In the kitchen: homemade pasta dough.

For Christmas this year, Andrew's parents bought us a KitchenAid stand mixer. After receiving the grinder attachment from my mom and the pasta attachment from my aunt and uncle, we have everything we could possibly need to make pasta and ragù from scratch, and not to mention the best and most generous family. 

Making pasta is something special. It's time consuming and takes some practice to get it right, but the results are so worth it in the end. It's definitely not an everyday activity (we're still big fans of Trader Joe's 99-cent rigatoni for those days time just gets away from us), but when you have a free Saturday afternoon, it's absolutely perfect. There's nothing quite as satisfying as enjoying a bowl of homemade pasta and a ragù that's been cooking away for several hours on the stove. 

We used the Sussman brothers' recipes from This is a Cookbook: Recipes for Real Life for both the pasta dough and ragù. My favorite time of year to cook from their book is during the fall, and we've had so much fun doing so in the past. Seriously, go buy this cookbook.  

Basic Pasta Dough, via The Sussman Brothers. 
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1 c. semolina flour

2 c. all-purpose flour

4 large egg yolks

3 large eggs

Water

Combine the flours in the bowl of the stand mixer. Make a well in the center and add the yolks, whole eggs, and 2 Tbsp. water. 

With a fork, whisk the eggs lightly to blend, then begin mixing all the ingredients together by hand, drawing in flour gradually from the sides. Add a bit more water to help the dough come together into a ball, but not more than another tablespoon; you'll still want it to feel somewhat dry. 

Using the dough hook attachment, knead the dough on medium-low speed for about 10-15 minutes until it becomes stretchy and elastic. If you don't have a mixer, you can, of course, do this by hand, but note it'll take quite a bit more time to knead the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it sit at room temp for at least 1 hour, and up to 12, before shaping. 

After the dough has rested, it's up to you to decide what kind of pasta to make! We love bucatini, but the pasta attachment has other shapes I can't wait to try, including fusilli. Or, you can roll out the pasta using a machine to make ravioli or lasagna sheets. And once it's shaped, fresh pasta only takes 3 minutes to cook: just wait for it to float to the top of a salted pot of boiling water and it's ready! Combine with a ragù, top with tomatoes and basil, or just add olive oil, some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and black pepper. Make sure to have a glass of wine, too: salute! 

A good WI-kend.

We had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. It's finally fall, my favorite season, and it feels like it, too...yay for sweater weather and boots! It's funny to me how tired I get of wearing boots into springtime, but how exciting it is to dig them out again once it starts getting cooler.


Andrew and I both had free time this weekend...and even if we (read, Andrew) actually didn't, we made time for it. This was one of the first instances that we haven't had to go anywhere on a weekend off; during the summer, free weekends weren't actually free but were saved for wedding activities or family events back home. Of course, this isn't to say that we didn't love going home on the weekends when we could, but it was a nice change of pace to spend some time on the WI side of the border.

So what did we do with all our free time? Friday we had friends over for dinner, Saturday we made pasta (stay tuned for an In the Kitchen post in the next few days!), and Sunday we went to Madison to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was a lovely weekend.

In fact, we've got a few lovely weekends on the horizon! My mom comes to visit a week from today (WOOHOO!) then we have a wedding in Iowa, then my sister comes the following weekend! AND, the fact that wedding photos are coming in is the cherry in top of an already pretty great start to fall. Seriously. I could look at our wedding photos all day, on repeat...more of that later this week!

Five things.

{via}

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My mom and sister went to the best apple orchard in MN today. Who's jealous? Moi.  What I would give for a turnover with cinnamon ice cream...

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Today is the first day that it hasn't felt HOT outside. There's an actual chill in the air this afternoon.  While I'm ready for the weather to change over from 90 degrees and humid to something much more pleasant, I'm sad, too, which is strange for me since I love fall! This summer was beautiful, in every sense of the word, even if we did have to turn the bedroom into a makeshift kitchen to survive the heat (that actually happened). The changing season is already making me miss all the wonderful adventures of summertime. 

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I finished writing our thank-you notes to all our friends and family last night. I already knew this, and have said it before, but we really do have THE BEST group of friends and the most generous families. Just rereading all the lovely cards put a huge smile on my face. I'm a sucker for all kinds of stationery, even blank cards with puppies on the cover with a quick but heartfelt note inside...so everyone's messages and good wishes made my day. 

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I made this for dinner the other night. So, so good, probably the best thing that's happened to cauliflower yet. Ms. Izard does not disappoint. For proof, see here...and here, and here. 

-------5-------

The X-Factor is back. It's one of my guilty pleasures since...last year. We were hooked last fall, probably because it was one of the few things on non-cable tv that we didn't hate watching. It took a bit of adjusting to get used to being limited to 6 channels, though we're doing just fine now...thanks to Netflix, Hulu, etc. But really, I don't know why I like this show - it's basically the same as American Idol and America's Got Talent, which I don't watch at all. Andrew put it well last night, tweeting this: 

Watching #XFactor is like listening to this. You can't help but enjoy it even if you know you should be hating it.

Michael Jackson - Will You Be There - Version Free Willy - [HQ]

MN Mondays: wedding week.

My sister came to MKE a week before our wedding, spent a few days here, and then she and I drove back home to MN to get everything ready for the big day. While there was a bit of running around and plenty of last minute planning, we had so much fun enjoying summertime with our family and close friends.

I was so lucky to get plenty of girl time with my mom and sister. We took Medyk for a walk, let him play soccer while watching the Blues (in his jersey!), went shopping, went to dinner...girl things. Twice, we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Stillwater to gather barvinok, periwinkle, for the place settings at the reception. Periwinkle is traditionally used in Ukrainian weddings, symbolizing eternal and faithful love, and, lucky for me, it was overtaking a corner of their garden. It turns out that my grandfather had actually planted it many years ago! My aunt and uncle's backyard is gorgeous (it's where we had my bridal shower!), and summertime has made it even better, full of green. My sister and I jumped in the pool both days, and were so relaxed and happy to savor two afternoons at one of our favorite places from our childhood. 

One of my favorite things we did was have a baba's vechir, which translates to "old ladies' evening" at my mom's. When we were little these evenings used to be more frequent; every month, a group of fantastic women (NOT old ladies) from our Ukrainian community would get together, drink wine, and cook or bake. Just for fun. Just to talk, get together, and stay connected outside all of the other activities they were already so busy with. I, of course, wanted to be a part of that group as a little girl, and looked forward to these nights just as much as the adults. As we grew up, everyone became even busier, and these nights stopped happening. I was so, so happy to be able to reconnect at our own baba's vechir before the wedding. These women have all played, and continue to play, such an important role in my life. I've looked up to all of them since I can remember, and now they have their own kids who are much more grown up than I like to admit. We had a wonderful night...perhaps Medyk felt a little too much love, but it was still perfect. 

It's hard to believe this was all three weeks ago. Time flies. We miss you all so much! 

This Month.

I've missed a few of these, but we've had a busy, beautiful summer. Even though I'm not in school anymore, every September puts me in "back-to-school" mode where I want to go buy folders and pens (and new clothes). Still, there's a sense of restarting in the air, of getting a new chance to make a good impression. It's as if everyone is starting a new grade...I think I'll forever be on a semester schedule, thanks to Andrew's classes and future career! Speaking of, I'm so proud of him - he taught his first two classes this morning!!

Wishing everyone a good year ahead, whether you just started kindergarten (my Bo!) or teaching college freshmen, and all those who are looking for a new start. We've got this.