details here.  Cut it into 4 pieces, and roll it out using your awesome KitchenAid pasta roller, you do have one right?  I rolled the ravioli dough at the level 7 setting, so they are not complete paper thin like the level 8 setting.  For every piece of dough, I roll it out through level 4, then I cut it in half with a knife and roll it out some more into level 7.  Two sheets of pasta will make approximately 12 raviolis.    I love adding the minced fennel frond, it’s really visually appealing in this pasta.
2. Mix the filling by combining all ingredients in a bowl.  On the stove, boil a big pot of water to cook your raviolis in.
3. Lay one sheet down on your working surface, make sure the back is sufficiently floured so it doesn’t stick.  Use your ravioli cutter and lightly score the dough into the final shapes.  This helps you determine where to put the glob of turkey stuffing.
4. Spoon about a tablespoon of filling onto the pasta sheet.  Make sure you don’t overfill them, we don’t want them to explode.  Then use an EGG WASH (1 egg, 1 tablespoon of water) and brush every exposed pasta surface lightly.  See, I didn’t have an egg wash, because I had an egg emergency.  I used water.  It held fine.
5. Take the other sheet of pasta, and lightly layer it over the first two globs of filling.  Give it enough slack so the two pasta sheets touch.  Repeat to cover the rest of the raviolis.  Use your fingers and pat down the areas you egg washed.  Make sure there aren’t huge air bubbles near the filling.  You might have to pat the filling down a little for the ravioli cutter to travel over them.
6. Use your cutter, and cut out the raviolis!  This is my favorite part.  Super fun.  Separate them right away, I put them on some sheets of paper towels until they are ready to go into the pot.  Stack the sheets when you have a lot of them made.
7. Boil the raviolis for about 3-5 minutes in batches of 10 or less – you don’t want them to stick to each other.  Use a slotted spoon to fish them out, use them right away by saucing to prevent sticking.
8. Garnish with a little bit of fennel frond and serve!!

Ok the salmon wasn’t terribly hard to find, but fennel was.  I’ve struck out at super target, the asian grocery stores, and uh, ok I only looked at two stores.  I’m pretty lazy ok?  I found some fennel bulbs at Kowalski’s down the street, imagine that, my local neighborhood grocery store had what I was looking for, all I had to do was drive 8 blocks and pay $3.50 for each bulb.  Why is fennel so expensive?  It is delicious tho and I would probably buy it again (A++ would buy again yes).  I got the idea of fennel + salmon from a wedding caterer we tasted at.  Their food was quite mediocre and tasted like catered, but they did make a great salmon dish with large chunks of fennel, onions, and tomatoes.  So I went on (surprise surprise) epicurious, and found this great recipe to try.  I’m not really trying to get all my recipes from there, they just have the best iPhone app in the world and it’s so easy to cook with a recipe on my iPhone.  Soon I will be cooking with recipes on my iPad, March please come sooner.

Here is the original recipe, and I deviated from it, quite a lot.  Mostly because I didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand, also recipes are guidelines meant to be broken, as long as you do not destroy key ingredients and proportions.  [like omitting flour from banana bread... that's a bad thing.]

For the risotto, I had no clam juice, and I had no fresh clams to extract juice from [insert image of me juicing clams].  I substituted chicken stock, and a cup of Eddington’s tomato basil soup that I stole from somebody at work this afternoon.  I started off with the oil/butter and onion base, added the rice, then worked in chicken stock and tomato basil soup.  Cooked it according to the recipe, added the parmesan cheese, and so forth.  This turned out incredible and my mind grapes are working furiously to find other soups that would work great as a risotto stock.

For the veggie mixture, I omitted the tarragon and spinach, added a bit of the fennel stalk (tastes like celery), and used a can of tomatoes.  The fennels needed more than 3 minutes to cook, more like 6.

Honestly, the salmon and fennel were pretty damn good and I would probably make it again, but the real winner here was my genius risotto creation.  I am seriously thinking about sending Sean out to Eddington’s once in a while to get this soup for me so I can make the risotto.  I would send him because I’m lazy, and we have come full circle as to why I can’t find fennel.

I still have a bulb of fennel left, what else should I make??

Do you have:

• A package of Ramen? (Or noodles and stock)
• Tomatoes?
• Bacon?
• Eggs?
• Frozen Peas?

If you have 3 or more of the above, you can make this kicked up ramen.  I make this one, all the time, because I usually have all these ingredients in my kitchen.  This looks pretty delicious right, you’re probably wondering, why would you throw that up!  Well, it wasn’t voluntary.  So a few days ago, a coworker of mine convinced me to start the Beachbody Insanity workout.  It was Sunday night, and I figured why not, I’m motivated from watching the Olympics all week, lets do this!  So I made dinner [this ramen], I ate it, omnomnom, while watching the USA vs Canada Hockey game [GO USA!].  About an hour later, the game is over, we kicked some Canuk ass, and I felt so great, lets start Insanity!!!  Well… I highly underestimated this workout routine.  Let me list my follies:

1. Eating a pretty big dinner.
2. Working out 1 hour after eating a pretty big dinner.
3. Did not read the warning labels and PDFs that came with Insanity – who reads manuals?
4. Extreme OCD at times.
5. Assuming this workout video is similar to other workout videos – in that you are suppose to follow along.
6. Assuming that the little Asian girl is the weaker out of the two people demonstrating with the trainer.  The other is a dude, with muscles.
7. Participated in a 3 month long program to keep my couch from flying into outer space (i.e. I sat on it, for a long time.)

I am sure there are more follies, but that’s not the point to this story.  I started the video, got through a pretty rough warm up, tried to follow the little Asian girl through out all the sets.  At the 4th set of workouts, I totally realized that she’s what you would call… HARDCORE.  She was kicking the dude’s ass, I’m pretty sure she’s a robot.  At this point I’m already half way in, I figured I can just power through it with what energy I have left.  At the end, I had a little bit of a second wind and went a little crazy with the plank leg raises… Right when we started the cooldown stretching, I suddenly felt a little woozy and started seeing stars.  I sat down, put my head between my legs, and hoped it would go away.  NOPE, not when I just ate nommy ramen 1.5 hours ago.  I threw it all up.  I worked out so hard that I threw up.  If you think about it, that’s pretty HARDCORE isn’t it?  So maybe, I did beat the little Asian chick on the video…. (ok no not really.)

The joke is on me tho, apparently this video, if I had read the manual, is a fitness test.  You are suppose to do only as much as you can do, and you were NOT suppose to follow along.  Throughout this entire video series, you are suppose to rest when you need to rest, because they call it INSANITY for a reason.  This is what I get for not reading the manual.  Just remember kids, read the manual if you don’t want to throw up like I did.  The only regret that I have is throwing up precious bacon.  :(

Evie’s Everyday Ramen

Directions:

1. Take 1 or 2 slices of bacon and cut it into 1/2 inch pieces.  Cook bacon in a small stock pot until it’s to your favorite bacon consistency.  (I prefer a softer chewey bacon myself).  Drain the bacon grease.
2. Take a tomato and cut it into about 8 pieces.  Add the tomatoes directly to the bacon over high heat, it will sizzle, cook down the tomatoes until they are tender and there are tomato juices on your bacon.
3. Carefully add 2 – 3 cups of water to the pot.   Let it boil, and add the spice packet.  [If you are using noodles and stock, add 2-3 cups of stock instead.]
4. Add your noodles and frozen peas.  Let it boil for a few minutes to tenderize your noodles.  No more than 2 or 3 minutes should be needed for most ramen.
5. Meanwhile, crack open an egg and whisk it.  At the end when the noodles are soft and ready to eat, drizzle the egg mixture into the pot.  This is how you make egg drop soup!  Turn off your burner right away, we want the egg to be light and fluffy, don’t boil it.  It will cook the second it reaches the boiling water.
6. Top ramen with fried shallots and drizzles of sesame oil and serve!

What do you do when you have too much tomatoes and basil left over from your pizza?  You make a caprese salad!  I apologize for the lack of bacon in this dish.  I’m sure you can sprinkle some on top… now why didn’t I think of that when I made this.

Evie’s Last Minute Caprese Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 tomato
• handful of basil
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Slice up the tomatoes and arrange on plate.
2. Chiffonade the basil and layer on top of the tomatoes.  (This is where you roll up the basil leaves, bigger leaves on the outside, smaller leaves on the inside) and slice thin, illustrated below.
3. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella.
4. Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar, pour over the salad.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Valentines day kind of sucks, but getting flowers, chocolates, and eating pizza is pretty cool.  So I declare this valentines day a success.  Since it’s also Chinese New Years, we decided to do Valentines dinner Saturday night, because we’re going to my parents on Sunday for dinner.  We have been talking about making pizza for a long time, and it seemed like a fun thing to make together, so we did!  He has a very favorite pizza, which I find kind of ODD because it has no mushrooms on it.  I guess he can omit the mushrooms because he’s kind of allergic… and death pizza is kind of not cool.  Here is our conversation this morning…

Me: I’m going to the grocery store to pick up pizza ingredients.

Him: NoooOOoooOOoooOOOooooOOooo!!!!! (The Minnesotan kind of way)

When I said mushrooms, I meant green olives, because he likes pepperoni, sausage, and green olives.  I however, love alllll kinds of ingredients on my pizza, because I EAT EVERYTHING.  The best is a garbage pizza where everything but the kitchen sink is on it, and tons and tons of mushrooms.  But today, after seeing the prices of red bell pepper ($4.99/lb!!! WTFFFFFFFF IS IT COATED IN GOLD?!) I decided that I would much rather just make a margarita pizza with some tomatoes and basil and garlic.  I don’t eat a lot of pizza, so I got 1/4 of the pizza real estate. He ate one of my slices but since it’s valentines day, I was willing to share.  If this were any other day, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN SOME ASS WHOPPING.

I used a KAF Guaranteed pizza dough recipe, and I do have to say, it was mighty delicious.  King Arthur KAF Guaranteed recipes have not let me down yet.  I was going to use a little bit of the KAF dough improver to make the dough less elastic and easier to handle, but I forgot, but it was ok because I didn’t need any.  For the sauce, I used 1/2 jar of pasta sauce mixed with a small can of tomato paste.  Tomatoes, basil, garlic on 1/4, and spicy turkey sausage, pepperoni, and green olives on the rest, all topped off with mozzarella.

First step in the dough is to let it rise, roll it out, let it rise some more, and then bake without any toppings.  Here it is just out of the oven.  Not very exciting, looks like dough.

Next went on the tomato sauce, and brushed the outside crust with some olive oil for color.

Next went on the first layer of toppings.

Now the rest…

Action shot of sprinkling on more cheese, because you can never have enough cheese.

My side!

His side!

Oh I mentioned something about roses and chocolates earlier too didn’t I?  Just to make this post even more image heavy…..

:) :) :)

Have you ever noticed that the longer the name is for an entrée, the more expensive it is?  Fortunately I made this myself so it didn’t cost an arm and a leg.   This also applies to how many French words are in the name, this recipe has no French words in the title, but it sure encompassed a lot of  French techniques.  After trying a true French recipe tho, I don’t mind paying the arm and a leg at a restaurant for anything with French words in the name anymore because wow, this took a long time and it had a lot of steps.  They pay a lot of attention to the texture of a dish – for example, all the vegetable were blanched separately, then ice bathed, then reincorporated with sauce back into the dish, giving it a crisper texture and a more vibrant color.  Is it worth spending an extra hour prepping for it?  Probably not, but it sure was challenging and thus fun to try.

Ingredients: YES THIS IS A LOT OF STUFF.

For the Marrow:

• 8 pieces of Marrow Bone cut 1.5 inches long
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• kosher salt
• canola oil

For the Short Ribs:

• 8 pieces of bone-in short ribs (~7-8 oz each)
• Red Wine Marinade (see marinade ingredients)
• canola oil
• kosher salt and ground black pepper
• flour for dusting
• 2 to 3 cups of veal stock – I’m omitting the recipe for this, I used a beef broth with a tablespoon of veal demi-glaze.
• 2 to 3 cups of chicken stock – I’m omitting the recipe for this as well, I used pre-made chicken stock.

For the Red Wine Marinade:

• 1 750-ml bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon is recommended)
• 1/2 cup carrots cut into 1-inch mirepoix
• 2/3 cup leeks cut into 1-inch mirepoix, white and pale green parts only
• 1/2 cup onions cut into 1-inch mirepoix
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed
• 10 sprigs of italian parsley
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf

For the Root Vegetables:

• 2 medium carrots
• 2 small parsnips
• 2 small turnips cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 8 baby leeks or small scallions (I used scallions)
• 16 white pearl onions, peeled
• 16 red pearl onions, peeled
• 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup tomato diamonds
• 3 tablespoons chopped italian parsley

For garnish and finishing:

• Canola oil
• gray salt (I just used kosher salt)
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

Directions:

This is the exact steps I took to make this and this is my interpretation of this recipe, for the real recipe and more in depth explanation of why things are done certain ways, buy French Laundry Cookbook!

1. First Make the Red Wine Marinade by combining all marinade ingredients in a wide pot and bring to a boil.
2. Set it on fire and let all the alcohol burn off.
3. Set it on fire again and again and again until it won’t catch on fire anymore.  They explain that the alcohol in the wine cooks the exterior of the meat and doesn’t do much for actually marinating.  But if you ever watch Ted Allen’s show on the food network about food myths, he explains that you can never cook off all the alcohol, the most you can burn off is like 30-40%.  [end-science-nerd]
4. Let it cool and combine with short ribs in a big ziplock bag to marinade for 8-24 hours, turning it at least once.  I did about 20.
5. Prepare your marrow bones now by soaking them in ice water for about 20 minutes.
6. Push it out with your fingers after the soak, if it doesn’t come out, soak them in warm water for a minute and it should loosen.
7. Soak the marrow pieces in a bow l of ice water for 12 to 24 hours, change the water every 6 to 8 hours to get rid of the blood that might be in the marrow.  I soaked them until I needed to use them.
8. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
9. Remove the meat from the marinade and set aside.
10. Strain the marinade into a saucepan and reserve the vegetables.  I cut a hole at the bottom of my ziplock bag because I’m S-M-R-T.
11. Bring the marinade to a simmer and clarify it by skimming the gross stuff that rises to the top – this is from all the blood in the raw meat, yucky.  Remove from heat.
12. Heat 1/8 inch of canola oil in a large skillet over high heat.  Season ribs with salt and pepper and dust with flour, pat off excess.
13. Place meat in hot oil and cook for 2-3 minutes on all sides until well browned.
14. Remove meat to a dutch oven or an oven proof pot and make sure it’s only 1 layer.
15. Pour off the excess oil from the pan and return to heat, sautée the vegetables until carmelized.
16. Place the vegetables on top of the ribs evenly.
17. Add the marinade, and the 2-3 cups of chicken and veal stocks, the meat should be covered.  I would use 3 cups, more sauce is good.
18. Bring liquid to a simmer on the stove and cover it with a lid, or a parchment paper lid.  Transfer to oven, bake for about 4 hours or until meat is very tender.
19. Here you can start on your vegetable prep/cooking while the meat is making your house smell really nice.  Cut the carrots and turnips using the oblique cut.  This is where you hold your knife at a 45 degree angle, and turn your vegetable about 90 degrees with every cut, starting from the thin end.  When the carrot or turnip gets too thick, slice it in half or fourths, and continue cutting.  Keep the carrots and turnips separate.  Cut your turnips as well.
20. Blanch the carrots, turnips, and parsnips in boiled salted water that’s sweetened with a bit of sugar until completely tender.  Remove the vegetables and chill in ice water.  When they are completely cooled, drain and set aside.
21. Add the leeks/green onions to the boiling water and blanch until tender.  Remove and chill in ice water, drain when completely cooled and set aside.
22. Repeat blanching with white pearl onions, drain, ice bath, cooled, set aside.
23. Repeat with red pearl onions and add the 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar which helps to keep the red color, drain, ice bath, cooled, set aside.
24. Here you might want to curse the French in some French words because you are sick of cooking by this point and just want to eat some food.  Drink a glass of wine.
25. When your ribs are done, remove the meat from the pot and strain the liquid into a tall narrow container.  Discard the vegetables.  Don’t worry about the meat getting cold at this point.
26. Skim the fat off of the top of the braising liquid in the tall narrow container (tall and narrow so this step is easier), and strain it through a chinois until the chonois is clean.  I don’t have a chinois, I used a normal strainer, oh muddy chunky sauce, woe is me. Reserve 1/3 of the braising liquid.
27. Now you are ready to complete the dish and put everything together, finally.
28. Chop up your tomato diamonds.  Why are they diamonds?  Because they are pretty duh.  I have no idea.  To make tomato diamonds, cut your tomato into fourths.  then remove all seeds and insides so you’re left with the outer layer of the tomato.  Place the skin side down, cut it first into strips.  Then cut it on a 45 degree angle to create diamonds.
29. Add all your cooked vegetables (minus the green onions) into a pot, along with the tomato diamonds, add some braising liquid to just cover the veggies.  Warm them up gently.  Add the chopped parsley.
30. Reduce the braising liquid from step 26 into a saucy consistency (about 2 cups).
31. In a skillet that will hold all the ribs in one layer, heat up 1/8 inch of canola oil over medium high heat.  Place the ribs in the pan and cook until golden brown on all sides, for about 30 seconds on each side.  If your ribs are still warm, they will probably take less time.  Take them out and place in another pan.
32. Add the remaining reserved braising liquid to the pan, bring the liquid and ribs to a simmer, keep warm at ~300 degrees until ready to serve.
33. Cook your bone marrow at this time.  Drain and dry the bone marrow pieces and trim the ends of each to create a flat surface.  Salt and flour, tap off excess.
34. Heat 1/8 inch of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot (not smoking tho).  If the oil is too cold the marrow will melt, if it’s too hot the flour will burn.
35. Cook the marrow pieces 30-45 seconds per end, then lay it down on their sides and roll them to brown.  The outside should be crispy, the inside should be gelatinous.
36. Now you are ready to plate!!  Use a slotted spoon and place vegetables on each serving plate.
37. Place the leeks/green onions in the braising liquid to warm a little.
38. Place the short ribs on top of the vegetables and spoon the reduced sauce over the sides so it lightly coats the meat and drizzles onto the vegetables.
39. Lay a piece of bone marrow over the top of each rib.
40. Sprinkle gray salt (or kosher salt) and the chopped chives over the ribs.
41. Top each with a baby leek/green onion.
42. Eat it with a lot of good wine, and not make another crazy French recipe in a long time.

Was it worth the trouble?  It was very delicious and the red wine marinade wasn’t as strong as I thought it was going to be.  It did however take a span of 2 days to prepare, but I’ve done the same for bread so why not!  It did enlighten me on why exactly French restaurants are so damn expensive, and why French techniques are used (although I’m still perplexed by the practical application of a tomato diamond).  Would I make this again, probably, but I will be taking a lot more shortcuts!!

Tomato risotto, kind of a recipe I found and changed a lot because I didn’t have a few of the ingredients.  It was very rich in tomato flavor and the onion gives it nice texture.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 cups finely chopped onion
• 1 cup Arborio or Carnaroli rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions:

1. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water and peel tomatoes.
2. Squeeze juice from tomato, discarding seeds. Finely dice tomato flesh.
3. Bring chicken stock and tomato liquid to a simmer in a medium saucepan and keep at a bare simmer.
4. Meanwhile, heat oil and butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until foam subsides, then add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to turn golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
5. Add rice and cook, stirring constantly, until it turns opaque, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, then add wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed. Continue simmering and adding hot tomato-chicken stock, 1 cup at a time, stirring frequently and letting each addition be absorbed before adding the next, until rice is tender and creamy-looking but still al dente, 18 to 25 minutes total.
6. Stir in diced tomatoes, cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Thin with stock if desired.

… the total weight of all the tomatoes I pulled out of my garden today.

It took 3 bowls to measure the total weight of it all.

I picked most of the bigger non-ripened green tomatoes too, since the temperature here will start falling soon. At least I don’t have to eat them all at once…

I have way too many tomatoes. Who wants extra tomatoes? On the other hand, I have one lonely zucchini growing, and my peppers are very very sad looking. But my tomatoes are GIANT! And I apparently have a striped heirloom variety growing. It’s like a watermato, or a tomelon….