Basta Pasta!

Here's yet another lovely Christmas gift being put to work. My dad and stepmom gave me the pasta maker attachments for my KitchenAid, and ohhh boy, what a joy they are. Honestly, why try to do something the "old fashioned way" if you've got a stand-up mixer? I mean, I'm all about DIY, but I have absolutely no problem relying on a machine for some of the heavy lifting. In this case, it means I can make homemade pasta all by myself... Provided someone else takes the pictures. It took me a while to get the dough to the right consistency, though. It wasn't wet enough on my first try, but I tried...

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

I'd like to take a moment to forget about cooking and to tell you how much this day means to me. Today, when we watched Barack Obama take the oath of office and become President Barack Obama, I was unbelievably moved. This moment in history has already inspired millions--and I sincerely believe that this is our country's chance to rebuild and bring about a change deeply rooted in hope. Ryan and I had the pleasure of being in Chicago shortly after the election--the photo above is us in Grant Park. If we could have been in D.C. today, we would have, but celebrating in Austin the day that we ushered...

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Mmmmpanadas (kind of)

I've been trying all sorts of new things lately. Surely you'll be caught up soon, but the Reader's Digest version goes like this: homemade stock, homemade granola bars, homemade pasta, orange beef stir-fry... So I'm definitely taking more risks in the kitchen, which sometimes ends in an "OH MY GOSH THIS IS SO GOOD" and sometimes with "Eh, um, yeah--this is good." And sometimes it involves watching your boyfriend get up from the table and make himself a deli plate. :)A few weeks ago, very shortly after receiving How to Cook Everything for Christmas, I decided to try and make empanadas. There was...

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Just let me whip something up!

Last week after Ryan and I opted to work out in the gym, we were so hungry by the time we got back home that we almost caved and ran out for food. Knowing we had a smattering of fresh veggies in the fridge, I put up my argument for staying home.I insisted: "Just let me whip something up!" The skeptical BF looked at me warily, so I shot back. "Or YOU can go get whatever YOU want and I'll cook something for me here."He stayed (lucky for him). I boiled some capellini (almost a whole package!) and topped it with butter, parsley, and lemon. I threw together a salad and an easy citrus dressing...and...

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The Quest for the Perfect Loaf of Whole Wheat

I'm a fan of whole grains. I really, truly am. And so it makes sense that after a couple of successful white loaves from the bread machine, I should be able to whip up some super-healthy whole wheat bread. Right?Wrong. It started with not a complete failure... I used some white flour and some stone-ground whole wheat. But what emerged was far too dense. And there was another hiccup: I wasn’t around to remove the paddle at the right time, so it baked right into the loaf. Back to the density: this has been the problem with my handmade loaves in the past. Not enough yeasty action. In fact, when this...

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This is gonna be one of those "Oh my damn" meals...

It started off with a half-pound of bacon. Yes. A half-pound of all-natural uncured bacon in all its fatty glory. I'd told a friend about the amount of bacon in the recipe I was considering for Friday night dinner, and she and I exchanged "yeah, right" looks. But when push came to shove and it was time to get dinner going, I could not resist roughly chopping half of the package and tossing it in the Dutch oven. The soup was a big first-time for me: I'd never eaten, let alone cooked, lentils. This may come as a surprise, but I'm not an expert in legumes. I grew up eating pinto beans (my grandmother's)...

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Improv Lunch

So I mentioned that I received Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything book for Christmas. This book is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I have had it for less than two weeks and have already gleaned a wealth of information from its pages. My favorite new recipe so far is a million times easier than pie: the Simple Yogurt Sauce. Of course, me being me, I couldn’t just use his recipe. I had to alter it in my own darn way. His calls for a cup of yogurt and only one clove of garlic... In the interest of wanting to not waste any yogurt (just in case I didn't follow through on my goal to make the sauce), I purchased two...

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New Year's Resolutions

For Christmas, the kitchen gifts were lavished upon me. Between Ryan, my parents, Ryan's parents and his aunt, I made out like a serious kitchen bandit. At this rate, there will be nothing on my hypothetical wedding registry. ;) There were the books... And the KitchenAid pasta attachments...Then there were the Give It A Rest spoons made from organic bamboo... And of course, the bread machine. There were also a handful of vintage cake stands. That adds up to 7,500 new recipes and techniques, at least 10 new tools, a great deal of time- and energy-saving tactics, and even enough flair to show it...

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