Buitoni Ravioli Blind Taste Test

When Foodbuzz asked me to make two vegetable side dishes to go with Buitoni's new frozen meals for two I jumped at the chance. Foodbuzz gave me 10 coupons for free Buitoni meals and a stipend. My middle son's birthday was just in time to take advantage of this. Plus, my little foodie wanted a fancy birthday dinner for himself and his friends. Done!

First, the side dishes. I made a salad with spinach and arugula mixed about 50/50.



I bought some glazed walnuts at teh store and used the bag.



Then, I sliced some strawberries.



I chunked off goat cheese from the log and put it in the salad.



Then, I made a simple vinaigrette: 1/4 c. white balsamic vinegar, 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil, shallots, salt and pepper.



I whisked it together and mixed it in with the salad.



Guest starring in this blog post is Grandma Mary Cooks! She chopped the vegetables for me.



In olive oil, I sautéed zucchini, summer squash, asparagus, red bell pepper, shallots, and cherry tomatoes with some white wine.



After all of the vegetables were crisp-tender I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top.



I cooked all of the raviolis and their various sauces.



We made three types of Buitoni raviolis:



Shrimp & Lobster Ravioli



Four Cheese & Spinach Ravioli



Chicken & Mushroom Ravioli



The Tween rings the triangle for his friends to come to the dinner table:



The spread!!













Everyone really loved the Four Cheese & Spinach ravioli and the Chicken & Mushroom ravioli. I was surprised that the Shrimp & Lobster ravioli was not hit harder but I liked it a lot. As usual, I cooked so much food! No one knew I had heated up the sauce instead of cooking it myself! Score! Buitoni's stuff is spot on as usual. The preparation was so easy. As the water was heating up, I put the sauce packets in the pot. Once the water boiled, the sauce was ready to come out and the ravioli went in. Easy peasy.

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Here's where we get to a difficult part of the blog. Mr Mary Cooks unexpectedly passed away just two days before we had this birthday dinner. I mention this because we had to buy a cake from the store. We will all miss the awesome cakes that he made (along with every single thing about him).



All in all, The Tween had a good day surrounded with his friends, their families, and love.




Special thanks to Foodbuzz and Buitoni!!

SpongeBob SquarePants Birthday Cake

This is sort of a guest post. I baked the cake and mixed the frosting colors but Mr. Mary Cooks did the decorating. He did such a great job and I am totally impressed by how awesome SpongeBob looks! From what I've seen in internet searches over the past couple of weeks, this is one of the best ones out there (and maybe the best one that doesn't use fondant). Okay, enough bragging! Our daughter wanted this cake for her 3rd birthday and she is over the moon happy about it. Let's take a look, shall we?

First, my husband printed out a template to use for the shape. He scaled the image so SpongeBob's body plus his pant legs would fit within the dimensions of our 16" square cake, knowing he could use the trimmings to make up his arms and legs.



Then he used black food coloring (we use gel food coloring for cake decorating) and a q-tip to stencil the location of the eyes and mouth on the cake.



It's frosting time!





Our daughter is sharing her birthday party with our friend who may be allergic to chocolate (it still is to be determined) so we had to make brown frosting instead of just using chocolate frosting. Here are the pants getting frosted on to the cake.



The almost 3 year old takes a frosting break. (AKA opportunistic cute child photo)



Now he frosted SpongeBob's shirt white.



He did the eyes and the teeth white. He also added the yellow legs and arms.





Next up was red. My husband used this for SpongeBob's tongue, as shown below.



SpongeBob's tie is also red.



Black is up for the mouth.



Outlining makes a huge difference in this cake, as you can see below.



SpongeBob's feet are next.



Finally, the sponge pores details.



It's all done! It is a thing of beauty. I can't wait to take it to the party tomorrow!