A Make + Lifestyle Blog
I know I just admitted that I try not to eat pasta, but every now and then I make exceptions, like this Pea-Pesto Ricotta Ravioli. I jazzed up some basic ravioli pasta and the result was delicious and easy.
In a few minutes with three basic components, ravioli, pesto, and cheese, I plated a nice-looking dinner.
When I made these Marjoram Pea Pesto Crostini with Fresh Ricotta the other day, I thought I was being so creative. The Marjoram Pea Pesto is a healthy spin on traditional pesto with updated flavor combinations. The Homemade Instant Pot Ricotta Cheese is pretty standard, except it takes advantage of my Instant Pot, making preparation and cleanup speedy.
However, when I checked online to decide what to name these crostini, the first link that came up was Giada’s Pea Pesto Crostini! Whoops! So much for being unique. I’ll take it as a confirmation that my creative endeavors seem to resonate with others–some pretty famous others.
Eating Hot Pot with friends is my happy place. I love sitting around a table of boiling soup and chatting with good company. In fact, vegetarian Hot Pot reminds me fondly of my time living in Beijing. At first, I was unsure of how vegetarian-friendly Hot Pot really was, but once my Beijing friends introduced me to how amenable Hot Pot can be for vegetarians and vegans, I was hooked.
Every business trip to Taiwan afterward, I always made time for a visit to my favorite all-you-can-eat Hot Pot restaurant, Mo-Mo-Paradise. In recent years, I’ve stopped traveling to Asia for work and I’ve really been missing Hot Pot.
So, it is no surprise that when I looked in the kitchen for what to eat for dinner and only found spinach, tofu, mushrooms, red onions, and an acorn squash, the first thought to that came to mind was vegetarian Hot Pot! In my Instant Pot!
I’ve been dreaming of making cheese for years, but I’ve never felt ready to dive in until recently. After sharing my cheese-making dream with a friend, she mentioned that she often makes ricotta and it takes her no time at all. That small reassurance did just the trick. A few days later, I bit the bullet and made my first batch of cheese, ricotta cheese!
What surprised me the most was how easy fresh, homemade ricotta cheese is to make! In 20 minutes, I had a bowl full of fluffy, white ricotta cheese. I was so excited that I couldn’t even wait for the cheese to cool and kept shoveling spoonfuls into my mouth. Yes, it was quite the sight.
