Before I left I fried my point and shoot digital camera by accident in a puddle of iced tea...it was a dumb mistake I made in the midst of trying to quickly pack for the weekend. With the same mistake I also managed to leave a dark stain on our duvet cover - I still need to get to the dry cleaners to get that taken care of. As a result of the iced tea incident, I am now without my trusty camera...I feel kind of naked without it. I hadn't fully realized how much I depended on it and enjoyed having it. I am going to replace it at some point, but in the mean time I have been using the camera on my BlackBerry (I used it to snap these tulip pictures when I came home from the weekend). I also have an old digital camera I can use, but it's just not the same. I'd been thinking of upgrading to a Nikon sometime in the next year - I guess it's time to start saving for that. 
Speaking of photos, the tulips in these pictures opened up over the weekend. There are so many beautiful colors happening in my garden right now - it's lovely! After winter I always feel like spring's color is like a breath of fresh air. I want to get up to La Connor for the annual tulip festival this week - it's happening a bit earlier than normal because of the warm weather we've had recently. I am sure I'll manage to get some great pictures to share! Hope all is well, I'll be back soon!
The second book I read was a non-fiction story...I wasn't sure what to expect and I mistakenly expected that I wouldn't like the book...the reason that I didn't pick it as my first read. Well, I thought it was an interesting, well written, unique and fascinating story. From one of the two main characters, I learned a ton about the connection between slavery in the South and 20th century share-cropping, and gained insight about homelessness and injustice. From the other main character, I heard a true story about commitment and love between two people who had been married for 30 years, this character also wrote honestly about his aversion to the homeless community and the humility he felt when he realized how his pride had blinded him. This book is a keeper, it will be finding a permanent spot on my shelf...
I have an unofficial policy where when I finish any book I decide right away whether I'd read it again or not and/or whether I liked it enough to lend it to a friend. I've been a member of 
I can't wait to share more!
I walked into the store intending to get 8, but there was a discount on some chick related items if you bought ten...good enough reason for me! Besides, there is the horrible possibility that all ten may not make it to blown hen stage, they tend to be fragile when they are little.
Another reality is that even though all of my original 8 from last year made it to the adult stage, we ended up losing 3 of our hens to predators, and we found out that Berkeley was a rooster rather than the egg laying hen we thought we'd brought home. 
The breed I picked this time is Buff Orpington, they are known to grow to be heavy birds - they get to around 8 pounds. Buffs are also winter hardy and will continue to lay even during short, cold winter days. They are also known to be mellow and docile...we've been having some issues recently with an agressive rooster...ahem, Berkeley...and my hens have always been a bit skittish, so I am ready for a different type of avian personality around here. 
My newest little ladies (at least I hope all 10 are ladies!) are adorable, even though these Buffs are going to be a good fit for us because of their breed characteristics, I have to admit that the breed choice I made really came down to cuteness. I almost went with Rhode Island Reds, but the "classic" chick-look of these Buffs caught my heart. They are the sweetest little yellow puff balls! 
They seem to do pretty well in a photo shoot too, I had fun snapping a few shots of this little one, and there will be many more photo shoots to come!
The recipe I *sort-of* used is 
I also ended up dropping in a bit of olive oil as the dough was mixing to help it pull together, it was pretty dry and crumbly without the olive oil and eggs. Oh - I also pinched in a bit of kosher sea salt.
So how did it taste? The answer is good, thick and rich. I think the semolina flour and fresh eggs were the major contributors. The texture kind of reminded me of a thick tortellini that I had when we were traveling through Italy. 
Maybe it was because of the thickness of the pieces I cut or that I didn't roll the dough quite thin enough, but it took more like 12 minutes of boiling to cook the pasta rather than the 4 minutes called for in the recipe. Even still, the pasta ended up al dente.
Rather than a marinara or fettuccini sauce, I kind of made up my own sauce/topping. That after noon I stopped at our meat market and I picked up two 8 oz. top sirloin steaks. I trimmed them and cut them into thin strips. Then I marinated the strips in balsamic vinegar, herb infused macadamia nut oil (just brought back from Hawaii!), and fresh ground pepper. 
I cooked the steak for about 12 minutes at 450 degrees. Then I mixed in some roasted garlic (yes, I also roasted it myself - this was a very handmade meal!), some of last summer's oven dried roma tomatoes, and parmesean cheese. The entire thing went back into the oven to melt the cheese while the pasta finished boiling. We had a mixed green salad with the pasta and if I do say so, the meal was delicious!
So now I am kind of wanting to tweak the recipe even more or even try a different recipe - maybe from an Italian cookbook I have. The question is when do I ask for the pasta maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer? Birthday...Wedding Anniversary...Christmas?
There are now lots of pasta dishes I'd like to get around to making from scratch!
Posts
