Pasta By Hand

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

I saw a posting on Facebook that the Italian Cultural Center was doing their first ever Hands On Cooking Class. As soon as I read that the theme of the class was pasta making, I knew I had to go.

I have been watching Lidia, my favorite Italian, make pasta on her show for months now, but still have not attempted it. This was my chance to finally get going on it.

I was very curious as to who this was all going to go down. A hands on class where 20 people were going to make different types of pasta dough, different types of pasta shapes, and different sauce. How was there going to be room for everyone? How were we all going to be able to make this stuff? Well, I soon found out.

The Sauces

We were divided into four tables of five. From there we watched as Chef Rebecca added ingredients to a Tomato Sauce and Cream Sauce which she had gotten ready ahead of time. She gave us tips on fresh tomatoes versus canned tomatoes and let us in on her secret of using potatoes in a cream sauce instead of flour. Crazy, right!?

After showing us those two sauces she made a Sundried Tomato Pesto and Basil Pesto. The Sundried Tomato Pesto we tasted with some bread. Holy, that was amazing! I am definitely going to make it and post in on here.

As the sauces simmered away she then demonstrated how to make gnocchi, both potato and yam, as well as gluten free pasta and regular pasta.

I would have loved to get my hands in there and make the pasta from scratch as well, but it was super helpful watching the way she made it and being able to ask questions as she went along.

From there our four groups moved onto the actual forming of the pasta shapes. Our group started out with the gluten free pasta which was very hard to work with. Gluten is what keeps the dough together so every time we rolled it out and tried to make shapes it would tear. Now you know why gluten free pasta is so expensive! It was quite the contrast from the regular pasta that we were about to work with.

Next we moved onto the Gnocchi station where we rolled out long strips of the dough, cut them into smaller logs and rolled them out on special tools that added ridges. Oddly enough the best tool we used was a piece of cardboard!

It was neat making them this way. My Mom always makes them into smooth balls, so this was quite the contrast for me. The point of the ridges is to pick up more of the sauce and thats exactly what they did.

The yam dough smelled so good! It was more loose than the potato dough, which made it a little more difficult to work with, but if you were gentle it worked out great.

The third station was making short noodles out of the regular pasta dough. This was much easier to work with!

My strozzapreti noodle got me compliments from the Chef! Oh la la!

Jeremy trying his hand at the Strozzapreti.

Finally we worked on the long noodles! I was in charge of running the pasta dough through the electric pasta maker.

Thankfully I have years of experience using these machine!

Jeremy showing off his work!

After we were done we sat down to a nice feast. They served us Farfalle in both the Cream Sauce and Pesto Sauce the Chef made earlier as well as some of the Gnocchi in the Tomato Sauce. I could had sat there all night long and eaten up every last bit of pasta, it was just soo good.

Pasta Making Fools

It was such a great experience being able to work with the different doughs, getting a feel for them and working them into different noodles. I’m going to have to book a Saturday and just sit in the kitchen all day and try my hand at the yam gnocchi and maybe try doing some ravioli out of the basic pasta dough.

It was also awesome to be able to talk with Chef Rebecca and ask questions and get tips on how to make things, using different types of flour, and where she goes to shop (which, by the way is Bosa, because Bosa is the most amazing store ever).

And yes, I know it seems kind of silly that my Nonna lives three houses away and makes fresh pasta all the time, and here I go and pay for a pasta making class, but I have seen what my Nonna makes and wanted to experience something a little different. I am very glad I signed up for this class and would recommend it to any foodie who wants to try their hand at pasta making!

I love being Italian.

Missing: One Persons Sanity

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

I’m freaking out over the fact that I can’t find my yoga mat. I don’t lose things. I always know where all of my belongs are at any given moment so that fact that I have no idea where my yoga mat went is driving me crazy. It’s not the basement. It’s not in my room. It’s not in my car. Which means it could be in the storage locker, someone else’s car, or gone forever, none of which are acceptable answers because my yoga mat was in the pile of boxes that was to be transported to my Moms so that fact that it apparently wasn’t is making me INSANE.

AHHHH.

Shit is still everywhere and the second I think of something I need and I can’t remember where I packed it I start to panic, which is silly because everything is in one of two places, the basement or the storage locker. I made Chad double check the apartment again because I was that paranoid that I had forgotten something. Though, do you think that if I actually had and the new owners had found it they would have contacted our realtor to let us know? Who knows. Anyways, the apartment is empty and I should stop being a psychopath.

I’m not functioning well with all these boxes, and although I keep thinking I have so much time to sort through and organize them each night, the fact of the mater is that is FALSE and I end up hanging 3 pieces of clothing before Chad comes to the room and wants to go to bed and then all my work needs to stop.

Also, a double bed is not that comfortable when two people are crammed into it. But it’s OK, I’m not complaining.

I just really need to find my yoga mat.

Oh, good news is that I was able to get my moms camera out from the storage locker. I had asked that the two filing cabinets by Chad and my desks not be put into storage but I guess there was a miscommunication because one of them was and even though I watched it being placed in the storage locker I didn’t clue in to the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be there. That was until I got home and realized that Mom and Dad leave for Mexico on Saturday and their camera was in that filing cabinet. Shit. It was at the very back of the locker but I was pretty sure I could get to it. I’m small and can pretty much do anything so I knew I could do this. Chad was mister skeptical. Has he not learned that I am amazing yet? He moved one piece of furniture and I was able to climb and weasel my way to the back, single handily move a bunch of stuff and then got the camera and other electronics that we needed. I don’t know why people ever doubt me.

I don’t really want to go to yoga with out my yoga mat tonight but I don’t think I have a joyce.

No Rest for the Wicked

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

You know you are stressed when you keep waking up in the middle of the night sweating.

The problem with slowly packing over the course of a month is that you are constantly living in boxes. There are things everything, half packed, taking up more room then if they were just put away. It makes it feel like you have been packing FOREVER.

It’s one thing to pack an entire apartment, move into your new house and then unpack it all. It’s another thing to partially pack everything, trying to think about what you might need over the next few months, what you should leave out, what you should put away. We have boxes in 3 different locations in 3 different cities. At this point I don’t even remember whats in my Uncle basement.

As much as I have tried to keep it organize, this is the most unorganized pack job of my life. Ever week I pack things I no longer need, so instead of kitchen stuff being with the kitchen stuff, and bedroom stuff with the bedroom stuff, it’s kind of all over the place. Not to mention the giant pile of clothes on the floor from Vegas. I am feeling beyond over whelmed.

In terms of finding a place we like, we have found 2 homes in two very different neighbourhoods that we loved, but of course, in the process of contacting the Realtor to book a viewing, the houses recieved accepted offers on them and our showings were canceled. Both houses, right before we got to see them. Ugh. Not to mention the fact that we have been extremely busy and have had to re-work our schedules just to make time to see these places only to not see them at all. I guess with the stress of everything else, I’m just getting frustrated very easily.

Vegas was good though. The perfect escape. I’m trying to convince Chad to book another trip sometime next year. We kind of blew our budget out of the water, but as far as I’m concerned, we deserved it. We needed the break, we needed the fun.

Hopefully after this weekend things will start to settle down. Work for Chad won’t be so insane, and we won’t have to worry about packing and moving any more. Until them I am going to lose my mind.

Putting Life On Hold

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Hello Friends,

I got sick again. Sick like I was back in the Summer but not quite as bad as the Summer. This is the third time in a year that I have been this sick. Something needs to change. I don’t know what I am doing wrong but I need to figure it out and I need to figure it out fast! I just get so miserable and frustrated and I want to punch everyone more then usual.

I missed Darios Laser Tag Birthday and had to leave the Banquet early :(

So here is the deal, the next two weeks are going to be stressful so I may be a little MIA. We will be in Vegas this weekend and then moving next weekend so with all the things to organize I don’t know how much time I will have to prepare blog posts, especially blog posts that contain pictures, which right now are at an all time low. I haven’t taken pictures in so long. Sad face.

I am hoping to get over this cold before we leave and I really hope Chad doesn’t catch this cold either.

STRESS!

A Nap Would Be Good Now

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Yoga kicked my butt last night. I was so strong last week and felt so good as I did all my poses that I was so sure this week would be awesome too. Total Fail. I guess it really is true when they tell you to listen to your body and only take it as far as it feels it can go. I just wanted to lay in Childs Pose for 75 minutes. Man it was rough. I was dead by the time I got home and fell asleep as soon as I got into bed. I’m feeling the after effect today, that’s for sure. I guess my body needs some major rest.

Tonight we are making one of our favorite Friday Night Dinners. Red Wine, Steak alla Ciavarro, Garlic & Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Steakhouse Salad, Steamed Broccoli. Taking about it this morning got us so excited, which made me think, for most people the real excitement happens when you’ve booked a table at your favorite restaurant and you can’t wait for the end of the day to come so you can head over and indulge for your favorite meal. It made me realize that my favorite restaurant is Casa Ciavarro.Chad and I pump out some awesome food that we love to eat. Of course we love going to peoples houses for dinner and heading out to a restaurant, but I got to say, sometimes I get the most excited just by the food we make. Sure, it may not be for everyone, but we love it! It’s a neat feeling to know that you actually look forward to your own cooking every night.

Tomorrow night we are attending a Lumber Jack party. Unfortunetly part of our outfits are packed away, like so many things we need. We’ll have to piece toegther items from our Hick costumes a few years ago but it should turn out pretty good. The most interesting part of this party is that I will only know 3 other people there, and 40 people are expected to show up. I haven’t been to a party where I don’t know the majority of the people in a long time so it should definitely prove to be interesting. Plus, you know how well I handle myself in social situations! But I am looking forward to it. Every experience is a story to tell.

It’s so nice that the sun has been out the past few days. It’s been making our new offices nice and toasty and comfy, which just makes me want to fall asleep!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!