Gluten Free Cheddar Onion Perogies

Those of you that I have on facebook may have seen the pictures I posted from my visit to Manitoba.  My Grandma and I learned to make GF perogies together!  For those of you that didn't see... here it is.  They were sooo good!  I brought my pasta recipe to the table, and she brought her excellent Mennonite experience making perogies.  A fine team we make I'll say!

Wild Mushroom Ravioli

I mentioned before that I am having too much fun with my new ravioli mold.  Also, that I have extra time on my hands lately.  An upside of those two things together... an abundance of homemade ravioli! First it was the butternut squash, and once that worked out (quite well, I might add), the opportunities were endless!  My husband and I both adore mushrooms.  We put them in chili, roasted vegetables, on pizza, etc... In other words, we put them in just about anything.  So naturally, this lead to my search for a recipe for mushroom ravioli.  This one is a merger between one I found on Food.com and another I found on the Food Network.

Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli

My wonderful husband bought me a ravioli maker for Christmas.  I love it.  It is my new favourite toy.  It isn't really a ravioli maker though, more like a ravioli mold.  Either way, with my GF pasta recipe in hand, I went to town!

My brother and I decided it was time to try growing some more types of squash in my mothers garden this past summer.  I insisted on spaghetti squash and acorn squash, he opted for butternut squash.  I am sure glad he did!  Butternut squash made the most delightful filling in these little ravioli's.

Gluten Free Pasta - Version 1

Cooking/baking gluten free has taught me two very important life lessons:  patience and persistence.  In my quest to make delicious homemade gluten free pasta, I found two types of recipes.  The first type, which is what you'll find below, uses xanthan gum.  The second version uses psyllium husk powder, but I'll get to that another day.

My first attempt at gluten free pasta went... okay.  The dough dried out really fast and just sort of crumbled.  But it tasted amazing!  It even smelled like normal pasta dough!  Most of the pictures below are from the first attempt.  My chef-in-the-making little brother came over to help me on my first attempt at GF pasta.  He found this process insanely frustrating.  But I'd say we learned a very important lesson (or two) that day.

Gluten Free Gnocchi

Gnocchi are little pasta-potato dumplings.  I tried them for the first time when I studied abroad in Italy, and I believe it was love at first bite.  When I first went GF, I was happy to find that Kinnickinnick sold GF gnocchi, and they were delicious.  My only complaint was the amount in the package for the price.  But aren't all GF products that way?  My lovely sister in law mentioned that making gnocchi was unbelievably easy, so it shouldn't be too hard to convert to GF.