Steak wrap

We had some extra steak and I really was not sure what to do with it. So I decided what ever I did I needed to cut it up. So I started there, I cut the steak nice and thin. From there I just kinda went with it. I have been reading a lot about sauces and so I knew I wanted to try out a new balsamic dressing. So I thought what goes with steak and balsamic. With that I put together this steak wrap. Steak is one of those meats you really don't want in-between two slices of bread. At least I don't I have never been fond of a hot sandwich.

As you can see I sliced the steak thin. Then I decided it was to large to eat without a fork and knife. I decided to Julianne it. This is just the French way of saying I cut it into strips. I figured this way I could eat it in one bite or with out a fork. Once you have your protein ready then decide what you love eating with that protein. If you use chicken maybe add asparagus. If you don't eat meat and want to use tofu well anything pairs with that.



After  thinking about what I would want to eat in a wrap. I came up with carrots and apples. This may sound odd to have apples in a wrap. In the past months I have come to love apples and balsamic. Since I wanted to have color I added carrots peeled. The apple gave the wrap a nice crunch as well.





In the end the wrap was pretty good. Everything blended really well together. When it came to the balsamic it is just a simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All in all it worked out well and turned into a fresh way to eat a sandwich. Plus we all eat a ton of carbs so cutting them out of one meal won't kill us. I know its crazy talk but someone had to say it sooner or later. Until next time do something amazing with the food you love.

Madeline

I made Madeline's this week, these little cookies are SO freaking good. I don't think I have ever had a bad madeline. They are usually lemon flavor or half dipped in chocolate. I myself just kept it simple and made a yellow madeline. A lot of people wonder if these are cookies or cakes.
To clear this up let me tell you, madeline are indeed both, cake and cookie. These first were seen in France and the base is made from an almost sponge cake batter. Which makes it a cake. It is then put into shell like tin to give it, its nice shape. The tins hold around eight madeline each depending on the size you want. The size alone is what I think makes it a cookie. Plus you don't frost madeline's.



The first thing you want to do is make sure that you whisk your eggs enough. No matter your recipe you want fluffy eggs. This will give the madeline's their light fluffy texture. Once the eggs are nice and light add the rest of the ingredients. In the end your batter should be a little thick. Just like sponge cake. For those of my cooks out there batters are all different consistency. You want the madeline's to be a cake batter thickness. Not a pancake consistency. What you don't want is a cookie consistency. Also like most baking you need to chill this batter before you start cooking it. My recipe said to chill for six hours. I did it for one hour and it was fine. I think that as long as its cold it should be fine.

So make sure you have sprayed down the tin really well. Then spoon in the batter making sure you don't fill it all the way. Since the batter will expand and will fill in the rest of the tin. These will take only a few minutes to cook so don't walk away from them.



As you can see in the left picture the madeline's are flat. That means they are not ready. As you can see on the right the madeline's have a nice dome on the top. This means they are done. Once they are done you should be able to just flip the tin over and they will fall out. Unless you have half a dozen tins you will need to repeat the spray down, fill, and bake process. This will happen until you run out of batter. I have the large tins and the batter made about thirty. With the small tins I would say it would make double the amount. Make sure you don't double stack them or they will stick together. Then you can add a little powder sugar on top. These little cookie like cakes will be the hit of any gathering.

Kitchen Gadget

This week I was looking in my kitchen cupboards and trying to figure out what I should make. I realized I have a lot of kitchen gadgets. Not mixers and such but odd trinkets. Have you ever seen those trinkets that say, "as seen on t.v."? Well over the years I have collected my fair share either as gifts or I thought they might work. Well I was looking at all of them thinking, I had never tried any of them. Well a few months ago my aunt let me borrow one of those very same gadgets she had bought but never used. Thinking that maybe I would use it. So I have decided to try this gadget.

What I received was a "bread maker" it is more of a bread holder. What the instructions say is to take bread dough and put it in the tin. Then seal it and bake it vertically. Supposedly the bread will bake into what ever shape the tin is. Well I have decided to test it out. Lets see if it not only works but is worth the hassle.


So I have made the bread. I let it rise for about two hours. As you can see it has doubled in size. When you let bread sit to rise make sure to cover it with either a light towel or cling wrap. This will help in the rising process. Then I did what the instruction said.

 I split the dough in half. I decided to see not only if the tin works but if the dough was not in the tin if it would be good bread in general. So as you can see I did half and half. Spray the tin nice and good so nothing gets stuck and I went for it. I'm surprised to say it kind of worked. When ever I see things like this I think they can't possibly work but this one did.

 As you can see both breads look pretty good. The one in the tin did not brown as the other one did. It also did not rise enough to hit the other side so the last piece will be rounded on the end. But that could change if I had added more dough to the tin. I think with a little practice it would work. This little tin came from pampered chef. It has other shapes as well. I'm not sure what other than decorative looking it can do to decorate the dinner table. Though if you have little children it might be fun for sandwiches.

As for next week maybe you have a kitchen gadget in your cupboard. Why not trying to see what you can do with it?

Carrots are not just for bunny's

This weekend was Easter. As everyone knows that means a lot of food shaped like bunnies. I decided instead of making something sweet into a bunny I would make the same thing bunny's eat, Carrots silly. I happened across a show called Movable Feast With Fine Cooking. The host mentions in one episode this carrot side dish he does with fresh honey. Well I decided to get the ingredients he mentioned and try my hand at his recipe. Guess what it is delicious. 

Before I start with what I did let me tell you I used a orange carrot. Are you thinking, orange carrot their are other colors of carrots? The answer is yes, the other colors are getting more popular so maybe you have seen them in your local shop. They come in colors as diverse as purple, black, red, white, and yellow. Every color comes with its own taste though similar not exactly the same. You often see these colors in batches of a mixed variety. Though orange is the most common it definitely was not the first color, white was the first color. Over centuries and cross breeding, cultivation and I'm sure a few other steps the orange carrot came into productivity. Okay enough about carrots, if this has intrigued you enough you can google more about it. I find it fascinating, maybe you not so much. Onto the recipe. 

I cut up a dozen carrots into the size of a pinky finger. You always want to make what your cooking roughly the same size. This will help everything cook through at the same time. Since carrots are hard this is essential. Once they are all cut I put it in a casserole dish with some butter and roasted them until they are nice and tender. While this is happening you can start the sauce. 

I have spoken about browning butter before. Start with some butter on low heat until it is nice and brown. If you are not sure when the right shade of brown is correct then use your other senses. Smell the pot, about one or two inches above your pot take your hand and waft the air. If you are not sure what this means put your hand palm facing you at the back of the pot. Then push the air toward you making the air go toward your nose. This sounds weird but if you just put your nose into the pot you won't get the full smell plus you might hurt yourself. Wafting the scent is the best way to get the best smell. Browned butter should have a light brown color and a nice nutty scent. About one more minute after your butter looks like this. 

Once this is done add the other ingredients. A little paprika, a pinch of chili flakes, a handful of roasted and then smashed almonds. Or almond pieces. Then the best ingredient of them all, a honey balsamic vinegar with a touch of acid. This vinegar is all up to you. If you want to go looking for one already made up that works. I can never make a small amount of dressing so of course I always have some left over but thats okay since it lasts and can be used for other things. I made mine by itself, with 50% honey and then 25% balsamic vinegar, and 25% fresh orange juice. Roughly two to three oranges. I only used maybe 1/8th cup of the vinaigrette. See what I mean though it would be to hard to mix something of that small of a quantity for me. I tend to make way to much of everything. 

Once the carrots are roasted nice and soft then pull them out. Add the sauce over the top. You don't want to make the sauce to far in advance or the balsamic will emulsify separate from the butter. If you are not sure how long the carrots will take I would just get all the ingredients ready and then combine them once the carrots are ready. It doesn't take long for butter to brown then just mix in all the rest. 

This is a great side dish for any meal. Plus it puts a twist on the every day steamed carrots. As for next week who knows what my kitchen will turn out. Hope you find a few dishes you can enjoy over and over again.

 

Pie Festival

Over the last few months I have been practicing my pie. I entered Claremont's pie festival contest that was hosted this weekend. I found a pie I liked and then practiced and practiced. This morning I dropped off my pie and waited to see what happened.


This is my pie crust. When it comes to pie crust there are a few things you should always make sure of. One, you should not over work your dough. Two you should love your crust just as much as your filling. I made an orange pie for my entry. The first thing you should know about oranges is they are filled with amazing juices. Okay everyone knows that oranges have juices but does everyone know how to capture them into a pie?


What comes to mind when you make a fruit pie? It is all liquid because of the fruits natural juices making the pie soggy. So how do you fix this, you ask? I was about to keep all the juices in the orange by poaching them first. By poaching the orange it keeps all the juice inside while it is baking. Know this is not true for all fruit but when it comes to oranges or pears this works really well. To poach the fruit just put it on low heat in a pan of sugar water. Make sure your fruit is fully covered so the whole fruit gets poached.

Once I had the oranges poached and the filling all ready to go I put my pie in the oven. Since this pie does not have a top crust I wanted to make sure that the fruit was arranged nice and pretty. There are two types of pies. One with crust on top and the bottom, the other with just crust on the bottom. Something that I learned when baking this pie is that the tin helps. When you bake in a glass tin you are able to see if the crust is baked all the way through. The downfall of not having a glass tin is you have to be confident in yourself that your pie is fully baked. Have you ever gotten a piece of pie and the bottom crust is raw, it is so sad. After I took the pie out I added some apricot glaze and toasted almonds.


Okay after a few hours of walking around the Claremont shops with my mom the judging had commenced. It was time to announce the winners of the contest. This was the first time I had ever entered any contest before. Even though I knew there would be a lot of great pies I did hope I won something. Well after all the waiting I can say I was not disappointed. I won second place for my division. I was so excited, not only was it my first time entering, I won. I can honestly say even with all the nervousness I get from not knowing what will happen it was definitely worth it.

Me and the owner of I Like Pie

For all you bakers, cooks, learners and anyone else. I say go for it. Find local things near you and enter to see how you do. Even if you don't win, even if you have never made the item before, go for it. It is so fun and if all else fails you get random people to eat your food. No doubting if your spouse is just being nice. Maybe that is just me, that doesn't always trust my ability. Until next week try something new and broaden your boundaries.

Pink is for pear, prickly pear

This week has been so long. Have you ever had one of those weeks where you never know when its going to end? That was my week this week. But that is not why you read this blog so I will leave it at that.

At work my boss picks one item to showcase every month. He tries to find something that we have never used so we can really learn new skills. This month it was prickly pear. We are supposed to make new foods and try incorporating it into different recipes. Today I decided to make cupcakes. I know I have said I hate cupcakes which I do but I am pushing my boundaries in all areas.

Side note Prickly pears remind me of the jungle book. Every time I cook with it I hum the bear necessities. Have you ever made something that reminds you of something completely different. I love finding connections between my past and my present. This item did that for me.

 I started with a batch of coffee cupcakes. I know, I know coffee in a cupcake sounds gross. I have never worked with coffee before. Since I don't drink it, its hard for me to know if things taste correctly. Shocked that I don't drink coffee? Its a life choice, mostly because I think it is one of the nastiest things I have ever tried, and I have tried some pretty nasty things. (Like frog ovaries when I was in china or squid eyes when I was in El Salvador, that one was a dare but still, eww) I have seen in a lot of recipes that they add coffee to make it more flavorful so I decided to give it a try. Plus its a bonus that my husband is addicted to coffee so lets pretend I made them just for him. "Cupcake sweetie, I made your favorite coffee flavored, just for you."

Back to the prickly pear, most people have not worked with prickly pear so I took a few extra photos. A prickly pear also known as cactus are actually very good for you. These little guys grow off the paddles of the cactus. Which you can also eat the paddle or turn it into aloe vera. The prickly pear I have here came with the needles removed. If you get one with the needles make sure you wear gloves. You don't want to prick yourself, from what I know I would guess they are not sold with needles on them. As you can see I have peeled the pear and rough diced it. This is four pears diced which seems like a lot. These little guys have small seeds that are edible but pretty hard. So I decided to juice it. Once you take the skin off all the flesh inside is edible.

 As you can see from this picture I have juiced the diced pear. I don't have a blender so I had to juice it by straining it in a sifter. In the last month I have come to discover why so many people own a blender. I tend to come across the need of one more and more. After juicing the diced pear I had nice prickle pear juice. Four pears only produced 1/2 cup of juice. I am sure it would give more if you use a blender but for what I needed a 1/2 a cup was plenty. Plus if you wanted to eat the actual fruit after you can.

 I decided to make cream cheese frosting while my cupcakes were cooling. Every cupcake needs good old cream cheese frosting on top. Instead of using heavy cream I used the prickly pear juice. That is what gave the frosting its amazing color. I can call these little guys, "no coloring needed". Maybe not. A lot of things can be replaced with other foods to either make something healthier. Like applesauce for eggs or make something vegan, like avocado for butter. I'm not sure if this works with everything but I would assume if the consistency is the same you could substitute one item with another. Once you decide what you want to substitute you have to have an open mind about the end product. Some things may turn out a little different than how they normally would. Because I substituted prickly pear juice instead of heavy cream the cream is thicker than the juice. This means I had to add more powdered sugar to thicken it up.

 In the end once I let the frosting chill I was able to frost the cupcakes. As you can see my husband snagged one before I could take a picture. There once were twelve cupcakes. Thats okay though because eleven is enough for sharing.

I enjoyed working with this prickly pear. It is very versatile product. I think I might take the extra frosting and make something else. Maybe this week while you're at the grocery store you will find something you have never worked with. Why not buy it and see what you can do? Who knows maybe you will find your new favorite food.

A Family affair

This weekend I spent time at my aunt and uncles house. We had a sort of in prompt to slumber party. They were nice enough to let me cook them lunch the next day. I'm going to give you a glimpse into my families life. Have you ever watched a movie and the main character is on the side walk and they are looking into a strangers window and the family is sitting around the dinner table laughing and everyone assumes they are happy? Well your the main character and as you sit at the computer you get to look into the window of my family.

Friday night we all went out to eat dinner, nine in all. Did I mention I have a big family. So on Saturday we all got up and I made pancakes. This is not about that meal this is about lunch. Have you ever eaten out and it was so good you take home the left overs but the next day your just not into it? You don't want to waste the food but you don't really want to eat them. One of the things I'm decent at is reinvention. Taking left overs and making them new. So that is what I did. I made leftovers into something new.

Empanadas! I should mention we had Mexican food last night. After I had the empanada dough mixed and rising I got the left overs out to make the filling.  I cut up the veggies and the chicken into nice small dices. Then I found a can of black beans and strained it real good. Tip you want to strain the beans really good to get all the can liquid out since it taste gross. I'm sure there are other reasons why you want to rinse things from a can that is more scientific than "gross" but this is my take on the matter.

Once the middle is ready and all heated up the dough should have been doubled. Once that happens you need to separate the dough into eight balls. This number could change depending on the size and the recipe. Then roll them out one at a time. Let me tell you pinching edges is not my thing. If it's not an empanada its a pie or pretty much anything with a top and a bottom crust. I just can't do, I try and by the last empanada the edge work looked okay. Not amazing but its something I have to work on. If you cant tell from the picture above every edge looks different. A trick I learned was to sit the empanada up and then pinch the edges. When it is sitting on the counter it was so much harder to get a good edge. If it is sitting up you can work it from both sides.

After you have all the empanadas stuffed and finished you put them in the oven. Every oven is different so just cook them until they are golden brown. Once I pulled them out we added avocado and ate until we were full. Well that was a glimpse into my family. So next time you are at home and all you have is leftovers know you don't have to eat leftovers. It is really easy to make something new by adding a little something from your kitchen.

To macaroon or not to macaroon?

As I sit and wait for my macaroons to set I write this post. As I mentioned last week I tried my hands at macaroons and turned up empty. This week I tried again and they look better. I am using a different recipe and I think it is better. Not perfect but I am feeling good about them. They still are not perfect but they are like 90% better than my first run.

Thick goop consistency 

I start with the meringue which is a funny thing to make, I have learned it is the perfect balance between stiff peaks and just peaks. But a tip I learned was if you can flip the bowl and the peaks not only stay but don't fall on your head you are there. If you over whip a meringue then that's bad too. Unfortunately no one has ever found the perfect way to know, like a time or temperature like other things but just sheer knowledge of your own ability. So I whisked away, as I did this I got all my other ingredients ready.

waiting and setting

I lined up the almond flour and powdered sugar. Tip; sift both these ingredients and if you have the fortitude and a bigger sifter than me once you combine them, sift again. I got the food coloring I wanted and the trays ready and set up. I had the sugar syrup ready and rested for once my meringue set. Once I got the right peak I poured the syrup in and kept whipping away. Once that was done I added the remaining egg whites to the dry ingredients. Last time I just whipped all the egg whites and then added the dry ingredients, and I think this was one of many steps that works better. Once the dry ingredients looked like goop I added a tablespoon of meringue. This is to make it a little less thick. (Most people say it should be the consistency of lava, it reminds me of melted marshmallows without the rice crispy.)

in the oven

I then folded in the meringue all at once. You want to make a figure eight. This will fold in the meringue and not over mix it making it runny. You want it to keep the thick consistency as much as possible, so don't over fold it. Then just scoop it into a piping bag and make one inch rounds. Make sure you don't make them to big, like all cookies they expand as you can see from the picture above some are touching. This is definitely something you don't want. I have a macaroon mat that has the rounds already sized out if you don't have that just put parchment paper on a cookie sheet and do your best. After pulling the macaroons out of the oven its odd but the ones on the mat were a little hollow. (Not sure if its the mat or it needed more time to set?) Then the fun part, bang the tray to get all the air out. By this point you will be where I am now. Waiting; waiting for them to harden, waiting for them to get a film on top, waiting to see if you messed one of the steps up, waiting and waiting some more. At this point I cleaned up, trying to keep busy. I did the dishes and wiped down the counters.

Once they were done cooking I pulled them out and let them sit. Again with the waiting. If you can see in the picture below these little guys have feet. Feet are the little bubbles on the bottom of the cookie. You don't want bubbles in the cookie, hence the banging but bubbles on the bottom are a good thing. While I was waiting I made the filling. I was going to put jam in the middle but then I opened the jar and it looks like it was making out with peanut butter. I forgot that we make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the same knife. So I put the lid on and peeled a banana. I never would think a banana mixed in powdered sugar and butter could taste good but it did so that turned into my filling.

they have feet

I have been looking up macaroons for two weeks now trying to get a good recipe. I am using Merry Berry's recipe, I'm addicted to the great British bake off. They say these little cookies are one of the hardest to make. As this is my second try and I'm still unsure if they have turned out I would agree. What I did learn is the Italians have a macaroon that is made of coconut it looks nothing like these little French cookies. If you don't believe me google it. Which is interesting to me since these little guys are everywhere. There is a macaroon shop not twenty minutes from my house and I never knew that there was an Italian version. Since I am Italian I try to make things from my heritage but macaroons were never in our house, we ate sfingy (yes that is how it is spelled). So when my uncle married a French woman that is when macaroons came into my life. That is why the French style is the one I am trying to make. So if you are ever in the mood to eat a macaroon and you don't have all day I would say go out and buy one. Though I do have a confession this will be the first one I have ever eaten.

I'm not saying I will never make them again they are definitely less scary now that I have an end product I liked but they will not be the first cookie I jump to. Next week I am not sure what I will make but I think I will try something a little less time intensive (started at 3:30 and ended at 9).

Birthday week quiche

This week has been so weird. I wrote a whole post on Wednesday and then I proceeded to erase it. Due to the fact that when I re read it, it was non sense. I mean complete randomness. I don't know why I thought it was so amazing. I had thought of the whole post late at night on Tuesday and found out one thing, ALWAYS re read what you write when you have an idea late at night. I'm telling you I could give any stream of consciousness writer a run for their money when it comes to my brain late at night. So all week I have been trying to think of what to do. Want to hear what I came up with? This has been my kitchen this week: Wednesday macaroons (bust), Friday donuts(good but not light enough more cake then donut), Friday also another Bundt (good but already written about a few weeks ago), and then I made it, Saturday a quiche.




It is Anthony's birthday this week and in our house we do a birthday week tradition. The whole week leading up to a birthday the birthday person gets spoiled. Growing up the spoiling meant not having to do chores, (i.e. siblings had to do them for you, it was always the best week of my life). Well Anthony was an only child and he did not have a birthday week tradition. Even if he did, the forcing chores on your siblings is the best part. So once we got married this tradition was one he was happy to adopt. We have turned it into our own tradition, the other person has to do all the cleaning for the week. Plus every day the birthday person gets a little present, Anthony got his favorite cereal one day.

With this in mind I decided to do something different for Saturday morning brunch. Saturday morning brunch is one of the only meals Anthony and I have together that we don't, one have to rush through and two aren't eating at midnight since that's when he gets home from work. This morning I got up and made a quiche. No I did not get up early, this is not an all day thing. Most people stray away from pies of any sort because they think it will take forever. I can assure you pie crust is so easy to make and it doesn't take long at all. A few tips; make sure to take a fork and give the crust a few stabs once you have put it in the tin. This will make it not rise during the bake. Also don't over kneed it or it wont be fun to eat, you want it nice and flaky.

I started with a savory crust which is not only quick but has all of four ingredients one being water. There are many types of pie crust. In the end you need to know one thing, savory and sweet. If you are making a quiche or any type of non dessert pie use savory. If you are making a dessert pie use sweet. A main difference is there is no sugar in a savory pie crust. I added shredded cheese so it was kind of like a cheese biscuit crust. I wrapped the dough and put it in the fridge. You should always chill your dough it makes the ingredients hold its form (the butter mostly, you want it to stay nice and cold) and then it doesn't stick to your rolling pin. You only have to chill your dough for 30 minutes. This is the perfect amount of time to assemble your filling.


I then opened my fridge and added pretty much everything that was in our fridge. Saturday is clean out the fridge day in our house, this means either eating left overs or throwing out food. I don't like throwing out food but it has to be done. When was the last time you went through your fridge? Maybe you are better at it then I am. Well either way this is what I found, eggs,  tri-tip which I julienned, then some seasoning and minced garlic. I had forced Anthony to buy carrot sticks for his hummus (he eats hummus like its going out of style) since he doesn't eat veggies, I figured carrots goes with hummus it would be better than chips even if they are pita. Which go figure he didn't eat the carrots. Just like he was a little kid I cut the carrot sticks up small and hid them in the quiche. Then I sliced up some tomato real thin and layered it on the top. Added a little sea salt and popped it in the oven. After about an hour it was ready to be eaten.

I pulled it out and let it cool. While it cooled I got some yogurt out of the fridge and added some fresh raspberry's on top. Making it like a little cake. Also trying to get him to eat some healthy options. Like every husband he will eat anything I put in front of him which is a bonus. This meal was a hit, he loved it, he got a second slice. I was so excited it was a perfect brunch. Next week maybe I'll try one of the flops I encountered earlier this week. Until then take a look at your fridge and see what you can whip up without having to go to the grocery store.

When in Rome...

Well, I'm all caked out. Is it just me or are you caked out also. There is so many types and styles and yet when you get down to the nuts and berries it's still just cake. So this week I'm onto something else. I decided I would make dinner food not just dessert. They say you can make pasta with simple flour but if you have your hands on semolina flour then you should do fifty, fifty. So I did one cup normal flour and one cup semolina flour.

I tried my hand at pasta. For being Italian I can't believe I hadn't tried this earlier. I even decided to be a little bold and tried to infuse it with spinach. Which means I added spinach puree to instead of that third egg. I love pasta and as I write this the pasta is chilling in my fridge. So know I have to wait in anticipation for two things, one that I did it right and when I put it through the pasta maker it actually makes pasta, the second thing is I really hope it taste good. Have you ever made something and were really excited to eat it then you take that first bite and it's not good? I know I have. It makes me so nervous every time I make something new that it will turn out horrible. Not to say this happens often but anyone that does something for a living has their moments of, "I could have done that better." So I have ten more minutes to find out if my pasta will become food.

Well, I rolled out the pasta... It did not work the first time around. As you can see the picture on the left, I just kind of pushed the dough through the machine like everyone says and it did not work. So I tried to roll it out which is what your supposed to do if you don't have a pasta press. Once I got it thin enough to not have to shove a big ball through a machine it worked so much better, hence the picture on the right. Once I got the dough thin enough I cut it in half and began to fill it. The filling was ricotta, fresh basil, mozzarella, and some seasoning. Then you have to brush around the filling with an egg wash so the top layer will stick. Then I smooched the two doughs together with my fingers. Apparently air is bad inside the ravioli don't ask me why that's just what all the pasta people say. Then you cut it out with either a pasta cutter or a knife would work. Thanks to my boss leaving before me on Friday I snagged the pasta cutter since I didn't have one and work did. No, I didn't steal it I will return it next time I'm in. Boss if you'r reading this thanks.

Not going to lie I ate the first batch and they weren't bad. Not to say they are the best I had but for the first try I liked it a lot. After I ate I tried my hand at the other types of pasta the machine would make. Can I just say after I tried all the types I think ravioli is the easiest type of pasta. Which is a surprise to me I would have thought that it would be hard. It is always more expensive when you eat out I guess we now know that is because of the filling not the actual pasta its self. Right now I have fettuccini and angle hair hanging in my kitchen drying. Hopefully I don't have to cook it all tonight. The ravioli you have to at least par bake or the two pieces will get mushy and separate. The others I am assuming you can hang until dry and then just store. I guess we will find out, Ill let you know if thats not the case. Though if it's not and you decide to make pasta invite people over or you will have way to much.

After my new experience I have a few things to come away with. One the spinach infusion was a good idea and worked out well. Two homemade pasta is very time consuming I think it would be faster if you found an Italian who either lives in Italy or knows someone that does. Then pay them to fly fresh pasta in. Plus bonus you can say, "I got my pasta in Italy." Finally the third thing I learned is unless I am planning a special dinner this fresh pasta will not happen. The idea of eating fresh pasta all the time is cool but not spend all Saturday afternoon in my kitchen cool. This brings me to the fact that I will not be on a pasta kick still next week.

I am not sure if I will get back to my cake kick. I guess you will have to come back next week and find out what I'm cooking up. Haha that was a play on words I didn't even mean to happen. My husband thinks I should move onto pie. Meat pie specifically, I think he is hinting at the fact that he wants dinner food. We tend to only have dessert in our fridge. So for all of you I would say you should try making your pasta from scratch. You should always try something at least once.