Homemade Pesto Pasta

After yet again another day spent almost entirely indoors, I began perusing through my cookbooks in hopes of a spark of inspiration. Based on the ingredients I had within an arms reach, I decided on a spinach pesto ravioli recipe.  To me, nothing is more delicious than pasta, and I love adding flavors such as fresh veggies and pesto. The original recipe from Better Homes & Gardens is as follows:

1 9 oz package refrigerated ravioli

12 oz of yellow squash, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2″ thick

3 1/2 cups baby spinach

1/2 cup torn fresh basil

1/4 cup Caesar vinaigrette salad dressing

2 tbsp water

shredded Parmesan cheese

I had to do A LOT of improvising to this recipe, including swapping out ravioli with tortellini, using 1 tsp refrigerated canned pesto and 1/2 tsp dried basil in place of the fresh basil. First, I cooked the tortellini based on the package’s recipe while I chopped up one of the pieces of squash. During the last 2 minutes of the pasta cooking, I poured in the squash. After draining, I poured the tortellini/squash back into the pot.

Meanwhile, to make the homemade pesto, I combined the spinach, canned pesto, dried basil, salad dressing and water in a blender.

Once everything was in, I pureed it for about three minutes, stopping a few times to push down the spinach. I used a rubber spatula to scrape the excess sauce out of the blender. The consistency of the pesto should be smooth, but feel free to add more spinach or water to change the thickness.

To finish, just toss the tortellini and squash with the pesto sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese!

dough ball obsession

Although I can never turn down a fresh-out-the-oven chocolate chip cookie, whenever I make them they often come out too flat and/or crunchy. Sometimes I even under-cook cookies just so they’re soft and gooey on the inside. However, over the past few months, a trend has blown up all over the blog world; dough balls! They combine the softness of cake and the size of a cookie. I used this recipe from TheChicLife and they were actually fairly simple to make.

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 stick butter, softened/room-temp

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg (or flaxseed-egg)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

The trickiest part is probably getting all of the balls to be the right side, to prevent some of them from burning and others from being raw in the middle. After only a few minutes in the oven, they came out just right. They aren’t supposed to brown on top like ordinary cookies – just slightly golden. The consistency was perfect, and to my surprise, they tasted the same the next day.

P.S. GO RAVENS!!!

The Bucket List.

Ever since I moved to Baltimore last summer, Catherine (my roommate) and I have had been randomly mentioning places we’ve heard about that we’d like to check out. Without any formal list or set plans, most of the ideas we had ended up slipping away from us. In an effort stick to my New Years Resolutions of following through and trying new things, we decided to make a Baltimore, or Charm City Bucket list as a constant reminder of things we can do.

The first step was narrowing the list down to three different categories; restaurants, bars/nightlife, and activities/things to see. After creating the categories came a lot of research to determine what things we actually wanted to go on to the list. There were a few things, such as the Baltimore Museum of Art (which is literally in our backyard) and a few restaurants that were added to the list immediately. After getting down most of the ideas, we hung it on the refrigerator and I’m proud to say we’ve already knocked off a few items.

 

Brewer's Art

 

 

This past weekend we managed to cross off THREE (!) items. On Friday, we went to Brewer’s Art in Mount Vernon to sip on delicious locally brewed beer with friends. It was an absolutely beautiful historic building that had a refreshing eclectic mix of people.  On Saturday, we walked over to the BMA and spent the day in the presence of some of the world’s greatest artists, including Matisse, Picasso and Degas. The featured exhibit was “Andy Warhol: the last decade.” This exhibit was fascinating because almost everyone can identify with Warhol’s 1960’s pop art, but many don’t realize a lot of his excellent work came years later. Some of my favorites in the collection were Yarn, Shadows, and The Last Supper.

Finally, on Sunday I went to Canton to watch the Ravens game which I discussed in my post yesterday. The weekend was extremely motivating and it felt very rewarding to actually cross off multiple goals. I highly recommend making a bucket list of all of the things YOU want to do. It’s a guaranteed way to make 2011 fun-filled and fabulous.

spice up your week

Besides Body Pump class and trashy TV, weeknights tend to be on the blah side. Especially during the winter months, I often become somewhat of a hermit. The past few days I’ve spent my evenings lounging in sweatpants and watching re-runs of FRIENDS. Last night, I began feeling a little stir crazy and burnt out on eating leftovers, so my roommate and I decided to have an impromptu fiesta! I found a recipe for vegetarian quesadillas made with black beans and corn, and decided to go all out. We stopped by the store to pick up some tortilla chips, salsa and Velveeta to make queso dip (a.k.a. the love of my life).

We sipped on Corona Light with lime as we prepared the quesadillas and queso dip. I improvised a bit and used whole wheat tortillas, frozen (steamer) corn instead of canned, and added a little more cheese than the recipe called for (typical). The preparation was pretty easy and all of the flavors in the ingredients complimented each other very well.

The best part of the night was the guilty pleasure playlist appropriately titled, “embarrassing” that my roommate made for us to belt out and prance around to as we cooked and ate. Tracks on the playlist include 98 degrees – “True to your Heart”, the Mama Mia! soundtrack, and “Crush” by Mandy Moore. The fiesta was a great change of pace and an awesome way to kick off the weekend.