For Christmas last year, my parents gave me a “gift certificate” to go shopping with my mom for something for the kitchen.  Although I used some of it a couple months ago (to get those low bowls in the picture, come to think of it) we hadn’t found time for me to use the rest of it, mostly because I had been indecisive about what I wanted to get.  Last week I was told that my “gift certificate” would expire after six months, so I needed to get to it!  We went to Williams Sonoma one night last week and I decided to buy this beautiful pasta maker.  Isn’t it a beauty?  I love that it’s bright red and shiny!

I was eager to put this baby to work, so I decided to make ravioli for some friends we were having over Saturday night.  (I’m in a little bit of trouble for breaking it in without letting Mom help, but I was just getting the kinks worked out.)  My only previous experience with making pasta was for the Daring Bakers lasagne a couple months back.  In that case, while it turned out very tasty, it was really a pain to roll out by hand (tearing, etc.) and I could never get it anywhere close to as thin as I wanted. (more…)

I know this is a bit redundant with the Daring Bakers post earlier this week, but I did end up making a quiche with the leftover filling, and it turned out so well, I wanted to share.  Also, I realized I’ve never shared my quiche recipe with you, which comes from Matt’s grandmother by way of my mother-in-law.  She always filled it with bacon and swiss cheese, but here I used the mushroom barley filling from the strudel instead of the bacon (though I added a couple slices of bacon, too).  Also, I usually use cream but I didn’t have any so I substituted the buttermilk I had on hand from making a strawberry buttermilk cake.  I’ll be repeating that substitution — it added a nice rich tang.

I’ll admit that the mushroom barley filling made the quiche just a tad watery, but the flavor was so good we really didn’t mind.  Matt said “I didn’t even notice I hadn’t put hot sauce on it until I was more than halfway through a slice,” and usually even his favorite quiche, from his grandmother, is drowning in it before he even starts eating.  So I considered that high praise indeed!

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The Daring Bakers recipe this month, hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks was strudel, and while the original recipe was apple, we were allowed to fill it however we wanted.  I decided to do a savory version, based on a filling from a mushroom barley pie from Smitten Kitchen.  It turned out pretty well, although the filling could use a little more oomph.  Matt suggested it needed sausage, which I think would be a good idea.

The strudel dough was actually easier to make than I was expecting.  You just mix flour and salt, water, oil, and a bit of vinegar.  The dough has a very nice feel and is easy to knead — not sticky at all.  However, stretching it was a little harder.  I pretty easily got it out to about a foot by a foot.  But, as I continued to stretch it, it started to get holes, especially on the edges, and I never was able to get it as big as the 2 foot by 3 foot recommendation.  This may partly have been because the directions suggest stretching it on a floured tablecloth, but I don’t have any tablecloths, so I just used my kitchen counter.  At any rate, it was still tasty, but I think it would’ve been better if it had been thinner.

I’m not sure it’s quite worth the trouble of making the dough again, but I did like the concept and the filling, so I think I might try it again sometime, but take the easy way out and just use pre-made phyllo dough or even puff pastry.

It was definitely a fun challenge, and thanks again to Linda and Courtney for hosting!

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers. (more…)

I originally found this in an old Cooking Light magazine, and it’s become one of our go-to, easy meals, perfect for spring or summer.  It’s super fast and simple, but it’s delicious and elegant enough for company.  We most recently served it for an early birthday celebration for my mom.  You can easily substitute out the cilantro for whatever is in season or on hand, and I’m just thinking lime zest instead of lemon would be a tasty substitution as well; you could also use any mild fish instead of the tilapia.  It went great with the fresh peas we found at the farmer’s market.  Delicious, fresh, simple, and with tilapia, usually pretty inexpensive, too!

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Can you believe it? I’m actually on time for a Whisk Wednesday’s event! It’s amazing. (Of course, I’m also late for Daring Bakers, but that’s another story.) This week’s assignment was a Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find lamb except for chops, which I didn’t want to waste on stew, so I used stew beef instead. I took a fair amount of liberties with this one — I used rosemary instead of thyme, and changed the vegetables around a bit. (I should’ve also included pearl onions and green beans, but I left those out, and added a parsnip.) Also, I was supposed to cook each kind of vegetable (carrots, turnips, onions) in its own pot, but I didn’t have enough saucepans — and wouldn’t have wanted to clean them if I had — so I cooked them all together. I actually think to make it even easier they could’ve been just added to the stew directly, but maybe they would’ve gotten too soft, I don’t know.

I also had trouble reading the recipe, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately. More on that when I get my Daring Bakers post up. Anyway, it said to drain the potatoes before adding them, but I thought it was saying to drain the lamb. I thought it seemed strange to drain the liquid out of a stew, but figured that the folks at LCB probably know better than I, so I dutifully drained it. Then, reading again later, I realized the ambiguity, and decided I should’ve drained the potatoes and not the stew. Luckily, I had saved the broth and added it back in later, but that’s why my pictures seem to have a bit less liquid in them than they should.

Anyway, despite all the changes and screw ups, this turned out delicious. The meat had a great flavor from simmering in the water with tomatoes and especially picked up the taste of the rosemary. Since it actually cooled of this week, this was a great dinner. It also could be simplified quite easily without, I expect, losing much flavor, so that this might actually start making regular appearances at our house!

As always, if you want the recipe, check out the Le Cordon Bleu at Home book, though you can see the basics below, after the jump. And look to see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group did, on the blogroll to the right. (more…)