Tag Archives: pasta

Adventures in homemade pasta making

Isn’t pasta just plain fun?! Seriously it really is!

Ohhhh and when it’s freshly made you can just taste the love that was put into it. It’s just comfort in a bowl on a cold winters night, a bowl I could just cuddle up inside and not poke my head out of until the first sign of Spring.

Ahhhh pastaaa.

What really intrigues me about pasta is the fact it’s made so simply. All it takes is flour, water and eggs. Honestly every Pennsylvanians staple kitchen item when the weatherman forecast an inkling of snow. When these three simple things are mixed and kneaded together, they are transformed into a magical elastic ball of dough that can be pinched off, cut, or rolled out into a billion flavors, colors, and shapes. Now if that isn’t just simplicity at its finest.

After lusting for a year or so, for Christmas we purchased a together gift, the pasta roller attachments, that we couldn’t bare to place under the tree. We are worse than little kids on Christmas Eve, we haven’t grown up. When the package arrived, the tape barely ripped off the box and we were already googling what we could whip up first.

To get our bearings and because this was our first pasta making experience, we just went with the Kitchenaid recipe for regular pasta noodles. We will get all sorts of crazy now that we’ve got that test run out of our system.

Cheers and stay tuned. Many apologies in advance for the harsh kitchen lighting.

BASIC EGG NOODLE PASTA DOUGH

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
2 tablespoons water (we needed a tad more than this original recipe)
2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Instructions:

Break eggs into a glass measuring cup. Add water. Carefully check to see that the total liquid amount is 3⁄4 cup. If less than 3⁄4 cup, add additional water 1 teaspoon at a time until that amount is reached.

Place flour in bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater. Turn to Speed 2 and gradually add eggs and water. Mix for 30 seconds. Stop mixer and exchange dough hook for flat beater. Turn to Speed 2 and knead for 2 minutes. Remove mixture from bowl and hand knead for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 15 minutes before extruding through Pasta Maker.

Makes about 1 pound dough

Source: KitchenAid Pasta Maker manual

Backpackbees

Spaghetti Squash

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Ahhhhh another Thursday night save by the spaghetti squash.

Isn’t the spaghetti squash is just a gem of a vegetable? Well then again, i haven’t met a squash i didn’t instantly love. If I recall, I discovered it not long after Mr. B and I got married and it has been a staple in our diets ever since. I think I make an effort to pick one up about every other month or so.

So easy! I mean I’m talking reallllyyyyy easy. Slice it in half, remove a few seeds, pop it in the microwave about 5-10 minutes. After it’s heated, take a fork and scrape the insides of the squash as it falls out like spaghetti. The rest is totally up to you. Red sauce, carbonara, olive oil and spices….endless possibilities and all within a flash. Tonight I added organic ground chicken, fresh baby spinach leaves, fresh basil leaves and some Paul Newmans organic marinara, topped with shredded mozzarella cheese.

It gets better…..check out the nutrition vs. regular pasta here. Thank me later!

Have you ever tried spaghetti squash? If not, what’s stopping you?

Backpackbees

Positiveness & Pasta

I am going to apologize for my corniness upfront, sorry everyone.

Do you ever think about all of the blessings in your everyday life? Gosh, we just have so many things to be eternally grateful for each day in and out. I’ve said this before and I will say it again, you have to be the captain of your own boat. Positiveness starts within YOU. Now, I am not saying that life is always a bowl full of cherries. Life can absolutely throw you curb-balls out of the left field. In the end what matters is how YOU chose to handle that curb-ball and move forward.

I started reading a book that’s suppose to help transform the way you think in 28 days. Each day I begin my mornings with my breakfast fork in hand and “homework” for the day. Each day I list 10 things that I am grateful for. Each night I use my gratitude rock and go to bed with the most important thing that happened to me that day, saying thank you, counting my blessings. Told you I was going to get very corny on you with this post. No, but really, I am enjoying making myself acknowledge all the wonderful things in my life daily.

As I close tonight, know that you are on my list of things I am grateful for. Your  friendships, support, following, and comments are always welcomed and very much appreciate. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, who’s hungry for some homemade baked penne rigate with sausage? (Another thing I am grateful for… my amazing chef of a husband who knows his way straight to my heart <3). Go ahead, help yourselves!

Bee’s Baked Penne Rigate with Sausage

Ingredients:

1 Package of (sweet or hot) sausage, we typically use hot.

1 Box of penne rigate pasta, we opt for the Dreamfield brand, or whole wheat

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Onion, diced

8 Mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1 Jar of your favorite tomato sauce

1/2 Lbs of shredded mozzarella cheese

6 Slices of provolone cheese

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Boil sausages until cooked on stove top. Saute onion in 1 Tbsp olive oil until almost cooked and remove from pan, place into large mixing bowl. Next saute mushrooms in 1 Tbsp of olive oil and once cooked place in mixing bowl with onions, tomato sauce, combined with 1/2 of the shredded mozzarella cheese, mix thoroughly. Next boil penne rigata pasta until al dente. Drain and combine with your onion, tomato sauce, and cheese mixture. Now the sausage should be ready to be sliced and put into a pan to be cooked until slightly browned. Once sausage is cooked place and mix in with your other ingredients in the mixing bowl. Pour everything into a 13 x 9 greased pan, level, and place the provolone cheese slices on top. Place into oven for 350 degrees uncovered for 10 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown. 

Don’t forget a to pick up a nice freshly baked baguette and bottle of wine to accompany your dinner. Enjoy!

Backpackbees

Good Friends

The other night, we went to dinner with our friends to celebrate their “wedding anniversary”.

It was so great getting to meet new friends as well as their mother that flew into town.

I failed to take any good photos of the dinner… Tsk…I know. I was caught up in the conversations and laughter.

Dinner was amazing! (Oliva Garden, what a cute play on words, reminds me of a stateside chain….hmmm)

Good friends are the best!

Directions to the restaurant:

Oliva retaurant is conveniently located around the corner from the US embassy and just one block west of Gyeongbokgun Palace.

If you are traveling by subway, go to Gyeongbokgun Station, and walk out exit 3. Walk straight for about 5-7 minutes (about 100m) and you will see the restaurant on the right side about 1-2 minutes PAST the starbucks. If you reach an LG Digital store, you have JUST past the restaurant.

35-28 Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
서울 종로구 통의동 35-28
+82 2-733-3056

http://www.oliva.kr/

Backpackbees

Eat’taly

In the land of grilled meats, kimchi, and rice…sometimes we find ourselves craving other cuisines..Sometimes, just not exactly sure what cuisine it may be.

Take tonight for instance..

Mr. B: “What are you hungry for?”
 

Me: “Doesn’t matter”
 

Mr. B: “just pick something”
 

Me: “Oh it doesn’t matter to me”
 

Mr. B: “Dino Meats?”
 

Me:”Doesn’t matter”
 

Mr. B: “You know what….na…no Dino meats”
 

Mr. B: “Grilled chicken?”
 

Me: “Sure” “Doesn’t matter”
 

Mr. B: “Na…”
Eventually we end up with deciding on a newer restaurant located in New City. Eat’taly. The restaurant opened a few months back and ever time we passed we though to ourselves, we will go back and check it out. You know you always end up saying something like that and forget about it when it comes time to eat. You end up going to the places you know very well, you know what to expect, it’s comfortable.

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Tonight just happened to be one of those nights, we craved something different.

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Eat’taly is a very quaint little place. The food delicious, the service superb, we were delightfully surprised.

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After looking over the many possibilities of pasta or pizza decisions, we ended up going with a shared set menu item. Gorgonzola pizza with honey, a garden salad, garlic bread, and pasta carbonara. Yum!

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We ended the night with a shared pot-bing-su from Lotteria.

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Grab the map coordinates here!

Isn’t Summer time so sweet?