Of the many things I have in the kitchen gadget department, I am lacking a good quality ravioli tray. I have searched all over. Then....I stopped in at Deviti's. Which is now in my top 2 favorites kitchen/market stores. They have an amazing variety of Olive oils, balsamic vinegars, pastas, etc. And the deli...Ohhh my. The smells greeting you as the door is opened makes one close their eyes inhaling the delightful scent of great cooking.
They are the kind of store where you are more then just a customer. You are family and friend. The friendly smiles on every face and the only store (I have discovered) where they even chat about interesting things with you at the checkout while a gentleman bags your groceries and then... He carries them out to your car! I was not sure how to react or what to do. There was no asking. He just stood there waiting with my bags in hand, smiling.
He placed them in the truck and I tried to tip him but he refused and wished me a good day. I am still in shock and am now a big fan of our local Italian Market.
While there, besides the hard to find pasta & pizza flours plus a few other hard to find items, I picked up a ravioli pan for around $20. Being the children are back in school, their first week is filled with homemade special dinners to begin our new no processed food diets. The goal is to eliminate all the processed junk someone else keeps buying when they do the shopping. The kids love raviolis and I loved making them. Did not take very long, maybe 45 minutes total of my time.
The other great thing about making my own raviolis? I was able to use deer sausage with fresh grated asiago & mozzarella cheese. Fresh picked Garden basil & parsley. A little bread crumbs & 1 egg to hold it together. The kids never knew it was deer meat! They even begged me to make them again next week and for some of their school lunches. I am amazed each time I make something new from scratch how my children beg me to make more. Raving how they love my cooking and how better it tastes then the store stuff. I do believe this diet switch over will flow much easier then I previously thought.
Last week, I did begin a gallon jug of Pear hard cider, also known as Perry. I had left the juice out too long in the dining room to which it began fermenting. No biggie. There just will not be any pear juice for the kids this year. Just for mommy. And maybe a few friends.
On the barn yard front, I brought home 4 one year old hens. A woman on craigs list was giving them away due to an upcoming change in their family situation. The 5 we have had were not laying except for 1 hen. I gave 2 hens back to Chris at the 1 acre homestead, leaving us with 7 chickens, so as not to over stress the chicken pen free range ratio. How nice it is to go out and find 5 eggs in the nest box each afternoon. Poor Mr. & Mrs. J were in withdrawals from their weekly gift of our eggs. I got them hooked then the ladies slow down with production. The big smile I received was a wonderful Thank you when I showed up with a dozen eggs from the new ladies. I have not had enough to share in 2 weeks and resorted to buying a dozen before the new ladies were found. The store eggs have been reserved for baking and for the recent batch of ravioli dough. I can not bring myself to eat them any other way. I too have been spoiled by our home grown chicken eggs.
The canning pantry is looking a bit pathetic to me. Around 20 quarts of tomato sauce and 13 quarts pickles plus a few of pickled yellow beans. This years garden was horrible at production. The late start and of course the memorial day weekend massacre of my seedlings hurt all production. I will never again attempt to can cherry tomatoes or any other tomato not a paste tomato for sauce. It takes forever to boil those watery tomatoes down to proper thickness, wasting precious energy and not to mention the heating up of the house. I set a low goal after making our first batch and seeing the waste of using the different tomatoes. I had hoped for 50 quarts. I may not make it past 30. That just means I will have to go pick tomatoes at the local U pick farm. Still better then paying for over processed chemical raised ones.
I have masses of basil to ready for the dehydrator and apples to ready for pressing cider in the morning. My friend Jeannie brought me another 5 gallon carboy so before I head out in the week for our grape picking, I need to get that Cider going. And of course a few gallon jugs started for apple cider vinegar.
Sweet dreams,
~Tammie
They are the kind of store where you are more then just a customer. You are family and friend. The friendly smiles on every face and the only store (I have discovered) where they even chat about interesting things with you at the checkout while a gentleman bags your groceries and then... He carries them out to your car! I was not sure how to react or what to do. There was no asking. He just stood there waiting with my bags in hand, smiling.
He placed them in the truck and I tried to tip him but he refused and wished me a good day. I am still in shock and am now a big fan of our local Italian Market.
While there, besides the hard to find pasta & pizza flours plus a few other hard to find items, I picked up a ravioli pan for around $20. Being the children are back in school, their first week is filled with homemade special dinners to begin our new no processed food diets. The goal is to eliminate all the processed junk someone else keeps buying when they do the shopping. The kids love raviolis and I loved making them. Did not take very long, maybe 45 minutes total of my time.
The other great thing about making my own raviolis? I was able to use deer sausage with fresh grated asiago & mozzarella cheese. Fresh picked Garden basil & parsley. A little bread crumbs & 1 egg to hold it together. The kids never knew it was deer meat! They even begged me to make them again next week and for some of their school lunches. I am amazed each time I make something new from scratch how my children beg me to make more. Raving how they love my cooking and how better it tastes then the store stuff. I do believe this diet switch over will flow much easier then I previously thought.
Last week, I did begin a gallon jug of Pear hard cider, also known as Perry. I had left the juice out too long in the dining room to which it began fermenting. No biggie. There just will not be any pear juice for the kids this year. Just for mommy. And maybe a few friends.
On the barn yard front, I brought home 4 one year old hens. A woman on craigs list was giving them away due to an upcoming change in their family situation. The 5 we have had were not laying except for 1 hen. I gave 2 hens back to Chris at the 1 acre homestead, leaving us with 7 chickens, so as not to over stress the chicken pen free range ratio. How nice it is to go out and find 5 eggs in the nest box each afternoon. Poor Mr. & Mrs. J were in withdrawals from their weekly gift of our eggs. I got them hooked then the ladies slow down with production. The big smile I received was a wonderful Thank you when I showed up with a dozen eggs from the new ladies. I have not had enough to share in 2 weeks and resorted to buying a dozen before the new ladies were found. The store eggs have been reserved for baking and for the recent batch of ravioli dough. I can not bring myself to eat them any other way. I too have been spoiled by our home grown chicken eggs.
The canning pantry is looking a bit pathetic to me. Around 20 quarts of tomato sauce and 13 quarts pickles plus a few of pickled yellow beans. This years garden was horrible at production. The late start and of course the memorial day weekend massacre of my seedlings hurt all production. I will never again attempt to can cherry tomatoes or any other tomato not a paste tomato for sauce. It takes forever to boil those watery tomatoes down to proper thickness, wasting precious energy and not to mention the heating up of the house. I set a low goal after making our first batch and seeing the waste of using the different tomatoes. I had hoped for 50 quarts. I may not make it past 30. That just means I will have to go pick tomatoes at the local U pick farm. Still better then paying for over processed chemical raised ones.
I have masses of basil to ready for the dehydrator and apples to ready for pressing cider in the morning. My friend Jeannie brought me another 5 gallon carboy so before I head out in the week for our grape picking, I need to get that Cider going. And of course a few gallon jugs started for apple cider vinegar.
Sweet dreams,
~Tammie
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