Warning: this is a long post.
To say that I've been jealous of other blogs would be an understatement. With the perfect graphics, professional looking photography, and the original, thoughtful, and creative content that's out there, it's hard not to be jealous once in a while.
As you know readers, I absolutely love food. I obsessively plan meals and daydream about what my weekend cooking will entail. I also love sharing my culinary undertakings on this blog with you. What you might not know, is that a good 90% of what I cook doesn't actually make it onto this blog. It's not because I'm holding out on you, or because my meals {or desserts or snacks} fell short, it's because it takes so much effort, and patience, and skill to get those recipes onto this blog and looking good!
Sometimes my camera isn't charged.
Sometimes styling my food in the perfect lighting, with the perfect props, is just not appealing.
Sometimes I lack perfect lighting {hello dinner time, or old windows that tinted all of my photos blue}.
Sometimes I lack the perfect props {I do not own 100 gorgeous plates in all sorts of shapes and sizes}.
Sometimes I'm starving and do not care about taking a photo, my focus is on inhaling my meal.
Sometimes yt is starving.
Sometimes I'm feeding friends who are starving.
Sometimes whatever I've made is just not pretty.
Sometimes I wait to long too write my post and I forget what I did.
Sometimes I try to do everything right - but my photos still suck!
Sometimes by the time I get home, or finish cooking, the very last thing I want to do is: stop, wait, style, photograph, rearrange, restyle, re-photograph, take notes, or do anything else but eat!
Other bloggers out there who post about food - do you have the same problem? Are you ever jealous of the insanely beautiful food blogs out there?
The other night, I made ravioli from scratch. Dough, filling, and sauce. I was really proud of the finished product, but alas, it was date night and did not want to ruin the mood by pausing to snap a plethora of photos... so instead I snapped one via instagram. It will have to do :)
for the dough: i used this recipe. pretty standard, but i doubled it and it was the perfect amount for our ravioli.
for the filling:
6 cups of fresh baby spinach
1 glove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz of ricotta
heat olive oil in large pan over medium heat and add spinach and garlic. saute until spinach is entirely wilted and cooked through (about five minutes). allow to cool and then blend with ricotta cheese. add salt and pepper to taste.
to assemble: roll out dough as instructed into thin sheets (about five inches wide). place small spoonfuls of filling onto dough about 2 inches apart. take a second sheet of dough, and lay over the first. use your fingers to smooth down the area around each spoonful of filling and seal two sheets of dough together. using a small circular cookie cutter {or ravioli cutter if you want to get fancy} cut out each ravioli, making sure not to get too close to the filling. lightly flour each ravioli so they don't stick together or to your working surface. set aside.
to cook: boil a large pot of water and cook ravioli for about 4 minutes.
for the sauce:
4 large vine ripe tomatoes
10 basil leaves
1 clove garlic
1/2 a small onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
add first 4 ingredients to a blender/food processor and puree {leaving some chunks if you like a thicker sauce}. heat olive oil in pan over medium heat and added blended mixture. stir in tomato paste and spices and simmer for 20 minutes until sauce thickens.
then, you are done! and if you'd like to, you can take some photos and blog about it - but for this meal, i recommend you just eat :)
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