Thursday 4 July 2013

Slow Holiday Cooking....and Happy 4th of July!!


My house was reminiscent of the image above yesterday afternoon.  My clothes horse looks a little different, but I definitely had handmade fettuccine and linguine hanging on mine!  Early on I decided that if I was going to go to all that effort I should double the pasta recipe and invite some friends over to share.  I also christened my new ramekins.  Joolz suggested lemon delicious puddings and she was spot on the money!  I used both the ramekins and some oven-proof mugs to feed two families and everyone agreed they were as delicious as the pasta.  Mine looked very much like the one pictured below.

What struck me about yesterday's meal was that I really do enjoy just puddling about in my kitchen when I have the time to do it.  Handmade pasta is a time-consuming but simple meal that just suits lazy winter days that have you all cosy at home. I spend much of the year running from one end of the day to the other that I had quite forgotten how satisfying slow food is.  Both in the making and the eating.  Don't worry - there was a green salad to satisfy my new goal of including more vegies in my diet!

I know it's a tad early for those on the other side of the globe, but Happy 4th of July to those of you who celebrate it.  We don't normally take on the holidays of other countries, but we were in the US on the 4th three years ago and spent the night in Denver, CO to see some spectacular fireworks.  What we really saw was the most amazingly awesome storm.  As well as the fireworks.  I have never seen a sky so black.  It was truly beautiful in a stormy kind of way.  So tonight we're having American-style hamburgers, and we're following that with a trip across the pond and down memory lane with some bread and butter pudding Nigella-style.  I know it's not American but I have some ginger jam and I really want my freezer as sparse as it can be before I head into Costco.  In any case, if Miss Sunshine has her way we'll celebrate the 4th a few times because she really wants deep-fried mozzarella which comes frozen at Costco.  I'm inclined to indulge her just this once as it is the one food thing from that US holiday she has remembered with great fondness!

1 comment:

Left-Handed Housewife said...

This post makes me hungry! I've never heard of ginger jam, but it sounds lovely. And I'm intrigued by your mention of "American-style" hamburgers. Are there Aussie-style hamburgers, too? Are they much different?

I haven't made homemade pasta in a while, but it is so awfully good I may just have to give it a go!

xofrances