Homemade Pasta?! No Way!!!

I was feeling all puffed up after such a successful first attempt at baking challah, and I thought I should make my own pasta, at least once. Just to know how.  My maternal great-grandfather owned a pasta factory with his brothers, so I figured it was in my blood. Before I have always thought "Me? Make my own pasta?! No way!!!"

Then, I noticed that Joy the Baker, one of my favorite places to get recipes, had just posted instructions for making pasta! Holy Cannoli! It was my lucky day!

Not only did Joy the Baker post instructions for making pasta, she made it look easy! My doubts started to fade. After all, I have a 25 pound bag of flour to use up! So I did it. I made my very own pasta. You may wonder how making pasta could possibly be worth the effort, when it costs less than a dollar to buy a box of pasta. I will tell you. Homemade pasta is more delicious than anything I have ever eaten. EVER. I can not even begin to explain to you the tastey goodness of homemade pasta.

Anyway. Making pasta is also fun. You get to play with your food. I think this would be a fun thing to do with little kids, as long as they don't mind making a mess!

Now, for the part you've all been waiting for: the pictures! First, you make a well out of flour. This is my flour well, and my wine pretending to hide behind it. (You can't make pasta without a glass of wine...)

Then you crack 6 eggs into the pasta well, wash your hands, and try to take nice pictures.

 

Then you slowly incorporate the eggs and flour together until you have a nice dough ball. (Joy the Baker's was much nicer looking than mine.) 

 

Then, you are supposed to let the dough ball sit at room temp for a while, during which time you remember that you probably shouldn't just eat pasta. People think you are wierd when you do that. So you cut of some veggies to saute.

Then you roll out the pasta until it is transparently thin. I did not roll it out enough. I rolled it until the edges went all the way to the back of the counter, all the way to the sink, and all the way to the bread box, and it was still not that thin. I cut it up anyway, because I am lazy and didn't want to move things around. (Or, if you are lucky, you use a pasta roller for less of an arm workout.)

Then you cut it into strips with a pizza cutter. My strips were horribly uneven. After this, you boil the pasta for about 3 minutes (depending on the thickness). When you take your first piece out to see if they are done, you will be beside yourself. I guarantee it. I took one out to sample, and when I put it in my mouth my eyes got SO wide. "Is it good?" Seth asked. "Oh my," I said, "I think we could have eaten it without the vegetables. They will only mar the taste." Seriously. It is incredible. If your strips are horribly uneven, like mine, the larger ones will be kind of chewy. But if you take the time to roll it out as thin as you can, and cut them evenly, Holy Moses, you will never turn back.

My next goal is a good batch of gnocchi. Wish me luck!

Be Our Guest!

Towards the end of July (2008), Seth and I thought it would be a good time to remodel the guest room. I use the guest room as an office, and I was pretty excited to have a "nice" room in which to spend my days. So we measured the room, made the trip to the local hardware store and bought drywall (sheetrock), plaster (joint compound), and drywall screws.

We came home to discover the sheer weight of drywall. There was no way that the two of us could put up a whole sheet by ourselves. (I am not strong enough.) So, we had to cut them in half, and then I could hold them above my head and onto the ceiling for a long enough time period for Seth to get enough screws in to hold it. What a relief when I could finally let go of one! After a few sheets I thought my arms would fall off! Once we got the drywall on the ceiling we had to plaster all the seams, remove all the woodwork, and start taking the painted over wallpaper off of the wall. What a mess that room became! Plaster dust, strips of wallpaper and splinters of wood covered the floor.

I worked on plastering the ceiling and the walls while Seth worked (in the basement) on new window moldings and trim around the floor and door. After a few months of being lazy I finally finished the plastering and got to priming, and painting. You may recall my indecision about a paint color. Look at these horrendously ugly window moldings, and the dirty white color on the wall! With such a pretty yard to look out at, this room doesn't deserve to be so ugly.

I went through four different colors before I found the most perfectly pale creamy yellow. The first color was too green. The second was too yellow. The third was too brown, and the fourth! Well, the fourth was perfect. Here we see Seth installing his brand new window moldings, with the final color on the walls. Sorry it is dark out, but some of us have to work for a living.

Here is another picture after we finished both windows, and put the curtain rods up!

Now it is time for the greatest part! Decorating! It was fun to move the furniture back in and make the room look nice. I bought a new lamp (made in Vermont) because we couldn't install the ceiling fan/light until we got the electric redone.

Finally, here are some pictures of the whole room turned back into an office/guest room. We are officially ready for guests! (Or, one guest at least, this room is only big enough for a twin bed. But we do have a full size futon in the living room.)

 

 

I think it looks about a trillion times better, and it is a very relaxing place to work during the day. Hopefully (Mom and Paul can vouch for this) it is also a nice place to sleep and be our guest!