~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
Elizabeth Foss just posted another podcast with Auntie Leila for her Summer in the Little Oratory reading group! They're talking about Chapter 5 over on In the Heart of My Home — head over and join in! And don't forget to add a link to your own #LittleOratory here!
{pretty}
We enjoyed our long weekend so much! A little bit of relaxing, a little bit of getting things done, a little bit of adventure, delicious food, and fireworks. What more could you ask for?
What about pictures of said delicious food and fireworks? Will you indulge me?
We could see at least eight sets of fireworks (including our own) from our front yard. Legitimately awesome fireworks displays all around our neighborhood, from before dark until well after we went to bed. It's so cool. I'll tell you what: there's nothing like a town full of artillerymen in a state with few regulations to make for an exciting Fourth.
The Fourth of July is also a family feast day for us — we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this year! I decided that I was going to let my husband grill the steaks I knew he wanted (and, lets face it, were going to be delicious), and I would satisfy my celebratory-dinner culinary ambitions with a fancy side dish and dessert.
To accompany our steaks: roasted asparagus ravioli with brown butter sauce.
I'm not going to lie. This was amazing. (I already bragged about on Instagram, but I'm going to talk about it again because it was that good. If I do say so myself.)
If you're interested in ravioli details, here's the basic idea:
I made the pasta dough the day before, along with some ricotta. (Have you ever tried making your own? It's truly so easy, and so good, and the whey is great for baking bread. I honestly hardly ever bothered with ricotta cheese until I tried making my own, and now I can't get enough of it. There are lots of recipes online; my mom emailed me this one about a year ago, and it's where I started — though it seems like it has an awful lot of ads now. Sorry about that.)
The asparagus was left over from a dinner a few weeks ago — it was either roasted or grilled, I don't actually remember. Either was deeply caramelized and tender. But we had more than we could eat, and plans for another vegetable the next night, so I just popped it into the freezer, thinking it would be a yummy addition to another dish.
I defrosted it, chopped it up, and squeezed out the excess moisture , leaving me with maybe about 3/4 cup. I mixed it up with a cup of ricotta, a good bit of grated parmesan, one egg yolk, salt, pepper, garlic, and a little bit of parsley. During naptime on the Fourth, I disappeared into the kitchen for a while to roll out and assemble the ravioli — this is the part that takes a lot of time. I do have the pasta roller attachment for my Kitchenaid, which my amazing friend Kelly found at a thift store and gave to me as a Christmas gift (!!), which makes the process much easier, but still. There's still a lot of hands-on work. I could totally have used a 12-year-old daughter or two to help me out. (I've made pasta with a rolling pin before, too, which works just fine… but is even slower, as you might imagine.)
(Ravioli also freezes very well; if I'd had thought up this idea earlier in the week, I would have tried to do it ahead of time and stick it in the freezer.)
The sauce was just toasted pine nuts and parsley in browned butter.
So good.
For dessert, I made crème brûlée using the kitchen torch my (also amazing) friend Claire gave us as a wedding gift. No sooner did we get married, though, but we moved across the country, and the movers refused to pack up the canisters of butane gas that went with it. (Lame.)
This always seemed like an insurmountable obstacle to me, until last week I decided to actually research what I needed… turns out, the canisters are readily and cheaply available at hardware and sporting goods stores. I'd have felt more sheepish if I weren't so excited about Top Chef-ing my way around my kitchen with my blow torch!
I used this recipe from King Arthur Flour. Very easy. Very tasty. According to Pippo: “The top tastes a little like candy, and the bottom tastes a little like ice cream!”
What more could you want?
{happy}
Molly has reached the stage where all she wants to do is push furniture around the house. She just wants to go go go! We put some weights into the cart to slow it down a bit so she can keep up. (And hopefully to save my poor walls from my poor furniture in the process!)
{funny}
If you ever are inclined to wonder whether a photo of my children is posed, there is an easy way to tell. If they're looking cheerful, happy, or generally photogenic, it was a candid shot.
If, however, they are looking like this:
Well then, that one was posed.
{real}
Fireworks are noisy. I'm thankful my boy has such a good dad to protect him.
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Sarah says
The ravioli dish sounds fabulous! This made me laugh: “there’s nothing like a town full of artillerymen in a state with few regulations to make for an exciting Fourth.” So true! We are also in a town full of artillerymen in a low-regulation state, and it’s hard to distinguish between the Battle of the Bulge and our town on Independence Day. Non-stop explosions from dusk until at least 11:00 at night. While loud, at least the fireworks don’t knock all my picture frames crooked like the regular artillery does.
Rosie says
I hear you! We prepped Pippo for the fireworks (which he did not enjoy AT ALL last year) by telling him they were like cannons (which don’t bother him one bit) except more exciting.
Leane says
Your pictures are sweet and it sounds like a lovely Fourth! I am looking forward to listening to the podcast! 🙂
Abbey @ Surviving Our Blessings says
It looks like you had a wonderful 4th of July (and a happy anniversary celebration!).
Someone was run down with that exact same IKEA cart in my house yesterday. I’m feeling glad we didn’t get one for each twin when they were at Molly’s stage. Now it usually functions as a baby stroller (although yesterday, it seemed like a pretty scary ride for the doll and the crash victim).
Rosie says
I do like it, but it goes so very fast! Two would be intense. I hope both the doll and crash victim have made a full recovery.
Julie says
How funny! Turns out you were married exactly one week before we were. Our 5th anniversary is the 11th. A belated happy anniversary (and happy Independence Day) to you!
Rosie says
It was a good week to get married, I think. Happy anniversary to you too!
Kate says
Happy anniversary! Your dinner sounds soo delicious! I love Pippo’s description of the creme brulee. Our kids did not make it close to staying up for fireworks but there’s always next year.
Diane says
Sigh. I need to move to Kansas. Those fireworks sound awesome. How on earth did Molly get so big?! And so very, very cute.
Elizabethe says
You let your husband have steak!?!!!!!
Rosie says
Haha. I know, I’m such a good wife.
Terri says
Happy Anniversary! Great photos and narration. LOL at the “crazy woman driver” photo.
Jill Foley says
The crazy woman driver photo is so cute! She’s getting big.
Happy Anniversary – we are getting ready to celebrate our 18th next week.
Melissa Diskin says
Thank you for this! I also need torch fuel, and the entropy of even looking for it made me feel even more slothful. What I really want to know now is: what else can one do with a small butane torch? (I mean, besides light cigs like a boss… cool, but not exactly part of my housewife/writer street cred.)
I think that recipe for ricotta is the one I used to great success as well. Others don’t use buttermilk, or use vinegar/lemon juice only, and it seems to take longer with those. Is it the buttermilk (acid) and the extra fat in the cream that make it work so well, do you know?
Rosie says
My torch’s box suggests using it for French onion soup, roasting peppers, browning meringues, and brûléeing sugar on fancy coffee drinks. Seems like we’ve got some work to do!
As far as the ricotta goes, in my experience, starting with a richer, creamier base results in a smaller curd ricotta. (This was counterintuitive to me.) Incredibly rich and delicious, but the first time I did it (just randomly tossing in more cream since more cream must be better, right?) I thought I’d ruined it! It takes much longer to strain than the recipe I linked to above, which has enough milk fat to be yummy but not so much that it takes forever to strain. (Deb has a post about rich ricotta on smitten kitchen, with lots of details on how to make and use it.)
(Incidentally, I usually use lemon juice or vinegar to make my own “buttermilk,” since we go through milk like bandits here and I only have room for so much faith in my fridge!)
Tamara says
Happy anniversary! Those ravioli look delicious. I saw the brag about them instagram and Im so glad you posted the details here!
My kids don’t do well with staged photos either. And actually if they notice that Im trying to take a candid shot, they start acting goofy and shouting “cheeeeeese!” So… there’s a shortage of good photos around here.
Dusa says
I love the look on Pippo’s face and the ‘restraining’ hand. “Aw Mom, do we HAVE to sit here???”
Anastasia says
Rosie, your posts are my favorite!! So fun and delicious and lots of yummy baby pictures. Glad you had a good 4th! 🙂
Kathy@9peas says
I cannot wait to try the ravioli, looks amazing!!
Virginia says
The ravioli sounds delicious! I will have to write that one down to tackle at another date and time.
I completely understand the posed vs. candid shots. 🙂
Davy S says
It’s been a crazy week, but I just couldn’t miss my favorite blog link up. Thanks again for hosting. Your pictures are beautiful!
Amanda says
That creme brulee looks amazing! My three-year-old covered his ears and eyes the entire firework display – poor baby. He agreed that they were too loud. And, the crazy woman driver pictures are adorable!!!
Jennifer says
Those raviolis look incredible. I am so impressed! I want to try making my own ricotta, now. Looks like you had a great fourth! Happy Anniversary.
Kari says
LOL! My girls (6.5, 4, 18mo) cover their ears for fireworks too! (And hot air balloons-we live in ABQ, and balloons popping, and crying, and screaming, and….anything else that makes noise!)
Mary says
Thanks for sharing the ravioli recipe. I have printed it out to try. Molly is growing up so fast! She looks like her big brother. So sweet. Happy Belated Anniversary!!
Woman of the House says
I’m glad you had a happy Fourth! Mollie is getting so big, but she’s as sweet as ever! Pippo too!