You Gotta Start Somewhere

Project #1: Pasta Making

I have a short list of ideas for this trying-new-things thing, and I decided, sort of arbitrarily, to start with pasta making. I've been meaning to make fresh pasta for a while. Since October, to be precise. That's when my brother and his girlfriend gave me a pasta machine as a belated birthday present. (Thanks, Ryan and Sarah!)

Step One: Open the Box

I grabbed the box off the top of the refrigerator, dusted it off, and opened it up. Here's what I found:

Thankfully, no assembly was required, but I did have to clean the machine with a dry cloth and run dough through the press and cutters. Because I needed dough anyway, I decided to go all out and make a full batch. I used the step-by-step instructions in the manual, and the video at the bottom of this page was also helpful.

Digging In

As this was my first time, I'll use a lot of pictures to show what went down. The basic egg noodle recipe is 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 3 eggs. You've probably never seen flour and eggs together before, so here's a picture:

After the flour and eggs were mostly incorporated, I transferred the sticky glob to the counter and kneaded until... I stopped. It just seemed like the dough ball had had enough. (In hindsight, I think I took the mixture out of the bowl too soon - I didn't use up all the eggs, and I wasted too much flour. I'll get you next time, Gadget!)

After letting the dough sit under a damp cloth for about 15 minutes, I cut a small portion out and ran it through the machine to collect excess oil. (Factory grease, not olive oil, people.) In the process, I got some stuff that kind of looked like pasta! This part was very reminiscent of Play-doh experiments I conducted in the early '90s.

On to the Real Stuff

With my machine cleaned, I was ready to do some actual pressing and cutting! It turns out, the process from here isn't hard, it's just repetitive. Each section of dough must be run through the press several times until it is a long, translucent sheet. The manual said to start at "7" - the thickest setting - and gradually work down to the number I wanted. I decided to stop at "4." (Aim for the middle, that's what I always say.)

After sitting to dry for 10 minutes, I cut the sheet in half length-wise and fed it through the fettuccine cutter. The caption for this one: "Nom nom nom."

Rinse and repeat. More pressing. More cutting. Some drying. A few swats at the cat. And 2 hours later, I ended up with this pile of food-like stuff.

Which turned into this pile of definite food..

All in all, I was pleased with my first time around. It wasn't a total disaster! In fact, it was quite successful. A meal for two and then some. I'm thinking spinach-flavored noodles and fresh pesto are in my near future. Yum!

The Goal

I've never maintained a true blog before. This is my first. It might be my last. I just hope it doesn't have a short shelf life. I'm a little nervous that this blog will be another diary that starts off with high hopes of daily attention immediately followed by crisp, blank pages. Thankfully, this blog isn't intended to be a "dear diary" type anyway. This blog isn't even the real target. It's just a way to document my actual goal: to try new things.

More specifically, my goal is to try one new thing after another. This will result in a series of new experiences, something different in the hopper at any given time. This project is intentionally broad, but I've set a few rules to give it some structure. First, each new "thing" must be a skill that I can learn and practice. Needless to say, it should be a skill of interest that I can have some success with. Second, it must be completed over an extended (but reasonable) period of time. No "one-shot" deals, and no black belt mastery. Lastly, it must be tangible enough to document online with words and photographs. To further illustrate the point, here are some reject ideas. Around the World in Eighty Chocolates? Delicious, but not a skill. How about hopscotch? Whimsical, but too simple. Learning to play tabla? Highly awesome, but too complex. ESP? Difficult to document and generally questionable.

There are a couple reasons behind this project. First, I'm totally jealous. The creative efforts of others often make me say, "I want to do that! Why can't I be cool like that person?" I have a whole closet full of untouched interests and would-be passions. This project might give me the extra incentive I need to get a move on some of them. Second, while I'll be a full-time graduate assistant in the fall, technically I'm unemployed. Aren't jobless people supposed to blog?

I hope once in a while you'll visit and read about my latest phase. Or at least look at the pictures.