Grammy Martinell's Ravioli

I have adapted my Pop-Pop's mom's ravioli. She made these for special occasions, probably Easter or Christmas. I've been told she made these much larger than I do. But the filling and the sauce are the same. It is a favorite in our house. I like to make a batch to give to my Pop as well. So, making these are usually an all day affair. But nothing says love, like homemade ravioli!!

Filling:

1 1/2 lbs. stew meat, chuck- cooked in sauce and then ground

fresh ground pepper

parsley

2 large eggs

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1 cup Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, grated

Sauce:

2 29 oz. cans tomato sauce

2 12 oz. cans tomato paste

2 tbsp. sugar

thyme

pepper

marjoram

sweet basil

oregano

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

parsley

Brown the stew meat in a dutch oven with garlic, pepper, and parsely. Once browned add a little water. Cook meat until half done and add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Simmer on low until meat is done. Remove meat with a slotted spoon. Grind meat in a meat grinder. Add 2 eggs, bread crumbs, cheese, and parsley. Mix. If dry add some sauce to the meat so it is moist and not crumbly. Use the middle cutter for grinding meat.

Pasta:

2 3/4 cups flour

3 large eggs

1 tsp. salt

Build a mound with the flour on a pastry mat. Make a hole in the moung and crack the eggs into the hole. Add the salt. With a fork start to mix up the egg and the salt. Once mixed start to incorporate the flour. This gets very messy and you will think it is all ruined, not so! Keep incorporating the flour with your hands. If it gets too dry and flaky, add tiny bits of water at a time. Once you have a dough start to knead, as you would bread. Turn the dough a quarter of a turn, push the heel of your hand into the dough, repeat for 5-10 minutes. Don't skimp on kneading time or the pasta will not turn out silky.

Wrap the dough in plastic and let rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes.

Clamp a pasta machine to your counter. Set the rollers at the widest setting, on mine it is "1". Unwrap the pasta dough and cut it into quarters. Work with one quarter at a time, wrapping the other three pieces in the pastic wrap.

Flatten the quarter of dough with your hands, lightly floured. Make it into a rough rectangle Feed it through the machine.

Fold into thirds and run through lengthwise 2 or 3 times.

Turn the setting in one notch and feed through, unfolded.

Continue to do this until you have reached the narrowest setting on the machine.

Use a sharp knife to cut the rolled pasta strip into 18-20 inch lengths.

Using a teaspoon, put about 10 little mounds of the filling along one side of the pasta strips, spacing them evenly.

Either use a pastry brush or use your finger to brush water around the mound of filling. Fold the plain side of the pasta strip over the filling.

Starting from the folded edge, press down gently with your fingertips around each mound, pushing the air out at the unfolded edge. Sprinkle lightly with flour.

With a pasta wheel, cut the long side and then between the mounds to make small squares.

Put the ravioli on floured dish towels, sprinkle lightly with more flour and let dry while repeating the process with the remaining dough. You should get about 80 ravioli.

Tips:

You can reroll the trimmings, to keep them from drying out and becoming unworkable, wrap in plastic wrap.

Once pasta is dried you can freeze for up to 1 month.
Once you are ready to eat, boil for 4-5 minutes and serve with sauce.

Long Time No See

It's been forever since I have blogged. We have had quite a busy year and blogging just fell off the list. However, I am newly insipred to start it up again!

I'll try my best to catch you up on some of our top happenings since I last wrote.

To start, I have read some very good books. My latest is Sitting at the Feet of the Rabbi Jesus Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. This book really explores what a first century Jew's faith would have been like: feasts celebrated etc. I found it so interesting especially now, during Lent. It makes me want to host a Christian Passover dinner. So, I am trying to figure out how to plan that.

I also have completed both To Live is Christ by Beth Moore and Me, Myself and Lies by Jennifer Rothschild in our Women's Bible study. Both were wonderful. I especially loved To Live is Christ. I did not feel I knew much about the life of Paul unti I read this book, it is fascinating and truly inspirational to learn how much he suffered in the name of Christ. Even more impressive is the zeal he had throughout--that's the Holy Spirit workin'!

I have actually decided to step out of leadership of the Bible study. Tonight is my last night-- I feel a bit like Wendy in Peter Pan. However, it is for the best. Patrick will be full-time in school next year and I need to spend those pm hours at home. I can already tell completing homework with two kids will be interesting to balance. I hope to find a lively am class to attend in the fall. I hear very good things about a few CBC studies around here.

I am sad to leave the fellowship of the ladies in this group, however, I am actually trying not to think about it. It is hard. We all come from different age groups and situations yet we have found a common bond in Christ. We have an interest in what happens to each other, there is care and love there. I will miss the weekly gathering.

Apples!

Like strawberries, my kids pick apples faster than I can pay for them! We had great weather for some very fun apple picking this weekend with some friends. The funniest part of the trip was when my son and his friend tossed an apple into the dirt road and sat and watched for several minutes for it to be squashed by a car. They were not disappointed!

For many Maryland apples, picking time is almost over, so get out there with your basket and enjoy the beginning of fall!

Here are two recipes to use your picked apples in:

For Gala apples:
Waldorf Salad Jubilee

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

6 Gala apples, unpeeled nad cut into 1/2" pieces

1 1/2 cups chopped celery

1 1/2 cup chopped radishes

3/4 cup orange flavored craisins

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

1 1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces
2 heads radicchio, washed

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring well. Toss apples with the next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Add mayonnaise dressing and toss to coat. This can be done 1 day ahead. Cover and refridgerate. Before serving fold in toasted pecans and then spoon salad into the radicchio leaves as if they are little bowls. Yield: 10 servings
For any apple that is excellent for baking:

My Grandma's Apple Pie

This is my grandma’s recipe. She usually used Granny Smith apples. She and her mother were known for their excellent pies.

2 9-inch pie crusts (if you want to make your own click here for a great recipe from Melissa D'Abrabian from Food Network)

1/3 to 2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

8 medium sized apples (a medium apple = about 1 cup)

2 tablespoons margarine


Heat oven to 425. Peel, core and slice the apples. Try to keep the size of the slices even. Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl. Stir in apples. Pour into pastry lined pie plate. Dot with butter or margarine. Cover with top crust and seal the edges. Cut slits in the top. Cover edge with foil to prevent too much browning. Remove foil during the last 15 minutes. Bake 40 to 50 minutes.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Our play group headed out to pick strawberries this week, an annual trip of ours. I always look forward to it. I feel such satisfaction in getting outside and working in the dirt. Maybe I should be a farmer. I also love being able to make things like my grandmothers used to. I like to make jam and pies. So, I was really motivated to pick as much as I could so I could make all these things when I got home.

I went a little overboard. (Geez, I could say that about so much!) I was a picking machine. I picked 21 pounds. Holy moly! This year's crop was definitly full of smaller berries than last year and because of the rain and lack of sunshine, the berries started to spoil faster. I needed to act fast! So, I did--- in two days this is what I did . . .

Strawberry Jam

This is no secret recipe, it actually can be found on the inside of a packet of Sure-Jell.

ingredients:

5 cups crushed strawberries (already washed and cut)

7 Cups sugar

1 packet Sure-Jell

Wash jars in extra hot dishwasher, leave in the steamy dishwasher until ready to fill. Boil the 2 piece lids, drain before using.

Prepare strawberries by washing, hulling, and roughly cutting any large berries.

Measure exact amount of fruit into a saucepan (I use a large pot).

Measure exact amount of sugar into a separate bowl.

Stir one box of Sure-Jell pectin into the fruit. Bring to a full rolling boil on high heat.

Stir in sugar quickly, return to a full rolling boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Ladle quickly into the hot jars filling to 1/8 from the top. Wipe the jars and the threads. Cover with the two piece lids. Screw tightly.

Katie's Upside-Down Seal Method:
Pace upside down on the counter for 15-minutes, then flip over, jars should seal, to test, press the middle of the lid with your finger.

Jam sets in 24 hours.

Strawberry Gelato Hearts

Alyssa loves to help make and eat this. If you have an ice cream maker, this is worth it!

1/2 pound fresh or frozen strawberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold heavy whipping cream

Pull off the leaves and stems of the strawberries and cut in half. Wash in cold water. Put the strawberries with all the sugar in a food processor and pulse for a few moments, then add 3/4 cup water and continue to process until liquefied. Whip the cream until it thickens slightly, to the consistency of buttermilk. Put the cream and the strawberries in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Use a spatula to fill silcone hearts with the gelato. Freeze in the mold. When ready to eat, remove the ice cream from the mold and serve.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
This is my absolute favorite pie! My grandma and I used to make it together when I was little. I love the combination of sweet and tart in this!

2 1/2 cups cut rhubarb (about 6 stalks)
2 1/2 cups cut strawberries
1 cup plus 2 tsps. Sugar
3 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. butter
2 tsps. Orange or lemon juice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt

Blend sugar cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and flour. Add rhubarb and strawberries and toss until well coated. Pour into pie shell and dot with butter. Preheat oven to 425°. Bake 30 minutes then reduce temperture to 350° and bake for 30 minutes.

Strawberrries 'n' Cream Pie

1 8 oz. package of light cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped

1 baked 9 inch pie crust, I use the Pillsbury kind

1 quart strawberries, hulled

Beat cream cheese at medium speed iwth an electric mixer until creamy. Add sugar and almond extract, beating well. Stir in 1/4 of the whipped cream into the cream cheese. Fold in the remaing whipped cream. Spoon mixture into cooled pie crust. Arrange strawberries stem side down over whipped cream mixture. Cover and chill at least 3 hours.

Book Review- The Shack

I read a lot. I love books, always have. Very rarely do I come across a book that I feel so strongly about I think everyone should read it-- and to confess, I think people "should" do a lot of things I think. But this book does something so profound, I'd hate anyone to miss it.

I did not want to read this book. I heard about people reading it, I knew it had to do with kidnapping and a grisly crime. Well, as a mother of two young children, I felt that I just didn't need to read a book that dealt with such "dark stuff." It would just feed my already paranoid, overprotective craziness, right?! Wrong.

If anything, this book helped me overcome some of that paranoia. And believe me, I am QUEEN of paranoia, I was raised on it as if it was something good for you to eat. Maybe I shouldn't say paranoia since the definition of that is "unfounded or exaggerated distrust of others, sometimes reaching delusional proportions. Paranoid individuals constantly suspect the motives of those around them, and believe that certain individuals, or people in general, are "out to get them."

Well, my distrust has always been "founded" so maybe I am not really paranoid. But like any good mom, I am wary, careful, and protective.

So, this books first few chapters were enough to send me screaming, keep my heart pounding, and yes, I did check on my children a few times while they were asleep and I was reading.

But then this book opened up into a beautiful calm. I don't want to ruin it for you, but I will tell you that if you push through those first few chapters, you will be rewarded with so much. This book ambitiously tries to capture the nature of God--from the trinity, what he wants from us, how he approaches us, what we can do, what he will do. It achieves this ambition. For Christians, this book will draw them closer in relationship to Him. For people with little relationship with God or Christ, this will draw them to Him.

This book also deals with the age old question "Why?" Why does God let bad things happen. This book so effectively deals with this question. I have never been so satifised before as I have been with how this book deals with that question. And I am sure everyone has asked that question!

Not only do you care about the people in this book and what happens to them, you fall in love with a loving, forgiving, and merciful God.

Now--go read it!

Eco, Kid, and Pocket Book Friendly Cleansers

Spring cleaning is here! I have to say, I am messy by nature. I have a real hard time following through with picking stuff up and putting it back in its "home" if it even really has a home in our house. Many objects in our home are nomads or gypsies. However, I have been really dedicated to some new cleaning products.

The first one is vinegar, which my mom uses a lot for windows, but as I have been researching, it does more than windows. Vinegar is a cleaning superstar. My sorority sister Meredith who lived overseas, says the Germans use it to clean everything! I use it in a spray bottle mixed with water. 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water. I do windows, clean the kitchen sink, and shine the crome fixtures with this. This mixture also takes the price stickers off glass with a magical ease. I think of the time I spent getting those stickers off the bottom of my new china when I was first married, I wish I'd known the vinegar trick then! I also use it to wash my wood floors! My girlfriend puts some in her wash to soften the clothes instead of using fabric softener. Vinegar is great for descaling and removing calcium and lime deposits as well as removing soap scum.

Here is a great website for vingar uses.

I also have fallen in love with liquid Ivory dishsoap. It is very eco-friendly. Add 1 tablespoon soap to 1 cup water and you have yourself the BEST all-purpose cleaner ever. It makes things sparkle, you even hear that little--ting! You know, like the people on the Orbit commercials. I use this spray to clean my kitchen counters, stovetop, microwave, bathroom sinks, around (not in) the toilet, walls, I could go on forever! Spray, wipe, and dry. Drying I have found is essential to the cleaning process. Especially with windows and countertops. You need to dry it with a cloth or paper towel for it to really look its best.

Probably my favorite product here is the baking soda. My Grammy has always sung its praises and it deserves it. You can use it to scrub, to deodorize, cut grease. I polish silver with it. Use a damp cloth and some baking soda for a beautiful shine. Here is a great website for baking soda uses.

My very favorite thing is when you add vinegar to baking soda--that is a dynamic duo.

I recently found in Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook how to unclog a drain using vinegar and baking soda. Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda in the drain, pour 1/2 vinegar down the drain, cover the drain with a cloth to keep the gasses in the drain. Wait five minutes and pour boiling hot water down the drain (use a teakettle to keep from burning yourself).

You really cannot go wrong with any of these products as they are not harmful to kids as many household cleansers are. They are friendly to the earth. And, they are inexpensive.

So, let's get spring cleaning!

Mommy Friends

I have been blessed with many friendships in my life. Friends I have had since childhood, college friends, church friends. But today I have to give the shout out to my Mommy friends. It it hard to capture in words just what these women do for me. But I will now try.

Just in the past week some of my mommy friends have:
a) watched my preschooler on very short notice so I could go to a Dr's appt.
b) lent me a boatload of dish and glassware so I could host a party
c) disciplined my child gently and without passing judgment on me
d) listened to concerns or worries I had
e) made me lunch
f) made my kid lunch
g) gave me hand-me-downs
h) found the number (and a coupon) for the garage door fix it man
i) encouraged me
j) offered to do a playdate swap giving each of us some alone time
k)shared a great recipe--breakfast casserole
l) lent me a mop!
m) just called
n) gave my kids a snack
o) let my kid give her dog a snack
p) brought my kid home from the bus stop


I would not be as good a mother, wife, or friend without these women. I also would be a little crazier and at wits end most of my days.

• Potty training would have been a lot less funny and tolerable had I not had you all around to know I am not alone.
• Having moms who have been there before was so crucuile those first few months after birth! The things only another mom would tell you!!
• Knowing you love my kids and I love yours.
• The wealth of cleaning and cooking tips that we have all shared!
• Knowing we don't have to be perfect--or even seem perfect.

Thanks for being such great Mommy Friends!