pasta makin'

My first jobs were in food service -- one in an italian family restaurant, the other at a frozen custard stand (m'mm delicious). The italian restaurant was a real learning experience, one of those jobs where you end up working almost every available position (whether directly or out of necessity) during your time there. Hell, I was even considered "senior staff" at 16.

I started off as the only female busser back when the restaurant first opened and we were on 2 hour waits each night. Within a week or two, I was doubling as busser and host, then server, add bartender, helping with the books, acting as fill-in dishwasher and helper cook when needed, to running the failed bakery experiment. I saw that restaurant through years of transition, from its most successful times to the day we shut the door. Over my time there I learned how to make gnocchi, soups, cannolis, breads, other italian delicacies, but never pasta somehow.

Now, I know that pasta is not expensive at the store, and for the headache making fresh pasta can be, it may not be worth it. I still wanted to try ... and armed with my italian hand-crank pasta maker, my handy dandy apron, a bottle of wine and a free Friday night, I decided to give it a whirl. Next time, I'll get more adventurous than egg fettuccine, but hell, I was hungry. :)

Homemade Egg Fettuccine
2 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
water

Create a well with the flour on your counter. Crack the eggs into the well, add the olive oil and salt, and slowly mix in the flour with your fingers without breaking the well and causing a kitchen catastrophe. (My opinion, if you're going to make homemade pasta, you might as well mix by hand and have some fun, right?)

Once the dough comes together, begin to knead until it's elastic. If the dough is too sticky, add a little bit of flour, or a bit of water if its the opposite. Trust your instinct.



Once the dough is elastic, cut into 4 pieces and begin rolling through the pasta machine, decreasing the thickness of the rollers each time. Add flour if needed. Look at that pretty machine ...



Then drape it like old school wet laundry to dry on a clothesline ... or in this case, a pasta drying rack (I have a lot of cooking gadgets and toys).

Let it dry for a little bit so it can firm up. Then run it through the fettuccine roller and cut the pasta.





Fresh pasta takes only a few minutes to cook, much faster than store-brought pasta. Be careful not to overcook. Overcooking this after all this work is not fun at all. Unfun to the max.

Now, I wasn't going to eat naked noodles. That'd just be silly. And like I said above, I was Hungry with a capital H. So earlier when I started this process, I also put some sauce to work on the stove.

The magic ragu began with some sauteed garlic in olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot, a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of stewed tomatoes, some rehydrated porcini mushrooms and it's broth (plus half a mushroom bouillon cube I had. That stuff is MAGIC, btw. I digress), a bay leaf, some extra spices and oh ... country ribs. You know, because I can.

In all seriousness though, once the sauce had simmered throughout this whole pasta making process, the pork was falling off the bone, shredding itself into the sauce. Perfecto.

(Learned that trick by making Gourmet's Sunday Ragu ... m'mm pot 'o stewed braised meat, how I love you so. m'mm. // drool.)

Mix the two together and voila! Homemade egg fettuccine with a pork and mushroom ragu.

c is for chocolate crinkle cookies, clearly

I credit my niece for the cookie monster reference.

Chocolate crinkles. chocolate crackles. Snowball cookies. Those chocolatey things with the powdered sugar -- however you want to refer to them, these things are DIVINE. Rich and cakey with just the right amount of sweet, and easy to prepare. These are a staple in almost every holiday baking magazine, particularly around Christmastime. The event this time around? Superbowl. Hey, why not.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 TB vegeatble oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups flour
powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure it's well combined. Chill dough for anywhere between 2 hours - overnight.

Using a tablespoon or little cookie scooper (if ya have one), create a small dough ball using your hands and drop it into the powdered sugar. Roll to coat and plop on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake 12-15 minutes.



Allow cookies to cool, and sprinkle with a little bit more sugar if needed.

broccoli pesto with barley

A few years ago, I stumbled upon this recipe from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks and fell in love with the dish. It was a tasty way to sneak in lots of greens, eat briny olives, and feel reasonably good about it for its health benefits.

I've since made it in its original form with whole wheat pasta countless times. But this time around, I had some barley on hand, and figured that may be an interesting switch. After checking with Heidi for her thoughts, I gave it a whirl, cooking up the barley with a mushroom bouillon cube for some additional flavor, then making the dish as the recipe states with a delicious broccoli pesto, wilted spinach, briny olives, and leftover broccoli florets.

The result was a nuttier version of the dish from the barley, but man oh man, this is the type of dish that would make becoming a vegetarian bearable. (Only entertaining that thought for a brief moment in time, look ... it's passed.) Highly recommend you all give it a try.

A break from your regularly scheduled programming ...

... or lack thereof. Or possibly a 3-month span of annoying paid programming while this blog took a snooze on the interwebs.

Either way, my apologies. It's time, yet again, to play some catch up here at TTK. I promise it will be as painless as it can be, and heck, you may even have a little fun. I have a list of catch up posts, photos neatly organized in folders on my computer, and sleeves rolled up. Think of it like that rainy Sunday afternoon when you stumble on an old photo album and spend the day flipping through and reminiscing.

Yea, think of it like that. :)

in honor of St. Patrick's Day

Some days call for corned beef, or in my case, weeks. The corned beef made its first appearance this past weekend at my St Patrick's Day (parade) brunch, stuffed into fresh ciabatta slider rolls with Irish cheddar slices and whole grain mustard on the side.



Then today, on the actual St. Patrick's Day, it came to life in homemade corned beef hash, made with yukon gold potatoes, shallots, corned beef and a little Irish cheddar to boot. Crisped until there was a golden brown crust, and served alongside a slow scrambled egg and a slice of last week's Irish brown bread. The end result? One happy, painfully pale, scotch-drinkin' Irish woman.



Now, I didn't make the corned beef. Before you start calling me a blaspheme and throwing rocks, hear me out. Some things you just need to go to the source for (especially when hosting 10-12 for brunch and up to your eyeballs in other work). In this case, the "source" was Michael's Deli in Brookline, known for it's corned beef and pastrami - an institution in the city. I even bought the goods from Michael himself, which made this all the more gratifying. :) Slainte, Michael. That was some incredible corned beef. I salute you.

The Irish brown bread I did in fact make (and froze, in part). It turned out better than I could have imagined, and for a yeast-free bread product is still moist and true to its kind. And it's quick to make up, leaving you no excused not to whip up some fresh bread for dinner. Here's how:



Irish Brown Bread
Compliments of the Mayo Clinic

2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading and dusting
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten

Set your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment (not required, but I did out of habit).

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients Beat in the buttermilk and egg and stir just until moistened.

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface and, with floured hands, gently knead 8-10 times. It doesn't take much. The dough will be sticky; that's OK. Form into a loose ball.

Transfer to baking sheet, dusting the top of dough with a small amount of flour. Cut a 4-inch X into the top of the dough, cutting about 1/2 inch deep. Bake until the bread splits open at the X and makes a hollow sound when the underside is tapped, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 1-2 hours and enjoy!

Now pour yourself a Guinness, put on some Enya or Dropkicks, and slainte everyone. Here's to another great year.

roasted tomato soup

I'll be honest, I may or may not have made this in order to justify eating a grilled cheese.

And also because it looks scrumptious. Did I just use that word? I think I did.

This roasted tomato soup recipe comes from Heidi at 101Cookbooks. It couldn't be simpler, really, and may keep me from ever eating the canned stuff again. It was even easy enough for me to make before a 10 am conference call, which - if you know me at all - is pretty badass. Apologies for the cursing. I get really excited when I can multitask and not burn the house down.

Annnnyways, on to the goods.

Roasted Tomato Soup
From 101Cookbooks

5 tomatoes, quartered
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and quartered
3 medium yellow onions, peeled, quartered (I used 2 yellow, 1 spanish)
extra-virgin olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
sea salt
2 - 3 cups light vegetable stock or water (I used water, with half a mushroom bouillon)
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, my new secret ingredient, compliments of A.R.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly oil 2 baking sheets, cut the tomatoes, onions and pepper, and put skin side down -- garlic and onions on one side, tomatoes and pepper on the other.

What can I say, I like things to be color coordinated sometimes.

Shower with a bit of sea salt, and pop in the oven.

Roast for 45 minutes or so until the goods are all roasted, checking partially through to make sure the onions aren't burning and are getting carmelized to your liking.

Once done, transfer all of that deliciousness to a pot / deep bowl, add the smoked paprika and put the immersion blender to good use, adding the liquid until it's your desired consistency. I made my soup a bit smoother, but puree to your hearts content. And voila, healthy, delicious, grilled cheese dip-worthy soup. All in less than an hour.

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