DIY Cheese Ravioli

Heart Shaped Cheese and Spinach Ravioli
Baked in Meat Sauce

In celebration of my birthday later this week, I am going to be sharing some recipes for some of my all time favorite foods. Ravioli is definitely one of my favorite foods.

My husband just recently helped me roll out a big batch of homemade pasta, and one of the things we made was ravioli. Homemade ravioli with all of the ingredients made from scratch tastes so delicious and fresh.

Homemade Cheese Ravioli Recipe

To start, make a big batch of homemade pasta, and let it rest. Then you can either make up some homemade ricotta cheese or buy some from the store.

Season the ricotta to taste. If using homemade, you'll probably at least want to add salt, but some oregano, basil, and garlic powder is also good. If you like spinach you can add up to an equal volume of chopped fresh or frozen spinach to the cheese. You can even mix in some Parmesan cheese to add more flavor.

Now roll out you pasta dough really thin and cut into 2x4 in rectangles with a pizza cutter or any other fun shape you want with a cookie cutter. Some shapes are easier to work with than others. One year for Valentine's Day I made really large heart shaped ravioli which turned out quite well.

Scoop a small amount of filling onto each of the pieces of dough. For a 2x4 inch rectangle, that you intend to fold over, about a tablespoon is enough. Wet one side of the dough with water and fold over or place another piece of  dough on top. Press firmly to close. You can even fold the edges back on themselves slightly to ensure a really tight seal

Once all of the ravioli are formed, you can either cook them right away or like jiao zi (Chinese dumplings), you can freeze them on a cookie sheet and cook them at a later date. To cook, you can either bake ravioli covered in sauce at 350 F until it is all hot and bubbly (10-20 minutes) for fresh ravioli. Or you can boil water add the ravioli, and return to a boil for 5-8 minutes. Either method will take a few minutes longer if you begin with frozen ravioli.

DIY T-Shirt Blanket or Quilt

I re-purposed a bunch T-shirts into a large blanket for Aaron's birthday and a small blanket for Andrew's half birthday, both coming up in June.

I simply cut out large squares, all the same size, from the front and back of all of the T-shirts and sewed them together quilt block style. I really like how bright and cheerful Aaron's color-block blanket turned out. This is a great project to turn unneeded items into something really useful.

For these blankets, I made both the front and back T-shirt blocks. But when I was in college I recycled the high school T-shirts that I no longer wanted to wear but didn't want to completely get rid of into a quilt that had the T-shirts with designs on the front, quilt batting in the middle, and strips of old blue jeans for the back. This quilt was warmer and sturdier of course. This was also a good way to actually use some sentimental T-shirts a little longer.

DIY Stuffed French Toast

I made this for our family brunch a couple of Sundays ago, but it would be great anytime. You can even prepare it the night ahead, cover, and store in the fridge, and then just bake the next day. I used homemade strawberry jam and homemade yogurt cream cheese, but you could use any kind you like to vary the flavors.

Homemade Stuffed French Toast Recipe

• Bread to cover 9x13 pan in two layers
• 8 eggs beaten
• ¼ cup milk
• Jam
• Cream cheese or yogurt cheese

1. Grease a 9x13 pan and preheat 350F.
2. Layer bread to cover the bottom of the pan.
3. Spread strawberry jam and then cream cheese over bread.
4. Cover with another layer of bread.
5. Beat eggs and milk until well combined and then slowly pour over bread to saturate.
6. Bake at 350F until the top is golden brown, about 35–45 minutes. Remove from oven, and let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

DIY Scottish Shortbread

My husband loves shortbread. I used to think it was a rather boring cookie, but now he has me convinced how wonderful they are. The difference is baking them with 100% real butter. With just three ingredients these are really simple cookies, but you can totally taste the difference if you make them with anything besides all butter. Personally, I think it is a waste of time now to even attempt shortbread with margarine, somethings you can't taste the difference, but this isn't only of those recipes. I think these make great food gifts as well because not everyone makes them, and they don't have any nuts or chocolate in them if someone has allergies.

Homemade Scottish Shortbread Recipe

• 1½ cups flour
• ¾ cup butter
• ⅓ cup sugar

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and cut in butter with a pastry cutter. Mixture will be very crumbly and resemble pie crust crumbs.
2. Press into an ungreased 9x9 (for thick shortbread) or 9x13 (for thin shortbread) pan. Recipe can easily be doubled to fill a jelly roll pan nicely.
3. Bake at 350F until edges just begin to brown. Time varies widely on baking these by oven and thickness of the cookies from 5–15 minutes, so you really just have to watch them carefully.
4. Allow to cool before cutting so they are not too crumbly. We also love melted chocolate drizzled on top after they have cooled.

DIY Chocolate Covered Cherries

I had some leftover melted chocolate from making chocolate covered peanut butter eggs and decided to cover some maraschino cherries with it. Simply melt the chocolate, I suggest using a double boiler, and then dip the cherries in. Draining the cherries in a colander or on paper towels will make them easier to cover with chocolate. After dipping in chocolate, place on wax paper, aluminum foil, or a silicone pan, and place in the refrigerator to harden.

DIY Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs

This is a really simple recipe for a great homemade treat for Easter/Resurrection Sunday. I do like the symbolism of eggs, something that looks dead, like a tiny tomb, but from which new life can spring forth. I made similar candies at Christmas time and never got around to posting them, but I made trees and squares then. You can of course make these whatever shape you wish for any occasion you wish, and everyone will be delighted.

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Recipe

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar (I used homemade this time. You can also substitute powdered milk for up to ⅓ of the sugar. I did this at Christmas time, grinding the powdered milk up finer in the blender, and it worked well also.)
• 1 bag chocolate chips for melting and dipping

1. Combine peanut butter and powdered sugar (and powdered milk if desired) in a bowl. Knead together until it is well combined and becomes the consistency of play dough. If you feel like it is too crumbly add more peanut butter, if too sticky, add more powdered sugar.
2. Form desired shapes, and place in refrigerator or freezer to chill while you melt the chocolate.
3. Melt chocolate chips. I suggest melting them in a double boiler as it is the only way that I have tried that I have never ruined a batch. You can microwave them too, but I've had them burn occasionally. And this time I was in a hurry at first and thought I'd just melt them in a pot over really low heat, and they first bag of chocolate chips got all weird and crumbly and wouldn't melt. So melt chocolate chips completely with your desired method, but I think I'll be sticking to the double boiler.
4. Dip peanut butter shapes in chocolate mixture, coat thoroughly, pull them out with a fork and tap on the side of the pan to dip off excess chocolate, and place on aluminum foil or waxed paper to cool. Repeat until all of the shapes are covered. Refrigerate to set up the chocolate, and then store in an airtight container in a cool place or the refrigerator.

I made just over 30 small eggs, and I actually had a little melted chocolate left over this time, so I made chocolate covered cherries too. 

You can also put these candies on sticks to make a candy pop. I insert a small stick or straw into the candy after the chocolate has hardened and then individually wrap these for small gifts for my kids. Great for Easter baskets, Valentine's day treats, or stocking stuffers.

How not to melt chocolate

DIY 2 Ingredient Crock Pot Strawberry Jam

So, after a couple different successful attempts at making strawberry sauce, I actually got around to trying what I really wanted to make, strawberry jam. I kept putting it off because I have no idea where to buy pectin here, and from what I've read it is more difficult to make without the pectin. But I kept wanting to try because strawberry jam is expensive here, but strawberries themselves are relatively cheap. Well, in the end I don't think I saved any money, but this is by far the best strawberry jam I've ever had! And it has no preservatives. It was quite easy too, so I may make it again, even if it doesn't save me money. If you use pectin to thicken your jam, I am sure you'll get a higher yield, but the concentrated strawberry flavor makes this an extra special treat.

Homemade Strawberry Jam Recipe

• 3 quarts hulled strawberries
• 4 cups sugar

1. Put strawberries and sugar in a crock pot, and stir thoroughly. The sugar will bring out the natural juices in the strawberries.
2. Turn crock pot on high, and bring to a boil.
3. Remove lid, and mash strawberries with a potato masher.
4. Allow to boil and reduce to the desired consistency, mashing intermittently. When my jam reduced to about 1 quart it was a great consistency.
5. Allow to cool, and store in jars in the fridge or freezer.

DIY Light and Fluffy Pancakes

This a a more traditional pancake recipe than the hearty pancake recipe. While not quite as nutritious, these taste great and are fun to make for special occasions or company. I made them in heart shapes with strawberry sauce for Valentine's Day.

Homemade Fluffy Pancake Recipe

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk (or buttermilk)
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and stir until smooth.
2. Pour about 1/2 cup of batter onto a hot greased griddle.
3. Cook until underside is brown. Flip over, and cook until the other side is brown. 
4. To make heart shapes I first tried making heart shapes right on the griddle, but found it easier to cut a heart out of the middle of a large pancake. I really like how the pancake with the heart cut out of the middle looks with the hole filled in with strawberry syrup, very festive.

This recipe makes enough for 1–2 adults, but this basic ratio is easily doubled, quadrupled, or more. Serve warm with homemade butter, pancake syrup, spiced syrup, strawberry syrup, orange marmalade, lemon marmalade, or pumpkin butter for a really special treat.

Handcrafted Wedding Favors: Happy Tears Handkerchiefs

In searching for ideas to incorporate into our wedding, I found so many wedding favors that I loved that we actually had quite a few different wedding favors given out at our wedding. But we hardly spent any money on them because we chose to make most of them ourselves (with lots of help from our wonderful family). One of my favorites is this handkerchief for happy tears.

To go with our wedding colors, we choose to make two different sets of handkerchiefs one in lavender (for women) and one in silver gray (for men). We didn't think the guys would really like the lavender ones that much, but you could just choose one more neutral color to simplify things as well.

I had bought a lot of white fabric really inexpensively to use for making table cloths and decorating for the wedding, so I just used a little of this to sew the handkerchiefs. Since I wanted to make 200 of these, I made this a pretty quick sewing project. I cut 9 inch squares out of white muslin. Then I folded the edge over about 1/4 inch over as I was sewing and zigzagged around all sides in contracting thread. When I zigzagged, I sewed very close to the edge allowing the needle to go over the edge every other zigzag. I thought this was a quick way to finish the edges nicely with a decorative touch.

If you had more time, folding the edges over twice would probably look slightly nicer and last a little longer. But even though the edges had a few loose threads that came off the first few washes, we are still using the extra handkerchiefs on a daily basis more than 4 years after our wedding. There were quite a few left over, so as an added bonus, we now have a lot of cloth hankies to use instead of Kleenex, and they are holding up great.

If you could find a great deal on small handkerchiefs you could eliminate the sewing step entirely if you wished. Or you could find someone else who like to sew and wanted to do this a wedding gift or for a reasonable price.

For the next step, we enlisted the help of two of our grandmothers. My husband had created a special letter, kind of like a combined monogram that was an A (for Anna) and a N (for Nate) together. You could of course just use a regular monogram or other small symbol as well. This special letter was used in many things for our wedding, and we asked our grandmothers to embroider it in the corner of each handkerchief. I gave each one completed handkerchief, and the pattern to fit in the corner and trace on each handkerchief. I think our grandmothers were actually quite happy to help and be apart of our wedding in this way.

Lastly, we folded each handkerchief so all points pointed in, with the embroidered corner on top. We made our own wedding programs that had pockets in the front and back for favors, so on the front pocket we had printed the message "For happy tears." Alternately, you could print this message on a small piece of card stock and tie it onto the handkerchief with a ribbon.

A Handcrafted Wedding Series

I liked making things myself long before I was a mom. As we prepared to be married, my husband-to-be and I wanted our wedding to be extremely special, but not extremely expensive. We wanted our wedding to be be about all God has done for us and how He brought us together as part of the plan for our lives. We wanted to make it clear that we were fully committed to this covenant and plan on keeping our vows for life. We wanted our wedding to be remembered for these things, not that we had spent a lot of money for a huge party one day.

So, we set about figuring out how to make our wedding fantastically frugal. We were able to incorporate so many personal touches by doing much of the work ourselves, with a lot of help from friends and family. Remembering our wedding day is such a joy because we were able to have a ceremony and reception so perfect for us, without spending a ton of money.

As I have time, I am going to be writing A Handcrafted Wedding Series. It is my hope that others might be inspired to created their own uniquely fantastic and frugal wedding. I will try to keep this page updated with all the wedding related posts.

Wedding Favors

• A Handkerchief For Happy Tears
• Delicate Crocheted Bookmarks

DIY Cookie Puzzles

I thought that cookie puzzles sounded like a really cute stocking stuffer, but they could also make a sweet Valentine, Easter present, party favor, or small gift for any other occasion. When we were making sugar cookies together, I cut out a few huge heart shapes. Then I simply cut these large cookies into a few pieces using a butter knife. I separated the pieces slightly and then baked the cookies as usual. Putting colored sugar on top before you bake them or frosting them after they have been baked and cooled would be cute as well. Varying the shapes and colors used could make these appropriate for any occasion. I simply wrapped these in plastic wrap, but you could package them up in cut cellophane bags, small boxes, or small cookie tins too.

DIY Oreo Truffles Pops

Kids seem to think everything is better when it comes on a stick, and sometimes this keeps both them and their food slightly cleaner. So for some pretty easy stocking stuffers, I took a few of the Oreo Truffles that I had made and made them into Oreo Truffle Pops. I simply made up a batch of Oreo Truffles and then poked a stick into the bottom. Actually, I used some of the tiny straws that sometimes come with our bags of milk here because I am cheap and have no idea where to buy lollipop sticks here. But if you happen to have a Michaels or Hobby Lobby nearby, you should be able to buy actual lollipop sticks if you want to.

You could also try inserting the stick before freezing the chocolate filling and then dipping them in chocolate. Then you can poke the stick into a piece of styrofoam to hold it upright while it drys, similar to cake pops. This would make them more round but a little more tricky to work with. My little kids don't care if their chocolate lollipop has a flat bottom or not, so I just went the easy route of inserting the stick after they had already been coated in chocolate and hardened.

Wrap in cellophane or plastic wrap, and tie with a pretty twist tie or ribbon, and you will have a beautiful stocking stuffer, Valentines treat, party favor, or small sweet gift for any other occasion.

DIY Oreo Truffles

Oreo truffles are being seen all over blogland, so you may have already seen these before. But the reason they are such a hit is because they both incredibly easy and incredibly delicious. If you haven't tried to make these yet, you really should. They are amazing. I made these and some other chocolate candies for Christmas gifts, but they would also be perfect for Valentine's Day or any other day. Every day is sweeter with chocolate.

Homemade Oreo Truffle Recipe

• 1 package Oreos
• 8 oz cream cheese (softened)
• 1 bag of chocolate chips (to melt for dipping)

1. Blend the Oreos in blender, or crush into very fine crumbs in a plastic bag with a rolling pin.
2. In a mixing bowl, blend together softened cream cheese and the Oreo crumbs.
3. Roll into quarter sized balls.
4. Place in freezer to chill for at least 15 minutes or more; this helps them stay together better when dipping in melted chocolate.
5. Melt chocolate in medium saucepan or a double boiler over low heat stirring occasionally until completely melted and smooth.
6. Dip each Oreo ball in melted chocolate and place on waxed paper, tin foil, or silicone mat to harden.
7. Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

This recipe makes about 3 dozen truffles. If you want to save any for the future or to give away, you should probably hide them in the back of the freezer, or you will eat them all right away. Or maybe that is just what I had to do.