Pasta Maven

Glorious success my friends in the pasta department!! OMG.. I had waayy to much fun and my first fettuccini (tear) came out just great. I can't lie I had a couple of practice runs with supervision so I felt pretty confident going solo. Big D was pretty impressed. Although we differ slightly in our idea of ideal doneness in pasta. I like mine very aldente so it has some bite. He prefers more well done. I got my way since I made the meal and it was complete pasta heaven.

My lovely pasta strained and ready for sauce.

I will leave the blogging of this recipe to STL. But all I will say is that is was soooooo good when she made it for us that I had to make it again the next night... Yeah.. that good. Making my own pasta was totally a pretense.

Oh and pork bellies beware.. I am ready for you!! Muahahahahahahaaaa

xoxo
Fast Alice

My Foot is tapping...

So the festivities of yesterday evening have ended and I'm stuck home with Big D feeling that kind of feeling you get when the run of a show is over.  Not that I have had even the slightest feeling of malaise since we moved here but having my Besties over did make me realize how far away they are :(  But I just remind myself that although there are many more miles between us,  in actual commuting time they are only an extra 20 minutes further on the train than when we lived in Queens.  This idea picked me up enough to gets to house cleaning.  

My wonderful StepMom gave Big D and I the Shark Steam Mop as a house warming gift.  Invariably despite my excitement it has managed to sit in the closet since we moved in until today.  After a grueling hunt for distilled water I was able to use it and the results were very nice!!!  It was light, easy to use, and has washable pads that clean the floor.  We have been really trying to go Green here at Fort Fraley.  The steam kills the bacteria without cleaner and left the floor looking pretty awesome.  My only complaint if I had to make one would be that it was a little more difficult to push than I anticipated.  Not heavy, just the resistance of the floor made it a little tough.  Even writing this I feel like a weenie, I know someone is going.... Um... isn't she a personal trainer... and Yeah!! I AM.. SO WHAT!!  My arms get tired too sometimes.. especially when you are hopelessly right handed.  If I could have switched to my left I wouldn't feel so pooped.  Also, the whole downstairs of the house got cleaned today which is no small feet trust me.  But it only took me maybe 45 minutes, including vacuuming time prior to mopping so not bad.  If you are looking to Green up your house I say go for it.  Now if only I could cure my HORRIBLE addiction to paper towels.  I'm trying people I am!! 

My curing salts don't come in until Tuesday and I really can't stand the wait.  I'm just sooooo eager to get started.  However, I did purchase a food scale at Costco so now I can check weights instead of using a crystal ball to tell when meats are done.  My deli slicer should be coming this week too.  My plan is to kill the anticipation by trying to make home made pasta tonight.... SOLO.  I was lucky enough to have The Boss supervising me the last two times.  But I feel ready.  I'll let you know how it goes.  

Time to go back to the fire and finish reading Emma :)

xoxo

Fast Alice

Charcutepalooza January!!

Duck Prosciutto

So as I mentioned before I am taking part in Charcutepalooza: The Year of Meat. The first challenge was of course Duck Prosciutto which I have posted on previously.  But the duck... she is a done!!!  I unveiled our pretty duck boobies yesterday afternoon and much to my great excitement they seem to have come out just great.  I was a little concerned that our temporary loss of heat may have affected the outcome so I let them sit in our heated porch (which I left at 50deg)  about 2 extra days.  In all honesty I think they could have perhaps used one more day.  I also don't have a scale so I didn't do any of that useful weighing stuff that may have saved me some anxiety.  I pretty much just went by a.. does it still feel squishy?... methodology.   Hopefully I won't end up with crazy food poisoning.  But who is a real adventurous chef without a little food poisoning....  Another thing was my (duck) breasts were HUGE.  I was wondering why they were so expensive at the Butcher.  

This is a regular size cutting board and you can see they easily take up most of the width... Crazy.  A few things about the outcome.  I was really surprised by how tasty the fat was.  I mean, of course fat usually makes things taste good.  But I'm really much more of a lean meat person.  I get totally turned off by blubbery chewy fat.  It is just not a texture I enjoy.  I was concerned that this recipe would yield a product with a lot of chewy fat and that I wouldn't like it.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that curing the fat made it firm, velvety and delicious.  Not at all what I expected.  Plus, I love that this will keep in my fridge for a few weeks.  This is totally a rich treat and I can't imagine having to gobble it up without sharing with company.  I also have to put it out there that the duck didn't really make me think of eating prosciutto.  It has such a deep minerally taste it really reminded me more of a red meat rather than pork.  Almost like venison.  If you want to get all technical game birds and wild animals usually have more endurance based muscle fibers to help them keep alive in the wild, hence the darker meat with a deeper taste... BAM!!! Personal trainer knowledge!!  

Anywho.. next week is the Salt Cure and I already have my Pink salt and juniper berries on the way. As well as my new meat slicer.  I am just writhing with excitement people.  I just can't wait to make some pancetta, which Big D and friends lovingly call Super-bacon.  Happy Curing and I can't wait to give you more job news soon :)  

xoxo

Fast Alice