Luke: “So, I’m pretty proud of the work I did this morning”

Talia: “Uh huh”

Luke: “The scrolling with the jquery is really hard to do”

Talia: silence

Luke: “You don’t really appreciate the work I did, do you?”

Talia: “It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, I just don’t understand how difficult it is, so it’s hard to be truely impressed.”

Luke: “I guess it’s like your cooking. I know that it tastes good, but I don’t really know how amazing it it”

Talia: “Yes! It’s exactly the same. I apprecaite how the site looks good now, but I don’t understand the technicalities of making it. That’s kind of depressing actually. Now I know how little you appreciate the skill involved in cooking some of those masterpieces…”

Luke: “Okay, well if you learn jquery, I’ll learn to cook”

Talia: “Deal”

WHAT HAVE I GOT MYSELF INTO?!

Quite Pepper...

Because of that (and because we’ve been putting together all our new furniture and cleaning up  the various areas of the house) I haven’t had a chance to edit any photos to show you, or to blog about the quilt show I went to on Saturday or ANYTHING!! Here’s a slideshow of the Quilt Show. If you’re viewing this in a reader, then you might need to click on the actual post link so that you can view the slideshow.

Also, have you had a look at my new blog, Cooking For Two? If not, I’d really appreciate you having a look and leaving me some feedback!

M&D send me to a cooking class for my birthday this year. While my actual b’day was a while ago now, I just went to the class this last weekend. It was a FANTASTIC day. LOTS of fun! The place is called “On The Ridge“, and as you can see from the picture, it’s set in the beautiful area of Kureelpa, up near Montville.

The Amazing View

One of my favourite things to do was make pasta. I’ve made pasta before, but Tonya gave us some really good tips that I didn’t know before. On Tuesday night I made some pasta dough (100g flour to 1 egg and some oil) after home group, and last night Luke and I had some pasta with the pesto I made as well (I got the recipe for that from the class).

Pasta we made drying on clothes rack!

At the cooking class we split into groups to cook the various things- there were a LOT of different dishes (we got to eat them ALL at the end!). One group made Veal ‘Olives’ with mushroom, sage and proscuitto. Isn’t it nice to cook them out on the deck?!

Is there anything much better then cooking on the deck?

I would 100% recommend going to one of Tonya’s cooking classes. It was a fantastic day filled with learning and cooking in a BEAUTIFUL location. Lots of wine and food afterwards. We ate for SEVERAL hours after we’d finished cooking!! Rachel and I think this would be great for Carmy’s hens day as well- but we’ll see what happens with that- it could be a little too expensive for everyone, but I would go back in an instant! If you love food and cooking then I would definitely recommend this cooking school!

This was an Italian day, but there are lots of others themes as well. Check out their website for more details and FREE recipes!!

My group made the pesto for the pasta. Delish!

Unfortunately for me today, I am ‘cooking without gas’ in more then one sense of the word. I am sick, yes. I have the day off school to re-coop, and hopefully feel better tomorrow so that I can continue with my internship.

Luke and I have also, run out of gas, and so my atempt at cooking bacon this morning was thwarted, as was my attempt at making custard for lunch. Fortunately I found alternate cooking methods- yay for sandwich presses that run on electricity and microwaves!

I have had a somewhat beneficial day though- I got lots sorted as far as design goes, on Sarah’s Pantry Tea invitation (they are going to be SUPER cute!), watched some of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, and intend to work on the 1000 word essay I have to do by tomorrow, and also read my bible. If I get time, washing up and eLA stuff is on the agenda as well.

I think all the kids had a good time. My brother, Amon, was there (the kid with his head down in the picture), and I really liked spending that time with him.

I didn’t have to do ALL the cooking… Kim was a great help leading the boys through the pancake making process… Yes, they used their hands, yes everyone ate them, and yes, they were good!

They had to do challenges, and we also had a speaker who I think really helped out a lot of the kids with some of the issues they had going on. I felt like I learnt a lot as well, so that’s always a good thing!

If I’m going to be completely honest with you, then I’ll tell you that I wasn’t 100% looking forward to camp. But, I would definitely do it again, now that I’ve done it and realise that it’s a really great time to have fun, learn, teach, and just be an example of a ‘regular christian person’ whatever that is.

I made fresh pasta last night. I am not much of a measurements girl,  but I’ll give it a go telling you all how I made it.

400g Flour

4 eggs

A bit of oil…

So you can either put the flour in a mound on the table, make a well in the center, put the eggs into it, and then use your finger to gradually pull the flour into the egg mix. Once it’s all mixed together kneed it for a good 10 minutes. You will know when it’s ready because it will look silky.

Now, you really don’t want to make this without a pasta maker, but you can if you wish. Put it on the highest setting (7 on mine) and push the pasta through. Then fold it into thirds, and repeat. Do this about 4 or 5 times. This helps to kneed the dough further, and to get it really extra silky and smooth.

Then push it through at each level indicated on the side. I never really do this- I can’t be bothered to put it through 7 times!! I usually just do settings 7, 5, 3 then 1.  Sometimes I just leave it on 2 or 3, and that leaves me with a slightly thicker, easier to use pasta. Particularly good if you like pasta, and make lasagna with it.

When I’m on about setting 5, I usually cut my really long sheet in half. I’ve found that doing that really makes my pasta better, because it doesn’t curl up at the bottom. And covering the pasta generously on both sides with flour after that setting 5 roll will help a lot as well.

Cover it again with flour on both sides when you’re finished. This means it won’t stick together. You can either slice up the pasta yourself now for fettuccine, or spaghetti, or you can leave it flat for lasagna or cannelloni, or tortellini or ravioli. Or you can use the cutters that already come with it (most of the time), and make the pasta with that (like in the picture)!