Two Recipes in One Post: Pumpkin Ravioli and Garlic Almond Kale

I was staying at my parents house on Friday night and decided to make two recipes from Jenny Breen's cookbook, Cooking Up the Good Life, for dinner, one as my weekly assignment and one as my lab assignment.  I made Pumpkin Ravioli with Corn Cream Sauce (p.97) and Garlic-Almond Kale (p.58).

Both of my parents gave me some help with general sous chef activities, like chopping and boiling water, but the bulk of the prep was my own.

This is the pumpkin puree ravioli filling, which contained garlic, pumpkin, and spices.

I made the ravioli dough, rolled it out, and cut it into squares.  At first I cut really large squares so started making them smaller as I went on.

Here are the minced garlic, chopped roasted almonds, and kale pieces for the kale dish.

Ravioli in boiling water.

Kale all ready to eat.

Here's the ravioli, corn cream sauce, and kale all on the stove at once.

Here's the final meal.  It was really tasty.  We all loved the corn cream sauce, and my parents who have never eaten kale before really enjoyed the kale dish.  I did have one issue which was the ravioli.  I had a lot of trouble getting the ravioli filled, as it all squeezed out of the dough when I closed the pockets.  In the end, there wasn't quite enough filling in the ravioli and the pasta wasn't quite rolled thin enough.  As leftovers, I just put extra pumpkin on each bite and it was perfect.  I might try ravioli again, I'll just have to look up how to perfect the technique!