Let's cook it up a notch!

During work on Monday morning, as I often do I pondered what I would be cooking that week. So far I've conquered the basic challenges of sauteeing and baking, and felt ready to take on another challenge given the cooking materials at my disposal (ie. broiling, grilling, and deep-frying are currently intangible, at the moment). I saw that pesto sauce and raviolis were on my list of "things to cook eventually", so I decided to combine the two challenges into one! This recipe required lots of ingredients to buy, so it was quite the expensive dish. Hopefully I can find a use for ricotta cheese before it goes bad, as I have about 8 ounces left of the stuff. Maybe I'll just be a fatty and eat it while watching Dance Moms. How else does Abby Lee keep her figure?

Once again I surprised myself in the flavor department - the flavors in the raviolis were delightful! I used gorgonzola and mozzarella cheese, and piled on some sliced mushrooms to get a fix of veggies. I used my new blender to make the pesto sauce, which came out a little too pureed for my liking but still had all of the taste. I substituted mozzarella cheese for the traditional Parmesan, and used sliced almonds instead of walnuts as they were half the price and I figured I would eat the leftovers on my hiking trip this coming weekend. I can also munch on the leftover basil leaves before they go bad, quite a tasty treat. The hard labor and bits of fun Eleni and I experienced while crafting the raviolis sure beats out any restaurant experience. 

I used a basic cheesy ravioli recipe from allrecipes.com, and verified the preparation process with Joy of Cooking by Julia Child. That woman used too much butter in all of her recipes but was a smarty when it comes to general food prep. I was surprised how few ingredients were required to make the dough, I think next time I will add some spices to the dough for extra flavor. 

These little guys are ready for a swim!

This picture doesn't do justice. They were pretty darn awesome.

Got any ideas for what I should cook next? Let me know! I'm currently perusing various cooking blogs to find inspiring recipes for the coming weeks. Among those blogs are tastespotting.com and smittenkitchen.com, if you care to feast your eyes.

And now for something completely different, here are some sand sculpting pics at my beach from this past weekend. My neighborhood turned into a tourist attraction, it felt so awesome to walk home after an afternoon of fun instead of braving public transportation!

Crowd favorite

First Place

Exhibition sculpture



Thanks for reading, little chefs!