Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Thoughts on pasta.....

The "crud" has hit our house and is making its rounds, so productivity is more or less out the window.  I HAVE managed to get the ruffle onto my girl's skirt for her banquet.  Cuteness!  She has a petticoat with a white circle skirt trimmed with a 30 foot pink gingham ruffle.  The pink gingham sash is coming.....I just haven't made it that far yet.  As a matter of fact, I was in bed last night by 7:00.  Sheesh.

So, since I feel like I have been run over by a Mack truck and since I am not being very productive I will share what Santa brought me for Christmas.  I got a pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer!  

Not long after Christmas I watched some youtube tutorials on how to use the thing and immediately cranked out some garlic fettuccine!  



I used that pasta to make some chicken alfredo and it was delicious!  We also had enough that we were able to share :)


Next I decided to make some spinach pasta, and the batch of pasta was so much that I had filled up my pasta rack and was out of room.  At that point, I decided I would just make lasanga noodles.



I learned something very important with this batch of pasta..... The lasagna noodles needed to be on a piece of screen or something similar in order to dry evenly.  Otherwise, they just dry on one side and they curl up, which makes it a pain to try and store a bunch of curled up noodles.  

Out of that batch of pasta I had enough that we have had two meals with the noodles - one with marinara and one with a cream sauce, a pan of lasagna, a pan of lasagna in the freezer, noodles still in the pantry and I have even given some away.

Now here let me state that I use that Kitchenaid almost daily and it is well worth every dime that they cost and I would cry for a month if anything ever happened to it, because it is my best friend and assists me in bringing culinary joy to my household, which makes me happy.  Me and the Kitchenaid are tight.  We are buddies.

However, as expensive as the pasta attachments are.....and they are incredibly expensive.... how many meals or batches of pasta does it take before it pays for itself considering a pack of spaghetti is only a buck or so?

I think if we went to the Macaroni Grill (or that other "Italian" place with the olives that has HORRIBLE  food but tasty salad and breadsticks) we would probably spend anywhere from $50 - $80 ish dollars on a meal dining out with our family.  (Or maybe more than that? - I don't dine out much.)  So if I think in those terms as opposed to the actual cost of buying pasta at the grocery store I suppose it may have already paid for itself?


Now if I could just find out how to grind my own flour.............

Yours Truly,
Coughing and Hacking and needing desperately to finish my sewing before the banquet next weekend and tired of being loopy from all the cold medicine -----

XOXOXO
~~Gena







2 comments:

  1. I just love you... and How much do you charge for homemade pasta,,, shipping and all??

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  2. Haha, I love this! I registered for a kitchen aid, they're so expensive but worth it!

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