once there was a little dog…
who found himself in a big bed.
the little dog’s sister was trying to make the bed, but the little dog was very smart.
he knew that if he posed for a picture…
…and looked at his sister with his big brown eyes…
…that she would forget about making the bed and let him sleep away the afternoon.
so that’s just what he did.
the end.
xo
one of my favorite parts of basic food prep class was learning to make fresh egg pasta. it is not a difficult process, but it does have many steps and requires lots of time. the advantage of dry factory pasta is the limited time and effort it takes to make, but it also has a different texture than fresh egg pasta. italian cooks actually use fresh and dried pasta in different ways and with different recipes – dried pasta is better for light, oil-based sauces, while fresh homemade pasta is better with rich cream or butter-based sauces.
i think that everyone should experience the tender, delicate texture of homemade pasta at some point, as it truly is an experience for the palate. when i tasted the pasta we made in class, it brought me back to italy, eating homemade pasta with pesto on a cliffside restaurant over the mediterranean sea in vernazza. and who doesn’t want to be brought back to that?!
here is the recipe as i learned to make it from my culinary school chef in some words and a ton of pictures! at the end, you’ll see the “official” recipe, which came from Professional Cooking, the 7th edition by Wayne Gisslen. we didn’t follow it exactly, but if you’re the type of person who needs a complete recipe in front of you, you’ll have one to follow. if you’re wondering about the pasta machine, you can often find them at tj maxx or ross for a reasonable price, $15 – $20. i plan on purchasing one once i move into an apartment with a bigger kitchen and more storage space [that'll be the day!]. this would be a great idea for date night or a dinner party because it’s fun and interesting and the perfect activity for more than one person. you can talk [and laugh!] as you do it. just be prepared to get messy!
1. Mound about 1 cup of flour on a clean, dry work surface, and create a well in the center. Crack two eggs inside and add a pinch of salt. [The book says to add olive oil, but we didn't use olive oil in ours.]
2. Using a fork, carefully beat the eggs in the well…
…and continue to do so until they are thick and uniform.
3. Begin grabbing flour from the outside of the “flour bowl” and adding it to the egg well while continuing to beat.
As you gradually add the flour, the egg mixture in the well will thicken up even more and turn a lighter color.
4. Once it looks something like this…
…you can work in the rest of the flour bowl into the dough…
…until it forms a dough.
5. Begin to knead the dough, adding more flour as needed.
Work the dough using the palm of your hand…
…until it looks like this and feels firm to the touch:
6. Now that you have made a major mess of the counter, the floor, your hands, and probably the rest of your body…
…wrap up your dough tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. Apparently there’s something something about freezing the dough that makes it work really well when you go to roll it, according to Chef. We froze ours for a week, but a few hours would probably do the trick as well.
7. Refrigerate dough to thaw. Once dough is thawed, dust with flour. Set rollers of pasta machine to the widest opening, flatten the dough, and roll the dough through the machine.
Decrease the width of the rollers and pass the dough through the machine again. Continue to do this until dough is as thin as desired, dusting with flour as necessary.
8. This is the fun part – cut and shape your pasta however you want! Be creative! Take a look at the different kinds that we made:
Finally, boil the pasta and serve in whatever way suits you.
here’s the recipe from the book:
Fresh Egg Pasta
Yield: 1-1/2 lb.
Ingredients:
1 lb. Bread flour
5 Eggs
1/2 fl. oz. Olive oil
Pinch of salt
Procedure:
1. Mound the flour on a work surface. Make a well in the center and add the eggs, oil, and salt.
2. Working from the center outward, gradually mix the flour into the eggs to make a dough.
3. When it is firm enough to knead, begin kneading the dough, incorporating more flour. If the dough is still sticky when all the flour is incorporated, add more flour, a little at a time. Knead well for at least 15 minutes.
4. Cover the dough and let it rest at least 30 minutes.
5. Cut the dough into 3 to 5 pieces. Set the rollers of a pasta machine at the widest opening. Pass the pieces of dough through the machine, folding them into thirds after each pass and dusting them lightly with flour to keep them from getting sticky. Continue passing each piece through the machine until it is smooth.
6. Working with one piece of dough at a time, decrease the width between the rollers one notch and pass the dough through them again. After each pass, turn the rollers one notch narrower, dust the dough with flour, and pass it through again. Continue until the dough is as thin as desired. The pasta is now ready to cut into desired shapes and to cook.
enjoy that delicious taste of italy!
xoxo
{the “corn husker”}
{crawfish on the porch as an appetizer}
{sometimes blurry photos are the best ones}
{buffalo butt beer and buffalo burgers for dinner!}
{the best way to eat crawfish is wearing dad’s old t-shirts!}
{the grill master}
{there’s no shame in smooching the dog around here!}
{look-alikes?}
{buffalo burgers with swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and garlic aioli; baked beans; deviled eggs; broccoli slaw; and corn on the cob}
{peach sour-cream pie that i made in culinary school}
though minus one, our family is alive again.
xoxo
i know it’s basically the weekend, but i still have yet to catch you up on last weekend. so here it goes…
given the circumstances of the previous weekend and the absence of our beloved papa in our lives, we surprisingly had quite a swell one ["we" being my mom, mimi, and myself, as my poor dad had to fly and mike was in austin]. i think the two main things that contributed to this were that 1.) we took full advantage of having a girls weekend in every way! and 2.) we were all the more grateful to spend time with loved ones and, in the case of mimi and mom, appreciative of getting out of the house.
on friday, i had the day off from work, which meant sleeping in a bit [yippee!] and cleaning up my apartment in the morning, which wasn’t actually very messy [a straight miracle, people]. then i met mom and mimi in the design district, where we had a delicious lunch at bridge bistro and antiqued for a couple hours.
{strawberry mint tea}
{apricot and field greens with key lime vinaigrette and spicy pecans}
{shrimp/crawfish enchiladas}
mom and mimi had brought overnight bags so they could stay the night at my apartment, and they had also brought lucky. we were nervous about how he would do, because he has severe and dramatic separation anxiety when he’s left alone anywhere other than home. thankfully, the weather was perfect – not too hot – so we could leave him in the car while we shopped. he did SO well – we couldn’t believe what a calm, easygoing attitude he had that entire weekend. we left the windows cracked, but he would nap while we were gone and was very go-with-the-flow when we came back. we were so proud of him!
{what a sweet boy!}
after antiquing, we went to my apartment and got settled, then headed over to the shops of park lane for the rest of the afternoon. before leaving the shops at park lane, we stopped at whole foods to grab some bits and bites and wine to bring home for dinner. we set up an itty-bitty feast on my coffee table and chatted late into the evening, finishing our mini meal with a slice of key lime pie that i made in culinary school for dessert. oh yeah, and we had a couple of fashion shows. because that’s how we roll.
{look at that smile from the little brown dog!}
{i spy…some tired feet, a little puppydog face, a random easter decoration, a dog bone, and lots of tasty nibbles!}
saturday morning was leisurely – not like our usual shopping-day mornings, but this weekend, we had no time restrictions. we felt oh-so-free! we drank coffee and hot strawberry tea and ate fruit and pumpkin bread and english muffins with biscoff spread [my new OBSESSION] and sat around the table talking. when we finally got out the door, we headed to northpark to get our nordstrom fix. of course, we couldn’t leave without lunching at the nordstrom cafe, where we all ordered our usual cilantro lime shrimp salad.
{the usual, along with ginger-peach tea}
by the way, nordstrom’s home decor section is right up there with anthropologie on my favorites list. the stuff they have is too cool.
anyway, after northpark, we went up north to ikea, which is always a fun time. [does anyone else think of tom and summer's ikea date in (500) days of summer every time you go there?! i just love that part of the movie.] i got a white cabinet thing that will be handy for storing the excess of paperwork that tends to take over my little apartment. next it was the shops at legacy. i had never been there, and in all honesty, i don’t know that i would make the trip up there for the shopping [it was nice, but limited], but we did stop at a cute little place called main street bakery for tea, coffee, and dessert. we sat outside and enjoyed the divine weather and our sweets that we shared. i live for these moments, seriously.
{people-watching and such}
{heaven on earth}
{a beauty of an apple pastry}
{this chocolate bomb was an explosion in my mouth. but really.}
we took a scenic route back – there are some beautiful neighborhoods in dallas – and although mimi and mom had been planning to go home that evening, i convinced them to stay another night so that we could go to church together on easter sunday. we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner, then went home, had a couple more fashion shows, and went for a lovely evening walk on the paths around the ponds in my neighborhood. i tried to put together my new cabinet with no luck… building things/following instructions that have no words/using things likes screws and bolts have never been talents of mine. eh, it was worth a try. thank goodness for dads!
we ate popcorn for dinner, the fresh-popped kind with real butter and salt [every time we eat it, we think of papa, the Popcorn King], and drank wine and talked late into the evening, just like the previous night. perfection.
{any wine called “j” has to be a good one!}
and lucky decided that shopping made him exhausted. but i think he fully enjoyed it. :)
{after shopping day #1}
{after shopping day #2}
{he shopped til he dropped!}
the next morning, we went to church together at holy trinity – it was the most beautiful easter mass with the most beautiful easter music – and we left with our hearts feeling full. we ate a final lunch of caprese with a slice of key lime pie, and then it was time to say goodbye.
thank you ladies for the wonderful weekend! i love you very much.
xoxo
If you follow this blog, you know that my grandfather was diagnosed with colon cancer back in January [I talked about it in this post]. A week and a day ago, on a gloomy, rainy Saturday morning, he took his last breath and joined our Heavenly Father in His Kingdom.
The last two months have been incredibly trying and heartbreaking, as there is nothing like watching one you love suffer immense pain as they are consumed by cancer. It is the worst thing, and I hurt for my grandmother, my mother, and her brother and sister, who had to see their husband/father go through such a thing.
I have not been good about blogging, mostly because it has been hard to think about anything else, yet too hard to write anything about what we’ve been dealing with on the blog. It seems unfair that he had to be taken that way; no one should have to experience what he did, and certainly not my dear Pops.
However, it’s truly a blessing that he is in Heaven, as he is no longer in pain, he is at peace, and he is with Jesus. Papa lived a wonderful life, he loved his family, and we loved him. Our entire family was together at Christmas this year – something that doesn’t happen every year – and we are so thankful for this. All of his children were there when he passed; he was surrounded by love and tight family bonds that will stay strong, as he would want them to, even though he is no longer with us on earth.
Today, as I sat in church on Easter Sunday, I was overwhelmed with faith, knowing that the grace of God will carry our family through the tough times, just as His grace carries Christians from death into life. Jesus died so that Papa and all our other loved ones who we lose can live again in a beautiful and perfect place that is God’s Kingdom. I couldn’t ask for a more amazing gift from our Lord than sending His one and only Son to die for us, and thank you, Jesus for making the most difficult sacrifice to save us and give us new life.
Papa, I hope you’re eating lots of popcorn and oysters and chocolate and all kinds of other wonderful things up there. Please continue to stay nearby, and I will continue to keep you updated on my career and Mike’s too, since I know you loved hearing about that. Say hi to Michael and Poppy for me. We miss you very much.
xoxo
it just so happens that i’ve read interviews of two different talented cookbook authors lately with some seasonal meal ideas that were very inspiring from the perspective of a foodie, so i thought that i would share those here. i found the first one on smp living, and it’s an interview of beatrice pelte, author of la tartine gourmande, which was inspired by her beautiful food blog. [once upon a time ago, i talked about her book here. i'm now a proud owner of the book, thanks to a birthday gift from my sweet brother! i'm a huge fan of bea's.]
here’s her meal idea for a fall or winter dinner party, taken directly from the interview:
If you are looking for a casual meal, and it’s winter or fall, I would start with a soup finished with greens and a good quality oil or maybe oeufs cocottes, then I’d make a dish of roasted root vegetables with black rice and chicken cooked with spices and coconut milk. I would always finish with a large bowl of green salad and an apple tart or an apple clafoutis for dessert.
{images from la tartine gourmande}
the second meal idea is from nigel slater, author of the kitchen diaries: a year in the kitchen with nigel slater and many other culinary-centered publications. anthropologie interviewed him in their magazine, which is where i found the excerpt below, and although i didn’t really know a lot about him before, i quickly became intrigued and am now convinced that i need every last one of his books.
this is his idea of a perfect spring meal, start to finish, taken from the magazine:
A bunch of radishes, white-tip if possible, for people to pick at, served with sweet, cold butter and sea salt. A bowl of early salad leaves, with capers, sprouted seeds and young fennel. A dish of rabbit with chopped tarragon and cream, or a young roast chicken stuffed with lemon and a head of spring garlic. No dessert, but a single fresh goat’s cheese with a basil-infused olive oil to trickle over.
when asked what cocktail he might serve, nigel responds with:
There has to be a little fizz to a spring cocktail, to remind us of the new life that is starting in the ground. I would serve a champagne cocktail, perhaps with a dash of pomegranate juice.
{images from nigel slater}
i love the emotion, the stories, the love and joy and meaning that these two authors bring to the table along with their wholesome, beautiful, of-the-earth dishes.
to coincide with these two, i created my own meal idea for summer that utilizes the abundant fruits, vegetables, and herbs of the season as much as possible:
Peach, prosciutto, and smoked mozzarella bruschetta with a sprig of arugula. Grilled shrimp and scallops served over fusilli with a light yet luscious cilantro-lime oil with tomatoes, orange peppers, avocado, and fresh grilled corn. A spinach salad with feta, green onions, candied almond slices, fresh blackberries and raspberries, and a cinnamon vinaigrette. For dessert, sweet basil shortcakes with balsamic-macerated strawberries and marscarpone cream.
my drink of choice would be as follows:
A crisp pinot grigio, or a hugo, a drink that I discovered in Germany, made with prosecco, a splash of elderflower syrup, mint, and lime.
there’s a beautiful thing about enjoying the harvest of the season. it’s healthier and tastier, less expensive, and it just feels right. i hope the captions above from bea and nigel inspire you as much as they inspired me.
xoxo
{cutest puppy ever, right? he was all festive for the occasion, and i couldn’t stop taking pictures of him!}
i hope you’re all having a fabulous st. patty’s day, full of green beer, rainbows, and lotsa luck. here are some bits and pieces of my weekend, which has been a pretty swell one, if i do say so myself.
{friday night… i could finally paint my nails since i have no culinary school this week, first time to wear flip-flops since fall, and a walk to west village with ashley and lainey for dinner. winning already!}
{everyone was eating outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather.}
{it was my first time eating at the trendy urban taco}
{i got a campechana and we shared an avocado ceviche tower for an appetizer. the tower was to die for.}
{for dinner, i had two red snapper tacos and a roasted corn con lime taco, with mango-jicama slaw and black beans. so delish!}
{two pictures of ashley, lainey, and me, because i can’t decide which is better… dark and grainy or bright with crazy eyes!}
{on saturday morning, ashley and i met angelica, her parents, her boyfriend kevin, and noelle at bread winners for brunch. we were all dressed in our green for st. patrick’s day, and of course couldn’t leave without taking pictures! we had the most wonderful time.}
{cinnamon raisin french toast topped with fresh fruit}
{the st. patty’s day parade was right outside my apartment complex, so we walked to it and ended up hitting up a few bars on smu blvd. it was all kinds of crazy, but so much fun!}
{one of the bars we went to, the barley house, had the coolest fountain made of beer taps.}
{there’s the adorable puppy! his shirt said, “pet me, i’m irish.” ahh, i want to eat him up!}
{sending kisses to ashley’s boy in italy…}
{after hours of irish car bombs, beer, sunshine, and a lot of people, we were ready for a nap! and that’s just what we did… then took it easy the rest of the night.}
{my sunday was a lot more low-key. i gave in and got a shamrock shake from mickey d’s for lunch, because mint is my favorite. i couldn’t remember the last time i had a milkshake, and it was pretty tasty!}
{i went to church…}
{…and wore this outfit, which for some reason, i was quite excited about.}
{oh, and i had an irish dinner from central market, with none other than a guinness to wash it all down!}
{guinness-marinated flank steak, irish potato salad, corned beef & cabbage slaw, and a green salad. can you say YUM?}
…and that pretty much concludes my weekend adventures. happy st. patrick’s day!
xoxo
so this blog is past due for an update of what’s been going on around here since the start of 2013, besides all the birthdays [mine and my brother's], valentine’s day, culinary school, and business trips, because those all get their own posts. what else is there? you ask. well, a whole lot of everything, and by everything, i naturally mean food. and a scattering of other randoms. this is me we’re talking about, after all.
so here it is:
{christmas crafts. after christmas. because this is how i roll.}
{the tiny bit of snow we got + milky, cinnamony chai tea with honey and The Book With All the Stories. in bed. on a sunday evening. a.k.a. contentment at its finest.}
{in early january, kyle came to visit, and he went with me to buy my first mini keg for my beertender, which i mentioned in this post. ”baby’s first mini keg” – that’s one for the books!} ;)
{it just so happened that the lucky ducky dogs food truck had set up camp at the liquor store parking lot when we went to get the keg, and we hadn’t eaten dinner, so we each got a hot dog before we went home. they were delicious, and i loved how college-y it felt – so spontaneous and fun. ahh. i miss college.}
{trying out the beertender!}
{sorority posing}
{just another wild night in dallas}
{i adore them.}
{delicious lunch that kyle and i had at olivella’s}
{ashley and me + the southwest turkey burger from village burger bar}
{back in the kitchen, y’all. you know what that means… an over-abundance of food photos! and lots of pictures of downtown dallas}
{lucky helping me with my work projects…and all bundled up in his new bed!}
{eating a chocolate-dipped coconut macaroon by the warmth of a fire at la madeleine.}
{blackberry lovin’}
{doing my monday-tuesday night thang}
{leinenkugel’s snowdrift vanilla porter + a prehistoric camera}
{a couple of my favorite lunches from whole foods… a salmon roll + more blackberries(!), and roasted edamame}
{…and some tasty dinners: acorn squash with butter and brown sugar (okay, so that might be more like dessert!) and a mini pizza with zucchini and sunburst tomatoes}
{“that building with the green lights”}
{being silly in the bugatti}
{the bugatti dog and i went for a ride with dad}
{yet another great shopping area to explore in dallas… highland park village}
{happy mardi gras!}
{the historic inwood theatre + a louisiana roll}
{i used my anthro birthday coupon to buy this adorable pair of earrings for myself, among other things}
{this city.}
{why i feel the need to document my crazy hair days, i don’t know…}
{…and then there was the time that i had purple hair for a day…}
{editing produce specs, drinking large volumes of green tea, and eating sunbursts like candy all kind of go hand-in-hand, as it turns out. so that’s what i do!}
{caramelized sea scallops with roasted asparagus and sundried tomato-mushroom pearl pasta from seasons 52…and a lot of dallas traffic}
and there you have it, folks. the first two months of 2013 in a nutshell.
have a great rest of the week!
yep, i’m alive.
and a year older, as it turns out!
the past month has been a whirlwind, and amidst the whirlwind was my 23rd birthday. it was on a friday, and weekend birthdays always feel like miracles, in my opinion. my thursday-sunday was filled with family, friends, and lots of sweets, as birthdays should be.
here are some bits and pieces from that weekend:
{dinner in uptown on thursday night with ashley and angelica}
{it was my first time at the common table and i fell in love}
{we started off with a pitcher of skittles sangria!}
{i had avocado on the “half shell” with sauteed lobster meat and chive oil. it. was. awesome.}
{i may be old now, but i still think birthdays are magical}
{carrot cake cup with stout anglaise}
{and on top of all the wonderful food, drinks, and company, there were birthday cards..}
{…and presents!}
{i’m so happy to have these beautiful women in my life!}
on friday, my actual birthday, i took a half day at work so that i could drive home and spend that afternoon with my parents and my brother who had come in for the weekend. all day long, i got showered with happy birthday emails from my work people, which was so sweet.
{ruthie brought me cake pops!}
then, a little while before i left work, i got a call from one of the receptionists saying that she had received a delivery for me. confused, i went down to the first floor, thinking, i don’t remember ordering any samples from suppliers to be delivered today... and when i got to the front desk, the receptionist handed me a huge brown paper bag. it was a dozen sprinkles cupcakes from thomas!! isn’t he just the greatest person ever?!
{chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet}
{i just love him.}
i drove home that afternoon, stopped by my church to say hi to my dad who was working our men’s club fish fry, then spent the afternoon catching up with my mom and brother. then the three of us went to the fish fry and ate dinner together, and it was SO tasty. my dad runs it, and they are known for their awesome fish. they make their own breading – it’s a secret recipe! if you’re ever in arlington, tx on friday during lent, you should stop by st. joe’s fish fry! :)
{me and my pretty mother}
{a blurry pic, but we’re so proud of our dad, the fish fry king! they raised the most money ever in the history of their fish fry on my birthday evening.}
{two peas in a pod}
{me and brother bear}
after dinner, we went over to celebrate at mimi and papa’s!
{i’m so lucky to have these two in my life}
{there were lots of lovely gifts…}
{…and a present-opening machine named lucky!}
{mom made a carrot cake, my favorite, with cream cheese frosting of course!}
{the two best parents i could ever ask for}
{getting ready to make a wish!}
{this is my dramatic “i’m pretending to blow out the candles because they didn’t get a picture when i actually blew them out” face}
{meanwhile, this little guy is completely exhausted from the adventures of the evening!}
i’m quite excited about my new ipad, which i’ll probably get at the end of march [i'm kind of waiting to see if there's a new one coming out...], and i got so many other wonderful gifts. the most important gift of all, though, was having our family together, especially since papa isn’t well.
late that evening, i was serenaded by angela and all my other favorite houston folks, and then they sent me this gem of a video:
i laugh every single time i watch it! makes me happy.
the next day, i went for a walk with mom and mike [dad had to leave for a trip], said goodbye to mike [he was headed back to austin], and then went shopping with mom and mimi. i went back to dallas that evening, and spent the rest of the weekend chilling out, enjoying some “me time,” and getting ready for the week.
{mom sent me home with this huge hunk of carrot cake that gave me dessert for 3 days! best cake ever!}
{i was way too excited for my new pair of house shoes from anthropologie. they were my gift to myself, although anthro pitched in 15% for my birthday. oh yeah, and they were already on sale – a steal!}
{i had sunday brunch with the girls at mama’s daughters’ diner}
oh, and random sidenote: my bday week was like the week of cinnamon rolls! i literally eat cinnamon rolls once or twice a year, and it just so happened that i had three opportunities to eat them on this week. [hello, gym!]
{i had one for breakfast at my parents’ house – my mom had gotten some for a school fundraiser. they were actually really tasty}
{this one hardly counts because it was angelica’s, but i had a bite!}
{then on monday, we made them in baking class! they unfortunately didn’t rise as much as we would have liked, but they still looked pretty.}
if one week out of the year has to be a cinnamon roll week, it might as well be your birthday week – that’s my philosophy! ;)
i appreciate all of the nice notes and birthday wishes from friends and family.
i’d say it was a pretty fabulous birthday! if only my papa was better and all of my dear friends were here to celebrate with me, it would have been perfect. <3 what a lovely time it was!
xoxo