Italian Homemaker Pasta - Success #1

I DID IT!!!

No, I didn't run a marathon. No, I didn't get permanent employment. No, I didn't get married. No, I didn't bring a baby bundle of joy into the universe.

Stop making me feel bad already, jeez!!! I get enough of that perusing my Facebook. Ahem. Anyway. Wanna know what I did?!?!

....

I successfully made homemade pasta from scratch!

Yep. I'm officially awesome and ready to retire from life now. But there's still so much homemade pasta to make and eat throughout the course of my lifetime, so I'll stick it out a little longer.

Reminds me of those drawing exercises I had to do in art class, where one puts an egg under a light and sketches it. But this is better because eventually you get pasta at the end.

     Any of you ever tried to make pie crust? Ugh. It's the worst. I've tried several recipes several times over the course of the last couple years and I still have yet to get it right. It gets too moist, or too dry, and it's impossible to roll out, and then you bake it for too long, or not long enough, and no matter how hard you try, it always ends up dry and crumbly instead of light and flaky, and then you break out from the stress and lie awake at night with tears running down your pimply face wondering if life will ever get better. SCREW YOU PIE DOUGH!!!!

I made these?!?!

    But pasta dough isn't anything like that. Pasta dough is super chill. It's all like, "Hey. You wanna roll me out nice and thin and have an easy time cutting me by hand? Sure. No prob. I'm easy."

     It was time consuming, but way easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought I would go to sleep that night as a pimply-er version of myself. Instead, I went to bed as Ruler of the Universe.

It's like a dormant volcano of num nums.

I used mostly egg yolks (5 of them I think, leftover from an egg white omelette), plus two full eggs.

Hello, beautiful.

Poured them into 1 3/4 cup flour, with a crater in the middle.

The idea is that you whisk the eggs within the well, slowly drawing in flour from the sides.



But, Murphy's Law --- I busted the sides. The levee broke. And egg ran EVERYWHERE. I thought I was doomed. But pasta-dough-to-be was all like, "Hey, you messed up. That's okay. I'm still gonna form a perfect ball of dough for you. Because I like ya, kid".

And he did.




    Once I had kneaded a doughy ball of perfection, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it hang out in the fridge for an hour to rest. Brought it closer to room temperature, then sliced it into 5 or 6 sections for rolling out.

I'll have to run through the whole shebang with you guys once I have a photographer. The process of rolling out and cutting is best shared visually.

Until then, I will share with you the moral(s) of the story:

1.) Making homemade pasta dough is actually possible, even completely by hand.
2.) Homemade pasta dough is really yummy.
3.) Can't put store-bought sauce on it. It's sinful. Make from scratch, like yours truly. It's actually surprisingly easy (Also will go through this in a subsequent post)

If I had an Italian grandmother, I bet she'd be super proud.

As a final thought: If not-very-active-on-Facebook-boyfriend posts this:

You better believe I'll be making homemade pasta again soon.

   

Apple Spice Baked Oatmeal

I know, I know...MORE breakfast?! I'm sorry.

But then again, I'm not. And you will cease to judge me. Because I have created something beautiful.

Looks like the dish has big ears. The better to hear you say "MmmMMM!"....Wow, that was lame.

Behold my creation . . . Apple Spice Baked Oatmeal!

Take note of the homemade almond milk.
A must for serving!

   This was a real crap shoot. I know people bake oatmeal. It can be done. But I have never tried it, and decided on my first go I wasn't going to follow a recipe.
 
    I usually don't follow recipes, maybe because I like the sense of adventure. It could go horribly wrong...or incredibly right. If it's the latter, it makes me feel like I'm a natural.
 

 I did, however, decide to follow the liquid to oatmeal ratio that is called for on the box.
Let's be real. I didn't wanna get toooo crazy with experimentation. If I mess up the flavor, that's an acceptable loss. If I mess up the basic cooking of oatmeal...that is embarrassing.

Basic principals of photography went out the window for this post, folks. I am consistently disappointing you. I gott step it up.

Let me run through the process with you (Remember, I improvised...and also used a baking pan that isn't a typical size. It's probably about half the size of your typical 9x13. So if you do try to make this, keep that in mind.):

1.) Preheat oven to 350º.

2.) Grease your pan with an oil or fat of your choice. I used coconut oil.

Apples! So you can feel like you're eating healthy.

3.) Peel, core, and dice up an apple. I used Granny Smith. I might use another apple next time, and cut the chunks a bit smaller. But I liked the large cubes as well. It provides some needed texture to what will end up being a gooey dish.

3.) Mix 3/4 cup dry steel cut oatmeal with a generous amount of cinnamon (1 T?...probably more.), a sprinkle of ground cloves (1 t?), a sprinkle of nutmeg (1 t?), and however much brown sugar you want to sweeten it up a bit (I didn't use very much because there's sugar in the liquid mixture, as you will see).

4.) In a separate bowl, mix your liquids. My steel cut oatmeal calls for 3/4 cup water for each 1/4 cup of oatmeal. So, since I tripled the amount of oatmeal, I used 3/4 cup of homemade almond milk, 3/4 cup water, and poured about an ounce of maple syrup into my last measuring cup (probably a little less than 1/4 cup). Then, I added a generous spoonful of raw honey, a bit of vanilla extract (1 t?), and filled to the 3/4 cup mark with water.

5.) Pour the dry mixture into the wet, and mix well.

6.) Pour that mixture into the baking dish, and throw it in the oven. Well, don't actually throw it. Place it gently. Duh.

7.) I think when all was said and done, I cooked this lovely creation for about 45-50 minutes. Once it starts bubbling and you can see that the oatmeal has soaked up all the liquid, it's done.

8.) Be sure to let it rest a little bit before serving! And DEFINITELY serve with homemade almond milk. It adds this amazing creamy and nutty flavor. If you don't have fresh almond milk on hand (which most people don't), regular ol' milk or cream will certainly do!

It almost looks like the terrain of some alien planet. A very, very delicious terrain.

This made way too much for one person. Le sigh. But I bet once I get my baby Le Creuset casserole dishes in, I can whip up the perfect individual servings!

Mushroom Surprise Ramekin Eggs with Avocado on Bread

Has anybody noticed how much I like breakfast?

        I apologize for the lack of variety here, folks. I still have yet to upload any dessert posts. The dessert page is sadly barren.

       But breakfast is just so darn good!!! And it photographs suuuuuper well. It's like that friend you have that always looks good, even if she had just been crying and her makeup's all over and her nose is running. Yeah. Breakfast is like that.

I guess I suck at slicing avocados. :-\

       Anyway, these are calling "Mushroom Surprise" because that's exactly what's going on here. There's surprise mushrooms under the egg!

       If you're tired of plain ol' fried or scrambled eggs, maybe it's time to try something new. Believe it or not, baked eggs are probably easier than frying. Because all you have to do is put them in the ramekin, and let the oven do the rest.

My ramekins are a little big, I think...? I'll add more "surprise" or more egg next time. Or maybe both. I'm a glutton.

Well, almost. Here's a rundown on how to bake eggs:

1.) Grease a ramekin with your fat of choice (I use coconut oil). Preheat the oven to 350º.

2.) Fry up some sliced mushrooms (I cut up 2 medium sized crimini) in some oil. Salt and Pepper them, and throw on some Herbs de Province (my go-to spice combo). The seasoning really pairs well with the creamy yolk.

3.) Once the mushrooms are soft (about 5 minutes on medium heat), put them into the ramekin. 

4.) Carefully crack an egg over the mushrooms. 

5.) Pour a small amount of cream or milk (I used homemade almond milk) over the eggs. 

6.) Salt and Pepper lightly, add some fresh parsley, and sprinkle on some parmesan cheese.

7.) Bake! Make sure you leave them in just long enough for the egg whites to set. Probably somewhere around 10 minutes, depending on your oven. Just keep checking them!

It's like butter. But not.

And have you tried smearing avocado on some bread, as if it were butter? It's really awesome. Nothing beats butter, of course. But I'm also a believer that nothing beats avocado. So, make what you will of that. Just be sure to salt and pepper the avocado.