Noodle Ramblings

My first pasta machine I had to give it away because I could not hook it up to anything after we bought a new dining room table...I made some pretty great pasta/noodles with this baby.




How I've had to dry pasta noodles lol

I love love love love looooooove to make handmade pasta. I remember the first time I saw a homemade pasta recipe in my Taste of Home magazine and just took off and tried the recipe immediately. I watched a few videos about how to make pasta and went to work. No machine, no fancy attachment, just my hands. I used the recipe for a simple pesto recipe and it tasted ok. It had a doughy flavor that I didn't care much for but I was certainly proud of the effort.



Later on the next couple tries I've made pasta, it still tasted a bit doughy, but less and less. I never gave up on it I was obsessed with making my pasta taste perfect. From all my attempts, I learned something and each time it tasted better. I made homemade ravioli and it made sure I rolled the dough almost paper thin. Whilst the dough definitely didn't taste doughy, some raviolis nearly disintegrated once they hit the boiling pot.

Brown Butter Hokkaido Squash Ravioli

 I finally figured it out- don't make the dough too thin or too thick- which I will explain in a later post. I also was on a quest to find double zero flour, though all-purpose flour is fine, double zero is what the nonnas use and I am a grandma in a young woman's body :-) . I also found a few staple recipes from Thomas Keller, Emeril Lagasse, and Michael Ruhlman and even recipes I've concoted from experience. In fact I think I made a pretty darn amazing Whole Wheat Noodles recipe tonight which I am excited to share hopefully in the near future. I used the noodles for the BEST chicken soup recipe ever, Fine Cooking Magazine's Lemon-Ginger Chicken Soup (I added noodles as the original recipe in the magazine has noodles in the recipe)

Recipe here: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/asian-style-ginger-chicken-soup.aspx

Making Pasta/Noodles is such a fun relaxing activity for me. My kids love to join in my daughter loves working with dough and my son loves to eat raw dough


Baby boy cranking out pasta sheets



Mt Tagliatelle


For Christmas, my husband bought me a pasta attachment for my mixer and it really brought a great light into me. I hadn't made handmade pasta in over a year. I kind of stopped eating noodles as much since then, because homemade is always the best to me. Though again, it's not necessary. If you don't want to go through the trouble don't. But if you're like me and is obsessed with perfecting your "craft" then go on. Tell me about it in the comments below if you'd like. If we ever get a sunny day in Germany I will definitely share some recipes I've tried because I've been cooking like crazy, but I don't have any fancy lighting equipment so my food looks really good. But shoot if I have to, I will use my camera phone for the photography for my blog, no blog critics care about my blog and I don't care if they do. So let me know if you'd like to see a recipe in the future. I'd love to give a shout out to Linda Nicholson of Salty Seattle (www.saltyseattle.com)  for helping light my pasta/noodle fire. I bought Thomas Keller's book because of her. She buys the best ingredients, cooks everything from scratch, beautifully, artistically, and scrumptiously. So cool to have her and many other bloggers in the food blogging world to inspire me!

Mama's So Thankful Ramblings

Today I intended on waking up and starting cookies so I'd have a recipe to blog. Well, I woke up and started other things, like lollygagging on Pinterest, playing with the kiddos, and checking FB of course then I started the cookies. So instead of making the cookies on my own, I decided to bake them with my beautiful Curly Sous Chef. She is always a hoot in the kitchen and knows her way quite well around our  little space.

But as we were baking and chatting I decided not to make a recipe post. But rather a post on why I am thankful for everyday. This will not be long because it doesn't take the a lot to be thankful. I am thankful that my daughter wants to be a good influence on kids her age to get into the kitchen. She said today while rolling the cookie dough into balls, 

"When the kids see dis dey gonna be like, 'oh ma gah she cook, i wanna cook too!' I wish y'all could hear her. She is a character. She's everything I wish I had the courage to be. She's outwardly thoughtful, silly, hilarious, and just a kind curious little 5 year-old with a memory of a 97 year-old. The girl can't remember her age to save her life, already taking on a trait some women seem to  inherit once they're on the brink a new decade of life from 30 on ;-) But as I am not lying 6 feet or burning to ashes, I can be that way now. Who cares if I am 29 years old ;-)

Today my daughter and I brought the cookies and tea upstairs to her bedroom and we played tea parties our way. LOTS of drama! Ken is brokenhearted because Barbie is in love with Eric. Eric is being chased by the mermaid triplets lol it's crazy and fun. Barbie Dreamhouse Jerry Springer style. The laughs and jokes we shared, nearly spraying tea from our noses will remain ingrained in our minds! LOL

She did a pretty good job recipe here: http://www.shemakesandbakes.com/1/post/2012/11/cinnamon-chip-snickerdoodles.html

These genuine smiles

I am one cheesy lady so it fills me with joy to see my babies smile and to see them, too, reflect. There is a lot to look forward to this year and some things we're not looking forward to. But whatever happens I hope we are in the greatest of spirits, enjoying every moment we can. If things don't always go well, then try to make a negative experience into a positive one. It's pretty simple, but a lot of people find it challenging. If you're on any kind of social network, you know what I mean. 

Hope you all are making the most of your day! SMILE :-) 

Laughing at the memories (my crazy faces)

January 1st, 2013 with Mama

I am trying to use my blog a lot more. So excuse me if there is a lot of randomness. I will really try hard to post some recipes here soon. I plan on baking a lot this week. Especially as my oldest has the week off this week!! This means more cooking and baking with the little ones, more half naked kids running around, sleeping in, playground visits, riding the streetcar around town, cuddling, and most of all driving my husband bonkers.

Today we celebrated big and loud with the exception of my lil man. He hates loud. But we like to scream as loudly as possible around the house after the "ball drops" to rid the house of any evil negative energy. 

Here are some photos from today and some 40 minutes prior to 1st

I dusted (wanted a clean start)

We celebrated with balloons.

With champagne and "champagne" for the little ones.

\

Even Candy Cane shot glasses (full of orange juice)

I baked cookies on New years Eve

I made our traditional doughnut breakfast

Cooked a good meal- Ribs with homemade asian bbq sauce, braised cabbage. and black eyed pea salad mm mmm mmmmm. and some wine ;-)

played barbies. they play with one another anyway they can 

Watch the kids get along in 10 minute spurts.

What a great day. I hope to end everyday reflecting on all the positive and learning from what didn't go well. Lately, more than ever, it's important to me to focus on what's happening right now. Sure I have preparations to make, but I will not let it consume me and distract me from what's going on now.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 1st of January. Hope this year is a great one for you all!!!!

Wishing you all a Grand 2013!

I did a Year Recap here. I feel like my beginning started in November. 

The only thing I didn't mention on the blog itself is that I made straight As my first semester back!

 I hope you all have a happy prosperous new year! Look out for my husband and I's video!!! It will be a hoot. Especially after I read what the questions were...yikes!

 Pictures from today

Today I bought a cute suitcase from daenisches bettenlager. Thanks to Pinterest I buy suitcases and cute hat boxes whenever I spot a cute one. 

Some lucky cookies I baked hoping for some luck in the 2013 http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Italian-Almond-Cookies-236733

My husband and I prepping for tomorrow's meals

I have a lot of fun plans about my hair, my life as a milspouse, how I making my house a home and of course recipes!

Here is a little glance. Will have some before and afters of my living room and dining room and other rooms. A post I've been promising forever! This is my cozy corner in my dining room. I love it. Thanks Pinterest