Straight Stitches

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Homemade Pasta

Dana February 17, 2013 0 Comments

That's right, I said it! Homemade pasta. As in, I made it...at home...myself. Okay, you get the point. Pretty amazing, right? Mike was not as impressed as I thought he should be. I told him that was because he was spoiled. Had I done this six years ago, he would have been all like, "No way! No one has ever done that ever! You must be magic!" Nah, none of that. Instead he just said, "Of course you did." Not really sure how to feel about this. Anyway, how did I do it? Especially gluten free? It's way easier than you would think. This is based on a recipe by Annalise Roberts.

GF Homemade Pasta

-*1 cup all-purpose GF flour (make sure to use a variety that doesn't have a binder such as xanthan gum or guar gum pre-included), more for rolling

-1/2 tsp xanthan gum

-2 large eggs (I ended up having to use 3)

*The GF flour recipe Annalise Roberts uses is 2 parts brown rice flour, 2/3 parts potato starch, and 1/3 part tapioca flour. Nothing else. That is what I use as well.

Combine the flour and xanthan gum the bowl of you mixer using the dough hook on low speed. Once those two are mixed, add the eggs, stir until just combined, and then beat on medium speed for two minutes until the dough forms a ball. Then divide in half, roll out, cut, and cook.

According to the book, your pasta, cut or uncut, can be left out on the counter (covered with a tea towel to prevent drying out) for up to two hours. It can also be run through a pasta machine.

See, there's my dough. Not too sticky, but it will leave some residue on your hands.

There's my dough all rolled out. Now, if you've actually done this before, which I hadn't, you might notice something wrong here. Yeah, that dough should be about half that thickness. Again, it was my first time. It's a learning process.

I don't have any fancy pasta cutters or anything and I didn't want to risk scratching my granite island-top, so I got creative with my cutting implements. Yup, a plastic knife. I don't care what anyone has to say about this because it worked and that's the only thing that matters.

See? Not bad, huh? Like I said, I know it's not perfect. My lines aren't straight, the dough is too thick, but it works! I'm getting better.

Me: "Mike! Look! I'm all done?"

Mike: "Already? I'm not ready to eat just yet.

All of this had really only taken me about 30 minutes. Good thing the recipe said it could be preserved in a tea towel for a while, so we did that.

When Mike was finally ready to eat, we cooked the pasta in boiling, salted water, which only took about 6 minutes at most. Meanwhile, we also browned up some sausages and zapped some jarred sauce...what? I freaking made the pasta from scratch! I can phone it in on the sauce if I want! Besides, it's really good sauce. Marinara from Trader Joe's. Haha, what did I say about the dough not being thin enough. You can see here how thick it got when it cooked. You can also see us struggling to mix everything without making a grand mess because I am really bad at judging volumetric proportions.

Tadaa! And there is the finished...oh, wait. I was too slow in taking the picture. It all got eaten up too fast. Oh well. :-)

I'm still working on learning to use the pasta machine I bought now. It's not quite as easy as using a microwave, but I'm learning. I'm really excited about this new culinary weapon, however, because I can now make flavored pasta. Do you get what I am saying? Cracked black pepper, garlic, tomato, spinach, herbs. As I have said many times before, I LOVE pasta, and I've just been given the secret-key-sword-password-power to this most happy-making of foods. Look out, world! I'm unstoppable!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Measuring Up!!!

Heather February 14, 2013 2 Comments

HAPPY HEART DAY EVERYONE!!!!!

I made you all some cookies!!!!

See??!?!? Aren't I sweet? Yea.....they're not really for you guys. They're for my boys, the little ones, because they asked nicely and now the small one is asleep on the floor. Its going to make working out interesting. He's right next to where I usually get my work out on. Fun times.

So anyways, on to the real post. I've had this project done for a little bit, and I'm still lovin' on it. :)

I made a gigantic ruler!!!! Love it!!!

The best part was the it was stupid simple to make. Just take an 8' board and stain, paint, do whatever you want to it, and then stencil on some numbers, make your hash marks and then let dry! I used Rustoleum's Sun Bleached stain and just some black acrylic paint.

Believe it or not, but the ruler is actually hung just about right. Its like 1/4" off or something like that, which is perfect for getting a fairly good idea of measurements for the boys!

There are my two sweeties' measurements! Its only a small gap. :)

I decided to hang the ruler right near our front door and two-story foyer, because, well, there was room, and it showcases just how tall our ceilings are. I am really loving the stain color too! I may need to find more things to use this stain on.