Temperatures have come up today. This morning it was -25F/-32C, and a light, fine snow was falling and scrubbing the air clean of all that schpoo I'd been avoiding. So I put on a bunch of clothes and took the girls for a nice long walk through the neighborhood. I could see that my neighbors were equally delighted with the weather change--they were all smiles and waves and, "Are you walking those dogs, or are they walking you?"s.*
Anyway, after I left after posting Tuesday, I stopped by Alaska Feed on my way home for a gallon of milk for cheese. Then I figured as long as I was housebound, I'd make something really nice for dinner, that wasn't leftover-turkey-related. So I made giant spinach tortellonis with whole milk ricotta. Here are photos:
The beginning of pasta:
Spinach ricotta filling:
Holy tortelloni!
Every Chinese person who grew up wrapping jiao-zhis or wontons has an edge in making tortellonis by hand. :)
Walnut pesto (copied from A. G. Ferrari's , only mine with garlic! Yay garlic!
Here is a photo of the girls in another napping permutation (sorry about the missing noses and feeties):
*I have had this said to me about 20 times since getting the girls. Each person who says this thinks that they are the first to say it, and aren't they clever?
6 comments:
much better than my attempt to make my own jiaozi skins at thanksgiving! have you tried making jiaozi skin? or even jiaozi for that matter? I know you don't like chinese food, but I thought you at least liked jiaozi!
Hey! Someone else who makes pasta from scratch! Good on ya, mate.
Those tortellinis look great! Mine never come out looking that good so I usually stick to raviolli or slicing up the pasta sheets for fettucini.
Just found out how to make fresh udon noodles from scratch, so stay tuned for a post about that.
Do your girls live on that blanket whenever they are indoors? Sure looks that way :)
Glad the weather warmed up for you. I always appreciated a -20 something break in the middle of a cold spell. Now, of course, I appreciate an cool day of 85 or so in the middle of a hot spell.
Great job, they look very professionally made. Your brother-in-law probably drools when he sees the pictures, he loves cheese and jiaozi and you combined the two.
Have a safe, healthy and happy 2009.
jiaozi are even more laborious than filled pasta! But you're right; I should hunker down and make them one of these days. :) What was the trouble with the jiaozi skins? I sometimes have trouble with the dough being too elastic (it springs back instead of rolling out). The fix is to smoosh the dough back into a ball, wrap it in cling film, and then let it "rest" for maybe half an hour or so. Then it softens down.
Dingo Dave, when you say "from scratch," do you mean from rice flour, or do you literally smoosh up your own rice?
And yes, they live on that blanket! That is their bed. When I first got Autumn, I was horrified to find dog beds priced at about $80. So I went to Value Village and bought a few comforters instead. There is that one, there is another in the back of my car for them, and there is a third that stays at the bottom of the ladder to the loft. The girls like to follow me *everywhere* but they can't climb the ladder. So when I am in bed, they sleep at the base of the ladder. Sweet, huh?
Beautiful orange yolks in those eggs - you get very good quality up there! Looks delicious. Arright, you've inspired me...I'll have to make some pasta some time soon!
The trouble with my jiaozi skins was I wasn't really following the recipe... I added smashed squash instead of water. The skin ended up ripping too easily. Oh well. At least I had premade skins as backup!
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