Making Homemade Pasta ~ Recipe

It's been a while since I've made some delicious homemade pasta noodles but lately a few of my bloggy friends have been making them and well you know the old saying... monkey see, monkey do! *grin*.



Plus I don't want one bit of the broccoli we picked from the garden yesterday to go to waste. So I thought I'd be adventurous and make some gloriously green fettucine noodles using our fresh broccoli as the colorant :)



I started by steaming just under 3/4 of a pound of broccoli. I weighed it on my kitchen scale and it was 11 ounces before it went into the steamer. As soon as it was just tender I removed it from the heat and let it cool completely before moving on to the next step of pureeing it along with 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of dried basil in my blender until it was nice and smooth.

To finish your pasta dough you will need:

2 eggs
3 cups of flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lukewarm water

Place your flour and salt in a large bowl or directly on your counter and make a nice big well in the center. In the well add your eggs, oil, water and broccoli puree.

With a fork slowly start to beat your eggs, mixing them into your broccoli puree and then start to gradually pull the surrounding flour into your wet ingredients until it has taken on a dough like consistency and you can start to work it with your hands.



This is probably the only part of making homemade noodles that really requires any elbow grease *grin*. Keep working your dough kneading in a little bit of flour at a time until you have a smooth and silky feeling dough. It took me about 10 minutes and around a 1/4 cup of extra flour to get my dough to a gorgeous soft green stage. Once you've finished kneading cover your dough with a greased bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes.

While your dough is resting you can bring out your pasta machine and clamp it to your counter so you are ready to start rolling :) Don't worry if you don't have a pasta machine. You can roll the dough by hand with your rolling pin and use your pizza cutter to make strips to!



This is my favorite part. I just love to see the dough work through the rollers into long sheets :) It helps to have a second set of hands but definitely not mandatory.

Cut off a chunk of dough a little bigger than a golf ball but not as big as a tennis ball. Does that work for mental imagery? *grin*. Dust your chunk of dough with flour so that it won't stick to the rollers and with your machine set to the widest width start cranking your dough through. Repeat this step 2 or 3 times at that width dusting with flour as necessary and then reduce the roller width one setting. Carry on rolling and dusting as necessary until you have a nice thin sheet of dough roughly 3 mm thick.



Next switch your handle to the noodle cutting rollers and feed your sheet of dough through the fettucine roller from start to finish. That's it! You now have a handful of fresh fettucine noodles to dry!



I don't have a fancy place to hang my fresh noodles so I use the railing of our stairs covered with tea towels that have been dusted with flour so the noodles won't stick as they dry. Let them dry completely if you want to store them or if you plan to eat them for dinner right away let them hang there about 15 minutes before cooking them. They cook up really quickly! I usually boil them 5-6 minutes but if you like yours a little more al dente I'd cut the cooking time by a couple of minutes :)

Everyone just raved over our noodles so I can't wait to make them again! If you have fussy eaters this is a fabulous way to get them to eat their broccoli without even knowing it as the noodle doesn't actually taste like broccoli at all. It just gives it the lovely green color and the basil that I added gave the noodles a deliciously sweet basil taste. Mmmm so good *grin*.

It makes roughly 1 pound of pasta and it was the perfect amount for all 6 of us with our garlic toast :)

Bon appetit!

~ Rosina

Garden Update

We are finally seeing some rewards from all of the gardening we have been doing :)

Our broccoli has just exploded this last week with the few days of hot weather we finally got and of course the whole lot of them just happens to be ready at the same time *grin*.

So we've cut all of the larger crowns off and left the side shoots on so that they can grow and provide us with many more harvests throughout the summer.

My peas are not doing to bad but still no flowers. I hope that they will perk up!

It's actually not un-seasonally cool here this June but my beans are definitely not liking all of the wind and rain :) Can you believe that most days we are still running around in our heavy winter coats?!

I'm very excited about my leeks! They are doing really well after being transplanted and I can't wait till they grow big enough to try a few :)

My tomatoes are doing fantastic in their hanging planter bags!! This one is my 'Window Box Roma' and it is covered in lots of little baby romas.

Here's another one of my hanging tomatoes, this one is 'Rocket' and it to is just loaded with little tomatoes :) So far my cabbage isn't forming any heads yet and I'm really not sure what happened to my beets and carrots but it looks like I'm going to have to do some replaning :( The birds have been particularly bad this year eating all the seeds and green shoots so most have been lost. Oh well, I must look on the bright side and be very happy with what is coming *grin*.

How does your garden grow? I'd love to know *grin*.

~ Rosina

Victoria Bliss

Look what came in the mail today!! My new copy of Victoria :)
I just love this magazine. My mother started buying it when it first became available in 1987 and I remember pouring over the beautiful photos of ladies and children dressed so perfectly, garden scenery, poetry, a step back in time so to speak... a portal to another world.

When it was discontinued in 2003 it was terribly missed by many people, especially my mom so when I heard that they were bringing it back in 2007 I purchased her a secret subscription for Christmas and one for myself to *grin*. Now when it comes every couple of months we can loose ourselves in its pages once again and I thought that I would share some images with you from my new one :)

Wishing you all a day filled with much beauty :)

~ Rosina

Canada Day Pins

Only a couple more days until Canada Day so I thought it would be fun to do some Canada Day crafts and make some beaded flag pins :)

We got everything we needed at the dollar store for $2.00! Yipee for cheap craft supplies *grin*. All you need is some 1 & 2 inch safety pins and some seed beads to get started.

We filled individual safety pins with sequences of beads...

to be hung vertically from one main safety pin to create the Canadian flag :)

Don't forget the beaver! I just love how cute this little guy is :) If your little one has good hand eye coordination and you feel they can manage to place beads on a safety pin without pricking their fingers then this is a great activity for learning colors and counting together :) My four year old LOVED it. He actually made this beaver all by himself. All I did was tell him what colors and how many of each to put on the pins and he stuck them together. It's so much fun to see how excited and proud of his work he was when he finished *grin*.

You can find the patterns for the BEAVER and the CANADIAN FLAG by clicking on the their names. Have fun!!

~ Rosina

Picnic By The Pond

Today was a perfect day for a picnic down by the pond. The breeze was blowing and the fields of hay were rustling around us as we enjoyed lunch :)

A couple of days ago we got rained out just before we were ready to head outside but today despite the cloud cover the rain held off and we had a great afternoon. With the tables and chairs on the back of the pick up truck and the picnic baskets loaded we headed down to set up.

Preparations started early as we peeled peaches and pears to slice along with strawberries for a deliciously fruity pie tucked inside my whole wheat oat pastry and topped with a streusel crumble :) We mashed eggs for egg sandwiches, tossed salads and packed our picnic basket!

Have I told you how much I love my picnic basket *grin*. My mom and I found them a couple of years ago and they came with real plates, glassware and silverware. You've got to love that it's not packed with plastic and the bottom of it has a zippered cooler pouch for keeping everything from overheating :)

My daughter is crazy about using all the fancy dishes when we have little parties so we brought out the best treasures from the china cabinet to dress the table with :) No sense keeping them hidden away most of the year, we really should enjoy them more!

Boys!! Our tea party etiquette mustn't have rubbed off on my oldest. We're definitely going to have to work on this *grin*.

The kids' favorite salad. A combination of napa cabbage, carrot & noodle tossed in rice vinegar, mirin and sesame oil. I think it's just the sweetness of the dressing that they really like the most but if they're eating all that cabbage and carrot along with it I'm all for it :)

While the kids played badminton, watched water skeeters and tried to catch some of the fish in the pond the rest of us read the weekend paper, sipped on our coffee and savored the fresh pie :) Now if only we could do this every day!

How is your weekend shaping up? I'd love to hear about what is keeping you busy or ultra relaxed :)

~ Rosina

Sweet Temptation

Hmmm, what did I do with my day today you ask?
I think I spent most of it growing wider! *grin*

I seriously need to stop reading all blogs that post recipes. Of course I'm drawn to all the wonderfully healthy fruit & veggie type recipes out there but nothing screams MAKE ME like something loaded with calories. Yeah... I'm a total sucker for the sweets!

My new blog friend Annie from Sensible Living has some totally kick butt recipes and for breakfast we tried her baked french toast recipe that is topped with a praline crumble. Oh my word, delicious!!

As if one sweet treat wasn't enough I also made her raspberry chocolate torte and mmm was it good :) Being austrian we make a lot of tortes and I must say this is a darn good torte *grin*. The only thing I wish I would have had was fresh raspberries *sob* I had to use frozen ones from last summer because this years crop isn't quite ready yet. Oh well, that just means I've got to try it at least one more time! LOL.

Hey now it wasn't all sugar today, I had a salad to!!
We had more of that delicious french lettuce and it really is more tender than the regular butterhead variety. The woman that gave it to us also gave my mom some seeds so we can grow some of our own now to :)

So normally I might ask if you have baked something sweet lately but I'm going to stop right now and save myself from more temptation *grin*.

~ Rosina

Snowballs in Summer

Oh how I love my snowball tree with it's tiny white flowers clustered into the most perfect little fluffy balls. They truly do look like snowballs and when the wind blows and the leaves rustle the tiny blossoms flutter as they dance to the ground covering everything in a carpet of tiny petals.... oh so heavenly :)



Speaking of lovely things I am completely smitten with this adorable Little Square Scarf. Is it to early to be thinking of winter and making gifts for Christmas?!

Actually in my case I'm going to say no *grin*. I need all the time I can get to complete my list of handmade treasures I want to make this year and working on this while camping would be a wonderful treat while sitting by the campfire. Even if you don't know how to crochet check out her tutorial as she has done an excellent job showing through photos the entire process step by step so even a crochet newbie can make one of these! Oh I just love it :)

~ Rosina

Build Your Own Bird Blind

Anyone who has met our family will know that we are without a doubt crazy about nature! One of my children's favourite hobbies is to watch the birds that come and visit our feeders throughout the year. So what sort of craft do you make to keep a couple of bird brained nature lovers happy? Why you construct a simple bird blind of course for hours and hours of bird watching fun that keeps you up close and personal while incognito.

You will need:
A large cardboard box
A small cardboard box
Masking tape or clear packing tape
Exacto knife
Scissors
A glass
Brads

Start by finding the largest cardboard box that you can. A great place to get a box if you don't have one handy at home is by visiting your local grocery store and asking if they have a banana box or another large box hanging around in their stock room that they could spare. Quite often I have gone asking for boxes for school projects and I've never been turned down yet. Once you have your box, carefully open the top and bottom flaps and then cut vertically down one of the side seams so that the whole thing lies flat on the floor, then cut the box in half and stack the one layer above the other creating a large square. Now grab your tape and tape up the center seam where you are joining the two box halves together on both sides of the cardboard and any other spots on the box that appear to be weak. It may take a couple of strips of tape layered side by side until you have a good six inch width of tape to create a nice sturdy seam that is going to stand up straight when you set your cardboard upright.



Now that you have the backbone of your bird blind built you will want to put in some viewing holes. Place your bird blind on the window sill where it will be used for bird watching and have each of your children stand right in front of it so that you can mark exactly where their eyes meet the cardboard. Take a glass and use it as your template for drawing nice uniform circles. Using your exacto knife carefully cut out the circles slightly within the lines.

With a rambunctious four year old that wants to be just like big brother and sister I thought it was pertinent to create a way to cover up some of the viewing holes while they weren't in use to keep him from startling the birds as he bounced around behind the blind. To do this we used a smaller cardboard cereal box and using our glass again we traced out more circles to be cut out as covers for our viewing holes.

Using the tip of your scissors poke a hole above each of your viewing holes on your bird blind and through the top of each of the viewing hole covers. Then place a brad through each of the covers and in turn through the holes on your bird blind creating little flaps that swing open and closed over your viewing holes.

We had fun drawing on ours so that they looked like eyes looking back at us. We also thought it would be neat to use our bird blind as a bulletin board (see very first photo) for our nature drawings as well. So we taped up a bunch of our bird drawings from out of our nature journals and photos from bird articles in our local newspapers so that the we could try and spot different species as we watched our feeders. The entire project from start to finish took us about an hour to complete and it is amazing to be able to sit less than a foot away from the feeders watching unnoticed as the birds munch away on their bird seed. Don't be afraid to get creative with your bird blind either. Take it outdoors on a nice day and have your children cover it with branches and leaves to really camouflage it or let them paint it to blend into the surrounding shrubbery. Set it up near a place you know the birds always gather at, bring along a couple of lawn chairs and some snacks and have fun!

If you decide to make one let me know. We'd love see how you make your bird blind special :)

~ Rosina

Hermie: Who is in Charge Anyway? ~ Review

I recently signed up to be a book reviewer for Booksneeze as I thought it would be a great way to feed my reading obsession without spending any money *grin*. In return for receiving free material I have to share a quick blurb about each one on my blog and as it happens this time they sent me a DVD for children :) If you're a regular reader of my blog and you're not interested in this just skip it and watch for my next blog entry tonight as it's going to be a fun little project to complete!

Hermie: Who is in Charge Anyway?
A Lesson in Growing Up With God ~ By Max Lucado


This movie is one of many DVD's in a series called Hermie & Friends by Max Lucado and the first one that the children and myself have actually seen. It's a wonderfully cute story about Freddie the Flea and his conversation with God as he wants to know what makes him special.

The children were immediately engaged by the animation and fun 'bug' characters as God showed Freddie little flashbacks of his friends and how they weren't always the strong or courageous friends that the thinks they have always been! The message of the movie is very clear, that God has a special plan for all of us no matter how big or small we are and in the end God shares what his very special plan for Freddie the Flea is :)

My 6 and 4 year old absolutely loved the movie but it was definitely a little babyish for my 11 year old. Out of all 3 children my 6 year old benefited the most by understanding the message and getting the most out of the plot. There were a lot of flashbacks in the movie which I believe are snippets of previous movies and it seemed a little distracting to be bouncing around so much especially when you haven't seen any of the previous movies but the saving grace was the trivia game at the end. In the bonus section you can play and see how much you actually remember from the movie and my 6 year old aced it :) All in all it's a cute little movie and I'm giving it a 4 out of 5. ~ Rosina

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Market Day

I had planned to get back and finish off our camping weekend earlier today but I did a little visiting today with a really neat French couple that live here and I ended up bringing home a huge bunch of a delicious heirloom lettuce (she gets the seeds from her family in France) similar to a butterhead lettuce but even more tender and a giant handful of baby leeks that I transplanted into my garden this evening :) I sure hope the leeks take because they will be so good in soups and quiche this fall!

Okay so back to our weekend *grin*. On Sunday before we packed up the camper to head home we wandered down to the pier to check out the weekend market :) It's pretty much a big arts and crafts show with just a handful of bakers and such but it's always fun to see what people are making. On Saturdays one town further south is an AWESOME farmers market with produce, meats, baking, preserves and so much more. I wish this one was like that but I guess there just isn't enough interest or supply to make it a true farmer's market.

As we were walking by one of the bakery stands the fellow called Hubby over saying that he had noticed that he was wearing a special shirt for Father's Day (one of the ones the kids made him) and that he had something for him to.

Out he pulls this little red box and tells him to open it and for the kids to watch very carefully. I thought for sure that something was going to jump out at him as he lifted the lid and I think Hubby did to as he was a little hesitant to open it *grin*.

Inside were three little mice puppets that he popped up and wished Hubby a very special Father's Day wish with. The kids loved it :)

Before we left we grabbed a giant bag of kettle corn to share for the ride home and watched them make a batch. The drum is so incredibly hot that the fellow is wearing welding gloves to protect his hands!! I can't imagine how hot that job must be during the dog days of summer.

To end our day we shared cake and fresh strawberries with my daddy and gave him silly music cards :) I hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day weekend to!

~ Rosina