News From the Kitchen - Making Pasta from Scratch, Cookies and Congolais, First Times

Basil on the window sill in bloom! :)

Not much has been going on since my last post here, it's just work work work. Plus it's going great at work so that's pretty much all that's on my mind. :) 

My main activity outside of work has been cooking lately. I tried a bunch of things I had never done before and encountered great success. ^^ Yay! That's not arrogant. :p

I baked cookies for the very first time, they were absolutely yummy and very pretty as well. That's not exactly true, I baked cookies before but always left them in the oven too long, they were always dry and disgusting. I got frustrated and swore I would never make them again and even declared I didn't like cookies that much anyway. This time I got it, no more than 12 minutes cooking.

Aren't they gorgeous? :)

For my birthday I got a little money and decided to buy a pasta making machine with it. I had my eye on one that was 70€ original price but I got it on sale for 33€! It was a steal, it's top quality.

The brand is Titania, it's an italian brand and the machine is made in...Italy! It's awesome and so shiny! :p

I thought making pasta would be so much more tedious than it actually is...Good for me because I'm kind of a slob and I don't like to spend too much time trying to figure something out (example: the cookies).

They were not perfect, but I think I got it and they will be much nicer next time.

 Me saying hi in the reflection.

Tadaaah!

(sorry for the mess on the table)

I found out that the trick is to divide your dough and put it through the machine one portion at a time. Don't be afraid to cut portions again once your dough is thin enough otherwise it's way too long and unmanageable.

So proud! 

Besides they are so many possibilities! I made the pasta with eggs but you don't have to if you use another type of flour than the regular one (don't know the name in english, barely remember it in french actually :s )

I'd like to make basil pasta and stuff like that, with the vegetable already in the pasta.

I put them out to dry in the kitchen. Not very practical but fun. 

The machine I got can do lasagna, spaghetti, and 'tagliatelles'. I don't know the word in English but that's the kind I did today, the ones on the picture.

I think I'll be making more soon because they are all gone by now and the whole process was a lot of fun!

Finally I made congolais. Another first time. They are made of egg whites, sugar and grated coconut. Absolutely delicious and a breeze to make!

My basil is doing good. It has been raining hard all day so it must be happy since I forget to water it most of the time. And I finally bought chive last thursday. I made purée last night with chive, I don't know how I lived without it! Purée without chive is kind of sad. :p

That's pretty much it. No drawings this week. But I have to do more because I ordered all the supplies to make earrings with my drawings.

Tomorrow is a public holiday here in France, Bastille day, so I'm not working, that's nice. It's hard not to have two days off in a row and almost 4 hours of commute on work days. I get so sleepy on the rides home.

That's it for today, I hope I'll have more to share soon because I really missed blogging.