Baker's Man.

Upon receiving our care package of wedding goodies, the first thing on our list to do was make ravioli. Probably because it was lunchtime and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. Our ravioli endeavors were hindered only by one ingredient that we didn't have: semolina flour. Having never heard of it before, I was unsure whether a regular grocery store would carry it around here. In fact, Fry's does! H. set to making the dough while I mixed up the fillings.

 

The process starts off with H. rolling out the dough to cover the frame of the ravioli maker. Then, H. gingerly picks up the thin dough and places it on top of the metal frame. That white portion H. is holding in the first picture then gets placed on top of the metal frame, making a ravioli maker sandwich. Pushing down on the mold creates little pockets for the filling. As you can see our first filling choice was mushrooms, spinach, and feta cheese. It smelt so good!

 

Our second filling consisted of ground sausage, smoked sausage, olives, and mozzarella cheese. Yeah, that was one deliciously fragrant dish. Once the fillings are nestled in their little pockets, another strip of rolled-out dough is laid on top, and I set about to sealing the raviolis.

The last step is letting the ravioli dry on a heavily floured pan for a couple of hours. Seeing as we live in a desert, it only took an hour or so total to dry. You see those marbled raviolis? Well, some of the ravioli dough ripped the first time we made them, so H. just rerolled whatever we couldn't pick out of the dough (spinach is surprisingly stubborn). I kind of cherished these ones; I think they're chef-like.

Next, you plop the dried ravioli into a pot of boiling water for a few minutes, and BAM. You have fresh ravioli! I would show you a picture of this, but they were too delicious to think of photographing them. Super delicious.

Over the weekend we also dabbled in the art of crepe making. I was in the mood for a mid-afternoon snack, and I suggested we try out a dessert crepe recipe in the cute little crepe book we have now. An egg, some milk, a little salt and sugar, and a touch of flour later, we had some gorgeous crepes. But that's not all! I also made those brandied apples for an added kick. When we sat down to eat them, I couldn't decide which I liked more, the crepes or the apples!

I'm definitely making these again over the weekend in larger quantities. Maybe I'll add strawberries! I'd also like to try the non-dessert crepes, so perhaps crepes will pop up in our meal plan for next week.

Tomorrow, I'm intending to make our first pot roast using our new slow cooker. I'll be trying out Brittany's recipe, and I'm pretty darn thrilled about that. In somewhat related news, I found avocados for 0.50c each! Pot roast and guacamole don't usually go together, but tomorrow they will!