Prosciutto and Cheese Tortellini

We took a trip to Italy last night, at least a culinary one. And I have to say, my first foray into homemade pasta far surpassed the fare that we encountered in our most recent trip to Rome. We were so excited for our three-day trip to Italy (crazy short!), mostly for the food. And we were disappointed. Horribly. Where were the fresh, crusty pizzas? What we were served (with every meal) was gummy, greasy, and tasted like ketchup. What about rich Carbonara? The only Carbonara we found sat in a pool of uncooked egg. Even the gelato was disappointing. By the end of the trip, we were stopping at little markets and grabbing packages of prosciutto, a block of cheese and a baguette, which was quite tasty, but didn’t quite scream “I’m in Italy!”

If we had found these little pillows, I think we would have never left that great city. Each bite was rich and cheesy with delicious bits of prosciutto, and the pasta wrapping was fresh and light. I would have loved to attempt pasta from scratch, but using Pot Sticker Wrappers cuts out a few hours of prep time, always a good thing when you have a very hungry man watching over your shoulder. I love the versatility of these wrappers- Italian or Asian, main dish or dessert, these set the tone for a perfect meal.

I filled the tortellini with ricotta, mozzarella and prosciutto, adding fresh oregano and pepper for a fresh taste in every bite. Making these requires a commitment- mixing the filling with your hands, pinching the wrappers closed- not a job for the cook who doesn’t like to get dirty. I made twice as many as we needed, so I froze the rest. Next time we have a craving for amazing Italian food, all I have to do is boil some water and throw these in and cover with sauce.

Prosciutto and Cheese Tortellini

1 package of Pot Sticker Wrappers (found in the produce aisle of your grocery store)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 cup ricotta

1 cup proscuitto, cut into small peices

1 Tbsp fresh oregano

Salt and Pepper

-Mix ricotta, mozzarella, oregano, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add more mozzarella or ricotta until it reached the consistency and taste you like.

-Add proscuitto and mix until combined evenly.

-Place 1 spoonful in the middle of a wrapper. If you find that wrappers are breaking, use two wrappers for each tortellini. Wet edges of wrapper, this will help the edges stick together.

-Fold the corners over to create a triangle shape. Pinch the edges together.

-Fold the two long ends of the triangle to the middle point, and pinch together. Play with shapes and folding techniques until you find what works for you!

-Boil water. When water reaches a boil, carefully add the tortellini to the water. Boil for 3-5 minutes, or until tender. Because this is fresh pasta, not dried, it takes much less time to cook and is prone to overcooking if not watched carefully.

-Cover with your favorite sauce and enjoy.

Cookie Dough Treats

“MMMM.” bite. “This is.” bite. “The Best Thing.” bite. “Ever!” bite bite bite. “Seriously.”

Any food that elicits this type of reaction is worth a post in my book. Cookie dough usually gets a pretty positive response- I mean, it’s all the best ingredients, mixed up into a luscious, sinful dough. It’s rich and sugary, with little bits of chocolate sprinkled through. Best eaten raw (salmonella is just a myth, right?), but if you HAVE to cook them up, they can make a pretty delicious finished baked treat too.

This idea takes every girl’s favorite break-up foods, cookie dough and ice cream, and multiplies their deliciousness by a million and a half.  And the great thing is, it’s just so easy.  These little pots of hot, half-baked cookie dough topped with creamy vanilla ice cream and a generous drizzle of chocolate sauce are perfection. They are great for a dinner party too, since they take basically no prep work or cook time and are guaranteed to delight even your pickiest of eaters.

These little babies are not for those on a diet; even a whiff of the warm dough and half melted chocolate chips will send you to the treadmill for another 10 minutes. Indulge in a whole coffee cup full (like I obviously did), and you may have to hit the gym twice the next day!

The steps are simple. Get some cookie dough. When I actually want the finished baked cookie, I make it from scratch, but when all I want is to treat myself to some dough, I reach for the easy stuff- a roll of Nestle straight from the refrigerated section. Strange? Maybe, but I’m all for easy. Next, put the dough in a coffee cup or ramekin, bake in a 350º oven for 10-12 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Add some ice cream and chocolate syrup and indulge yourself while they are still warm. Try not to scrape the dish when you’re done, I dare you. 

Source: Our Best Bites

The Would-Be Rolls

I blame the toaster. Normally, I would take full responsibility for all of my mishaps and failures, because, as we all know, I tend to be quite the chaotic cook. But this time, it was not my fault. I swear.

I love bread. There, I admitted it. They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, but I don’t think admitting this particular problem will solve anything, because the only solution for this problem is MORE BREAD. The only thing I crave more than a warm, gooey brownie (no nuts please) washed down with ice-cold milk, is fresh bread, still warm from the oven. When it comes to bread, I have no willpower. Zero. Zilch. And I am quite ok with that.

As I mentioned before, Rosemary is by far the best spice ever created. So put rosemary together with fresh baked bread, and you have perfection. I found this recipe on The Pioneer Woman Cooks, a blog that makes me feel like a failure of a woman and at the same time, incredibly inspired for what someday I could be. She is a photographer, cookbook author, amazing writer, inventor, teacher, and a pretty funny lady to boot. These buttery, herb-laden rolls made my mouth water just looking at them, so obviously I needed to make them.

First of all, the recipe calls for a cast iron pan. I do not own a cast iron pan, nor do I at the moment posses an oven capable of fitting said pan. I have fond memories of a particular cast iron pan that accompanied us on every camping trip growing up. My mom was a single mom and took our safety and protection very seriously, especially out in the wild. Our pan must have been a foot and a half in diameter and about 40 pounds. While we did cook out of it, the main reason it was dragged around (and I do mean dragged- 40 pounds is a lot for a small child) was to be used as a weapon if ever the need arose. Actually, if the need ever DID arise, I have no idea how one of us would have lifted it to bonk our attackers on the head.

But I digress. Back to the rolls. The recipe said to use frozen dough, but I had some time on my hands, so I went the from-scratch route. Using the cinnamon roll dough recipe, I started the looooong process of dough making. The recipe made enough dough to feed the whole cast of the Lion King (who are currently staying in our hotel), so if I were you, I’d cut it in half. But as I plan to make some cinnamon rolls in the very near future, I was fine with the amount of dough.

The recipe calls for “scalding” the milk and oil mixture, which meals heating the liquid until just before the boiling point, stirring until the sugar dissolves and oil breaks up and mixes with the other ingredients. The smell is a delicious- think of a cold wintery night as a kid, getting a cup of warm, sweet milk right before bed. No? Maybe that was just me.

Next comes the yeast and flour. With bread, you do not want to knead the dough too much, because the more you touch it, the tougher and gummier the mixture will be. The chemical bonds break down and the gluten builds up. What does that mean? Not sure, just don’t over-knead it. I love this part. Your hands are covered in dough, there is flour flying everywhere, and the yeasty smell holds the promise of fresh bread.

I let the dough rise for a little over an hour, and it was perfect. Following Ms. Pioneer Woman’s directions, I put it in the fridge to be used later that night. I took it out a few hours later and it had risen to monstrous proportions.  If I had let it go unchecked, it would have escaped the fridge and gone over to Japan to attack some poor unsuspecting city. Luckily, I caught it in time to punch it down, pinch a few roll sized pieces off, toss them in a well greased springform pan, cover with butter, rosemary and salt, and put in the oven to bake.

This is when, my dear readers, disaster struck. My oven is small. 13 inches wide and 7 inches tall. No match for the hardworking yeast that fill the dough. I watched in sadness as the dough rose and rose and reached for the heating elements. Alas, the rosemary rolls I had slaved over for hours burned to a crisp on top, leaving the middle and bottom essentially raw. I will definitely have to attemp these again, with all the proper tools. They will be as delicious as I imagine, as delightful as the pictures. But for this batch? There was no hope, no fix. And I absolutely blame the toaster.

Buttered Rosemary Rolls

Ingredients

Frozen, Unbaked Dinner Rolls (I substituted the dough from the recipe below)

Melted Butter, Regular, Salted

Fresh Rosemary, Coarsely Chopped

Coarse Sea Salt

Preparation Instructions

-Spray a small iron skillet with cooking spray (or coat with olive oil). Place rolls in the skillet, leaving plenty of room for rising. Cover and allow to rise for several hours.

-After rising, brush rolls with melted butter.

-Sprinkle on chopped rosemary. Brush with additional butter. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

-Bake according to roll package directions (usually 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes), until rolls are a deep golden brown on top.

-Serve skillet on the table.

Roll Dough

Ingredients

1 quart Whole Milk

1 cup Vegetable Oil

1 cup Sugar

2 packages Active Dry Yeast

8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour

1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder

1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda

1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt

Preparation Instructions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. “Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks ** some pictures borrowed from the Pioneer Woman's excellent photography to show what SHOULD have been created

How Many Veggies...

As the weather gets warm, in theory at least, all sorts of things start to happen in the produce aisle. All these amazing colors start to spring up (no pun intended): sweet corn, peas still in their pods, the greenest of green beans, shiny red peppers- well, just too many beautiful veggies to count! The mission: get as many fresh vegetables as possible into one meal.

Stir-fry is one of my go-to dishes. It’s so easy, so healthy, and best of all, so tasty! I throw whatever I have on hand into it, so it always send up a little different, but each time, just as delicious. I searched high and low, but could not find my favorite teriyaki sauces anywhere, so I had to make do with an imposter brand. Andrew and I have a long-running debate on which is the best…Bad news Andrew, no one can beat Mr. Yoshida’s special blend. This strange brand wasn’t quite up to snuff, so I had to add some chili powder, a dash of Worcestershire, and garlic to improve it.

The trick in making stir-fry is to brown the meat before you add all the veggies. Since the meat takes much less time to cook than the veggies, throw the meat (I chose skirt steak for tonight’s dish) in a hot pan first to sear the it, then transfer the meat to a holding dish and set aside. Cook the vegetables in the same pan the meat was in, soaking up all the yummy flavors. Cover, stirring the mixture from time to time to keep it from sticking.  When the veggies get a little tender, add the meat back in, pour on a generous amount of sauce, and simmer until cooked through.

No Hawaiian girl worth her salt would serve this without a big pot of rice! I always add a dash of salt while the rice is cooking for flavor. This meal is complete for me, but Andrew, for some strange reason, believes that stir fry is served with tortillas. Never mind that they are from a completely different culture, on a completely different continent. It’s something he picked up from Mongolian Grill restaurants that serve their veggie/meat/sauce combos with warm flour tortillas. Now I have never been to Mongolia, I don’t think I have even met a Mongolian person, but I am reasonably sure that their national dishes do include stir-fry from a buffet line with tortillas on the side… But whatever culture it comes from, they may have a good idea there. Delicious teriyaki steak wraps!

(Nearly) Homemade Pizza

What a day! It may be May, but apparently the weather doesn’t care. We awoke to a sky filled with dark clouds: air thick with raindrops, and a temperature high of 42. Wonderful. We might as well have stayed in Seattle for a day like this. But we are used to bad days, so we loaded up and headed out to New Glarus, a Swiss town a short drive away. The town itself is adorable. Kitschy shops line the one historic street, guaranteed to fulfill all your lederhosen and miniature Swiss flag needs.

The town also has the honor of being home to New Glarus Brewing Company http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/, a Wisconsin based Micro Brewery, well worth a visit if you ever make it out this way. The 2-year-old building has 6 miles of stainless steel piping laid by one 24-year old guy (it took him 2 1/2 years, but still, more than I have to show for my 23 years); it is more a work of art than a high volume, working Brewery. Try the Spotted Cow, their most famous brew, or my favorite, Stone Soup (only in WI, sadly).

It may have been the 3 samples we had, but on the way home, we were really craving pizza. Homemade of course, no Dominos delivery for us!! Well, I have to confess, it wasn’t 100% homemade, more of home compiled. I love fresh crust, and I don’t mean the Pillsbury kind that comes in the cardboard can that you peel open and it pops- although that is always fun, like the poppers you get on New Years.  I mean the fresh crust with the yeasty, floury smell that fills the kitchen as you knead it.

Now normally, I would be ecstatic to measure out my ingredients, mix it, knead it, and devote a few hours to watching it rise, but yesterday, I was just too lazy. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nearly all local Pizzerias will sell you raw pizza dough, for a lot less than you can get it at Whole Foods, and it is a lot tastier than a can of dough. I like to add some spice to the dough I get- a few dashes of garlic salt add a nice flavor. Once it is kneaded through, the fun part comes. Since I do not own a rolling pin, especially in my tiny travel kitchen kit, I make do with a bottle of wine- it has enough heft to get the job done.

I like to brush the edges of the crust with olive oil, which helps the edges to brown without burning. Inspired by our Little Switzerland excursion, I cut up some chicken sausage we had on hand and laid it over a nice imported Italian Pizza Sauce, sprinkled on some fresh oregano, and finished with local Wisconsin Mozzarella Cheese. 20 minutes in the oven, and voila- mostly homemade pizza! It was so good; we nearly ate it all before I remembered to take pictures!