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.

It's The Little Things

What a day! Yesterday we walked all over Paris to run some errands. And it was awesome. We did everything that needed to be done!

First I wanted to find a place to get my camera films from New York developped and we found a place not too expensive on Boulevard Beaumarchais. It will take up to 10 days to get back my pictures but I'm so excited! I haven't shot pictures on film for 3 or 4years and I have to admit I'm feeling a little nervous about how they'll turn out. I hope it won't be too embarrassing!

Ha! So many tickets to get my pictures back! 8 rolls!

We walked a lot in the Paris streets and I came accross these that I thought were pretty neat. The black cat above is 200meters from the appartment.

I bought dirt to plant my basil and put it on the window sill.

But the best news and what really made me glow yesterday was that I got my reflex camera back! It was at the repair shop and I didn't get a call from the store I left it at. We went there anyway. It's a second hand store with cds, dvds, appliances, jewelry... I bought my camera for 250€ three months ago and it kept giving me error messages telling that the lens was not connected properly. It wasn't all the time though, I could still use it without being bothered most of the time but since the guarantee expired on june 5 I thought I'd better bring it back to see if they could fix the problem. So yesterday, since we were there we asked if by any chance they had news about my camera and they did! They had called me but I was on voice mail(and didn't get their message). The Canon people couldn't fix my camera because the piece going wrong was worth more than the whole camera. I was on the verge of tears. So they offered that I looked at the other cameras and pick one in exchange. I tried a camera, was not happy. I just fell in love with my canon rebel. And I hated to think that just because it wasn't working right once in a while it would be tossed away or sold to pieces. So I asked the salesperson if I could have it for a lower price(that's how much I wanted to keep a broken camera! My boyfriend doesn't get me on that.). He offered 90€, the price of the different pieces. Of course I said yes and was beyond elated with this! I got 160€ back and my beloved camera! 

It even has my name on it now! :D

 I was extatic all the way back home and all night! I missed it so much! I took a bunch of pictures and had no problem. I'm just thrilled. Yesterday was such a great day.

I'm going back to work on Saturday. I'll be working in Versailles in a mall as a salesperson for the German brand WMF. I'm really happy about that, my manager got that for me and she's the best. So it was nice to have a day as full and fun as yesterday before going back to work.

Shop

Here are a few pictures I wanted to share as well of little things that made me happy this last week. I painted this picture of Edward Scissorhands for my shop. It's hard to do the details with pastels but I'm pretty happy with the result.

In New York I bought nail stickers for the first time and I'm smitten! I never wanted to try them and this time I thought, what the heck! I love everything nail related and these look so cute! They are so easy to use for such a great result. I will buy some more in September in  Chicago!

Here's the brand I bought. 

And finally a couple more pictures of the beetle I saw in Haute Savoie.

That's all for today. I hope I'll be able to sew. I have to leave at 4pm to go to Cergy to meet my good friend Estelle that I haven't seen in a while. Life is good. :)