I found this interesting; posted on "the other" forum... https://www.seniorforums.com/threads/reflections-of-my-life.46359/page-7#post-1470448
They look good! Have you made tortellini yet? I like that 3-cheese tortellini and ravioli sometimes.@John Brunner
You want a bigger kitchen and I've been thinking seriously about a tiny house. Life changes us. @John Brunner
I like tortellini, too, for the same reason I like ravioli...a more substantial chunk of pasta than noodles. I've not tried the more labor-intensive shapes except for the semolina-based cavatelli and orecchiette I posted about earlier. I should give tortellini a try. I've done my share of wontons and empeñadas. It might not really be much more trouble than messing with ravioli punches and the residual scraps of dough.
I found a good marinara sauce when I embarked on this journey. Just slapping together a random array of Italian ingredients was fine for boxed pasta, but not this. I found a great recipe on my first attempt. I gave some ravioli and sauce to a friend, and she said her husband raved about the sauce. It is good.
I lived in a 600 square foot home for almost 35 years, and moved into the 1,300 square foot home. It's a mansion!!! I was watching an America's Test Kitchen episode once, and one of the women mentioned how she likes a smallish kitchen because she can be working at the counter, have the sink and stove right there, and turn around to get something out of the refrigerator without having to walk around an island or to the other end of the room. I have to agree with that.
I think your mushroom spinach ravioli sounded good. I've never tried that before but I like the ingredients. @John Brunner
Very interesting. Living in a dry climate sure adds options. There's a farm across the street from me that does lots of retail stuff. They give lessons in herbals, in growing plants, and a bunch of other stuff. I was just over there the other day, and the missus was telling me that they just built a new shed to dry their herbs in (had been doing it in a couple of rooms in the house.) They have the shed air conditioned so as to keep it dry (remove the humidity.)
I just feel like I have more house than I need at this point in my life. Like some other family would love to have the extra rooms that I don't have a use for anymore. I could definitely do with a smaller yard to maintain. As long as I have room for a little garden, I'd be ok with a downsize. I worry about my physical ability to care for it in the years to come. I know what you mean about going from a small compact and then getting more room though. It probably does feel like a mansion! Enjoy it! You need it for all of that cooking you're doing these days. @John Brunner
Still no gnocchi at the G's. I have decided to make stuffed shells for dinner tomorrow (ricotta, egg, mushrooms, spinach) so I don't have Ricotta Guilt when I open the fridge.
Stuffed shells sound good. I've not put mushrooms in mine, but it sounds delish. I'm still procrastinating on Round Two of those semolina shapes. Tonight I did a bunch of chicken wings sous vide (one hour @ 165°.) They dry in the fridge--uncovered--on a rack for 8 hours-2 days, then get briefly fried & sauced. Gonna be tomorrow's dinner, plus freezing some of them fried & unsauced to see how they reheat. I lost my wings source when the Red Robin in Charlottesville shut down permanently. COVID + Mal de Mall got 'em (without Sears & Penneys, it's always like going to the beach in the winter.) I also made 2 batches of cookies. Funny, I didn't feel like cooking, but when I did the wings so I could eat them tomorrow, I got on a roll. I decided to make those cookies, forgetting that one recipe required chopping walnuts, chopping dried cranberries, and grating carrots. Not as fast as I thought it was gonna be. But no semolina pasta.
Yeah, the mushrooms have to be chopped pretty small. I'll probably put some browned Italian sausage in there, or maybe in the sauce; there's only so much room for stuffing in those shells. Our mall is a dead zone, too. I had to make a return to Macy's recently and I swear I was the only person in the store besides one woman behind plexiglass in customer service. It was almost creepy. I get tired just reading about your Kitchen Adventures. I still love cooking but I'm about the shortcuts these days. Wings sound good, though.
My cooking takes weird turns. I got the sous vide machine, and it led me to making those wings (which I have not done in a long time.) Stupid me had some in the freezer I should have used, but the grocery store had some hitting their Use or Lose date today so I got a good deal. If I can sous vide/batch-fry/freeze/reheat, the wings will go into my permanent rotation and I'll use what's in the freezer...sauce will be easy to make on a dinner-by-dinner basis. I made that vodka sauce for shrimp ravioli, and it took calibrian chiles. So now I've snagged another recipe to use the chiles in. Same thing goes for the duck fat. I've fried eggs with it a couple of times...OMG!! I plan on making rolls with it as a partial butter substitute.