Quick Cheesy Ravioli Bake (page 177), Creamy Caesar Dressing (page 25), & Garlic Toast (page 90)

I’m sorry that I haven’t posted anything that I have been cooking. We had company and things got a little out of control, but I’m back now and I have a lot of cooking adventures to share with y’all. I’m going to try to remember everything, but still keep it quick and to the point.

On this particular night I must to have been feeling pretty brave because I attempted 3 new recipes. Best advice for the ravioli is to READ the recipe. I had a major blonde moment that my sister has had a blast laughing over. For some reason when I read the recipe instead of reading “ravioli” I read “ricotta.” I think I must to have assumed that I was going to be making homemade ravioli? What was I thinking? This is a 30-minute cookbook! No way was I getting homemade ravioli in 30 minutes! So anyways, I had to do a last minute switch up and just use penne (because I already had it) and dump the ricotta I bought into the sauce. It’s kind of like ravioli, but in a different shape, right? No one complained about the taste, so everything besides the shape of the noodles, I can attest to being pretty easy and delicious.

I served a Caesar salad with dinner. I was not a fan of the dressing, but everyone else seemed to like it. I omitted the anchovies because I’m weird.....I can’t eat those little fish. Eek! It’s entirely possible that this is why I didn’t like the dressing. Maybe I actually do like anchovies in my dressing! (gasp!)

The first time I flipped through the cookbook I didn’t see the little garlic toast recipe box. To be honest though, I don’t think you need the box. There isn’t anything in this recipe that you don’t already know on how to make your own garlic bread.

Ok that was NOT short. Let me try again: All in all, a good meal and under 30-minutes

Bistro-Style Mustard Vinaigrette (page 23)

This was the spiciest salad dressing I have ever tasted! Well, I take that back, it wasn’t “spicy” as in heat; it was more like a burn (like wasabi). I think the combination of the vinegar & the mustard made this dressing almost unbearable. I followed the directions exactly, but ended up adding some water at the end to dilute the flavor a little bit. I made it, we tried it, & I dumped the leftovers down the drain :-\

Basic Vinaigrette (page 21)

This salad dressing was pretty tasty. I will say though, the EVOO flavor was a little too strong, so I increased some of the other ingredients to drown out the EVOO flavor. I used 4 tbs white wine vinegar & 3 tsp Dijon mustard. I also used ½ tsp dried thyme instead of the fresh. I will certainly make this dressing again.