Pasta from Scratch

I have ALWAYS wanted to make pasta by hand but have been too intimidated to try. Last night I had nothing to do and mustered up the courage to try it out. I looked for the easiest recipe possible that didn't involve a pasta machine and landed on this one from The Pioneer Woman.

First step was measuring the flour, creating a little "well", and then adding the eggs. I used 1 cup of flour and 2 eggs for technically two servings of pasta.

I very slowly combined the egg and flour with my hands. It was SO sticky. I wonder if I should have put some flour on my hands before I started? Once it was combined I transferred it to a floured cutting board and started the kneading! This is the part that's always worried me. How do you know when it's done? Well I wasn't really sure, but about 20 minutes later I thought the dough looked smooth enough. I then let it sit on the counter for another 20 minutes.

The next step was rolling it out! The Pioneer Woman said the pasta would plump up in the water, so I tried to roll it as thin as absolutely possible.

Then I used a pizza cutter to cut the dough into thin strips. This was really as thin as I could possibly do...it was tough to keep the roller straight!

Finally I added the pasta to boiling salted water. It only took about 2 minutes for the pasta to rise to the top, letting me know it was done. I hadn't thought ahead and didn't have any tomatoes or pasta sauce on hand, so i simply mixed it up with some garlic flavored olive oil, Italian seasoning, salt, and parmesan cheese. The pasta was amazing!! I love the texture -- it was definitely more chewy than dry pasta. Next time I will focus on cutting it a bit thinner.

Delizioso!

Life Lately

Today I spent a while reading old posts. I don't have the patience or care to write the way I used to in here, but it does make me sad I won't be able to go back and reflect on so many amazing memories. So I felt inspired to do the easiest ever "life lately" post. Here we go back to early May...

I got a promotion at work!! I'm so proud and happy. When I was 23 I set a goal to reach Director level by age 30. I did it by age 29! Go me! And my insanely sweet boyfriend sent these beautiful flowers to my work :-)

In early May I went to the Harpoon Beer Festival with some friends. It was an amazing day.

I took a work trip to Baltimore and had the best crabs ever. Before:

And after:

I had another work trip to New York around my birthday and got to spend it with my family for the first time in a long time. My aunt and uncle generously hosted a BBQ for me and I got lots of QT in with this little guy:

The birthday week continued with this awesome meal with my parents:

Once I got back to Boston, a ton of my friends joined me at Lawn on D to keep the celebrations going.

My friend Caity's birthday is right around mine, so I took a short break to share the celebrations. I don't know if this video I took at the bar will work here but it's too cute not to post.

My birthday culminated with an INCREDIBLE dinner at Tasting Counter. I don't know what happened to all of my photos but here are a few from the wonderful 10-course tasting and beer pairing menu we had.

It was "Tall Ships" week in Boston. I didn't do much but I thought this picture was a beaut!

Back to NY again for Jackson's baptism. I am so honored to be his Godmother! I am going to spoil this little munchkin for the rest of his life.

Here's a big one! I [pretty much] completed Whole 30! I would like to write more about this but am not sure I will. I did 22 days, took a short 3 day break during my vacation, then finished up once I was back. This shrimp from Whole Foods is compliant and was SO good.

Speaking of my vacation, me and Jacob spent a week in the Hamptons with my family in early July. This trip was so wonderful. We spent so much time lounging by the pool, biking, kayaking, eating delicious food -- it was EXACTLY what I needed.

My parents and sister's family left early and Jacob and I spent a few days up on the north side of Long Island. We went to a little festival and visited several wineries and breweries.

Last weekend was my friend Nicole's wedding in Vermont. It was absolutely gorgeous and SO fun. We stayed the whole weekend and had a blast. We spent lots of time recovering from our hangovers, eating pancakes with VT maple syrup, and even got in a little exercise with some hiking.

If you look closely you can see the hummingbird!

And finally, one of my very best friends (Kathleen) asked me to be one of her bridesmaids! Kath and I met over 10 years ago at Northeastern orientation and have been best buddies ever since Still can't believe this lady is getting married!!