Sunday #4: A Likely Menu

I'm excited for ravioli. How about you?

According to Alton Brown, it's easy enough. Of course he is kind of a liar sometimes.

I really want something like Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce but it looks like a huge pain in the rear. Plus I'm the only one who would eat it because the rest of my family is made of wieners.

So I suppose a sausage/beef filling will be in order. At the very least it'll give me another excuse to haul out the food grinder! Maybe I'll do a cheese/cheese&spinach one too. Depends on how long I want to stand around making ravioli.

Also on the menu will be a BIG salad (need.more.vegetables.) and Bruschetta if I can find some decent tomatoes.


For Dessert?
We've done cake twice - and we make a lot of cake. I thought Pie might do better and go faster. I asked the Internet and it only made me want ALL THE PIE.

But I narrowed it down to a couple of options. "Mark!" I said, "What kind of pie should we have? Apple or some sort of cream pie?"

"Oooh, Apple Cream Pie!" said Mark.

I told him there was no such thing and then he sent me to my beloved Internet to prove myself wrong.

And behold: Old Fashioned Apple Cream Pie.
This thing tells you to slather apricot preserves over the apples at the end?
Why Lord, why?  Apricots in all forms are of the devil!

I've seen this recipe elsewhere, and they say if you don't like apricot you can switch in another preserve. That still sounds pretty stupid.

So - here's my crazy plan. I'm still in Will Winter Never End mode, so I think this needs to make more with the spice and less with the Zesty Springtime Freshness. So that means ditching the lemon, and pulling out the Best Cinnamon Ever! And also maybe Pecans, because I have a pounds worth.

And then. Oh and then!
I'm making Apple Cider Caramel Sauce.

I've been wanting to make caramels for about a week now, ever since my friend told me about These.

I have drool now.

I figure I'm safer trying to make a sauce than I would be trying to make a hard caramel - particularly since I've never ever made them starting with such a liquidy liquid. I've only made the fat, fat, sugar, fat variety.

So this way I don't risk potentially destroying delicious ingredients, and I don't have to slather the pie in something so sinful.

Apricots are sinful not in the "mmm, delightfully wicked!" sort of way, but in the "Oh, God my tongue! My face! Why is it my tongues job to taste but in Hell!"

Because it's disgusting. Remember that.