The Promised Raviolis

So much for yesterdays plans and sorry this is late!  Sometimes life and the weather gets in the way. 
Here are the promised pictures of the ravioli's.  I am not going to share the pasta or filling recipe this time.  It was not up to my standards.  Tasted okay but there is a questionable step in it (baking the ravioli after boiling) and the filling is too watery.  I will search some more and experiment on Michael again.  The sauce on the other hand turned out very tasty so that one you will get!

Not bad looking for a first attempt!

The sauce recipe serves two

Rustic Red Sauce

1 lg can diced tomatoes

2 short ribs

1 garlic clove minced

2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 Tbs fresh basil chopped

1 Tbs olive oil

1 cup water

Heat the olive oil in large pot over medium heat, add short ribs.  Brown on all sides, add remaining ingredients.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 3 hours or until ribs are tender, stirring occasionally adding additional water if needed.  Remove ribs and set aside.  Use immersion blender to break up most of the tomatoes leaving some intact.  Cut up rib meat add back to the sauce.  Warm through and serve.

My Master Plan

My master plan was to blog about the Whole Wheat Three Cheese Raviolis we had for dinner last night.  I thought I could easily do that before I went to work this morning. I even have pictures!  Alas, the pictures are not quite in focus so I need to play with them on Photoshop before I dare put them up...

Please return later today (probably around 6 or 7 EST) and I promise the recipes and in focus pictures!  I have to say, it was tasty!

I Am A Mad Scientist

Yesterday before going to work I did what we call here at our house "rotate the refrigerator".  I have trouble throwing things out and that includes the little bits and pieces of leftovers that I stash in the fridge for goodness knows what reason.  What started this yesterday though was Michael foraging in the fridge for something to eat.  I knew I had to do it but kept waiting for trash day as it is very hot here and food can really start to smell nasty when outside in the trash can for a period of time.  He opened on plastic container with some chicken in it and phew it was horrible. I apparently had missed a few weeks as there was even mold on the left over quinoa salad.

One of my sister in laws used to joke that we were having some kind of a competition to see what science experiment we could create in the fridge.  I think we usually tied especially when it came to what I used to call the vegetable rotter.  I think most everyone has experienced this one, into the veggie drawer you go only to find something that used to be a solid but is now an unidentifiable liquid. 

I have really tried over the last few years to not let anything go to waste, I buy less, cook smaller portions and freeze more.  It is painful for me to throw food in the trash.  I look it as tossing money in the garbage but it still happens.  Somewhere there must be a fine point that will allow me to throw out those little scraps rather than allowing them to turn into a multi colored science experiment gone really bad.

A Simple Life

I grew up in a small town on the south shore of Long Island, New York where clamming was a way of life.  Many of the Dads and most of the boys had clam boats that they used to earn their living.  It was and still is a hard way of life.  The Great South Bay can be very temperamental and the weather can be unforgiving especially in the winter when that cold wet wind comes in off the Atlantic.  It was here that I developed my love of the water.  My brothers and I would often take our fishing poles and ride down to the dock with great hopes of bringing home enough flounder to feed the family.  This was not usually a successful attempt.  I remember one day when a boy I liked in school came up to the dock in his boat, just at that moment I pulled up my line only to find an eel on it.  I screamed and the boy laughed, that memory is still in my mind so many years later. 

Fresh fish, clams and scallops were a normal way of life.  They were nothing fancy, just a way for my parents to feed 6 hungry children, 5 of them growing boys with what I still think are hollow legs.  Time and life took us away from Long Island, only to return occasionally for a visit usually strategically planned for the summer or early autumn when it is absolutely beautiful.

Our home after living in Phoenix and the bay area of California has been Charleston, SC for quite a few years now.  Oddly enough, even though the culture may be different, the way of life for many is still the same as my childhood.  In place of clamming is shrimping and oystering.  Going to an oyster roast at Bowen's Island and eating the oyster clusters fresh out of the creek there is an experience never forgotten.  The oysters are sweet and delicious, the clusters a challenge to open as they are exactly what they sound like, a bunch of oysters who for some mystery decided to all grow together like a giant oyster puzzle.

A few years ago, Santa brought my husband a crab trap.  It sat out in the shed until last summer when he went and purchased some chicken necks from Doschers where you can buy any imaginable part of an animal took the trap down the road to a friends dock, loaded up her traps and ours and threw them in the Stono River.  We weren't sure what success we would have, it's one of those things you never knew.   The endeavor was a success, so much so that folks were hiding from us for fear we would give them more crabs!

This 4th of July weekend Michael put out the pots again and we were rewarded with about 3 dozen crabs.  He brought them home in a cooler, made his own version of Old Bay Seasoning and put a giant pot of water on to boil.  These were some lively crabs who were not ready to die!  Bear was not so sure about the cooler, especially after he took one peak inside and saw all the crabs snapping and doing what crabs do when they are mad!  A few of the crabs even escaped from the pot as Michael was trying to cook them!

What brought this to mind today was a blog I follow and the vacation they have just taken.  They made wonderful crab cakes but purchased the crab meat since it is just too much work and you never know if the crab gods will smile down on you and give you enough crabs to do with what you desire.  The photography on this blog is wonderful and I look forward to each posting.  I hope you will enjoy it also! http://bonappetempt.blogspot.com/

Purple Chicken!

I love to watch cooking shows, they are great source of  ideas and a wonderful way to learn new techniques.  We are without cable here so our choices are limited to what is on one of the 3different PBS channels available to us (weather permitting of course).  There is an amazing assortment of shows.  Everything from Lidia, to Julia, Jaques and this really cool Puerto Rican lady in Brooklyn.  One thing about all the cooking shows (other than Master Chef of course) is that the food always tastes and looks great!  I am not that fortunate though.  There are mistakes and not everything turns out the way I planned.

Earlier this week I was searching on line for a marinade that I could use on some skinless chicken breasts I had picked up at Doschers for 88 cents a pound.  They are called mis-cuts and there are often some pretty interesting chicken breasts in there but, they are cheap, they are healthy and they are good.  So back to the marinade.  I wanted something different and came across this marinade which actually tastes delicious!  The only problem with it (which is actually rather minor) is that between the soy sauce and the balsmic vinegar,  the outside of my chicken turned purple.  Not light purple but almost black purple, the color of an eggplant.

I think my husband was a tad hesitant to eat the purple chicken but in the end declared it quite tasty.  So, if you decide to try this marinade, perhaps some darker type of meat would be best!  I found this recipe on http://yummly.com/

Soy Sauce/Balsamic Vinegar Marinade

1/4 cup   tamari soy sauce
2 Tbsp    balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp    olive oil
2 Tbsp    fresh basil  minced
1/2 tsp    oregano
1/2 tsp    freshly ground black pepper
2            cloves garlic   minced
2            chicken breasts

Put everything except the chicken in a zip lock bag, add the chicken, seal the bag and squish the chicken around until coated.  Let marinade in the refridgerator for 3 hours.  Remove from the marinade and bake for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes or until done.  Viola!!  Purple Chicken!!

Did you know that today is National Watermelon Day?  The food excitement just doesn't stop all week long!

It's National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!!!!!

Michael sent me a list of this months very exciting upcoming national holidays and I was stunned to discover how many of them had to do with food!

Today we celebrate....National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!!!!  These are simply Nyakers Gingersnaps (from Cost Plus World Market) and strawberry ice cream purchased last week at the great ice cream sale at Harris Teeter (5 quarts of premium, all natural ice cream for only a little over 10.00).   We will be enjoying these tonight after supper (or maybe before that)!

Cheesy Calzones

Even though the temperature was in the 90's yesterday, we decided we needed to get out and about so we went for a stroll around downtown Charleston.  If you have never been here, it is a beautiful city.  Now, it is not what I would call a real city like New York or Seattle but it is a city non the less.  There are so many old homes of varying styles and periods and it is what I like to call a walking city.  It's fairly small so you can get just about anywhere on foot.  We visited the renovated Slave Market (slaves were not sold at the Market, it was built after the war for recently freed slaves to sell their wares at), walked the Battery and checked out some of the shops on King Street.  The advantage to where we live in Charleston is that we are close enough to downtown but far enough away to feel like we live in the country.  I will have to have the husband take a few pictures (I appointed him staff photographer last night).

I had never made calzones before but they sounded pretty straight forward and I had the ingredients so here goes!

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup diced pepperoni
• 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. To Make Dough: In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the oil, sugar and salt; mix in 1 cup of the flour until smooth. Gradually stir in the rest of the flour, until dough is smooth and workable. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes, or until it is elastic. Lay dough in a bowl containing 1 teaspoon olive oil, then flip the dough, cover and let rise for 40 minutes, or until almost doubled.
2. To Make Filling: While dough is rising, combine the ricotta cheese, Cheddar cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms and basil leaves in a large bowl. Mix well, cover bowl and refrigerate to chill.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. When dough is ready, punch it down and separate it into 4 equal parts. Roll parts out into thin circles on a lightly floured surface. Fill each circle with 1/4 of the cheese/meat filling and fold over, securing edges by folding in and pressing with a fork. Brush the top of each calzone with egg and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.

So I actually filled ours with the ricotta, Parmesan, provolone, caramelized onions and sausage.  The filling was tasty but next time I will try something a bit moister. The crust is fantastic though!  The original recipe said this would make 2 calzones but each one would have taken up its own cookie sheet.  We had a simple Italian tomato sauce with this. 

The recipe is from Allrecipes.com.  This maybe my new favorite source as they allow you to change the servings and the site does the ingredient calculations for you.