Quick Homemade Pasta

Well I found myself in need of some pasta for clams and pasta but the cupboard was bare! This would normally place most in the car for the store or opt for making something else. But why? Got flour, salt, egg and a little olive oil and you have some pasta! I know most don't have time for this sort of thing. And it's true, during the week it would not be time friendly but a weekend is a different story. As it happens it's Saturday and I think I spent more time searching the cabinet than it took to whip up the dough! Besides, homemade is tastier and at least I know what is in it. 

   I have been making my own off and on for years and years. I do have a crank pasta maker which I have used, but only if I am going to make a lot and freeze most of it for later use. Today I only wanted to make enough for the meal. If that is the case then this is for you! Another scenario would be you want to wow someone or someones without having to do the crank thing. Granted, this pasta will be a thicker when cooked than if you used a pasta maker but hey! It's homemade! Believe me you will not find the quality or the yum factor in the store. Not any that I know at least. So let's begin.

2-3 cups unbleached flour

1 cup + water (I used the whey from cheese making)

2 tablespoon of Olive Oil

Tablespoon or slightly less of salt

1 large egg

You can omit the egg which I have once in a while but 1 egg isn't going to kill you and you really should have the vitamin K and protein that eggs provide. Kinda of cancels out the Cholesterol factor if you ask me.The egg adds a richness to the pasta but let me know if you think so too. Ok picture time. If you have any problems following this let me know and I will make adjustments. 

Make a well in your flour.

Add salt

Olive oil

Egg

Whey or water

Mix with fork

Start pulling the flour from the edges. Add more liquid if you think you won't have enough. You can always add more flour if you put too much.

Keep pulling and mixing till you can gather into a ball.

Kneed adding additional flour till some what stiff but still workable. If you were to use a pasta machine it should be stiff but since we are not a little on the soft side is better. Let rest for a little bit, about 5 minutes.

 

Liberally dust with flour

Roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle constantly dusting with flour and turning over. Then we are going to fold it over still dusting so it doesn't stick together.

Take a knife and cut into strips. The width is up to you. Thin or thick is fine.

Now you want to undo them and lay them full length sprinkled with lots of flour.

Let dry out for a while turning them carefully over if you wish to aid in drying out some. Boil lots of salted water and cook till tender....top with your favorite sauce or gravy like my family calls tomato sauce!

Enjoy!

Stephanie

www.webdees.com

Baked Bacon Wrapped Chicken

This a pretty much straight forward recipe for chicken. I uses the buttermilk I have posted in a previous post. I am a big advocate of soaking chicken in buttermilk to make it tender and juicy. Since soaking using buttermilk you tend to use a lot of it and it goes down the drain afterwards. You can not use it again without the HIGH risk of contamination of unwanted bacteria from the meat. At $2.99 a quart, buttermilk tends to be expensive. Therefore making your own is the wisest choice. What you purchase in the store is cultured to begin with why not just keep it going. This is the wisest course of action. I also use buttermilk as a key culture in making my cheeses so I save money there as well. Buttermilk is the mesophilic culture needed to make many different cheeses.

On to this recipe. Marinade your chicken (any parts) for at least half hour to several hours. Spray or oil a baking pan. Shake each piece from the buttermilk. I used my apple smoked homemade bacon and wrapped each piece. Sprinkle some garlic powder and some pepper over the pieces bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or more till done. Time will depend on what type of chicken parts you use. The legs took about and hour and 10 minutes. I do not recommend salting the chicken due to using bacon. If the bacon is salty you will over salt.

The juicy chicken coupled with the smokey flavor of the bacon is truly mouth watering! Another thing, I love plain Greek yogurt on my chicken when eating it. Don't knock it till you try it! It is especially good on fried chicken. Plain yogurt is a great substitute for sour cream and better for you! You can also find my homemade yogurt in my blog. Any questions or comments are always welcome! Let me know how yours came out!

Enjoy!
Steph

www.webdees.com