The Vee's Cook Nook

Happy National Margarita Day! Dunt Dunt Dunnnnn!  It is time to attempt to make ravioli noodles from scratch, in this part two blog post.  I posted yesterday the yummy filling that we will be using to assemble the ravioli's, so refer back to yesterday's post for the recipe. I have never made homemade noodles, but you all have read by now that I absolutely LOVE pasta.  My husband is very well aware of this, and that is why, starting three years ago, he bought me several pasta attachments for my Kitchen Aide mixer (which I now feel I need the commercial size one with how often I use it).  It has literally been three years and I just now pulled the first attachment out of the box.  I think I was a little scared at attempting this, and for the amount of time it takes to make them, but it was totally worth it. It wasn't a total success, as I lost 1/4 of my noodles because I did not use Semolina which prevents the noodles from sticking to one another.  Instead I thought

It's Hump day you all!  And what a better way to teeter over that ledge to the weekend, with a two part blog.  Today we are tackling the first part of making homemade ravioli's with the filling.  This is an easy make ahead recipe that I grabbed online from Alton Brown.  It is a quick mixture of two types of beef, and the best part is, whatever is leftover, you can freeze.  Or if you choose not to freeze it, switch up the dish completely and make a meatloaf out of the remaining mixture. In the Part 2 that I will share tomorrow, it will be about making the ravioli noodles from scratch, assembling them with the mixture below, and what the final product looks like (and tastes like). I have NEVER made Ravioli's in my life, so this was a huge accomplishment in my eyes for tackling something new.  I might not ever buy packaged noodles again! Ingredients: 6 ounces garlic-flavored croutons 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoo

Happy Tuesday Everyone, You are going to love this recipe - it is only 5 ingredients!  I ran across this recipe for Oreo Cheesecake Cookies on Pintrest, when I was searching for a quick dessert recipe for Valentines day.  There are several variations of the recipe, like putting dye in the cookie dough to make it more holiday festive (red for Valentines Day, green for St. Patrick's Day). The pictures at the bottom are doubling the recipe you see below, because my taste testers are not only the hubby and Vee, but also all my colleagues at my office. I love baking with Oreo's!  Whether it is for a crust, a crumble, baked inside, or even by themselves dunked in a cold glass of milk.  I have to tell you a story.  When I was younger, I took an entire tin of Oreo cookies, while watching Saturday morning cartoons, and I ate the inside of every single cookie. Not only did I eat the inside of every Oreo, but I sandwiched them back together and then put them back in the tin.  Not shor

Happy President's Day, Every Christmas, my in-laws make a non traditional Christmas dinner.  Steak and shrimp - who doesn't love that?  One Christmas my Father In-Law marinaded the shrimp is a spicy mango marinade by KC Masterpiece, and since then I have been obsessed with this marinade.  I put it on everything. For this weekend dinner, we have prepared an island themed creation that I would love to share with you.  This meal will have you dreaming you are on a beach, somewhere sunny and warm, and not buried underneath a million blankets during this cold winter! In grilling the shrimp, I actually have a five in one griddle from Cuisinart (panini press, grill, griddle, waffle) and I love it, especially when it is freezing outside, and the charcoal grill just doesn't seem that inviting.  For the vegetables, I use a wok to stir fry veggies, which I ended up picking up from a garage sale about 20 years ago.  If you don't own a wok - you should definitely invest in one