Fried Ravioli

Need a quick appetizer for the holidays?  I attempted this one tonight so that I can make it later this week for a dinner party (I get nervous trying new recipes the day of).  It turned out great, was simple and fast!

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen ravioli (I used cheese)
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs 
1/2 cup milk
olive oil for frying
your favorite marinara sauce 

Cook frozen ravioli in boiling water for about 5 min
Remove and allow to cool
Meanwhile mix together in a bowl breadcrumbs, oregano, salt, and parmesan cheese
In another bowl mix together eggs and milk
Heat olive oil in a small saucepan for frying
Drop cooled ravioli (they don't have to be completely cool just not really hot or your eggs/milk may cook) in the egg/milk mixture then coat with the breadcrumb mixture
Drop into the oil and fry until golden (make sure to only fry a few at once so the temperature of your oil doesn't drop)
Remove from oil and drain on paper towels
Serve with warmed marinara sauce

That's it!  So simple!  I wish I had a picture but unfortunately they were all gone before I even had a chance.
Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Carrabba's Scotty Thompson Appetizer Recipe

I love places that have an incredible history. I love the Italian way of life. I love the food. I love the people. I love the attitudes of Italians.

Elton John

Cinque Terre, Italy

The above quote is exactly how I feel about Italy.  I went to Italy about 3 years ago and I think I fell in love.  I too love the way of life, attitudes and people, but most of all I love the food.  I loved the way they used really fresh ingredients to make really high quality meals.  Ever since I went I've been in love with a freshly baked bread dipped in great olive oil, a caprese salad drizzled with a balsamic glaze and most of all a really good tomato sauce. Since then, I love to try these basic flavors in any kind of recipe.  Along with loving to make Italian food, I also love to eat Italian food.  My current favorite restaurant is Carrabba's and whenever the husband and I get a chance to go we always order the "Scotty Thompson" appetizer.  You won't find it on the menu but any Carrabba's will make it if you ask for it.  It is basically a fresh tomato sauce with slices of goat cheese on top of it served with grilled garlic bread....mmmmm  Recently I decided to use my tried and true tomato sauce recipe to attempt to make this appetizer and it turned out so simple and great I had to share!  Buon appetito!

Step By Step Easy Lasagna Recipe

Jon Arbuckle: Garfield, did you eat all four boxes of lasagna?
Garfield: [hiccups] It's not my fault. They started it. 

This lasagna has quite a story.  It is a recipe my mom would make all the time growing up.  She also would give it to me before I went back to college whenever I came home to hold me over until the next time.  As I got older I found out her recipe and started making it myself.  When my husband and I were talking before we dated I made him this lasagna to thank him for helping me with something (honestly can't remember why), and as they say food is the way to a man's heart.  Little did I know that lasagna was his favorite meal ;-).  So both the quote used and the recipe are a nod to my husband (Shale).  He loves lasagna and loved Garfield growing up.  I made this recipe a lot (because it is so simple) and then stopped making it for a while as it was getting a little boring.  However, when I told Shale I was making it the other night he was so thankful.  I knew I needed to share it as it is simple, feeds a lot and can be frozen.  The nice thing I like about the lasagna is you can throw in anything you like.  I've used mushrooms, fresh spinach, hot italian sausage, ground beef, chicken, you name it you can pretty much use it.  For this particular time I used roasted garlic and ground turkey breast in the sauce.  For the directions it really helps if you can visually see how to complete the recipes so I've done step by step pictures to help you out.  Enjoy your Italian dinner made simple!!!

A recipe I can't wait to try - Pasta Al Pomodoro

Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.
Sophia Loren

More info on Cinque Terre here

I'm not sure about the truth in that quote but one thing I can say is the recipe I'm about to show you might qualify for the above eating method.  As many of you may know I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Italy with my husbands family about 2 years ago.  Now Italy is not a place to go on a diet.  They practically live off of carbs and gelato and I came back craving vegetables because I hadn't had them in so long.  However, one of the things that Italy taught me about cooking is to eat what you love.  In Italy you don't see people eating things just to eat like we do here in America, in Italy they don't waste their time on bad food, they only eat good food.  To me that was such a wonderful experience.  I loved watching people take two hours to have espresso and a roll with Nutella for breakfast.  They didn't rush to their lunch or dinner break like us but rather savored the moment and the food.  It was just divine and I can't wait to go back again one day. 

A semi-healthy Italian dinner

La scoperta di un piatto nuovo è più preziosa per il genere umano che la scoperta di una nuova stella.
Brillat- Savarin

(The discovery of a new dish is more precious to human beings than the discovery of a new star)

Kate Spade Gwinnett Lane Line

I absolutely adore this fine china line by Kate Spade and Lennox. Perfect for serving up beautiful dishes like the one I'm about to share. I love Italian food but unfortunately I've found that many Italian dishes can be very heavy or fattening so I try to stick to the ones that contain a vegetable based sauce such as marinara or pomodoro sauce. However, I was recently searching for new recipes and came across one in which the sauce was made of spinach. Now before you go and close out this post read the rest because the recipe really turned out beautifully. It is a great way to sneak in some extra veggies while being absolutely delicious, and we could all stand to add a little more spinach to our diet. One of my close friends, Bethany, who knows her health stuff recently posted that we wouldn't need to take any extra vitamins if we would just eat spinach everyday. Spinach is a great nutritional addition just check out the amazing quantity of vitamins at the bottom of this post (courtesy of http://www.nal.usda.gov/ nutritional index). Along with the healthy part of the dinner I also decided to make something a little unhealthy. Lately I've been trying my hand at baking breads and I am currently in the process of making a sourdough starter. I was hoping to make sourdough bread tonight but unfortunately my starter wasn't quite ready so instead I tried out a simple baguette recipe I had found. The bread and pasta turned out perfect and the bread was surprisingly much larger than I expected. Both of the recipes are very cheap which goes to show that you really can save money by making simple things like bread at home. So here's to a night of both healthy and unhealthy dishes. I know these will be in my permanent rotation of fall-back-meals and I hope they become part of yours also.