Butternut Squash and Salmon Ravioli

Isn’t it funny how ideas are formed? Most of my recipes are adaptations of things I have seen made on cooking shows or recipes I have run across on Pintrest. Sometimes I get random ideas, this usually only happens with Cheesecake flavors. This recipe came 100% out of thin air. I am pretty proud that one of the fanciest meals I have ever made was a creation all of my own! I wasn’t without inspiration though. A few perfectly timed events happened to get the creative juices flowing.

Event #1: I was watching the New Orleans season of Top Chef reruns which included the Last Chance Kitchen episodes. There was one lady who made fresh raviolis during like a 30 minute challenge. That is where I learned that fresh ravioli only needed to be cooked for about 3-4 minutes. Event #2: Levi left for Tucson for 2 weeks. Since he is a notoriously picky eater I have not been able to experiment with any type of fish dishes. Event #3: Right before he left Levi and I went to Olive Garden for somewhat of a farewell date night. Hidden on the seasonal menu was a Butternut Squash Alfredo. I decided to take a chance on the dish, and it was one of the best things I have ever had from Olive Garden!

If all these things hadn’t happened within a week of each other I don’t think I would ever have come up with this wonderful idea!

For the sauce I of course made a reduction! It’s kind of sweet but the bourbon and cream help cut the sweetness. The ravioli filling is very savory so it makes for a nice pairing. If you’re not up for making the sauce I bet a basil and garlic tomato sauce would go nicely with the ravioli. But just don’t drown the ravioli in sauce otherwise you lose too much of the flavor.

So let’s started shall we?

There are 4 components to the dish: Squash, salmon, pasta and sauce.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized Butternut Squash

4 fresh basil leaves- chopped

1 pinch nutmeg

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup cream

1 lb Salmon filet

1 orange

4 basil leaves

Salt and Pepper

18 oz orange marmalade

1 cup cream

2 oz Brandy

1 oz Bourbon

1 tbsp brown sugard

3 tbsp butter

I made about 30 raviolis with a 3 inch ravioli stamp. And had plenty of filling left over. So feel free to adjust the pasta recipe as needed.

1 1/2 cup All purpose flour

1 1/2 cup Semolina flour

2 tbsp water

4 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg (beaten to brush over the pasta and help create a seal around your filling)

1/4 cup shredded asiago cheese (forgot to put it inside the raviolis but it was just as delicious sprinkled on top)

Butternut squash- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take a medium sized squash and cut it in half. Remove the seeds and the stringy bits. Rub butter over the squash. Fill a baking sheet with water, place a cooling rack in the water, place the squash halves face down on the cooling rack. Bake for about 45 minutes. It may take longer depending on the size of your squash and your oven. You’ll know it’s ready when you can easily scoop all the filling out with a fork or spoon.  In a mixer, or with beaters, cream the squash till smooth.

In a medium saucepan add the squash, 1/4 cup cream, chopped basil, pinch of nutmeg, and salt. Over a medium heat combine all the ingredients till you have a smooth paste. Cool mixture, but keep it covered so it doesn’t dry out.

Salmon- Cut Salmon filet into 4 equal pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut the orange in half. Squeeze half the orange over the salmon to get juice on each piece. Lay 1 basil leaf over each piece. Slice the remaining half of the orange into 4 slices and lay each slice of a piece of the salmon. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until you can easily separate the fish with a fork. Shred the salmon into little pieces. Cover to keep warm.

Pasta- In a bowl mix the flour and semolina, eggs, salt, and water. Mix until you have a flaky dough. Then use your hands to knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 3-4 minutes. Form a ball and wrap it in wax paper. Let it sit for 30 minutes.

While the pasta is sitting get the sauce started.

If you are using a traditional pasta roller break your dough into 4 sections. Roll out each section to a 6 setting. If you are hand rolling then use floured wax paper and roll out the dough to about 1/16 inch thickness.

On 2 of the pasta sheets make a light imprint of your ravioli cut outs. Place some of the squash mixture and salmon in the middle of each piece. You can also add some of the cheese if you want. It’s better to have your filling pile be high rather than wide and be careful not to overfill the ravioli. Brush the pasta around the filling with beaten egg. Place the top layer of pasta over the top. Press down around the filling to create a seal. Dip the ravioli cutter in flour and cut out your raviolis.

Fill a large pot halfway with water and bring to a gentle boil. Add some salt and olive oil. Place 4-6 raviolis in the water at a time and cook for 3-4 minutes till the pasta is tender. Use a slotted spoon to remove each ravioli and place in your serving dish.

Sauce- In a medium sauce pan add your orange marmalade, brown sugar, brandy and bourbon. Over medium heat bring to a low boil. Reduce the mixture to about 1/2 it’s original volume. Add cream and butter while continuously stirring.  When it’s well mixed and the sauce has a light orange color, remove from heat and let it cool a little. I have learned that when doing reductions you get the best consistency when you let it cool and then reheat to the desired serving temperature.

Whew. You are ready to feast!!! Sit down with friends and family and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Nanaimo Bars

Everyone has special memories of treats from their childhood. A special ice cream flavor, the perfect chocolate chip cookies or a special birthday cake. These memories are shaped by parents, grandparents, friends, or even the local bakery down the street.

Today I would like to share one my favorite childhood treats! Growing up in Utah meant that we didn’t often see my dad’s parents who lived in Ontario, Canada. I’m pretty sure that my very plane ride was on trip to see these grandparents. I couldn’t have been very old, maybe 7 or 8.  I have very little memory of the trip, truth be told. I remember staying in a pink room with sister, my first trip on a sailboat, and playing with my cousins. I know there have been a few trips to see my grandparents over the years and they all have great memories.

And of course there is always the great food! One thing that always sticks out is Grandma Anderson’s Nanaimo bars. I did a little research on this treat since the name is so unusual. I found out that this is somewhat of a traditional Canadian treat originating from the town of Nanaimo, British Columbia.

This is probably one of the only no-bake treats you’ll ever see from me. I can’t explain it, but no-bake is just not my thing. I hope everyone gives this a try and enjoys this treat as much as I do 🙂

Ingredients:

Base:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

1 egg

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup shredded coconut

Filling:

1/4 cup butter

2 tbsp instant vanilla pudding powder

3 tbsp milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp almond extract (there really is no “right” way to make a Nanaimo bar so feel free to play with flavors a little. We added the almond extract because we found some on sale 😉 it’s totally optional.)

Glaze:

4 squares semi-sweet chocolate. (This is equivalent to 4 oz)

1 tbsp butter

Directions:

Base- In a medium mixing bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, nuts, and coconut.

In a double boiler melt the butter, then add sugar and mix until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cocoa and egg and mix until smooth and thickened. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix it all together.  Grease a 9×9 inch glass pan and press this mixture into the bottom.

Filling- In your stand mixer combine all ingredients until well mixed. Spread filling over the base. I used a spatula and a very light touch to help prevent the filling from pulling the base up.

Glaze- In a small saucepan over low heat melt the butter. Add chocolate and mix constantly until completely melted. Spread over the filling.

Refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours. This freezes really well so you can cut your squares and store them in tupperware in the freezer. Just like Grandma 🙂

Dr. Pepper Bourbon Cupcakes

Here it is!! The pinnacle of our Dr. Pepper-palooza meal!!!! Oh my gosh. This is one of the most intense desserts I have ever created! I have never tried making a cupcake with a filling before and I am so proud that my first attempt was such a huge success. Levi and Alanna loved them! My parents told me it was decadent 🙂

Levi and I had sooooo much fun making these together! Dancing around the kitchen jamming out to the bizarre playlist that happens when you put your 5 year old iPod on shuffle all. Good times.

I really love cooking with booze. And when you are making something sweet I think that bourbon is the way to go. Even when your food gets a little boozy it’s not the most horrible thing. The right bourbon has that smooth almost buttery taste and will accentuate so many different flavors all the way from chocolates to cherries to raspberries to peaches!

Thanks to a Beat Bobby Flay episode I finally understand reductions. You want to boil the liquids till they are about 1/2 or 1/3 the size when you started. That’s it. Simple right? And then you get all that flavor in a thick syrupy sauce. It’s a nifty little trick that you will see me use a little more from now on.

Ok are you ready to rock and roll? Here we go:

Cupcake Ingredients (makes 12):

• 1 cup of flower
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 9 regular marshmallows
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 3/4 cup Dr. Pepper
• 1 1/2 tbsp. of cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg

Cupcake Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and sugar. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the Dr. Pepper and cocoa. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Add marshmallows and stir them in until they are completely melted.

Pour the Dr Pepper mixture over the dry ingredients, add milk, and egg. Mix thoroughly.

Use a muffin tin and cupcake liners. This dough won’t rise a whole lot so when you fill the cupcake liners you can do a little more than 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick can come out clean. Cool these on a cooling rack. While you prepare the “ganache”

Chocolate Bourbon Ganache

So I made a little adjustment to a traditional ganache recipe because I don’t really like it when the filling drips out of the cupcake or is too messy.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. Bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 2 tbsp butter
• 5 tbsp Bourbon
• 3-4 marshmallows

“Ganache” Directions:

In a small sauce pan heat the cream to simmering. In a metal or glass bowl pour the cream over the chocolate. Add the marshmallows and mix until smooth. Add butter and bourbon and keep stirring until smooth.

Cut a cone shaped hole in the cooled cupcakes. (You should probably save this so that you can dip it in the leftover ganache and snack on it while you make the frosting.) Put the ganache in a pastry bag, or a ziplock with the corner cut off. Pipe the ganache into the cupcake.

Bourbon Dr. Pepper Cherry Buttercream Meringue Frosting

• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 stick softened unsalted butter. (This time it’s important to use Unsalted. Believe me.)
• 1 can Dr Pepper reduced to 1/2
• 3 tbsp Bourbon
• 1 tbsp maraschino cherry syrup

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a metal bowl, combine the egg white and the sugar. Create a “double boiler” over a pot of simmering water. Whisk consistently until the sugar has dissolved. Transfer the bowl to the stand mixer and use a whisk attachment to beat the mixture until the content has doubled in size and holds it’s form in peaks. This is what it should look like.

This is going to take awhile. Be patient.

Switch over to the paddle attachment. Cut the butter into 2 tbsp squares. Add each square one piece at a time. And mix thoroughly between each square. Keep that mixture going until it’s still smooth. In a small saucepan add the Dr. Pepper and 2 tbsp of Bourbon. Boil until it’s 1/2 or even better 1/3 the size. Let it cool a little bit and add most of it to the frosting. (Save some to drizzle over the finished cupcake.) Keep the mixer going and add the last tbsp of bourbon and the cherry syrup. Now taste it. Keep adding booze and cherry syrup till you have reached your frosting flavor nirvana.

Pipe the frosting on top. Drizzle a little reduction. We added some cake decorations and a cherry and get ready to revel in the decadent amazingness that is your Dr. Pepper Bourbon Cupcake.

Dr. Pepper Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

I have officially jumped on the pulled pork bandwagon. This recipe is what pushed me over the edge. That also means that I have become insanely picky about my pulled pork, and may never actually order it from a restaurant ever again. There isn’t anything worse than a disappointing pulled pork sandwich. I have learned this lesson the hard way. Sometimes it’s way too dry and they just put a little drizzle of BBQ sauce over the top. Yuck. And even worse it could be drowned in some thin drippy BBQ. Yucky and messy. In my opinion the taste and texture of the pork should be able to stand on it’s own, then mix the BBQ in with the meat to create the perfectly flavored and juicy bite every time!

This creation came into being during the Dr. Pepper-palooza. Just randomly one day we decided to make an entire meal with Dr. Pepper since the other Dr. Pepper posts have been so popular. I was also a little curious if I could get Levi to cry uncle with the DP. He has a love for Dr. Pepper that is deep and it’s real. I mean we should probably just buy a pallet of it and Levi would still work his way through the whole thing before I got through a 24 case of Diet Coke. Ah yes, Levi and his 12 year old turbo metabolism. I would hate him for it if I didn’t love him so darn much!

But I digress. Time to bring the thunder!! HAHAHA……..I don’t know why.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lbs Pork Loin Roast
• Pork Rub- I created my own with 1/2 cup brown sugar and even parts garlic salt, paprika and black pepper. Sorry didn’t actually measure everything out, but you should use at least a tablespoon of each.
• 2 cans of Dr. Pepper
• 1 bottle of BBQ sauce. We used KC Masterpiece Hickory Brown Sugar BBQ.

Instructions:

Coat the pork roast in the rub. Really work it in there so the meat will absorb the flavors and it won’t just all come off the minute it hits the liquid. I usually spend a good 2-3 minutes working the rub in. At some point I plan on getting a meat injector because that would really kick the flavor into high gear.

Add the pork loin to the slow cooker and pour in both cans of Dr. Pepper. I also added about 1/2 cup of the BBQ sauce so the meat would have a little of that flavor as well. We cooked the pork for 2 hours on low and then 3 hours on high. But if you are able to let it cook all day you can do 6-8 hours on low.

You’ll know when it’s done if you stick a fork in the side and meet little resistance pulling it away from the roast. Put the roast on a serving platter or you can drain most of the liquid from the slow cooker and shred it in there. Add 1/2 bottle of the BBQ sauce and toss the meat around to get a good coating. You can add more BBQ sauce to meet your saucy needs 🙂

Another very important decision to make is the bun. I think the best one would be crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Toast it up a little, pile on the meat and serve with your favorite sides.

Down and Dirty Dr. Pepper

To kick off our Dr. Pepper-palooza that was this Sunday I would like to introduce the Down and Dirty Dr. Pepper (and it’s incredible side kick….Dr. Pepper and Bourbon cupcake)

I am not quite sure what came over us today. I think it was perhaps 1 part Kohls savings high, 1 part boredom and 1 part Dr Pepper recipes are really popular on Bing search engine. What ever the case may be Levi and I spent our entire day making a complete meal using Dr. Pepper!!!

It’s a good thing we are going on a hike up Logan canyon tomorrow, otherwise my clothes might not fit for work on Tuesday!

The Down and Dirty Dr. Pepper is a boozy version of Dirty DP.

Fill a glass with ice.

Add:

1.5 oz Coconut Rum

1 oz Lime Rum

Fill the rest of the glass with Dr. Pepper.

Top it off with a dash of Half n Half and garnish with a lime!!!

Hope you love it!!! Be ready for more DP recipes to come 🙂

Brown Sugar and BBQ Rack of Ribs

So I am just now realizing how many pork recipes we’ve been doing lately. What can I say…….it’s my favorite white meat!! To me chicken is the other white meat 😉

So one of the best things of having Alanna stay with us is that it’s ok to buy regular servings of food and there is just a little bit left over. So we were all at the grocery store kind of just wandering around and we saw a 5 lb rack of ribs on sale. I jumped on that soooooo fast!! I had been craving steaks but I will only eat those off the barbeque and we are sadly out of propane and haven’t had a chance to fill it back up. Also, with the winter coming on super fast it’s probably not worth it now.

But ribs, those you can just throw in the oven and they will come out juicy and perfect!!! So I just came up with this little recipe on the fly 🙂

Pork Rub:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp garlic salt
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• Optional- crushed red pepper if want a little kick of spice!

Other ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 1 green pepper
• 2 cups KC Masterpiece Hickory Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce
• 5 lbs rack of ribs

So here goes:

Line a backing sheet with tin foil. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Mix your rub together and really work it into both sides of the rack of ribs. I mean get it in there!! Give that meat a nice little brown sugar massage like you’re getting paid for it 😉 …..ok that was a little weird, but hopefully you get the point.

Next slice up your onion and green pepper and place half on top of the rack and half on the bottom to keep the ribs out of the juices. You can fill the bottom of the pan with 1 cup of beer or water to help the ribs be really moist. Cover pan tightly with tin foil. 

Put your ribs in the oven for 3 hours. Then drain the fat from the pan. Move all the veggies under the rack of ribs and liberally brush the BBQ sauce over the ribs. Place the ribs back in the oven for 30 minutes.

Let them cool just a little bit and then pile up the napkins and dig in!!!

I also just want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you that follow the blog and check out our fun recipes. We are just a few views away from 500 views and that is a really big deal for us!!! This blog has been so special to Levi and myself and is definitely the one hobby we’ve ever had that has staying power…..not only thanks to our love of food but also because we love sharing this with friends and family and the WORLD 🙂

I would love to hear any type of suggestions or favorites that you would like to share with everyone!