I made homemade ravioli like a champ!

(This morning, I had "We are the Champions" stuck in my head. I knew right then this Monday was going to be alright.)

I'm getting into making homemade pasta. Usually meals that dirty that many dishes are left to Pat and the kids. However, over Christmas, I watched my dad making his homemade noodles for his famous (or infamous if you remember the time it fermented in jars in my dorm room...) chicken noodle soup. It must've inspired me. My dad used to take up the whole kitchen table rolling out the dough and cutting it into noodles with a pizza cutter. And then we got him a pasta maker. We also have a pasta maker that had sat on the shelf for...a long time. Too long. But not long ago, Dad told me how to make his homemade noodles. And down came the pasta maker from wherever it had been hiding.

I don't usually like single-use kitchen gadgets, but pasta makers are actually worthy kitchen gadgets. They have cranks. Kids like to turn cranks and will help out because it's fun. Heck, I like to work cranks and will use the pasta maker because it's fun. It's like a playdough machine, but the results are edible.

So, because I love when my dad does it, and because it's fun, I've been making homemade pasta noodles every chance I get. They are great for making lasagna, since you don't run the risk of breaking them or of trying to snap them off at just the right length. You don't have the cook/uncooked noodle dilemma. You do get custom-sized noodles that are as thin or as thick as you want. (I like a lot of thin layers, personally.) If waking up with Queen in your head isn't enough insurance of a good day, making pasta has proven to make every member of our family happy. Homemade pasta = good day insurance.

My dad's recipe of "1 egg to each heaping scoop of flour...that's it!" works well for his soup noodles, but I was looking for something a little more pasta-like. We've tried out several recipes from online. Some were better than others. It seems, in terms of straight-up pasta, like spaghetti, semolina flour must be the way to go. I don't have any of that, but hope to try it out sometime. In the meantime, this recipe I found on a site called Annie's Eats yielded the easiest-to-work-with pasta dough to date. (Dad, I will still use your recipe for soup noodles.)

Of course, I don't strictly follow recipes, so my ingredient list was actually like this:
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surfaces
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1 tbsp. olive oil

The directions on the other website are great, though she dirties waaaaay too many dishes. I just hand-mixed and kneaded mine in the bowl. (And when I say "kneaded," I really mean I just played with it like you would with playdough, because "kneading" is adult work instead of kids' play.) And she has an electric pasta maker?! Psssht. Not as fun. But read what she has to say if you're looking to try it out yourself. You'll be able to go forth in confidence.

Thanks to a Superbowl produce sale, I had lots of colorful veggies on hand and wanted to use them in a filled pasta like confetti. I like the idea of small pockets of party for dinner, so ravioli it was. My filling was different than Annie's recipe, but hers was a starting place. So I displaced some of the cheese with veggies. I don't measure these things, but this is roughly what I did. Use whatever veggies (or meat, I guess...) you like.

I realized about 1/3 of the way through my meal that this was worth of sharing.
It's not a great photo, but here's what my ravioli looked like in real life.

In a medium-sized pan, saute on medium to meduim-high heat:
1/2  a medium zucchini, minced
4 portabello mushrooms, minced
1/3 cup? bell peppers, minced (I made use of bits of red, yellow, and orange ones.)
salt to taste

In a medium-sized bowl, combine:
about 1/2 a 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese
a glob (1/4 cup or so?) of cottage cheese
about 2 Tbsp. parmesan cheese (fresh is probably wonderful, but the powdered stuff was great.)
whatever herbs and spices you like to taste. I tossed in a Sundried Tomato seasoning blend I was given for Christmas. Those bread dipping seasonings at Meijer make a great gift!


Here in our town, you can get pre-made ravoili for a not-very-hungry 4 at Aldi for $2.99. I think this recipe fed five of us well. Pat and I were actually full from 11 pieces! And the cost? Roughly $3. But mine feeds more people and includes veggies and an hour or so of fun. So there.

I'm sure people go wild with what they put in stuffed pasta. I, however, am just stepping into this world. If any of you want to step in with me, consider this your invitation. For those of you further along in this sort of culinary venture, please beckon me along with your ideas.

dinner nativity

This will be our first Christmas with the four of us at home. Israel is at a really fun age where expectation can be built and meaningful things understood. Eden also is demonstrating that she understands stories and gets excited over simple things. It's fun times around the holidays.

I feel this great freedom in being home to start our own traditions and to focus on Jesus during this time (all things about it not being his actual birthday aside). We didn't do as well as I would have liked with Advent this year, but I love the whole season of waiting for Jesus' light to come into the world. And now is the time to celebrate that light. But how to communicate that to the kids? I wanted to have a special meal with them, but I don't think great adult food communicates a celebration to a 1 and 3 year old. I searched the internet for ideas for a way to tell the Christmas Story through a dinner. There wasn't anything. So we made up our own. There were good ideas given to be over facebook, too, but I didn't have the ingredients on hand for those. So we made do with what we had, and I think it turned out well. We made the different foods, set them out on the table, and put them on plates as we told the story. So here is the story of the nativity as told through a candlelit dinner.


One night, a long time ago, in a land across the ocean, a star appeared in the sky. It was a bright star. (Let's paint our star really bright.)
Do you know what the star was telling people?
- Stars don't talk, mom.
You're right. Do you know why the star was there? Someone was born. Who was born?
- A Savior.
And what does a Savior do?
- Rescues the people.
That's right!

That same time, there were shepherds out in the fields, watching their sheep. Let's make our field.... And suddenly an angel came to the field! And the angel said, "Don't be afraid! I have good news for you! Our Savior has been born in a stable. You'll find him lying on some hay in a manger." And then a whole bunch of angels (putting them all on the field...) came and started singing and celebrating!


The shepherds ran off and sure enough, there was the manger. Who was in the manger?
- Baby Jesus!
Right! Here's some hay for a manger and can you put baby Jesus on the hay? There! The shepherds went to go see baby Jesus!


Of course, Eden had already been eating the heads off the angels and had eaten baby Jesus too, and kept asking where baby Jesus went. The obvious answer: Jesus is inside you! :)

If you want to know what the various things on the plate are, aside from their symbolism, here's the role call:

The part of the star was played by your favorite crab or tuna cake recipe, formed in a star cookie cutter and carefully fried. It was made to shine by a mustard, mayo, yogurt sauce.

The field was played by sauteed green beans and the angels were played by potato slices, cut, salted, and sprinkled with pepper, paprika, or coriander.

The hay was played by chopped apples mixed with honey and a little vinegar and cinnamon.

Baby Jesus was played by two marshmallows and a golden raisin on a toothpick with melted chocolate dots for eyes.

Lezlie's veggie balls

(These really need a better name.) You may have seen my ecstatic facebook post when I invented these today. I'm sure someone somewhere has done something similar, but I hate research. So I dove in, chasing after this taste I had in my head. (Ever get a hankering for something you've never had?) Here's the recipe. It was a total success with everyone in my family and had me singing happy nonsense songs the rest of the evening.

Makes about 36 1-1/2 in. veggie balls

Step 1: Start cooking the lentils.
I made about 1-1/2 to 2 cups of dry lentils. Boil them in plenty of water, as they absorb A LOT. I added a bit of bouillon to mine -- "Better Than Bouillion" Vegetable Stock, if you want to know exactly. I start out with an extra inch or so of water and keep adding water if they dry out before they're soft.

Step 2: While the lentils are cooking, saute in a bit of olive (or other) oil:
- 1/2 an onion, minced
- 2 carrots, minced
- (I'd have thrown in bell peppers if I had them, and maybe garlic)
- handful of peanuts, chopped
- salt to taste

Step 3: Make the balls
Mix the cooked lentils and the sauted veggies with the following to form something like a meatloaf mixture:
- crushed saltine crackers, about 1/2 a package
- oatmeal, maybe 1/2 to 1 cup
- 2 eggs
- (whatever other spices you want. I think I would add some barbecue sauce next time.)
Keep adding the crackers and/or oatmeal until the mixture can be easily formed into balls without being really sticky.

Step 4: Fry
Fry, not saute. Deep frying is probably the fastest, but I hate using that much oil at once. I just kept turning them until the entire outside was crispy and wonderful. The point of this was to make sure they didn't fall into mush when cooked in the sauce. It worked. So fry however you want and set aside to drain. When you're done, they look like this:

(I didn't know I wanted step-by-step pictures until I saw this success.)

Step 5: Make the sauce. Easy. Take 2 cans of diced tomatoes and 1/2 a bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce and cook it over medium heat.
NOTE: This is only enough sauce for 1/2 of the "vegetaballs." And 1/2 of the recipe is plenty for 4 people. I tucked the rest away in the fridge for a replay later in the week.

Step 6: Add the veggie balls to the sauce. Cook for a little while. I cooked it for something like 10 minutes, but I'd imagine it's even better when cooked longer. I'd just watch to make sure they don't turn to mush. This is the goodness that was in my pot:



I served these on bread as an open-faced sub sandwich...that I ate most of with a fork...but serving it over bread seems best. That last soppy bite of bread with the saucy goodness is the BEST! I wish I would've taken a better picture, but I really didn't want to take the time away from eating.