Boo-tastic Spicy Shortbread Cookies

I must say that I am incredibly obsessed with Halloween and have essentially sucked Michael into (whether he likes to or not) loving it with me. My birthday being October 21^st it is only natural that I have this crazy obsession because since I was little I have had many Halloween birthday parties. That being said, this is the first of 13 posts that we will give you, day one being actually Halloween day.

For our first post, we give you some boo-tastic shortbread cookies. We are both lovers of shortbread because of its beautifully rich and buttery taste. When we were thinking of what to do, and thinking how shortbread is the easiest dough to color in section with food coloring and not have the colors bleed, and what would then make our recipe differ from the rest, shablam, Michael said it, why not make these a bit savory and spicy. So try out shortbread cookies with its buttery taste and the ever so wonderful spicy kick at the end, being sure to send a warm feeling to you on the spooky nights to come.

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
 2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
 2 tablespoons coarse sanding sugar
1 tsp. cayenne
Food coloring

 

First preheat oven to 325 and get all of your tools out and ingredients measured out. When we bake we have everything pre measured, because it makes life so much easier and keeps you from getting all your ingredients dirty and your kitchen from become a baking mess.

Most recipes call for an electric mixer with a paddle, but we used a spatula just fine. So using the spatula cream together butter and sugar, mix in vanilla, and then add flour and cayenne slowly in portions. Because there is no egg, you can try the dough to see if there is enough spice, you want to barely taste it, because when you bake it the flavor will intensify.

Once mixed well, portion the dough into three sections preparing to add the food coloring. For yellow, just use yellow, for orange use red and yellow, and for white use nothing. It took me about 6 drops of food coloring to get the intensity I like, so do accordingly.

Now that all of your colors are mixed lay out in the shape of a rectangle, starting with yellow, then laying out on top of that orange, then on top of that white. Using a sharp knife cut a 2 inch wide log cutting through all the colors, so essentially you have a two inch thick about 8 inch long strip of dough, no lay on its side and cut little triangles out. Using your fingers you can round the corners a little and then lay on a greased baking sheet. Repeat the steps until you use up all the dough.

Bake for about 20 minutes, you want the dough to start to harder a little and pull it out before it starts to turn a golden brown. The cookies will blow out of shape a bit, which is fine because these are meant to be spooky, and they will harden while cooling. Let cool for 10 minutes, and then dig in! These delightful cookies will be sure to bring great joy to all who come to play tricks on you.

13 Days of Halloween

Acorn Squash Manchego Ravioli

One of the first dishes that I made for Michael while I was trying to win over his heart was a ravioli dish. It was the first time I had ever handmade pasta, and as an Italian citizen, it was a little late in life to be trying for the first time! My ravioli is one of his favorite things for me to make, and whenever he wants a home cooked meal, that is what he requests. So it is only fair that in one of my favorite months, we would do a dish which we are solely responsible for one part of the dish. I was responsible for the actual pasta dough, Michael was responsible for the filling, and we both decided upon the sauce.

My dough is a simple and delicious egg noodle dough, and what Michael created as the filling warms my heart just thinking of it; acorn squash with Manchego cheese. To top it all off, it is covered in brown butter and sage, with sprinkles of Manchego. This ravioli oozes with deliciousness and brings home those heartwarming flavors of fall, not to mention it is a dish completely made with love.

*If you have a pasta roller, use it, we don’t and had to rely on Michael’s sexy man strength to roll it out. You want the dough to be as even as possible, and pretty thin, but not so thin it might rip, about 1/8th  of an inch thick.

Ingredients: serves 4 takes about an hour and half

Filling:
1 medium to large acorn squash
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper
½ cup Manchego cheese

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

Sauce:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
8 fresh sage leaves

 

To make this we start by making the filling, then making the dough, then filling the dough and cooking. Also a tip is to roll out sections at a time of dough so that they don’t dry out while you are filling it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, cut the squash in half from tip to stem, and hollow out the seeds. Use olive oil to brush on the squash and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use a baking tray and lay the squash cut side down, and fill with half an inch of water. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until it is soft to the touch and most all the water has evaporated.  Once done scoop the insides out and blend in a blender, you won’t need to add anything else because the acorn squash is so yummy.

To make pasta dough we use food processor. Mix flour and salt together, then add oil, then egg. You want to blend until pea like shapes are formed. If the dough is too dry you can add another Tbsp. of oil or another egg, if it is too wet, add a Tbsp. of flour, but not much because the dough will harden up. Now place in cling wrap and in the refrigerator to set for about 15 minutes.  Once it sets, lightly cover a flat surface with flour and cover your rolling pin with flour, (if you are one of the lucky insert using pasta roller here). Roll out as evenly as possible your pasta to about an 1/8^th of an inch thick. Cut the ravioli into 4 inch wide strips, and then into 4 inch wide triangles, basically so you can fold in half and fill.

Next grate about ½ a cup of Manchego cheese, and in a bowl whisk the 4^th egg. Lay out a triangle, and using a spoon place a small dollop about 1 tsp. of the acorn squash puree in the middle, and top with a pinch of grated cheese. Using your finger coat the edges of the ravioli with the egg and fold the triangle in half and squeeze the edges together and seal, making sure that nothing will pop out when you boil.

Fill a pot of water to boil, add salt to help with the boiling process. Place ravioli in boiling water, and once you place them in, it is time to make your sauce. It does not take long for the ravioli to cook because the pasta is not dried, which is why you want to start the sauce now. In a sauce pan melt your butter on a medium heat. Once the butter starts to turn a brown color, add your sage leaves and let cook for another couple of minutes, not too long though you don’t want to burn your butter. By now the ravioli is most likely done. The way to tell if the ravioli is ready is they will pop up and float to the surface, you can stir them so they aren’t stuck to the bottom. Once they float, cook them another 2 minutes. Now pull raviolis out of water, place in sauce pan, and cook in butter flipping around making sure all the raviolis are coated and yummy!

This ravioli is so damned scrumptious, this is another reason Michael and I are meant for each other, he brings the filling to my dough! Haha, enjoy this fantastic fall ravioli.

Mom's Tuna Noodle Casserole

My father (meaning Francesca’s) did most of the cooking while I was growing up. My dad is the strong yet humorous Italian guy with awesome pink sweaters and loafers that can cook anyone under the table. However some of my favorite dishes are part of the repertoire that my mother keeps hiding up her sleeve. They were all made for me when I had a hankering for something homey, I was usually sick, and I still crave them just the way my mom makes it. Now that Michael has been hazed in to the  family, he eats my mom’s tuna noodle casserole all the time with us, and good thing he is here, because I without fail screw up béchamel because I’m not paying attention, (so when you make this, don’t be like me, and follow directions).  I didn’t realize how special my mom’s casserole is until I was looking up other people’s recipes, three differences: 1) We use olives not peas 2) we put cloves in our béchamel, and 3) we grate onion into the béchamel as well.

So go ahead and enjoy this delicious casserole, it will bring comfort to you as you enter the cooler weather of October, and is awesome to eat with Halloween pajamas!

*a term we use Mise En Place: literally in French means in putting in place, is a term in cooking where you put all your ingredients in its place, all chopped and ready for you to cook.

Ingredients: serves 4-6

Béchamel:
5 Tbsp.
4 Tbsp. flour
4 cups milk
1 Tbsp. salt
1 white onion

Casserole:
2 large cans tuna in water, so about 1 cup
2 bags egg noodle
½ cup green olives with pimentos
1 cup parmesan cheese
Salt to taste

 

 

 

First things first, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. You want to boil your egg noodles and make the béchamel at the same time because you want to use the béchamel immediately. So before you start anything start to boil your water and make your mise en place, by measuring out the ingredients, and chopping all the olives, and in our case grating the parmesan. Once the water is boiling place the egg noodles in it and boil until it is cooked. Some egg noodles cook faster than others, so be sure to check every few minutes so they don’t overcook. If they are done before the béchamel, its ok, you can just remove from the water and pour a little olive oil in it, so it doesn’t stick.

Now for the béchamel…you are going to make it in two sauce pans and then combine in to one. In one pan, melt the butter and once melted add your flour, in a separate pan boil your milk. While whisking you butter and flour mixture, add one cup of boiled milk at a time, making sure you mix thoroughly so as to not clump up your sauce. Now add your salt, 6 cloves and grate the whole onion. Let cook and stir for about 4 more minutes. Taste and make sure it has the salt level you want, because this will be most of the salt for the whole dish. Now remove the cloves, and you are ready to use your béchamel.

In a large bowl mix together all of your noodles, béchamel, tuna, and olives, you can salt while you stir. Once mixed pour into your casserole pan (we made a small one in a casserole dish, and a large one in a glass baking pan). Now cover the top with ¾ of your grated parmesan, leaving some leftover for when you eat.

Place in oven, bake for about 10 minutes, so that the cheese melts and browns slightly, no longer than 15 minutes because you don’t want the casserole to dry out.

Serve and eat! This is so tasty, and will be gone in a flash!