Homemade

Pounding the dough

We decided to make homemade noodles to go along with our homemade sauce. It was a fun project. I love to cook and I especially love to cook when I am a little stressed.

I looked up the recipe for noodle and it was simply eggs and flour. Our noodles consisted of 3 eggs and 1.5 cups of flour. I mixed it with my hands and then the fun of pounding, kneading and picking at it began. Ellie wanted in on the action.

Another note to the picture is the wall in the kitchen. When we moved into our home in 2004 I painted those squares on the wall in blue and green and then added cream lines. I got the idea from my mom because she had done that in a previous home. Many times guests would mistake it for real tile. After tens years here I am ready for a new look on the kitchen walls but I guess I will leave that up to the buyers!

Tasting the sauce

Of course one can't make homemade sauce and then not taste it as it simmers. Hadley wanted in on this process. She loves spaghetti and her take on the sauce was that it was a little spicy. I guess I let the 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes slip a little!

The dough rested on the counter for an hour and after we rolled it super thin. Well as thin as we could get it. Both of the girls helped.

Rolling it as thin as we can

Rolling... Ellie please don't cut it yet!

Hadley rolled the dough and didn't want to stop to pose for a picture. So we got an action shot!
We cut the noodles with a pizza cutter. We didn't have one noodle that looked alike but we tried. We added them into a bowl and kept cutting. This process was done mainly by me but the girls each helped cut one. They also helped put the noodles in the bowl. 

Left over noodles

Then it was time to cook the noodle. I put them in boiling salted water and cooked until soft. The recipe stated 2 minutes but it was more like 5 minutes and the noodles were perfect. Slightly firmish and not too mushy. We had enough for all of us to eat plus this left over for Robert to take for lunch.

Yummy

Hadley loves loves spaghetti and she enjoyed the noodles, sauce and veggie. She had to pose for me with a noodle in her mouth and she was concentrating pretty hard hence the lack of a smile!


I am pleased with the turnout of our first homemade noodles. I have always wanted to make them. They are easy but do require some labor. But worth it. Hopefully someday I can purchase a pasta maker, that would save a ton of time. The cutting process is a bit long with a pizza cutter. Regardless I look forward to making again and again.

Countdown

Memory

In psychology, memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Encoding allows information that is from the outside world to reach our senses in the forms of chemical and physical stimuli.

My goal is to capture memories of our first home through pictures, stories and items. I hope to gather up not only our stuff but the stuff that we can't take with us.

The process may be random but in the end it won't matter as long as years from now I can look back on my blogs and recall where our family began!

Timeline
February 25th - official first box packed.
March 28th - closing day!

Let the memories and countdown begin!

Simple weekend

So this past weekend we really didn't have any plans.

It started with the beginning of heart week! Celebrating CHD warriors and angels.

Our heart warrior... Ellie James! We made a lego heart!

We decided to brave the cold and go to the Arctic Blast parade and fireworks Friday night. It was cold but we wore layers. The evening was a success except for the car ride home as Ellie demanded with cries that, "we go home!" She was cold... her hands and feet.

Snow sculptures in Wahkon. Very neat!

Burr... cold parade!

Current Vikings players on the streets of Wahkon

Saturday we enjoyed a shopping day in Brainerd with Grandma. We found lots of deals. Hadley got new black boots which she hasn't taken off since we got home. For the third time Ellie got carsick right before Garrison. I quickly pulled off 169 and we spent 25 minutes getting her cleaned up. We had a extra pair of underwear and pants but no shirts. Thankfully the inside of her jacket was clean still so that became her shirt. I had a few extra hats in the car which we put on the bottom of her car seat and off we went to Brainerd. I told her she could just ask for a new outfit instead of puking all over hers. We found her some new things at Herbergers.

Ellie captured Hadley and she is thinking... get me out of this fabric store!

We need this Daddy!

Sunday we relaxed. The morning went smooth. Lunch was done by noon and the girls were in bed by 1pm for nap time. I even had a moment to relax around 2ish just before Robert came home with some Northern from Jon Oberfelds lake to fillet. He ventured to Zimmerman to spear some fish. This was his first time doing that. He said he spent more time catching up with the Oberfelds than actually spearing fish. Jeremiah went with him and the two cleaned fish in the basement for a half hour or so and Robert finished cleaning and cutting the fish for pickling. Tom and Jean arrived at 4pm and we went to Andrew's shed to take a look at the new boat and then we had some supper at Spirit Lake Steakhouse. Home for the evening at 6:30pm and spent the rest of the evening doing laundry and relaxing.

Today I have off and I am busy with some tasks around the house. I clicked on the link for Free Frozen movie and it actually worked so the girls are on the couch watching that. I am meeting with Josie from the Title Company today to ask her some questions about contracts on our land so I better get moving... It is easy for me to stay lazy! Oh and the girls slept in until 9am this morning. For breakfast I made them smoothies which they barely touched and hardboiled eggs and toast. Ellie ate her whole egg, Hadley only eats the white part.

Free Frozen and Hadleys new boots

I am so thankful for these lazy weekends. I know life can be so busy. I love simple! I love my family and I love spending time with them!

Well to another busy week!