Friday, February 25, 2011

Cheese & Spinach

      So, today I was feeling a little ambitious...actually a little lot guilty.  I noticed that there was more of Lily's food in the freezer than in the fridge.  Basically meaning that she didn't have squat to eat, except her snacks!  Bad mommy!hehehe
     I opened up some Cheese Raviolis from Cambrooke and got to work.  I have made these before and they turned out really mushy.  I guess that's cause they don't have flour in them like regular raviolis. 
I followed the instructions, but let's face it my cooking skills leave much to be desired!  The cheese was running out of the raviolis and they didn't look appetizing.  The instructions did give one suggestion, which I tried out today. The suggestion was to fry the ravs after they have been boiled. 
Now doesn't that just look yummy? 
     I boiled the ravs and once again they looked mushy.  So it probably wasn't my poor cooking skills the last time.  Just knowing that, made me feel a little better about this endeavor.  I scooped the ravs out of the pot and placed them on a plate to get more of the water off of them.
     I got the frying pan warm and added some olive oil (I've seen Ryan do this before, so logically that's what I did).  Suddenly there was a grease fire in my pan.  (I have NOT seen Ryan do this before, and that worried me)  It actually looked cool at first until the flames got higher and came really close to touching the microwave. I am not exaggerating...that's when I started to panic.
     I picked up the pan and started to set it in the sink, when something jarred my brain.  I remember hearing once that you shouldn't put water on a grease fire.  Suddenly I was dropping the pan back on the hot burner.  I know, why would I put it back on the hot burner?  Who knows, I was just panicking! 
My ONCE pretty dish towel! hehehe
I grabbed a dish towel and started swatting at the fire. I so wish that I had a picture of this.  I probably looked crazy and funny!  I finally got the fire out, took a breath, called one of my sisters and laughed about the whole disaster!
     Undeterred, I still wanted to fry the damn raviolis.  So I got out a different pan.  I'm still naive and thinking that the cooking disasters that I encounter are not my fault.  I could be a good chef, if only my pans and recipes would help me out instead of ganging up on me.  But let's get back to the story at hand. 
     I got some more oil warmed up and put in the ravs.  What do you know....NO fire!  SUCCESS
I got to work and fried up all of the raviolis, they definitely looked more delicious.  No more mushiness.

Much better.  But there was still something wrong.  There was so much cheese in the boiled water.  How can a ravioli contain the same amount of phe if it is missing half of the cheese?  Answer:  It can't. 
New dilemma:  Just how much phe is in there now?
Answer:  Who knows?  And I'm just not ready to tackle that right now!
     I still had a package of Spinach Raviolis from Cambrooke and thought that I'd give it another whirl.  I know, I'm a glutten for punishment.  But I love my Lily, even if that means potentially setting my kitchen on fire!  Just kidding.
     Anyway, I decided to fry the frozen spinach raviolis BEFORE I boiled them.  I have never claimed to be a chef or that I know what I'm doing when it comes to cooking.  But this sounded like it might solve the problem of the insides of the raviolis going into the water.
Frozen Ravs being fried!

I heated up some oil (no fire) and fried the ravs.  I then fully cooked them in boiling water.  Guess what?  The spinach stayed in the ravs!  I guess frying them, was similar to sealing them.  After boiling the ravs, I placed them back in the warm frying pan, just to make them a little less starchy.  They smelled great and even more important, Lily loved them!



3 comments :

  1. Oh my gosh! I know it was probably not funny at the time, but now that everything is settled, your story is pretty funny! :) Good job for trying again. And even better that she loved them! I have some raviolis we need to try too. Maybe this week!

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  2. Hopefully your experience will go a lot smoother than mine! When I think about this morning's disaster, it brings a huge smile to my face. I now have an exciting story to share with my husband when he gets home from work! hehehe

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  3. I admire your persistence :) I'm glad she loved them after all that work. I will have to get some raviolis for my Noah. Great Job!

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