Saturday, January 16, 2010

I made...

...homemade PASTA! Yep. Actually, I made ravioli's with a butternut squash filing. I would like to say that the meal was beautiful and worth taking a picture of but...it wasn't exactly. The meal was yummy! VERY yummy! My salad of arugula lettuce with roasted carrots, parsnips, and shallots topped with sliced almonds and a shallot vinaigrette WAS beautiful and delicious (I will toot my own horn here in that I followed a recipe well, and will toot Martha Stewart's horn just a little too...you know, since she (or her corporation) created the recipes.) The raviolis were also delicious but...Pretty? Not even slightly. You see. Apparently uncooked, fresh pasta sticks when piled on top of each other. (I read later that you are supposed to lie them in a single layer on a cookie sheet covered in flour. I REALLY need to start reading the WHOLE recipe before hand! lol) Anyways, ravioli's are made on the finest setting on the pasta roller and thus rip very easily. My little raviolis were so pretty, all prepared and stacked high on the plate. Then everything went wrong.

The water was boiling and Jason was being a stud husband and helping me cook by dropping my butternut squash creations into the water. He tried to pick the first one up off the plate and said, "Um, I think they are sticking together!" Well, he was right. The top raviolis were sticking to the bottom ones which were completely ripping open the raviolis...where all the squash filling was. Eventually in pure frustration I grabbed a knife and started hacking up the mass of raviolis. hahaha. Good times. Jason was trying to make me leave the kitchen because he was afraid that at any moment I would have an "Anna Cooking Meltdown". I have no idea why!?! haha. I mean it's not like I have ever flung an uncooked pie crust that was falling apart all over the kitchen in a giant hissy fit... Or jumped up and down crying like a little 2 year old when the chocolate I was melting over the stove was starting to burn (dumb paper-thin pots in Chile!) I don't have a clue why he would want me to leave the kitchen. :)

Well, I'm happy to say that I didn't throw a hissy fit but just said things that wreaked with sarcasm like, "Wow, that's awesome" and "Gosh, don't you love it when you spend 2 hours on something and have it become ruined in a 5 minute period!" BUT folks, I'm here to tell you that though it wasn't beautiful, it was dang good. All we did was top it with some melted butter, shavings of Parmesan, and some sage. I have never had homemade pasta and I LOVED it. It was delish.

The best part is that my meal tonight had almost no preservatives in it or processed sugars. Nada! All fresh veggies, roasted squash, homemade pasta with nothing but flour, egg, and salt, some butter. Good stuff. I'm determined to stick to whole foods and less processed sugars. We won't be perfect because I am married to a man who has the world's biggest sweet tooth but I'd like our meals to at least be cooked with that goal in mind. Oh, and the "Martha" pics of what I made are at the top. My salad looked like that (except I omitted the beets). My raviolis were supposed to look like that!

And...I'm ready to try it again...but maybe with a ricotta filling, or spinach filling...and I will not be stacking them on top of each other any time soon! Oh, and I'm SO wanting the pasta maker attachment for my kitchenaid. It would have made the whole process way easier! :)

5 comments:

  1. I want to make watermellon pickles. See the picture at:

    http://chloesblog.bigmill.com/watermelon-rind-pickles-after-all-these-years/

    Meant to do it last summer. Oops!

    I have the pickling lime (had to special order it) but finding watermellons with thick enough rinds has been a challenge. Plus it sounds labor intensive. Want to make some this summer (before you move of course)?

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  2. Wow! That is the coolest most different thing I have ever heard of!!! That's awesome! We should totally make those. Yum. So, is it sweet or tangy??? Seems like it would be sweet. Who thinks of these things!?! Also, depending on whether we get a house in Morro Bay (it's amazing) we may want to come up this coming weekend on a Sat. if that works! :)

    anyways, I will call you this week and let you know. We will find out if we get the house on Thur. or Fri so it may be last minute if that is ok. If you have plans...no worries! We can do it the next weekend. Love you

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  3. I think you could seriously consider chef school!! That meal was amazing!!!

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  4. Saturday would be fun if you guys could make it. Hopefully the rain will let up, although rainy days are good days to stay inside and cook yummy foods and of course drink hot and cold beverages.

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  5. When are we going surfing, waves have been huge lately. If they get down to 7 feet its a good time to hit Saint Ann's. Do you get the Lindsey weather report? If you don't then go on the PG&E website and sign up for it. He is really accurate and gives a wave report.

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