Fettuccine Alfredo

So, today was an unplanned snow day.  What's a better combination than a snow day and comfort food?  Recently I was asked to donate some baked goods to my church's bake sale.  It was shortly after Christmas and I figured that a lot of other people, like myself, were still coming down off the Holiday sugar high.  I decided to make something a little less traditional.  What I donated were meal kits for a fettuccine dinner.  Here, I'm going to walk you through the steps for this tasty meal and give you the recipes!

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For the noodles, I have the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. If you don't have access to one of these, there are other types of free standing pasta rollers. You can roll and cut by hand too, but the dough is VERY firm and I know I wouldn't be able to tackle that! I used the basic egg pasta recipe that comes with the pasta roller.  It requires: 4 large eggs (I guess that's why it's called EGG pasta!), 1 Tbsp water, 3 1/2 cups sifted flour, 1/2 tsp salt.  Combine all the ingredients and mix with the dough hook on your mixer (if you have one) for 2 1/2 minutes.  Dough will be very crumbly. You should be able to pinch it and have it stick together. 

Dump out the dough on a clean surface and hand kneed for 1-2 minutes.  It will form some semblance of a ball.  You want the dough to stick enough to form a lump, but dryer is better. 

In the above picture, I probably had too much water.  Your lump of dough will not be this pretty or round!  Let your ball of dough rest for 20 minutes before rolling. Divide the dough into 4 pieces before running through the sheet roller, one piece at a time.  Start with the widest setting and run through the sheeter several times until you get a fairly smooth, continuous piece of pasta.  Then, decrease the thickness setting one step at a time and run the dough through until you achieve the desired thickness for your pasta. For instance, on the KitchenAid roller, I started with level 1, ran the dough through several times in alternating directions and folded the dough over between each trip through the roller.  Once I got the dough to stick together and form a fairly consistent piece, I decreased the thickness setting to 2 and ran the dough through. I repeated this on level 3, 4, 5 and 6. I stopped at level 6.  This seemed to be a good thickness for fettuccine noodles. 

Once you get your nice, long, thin sheet of pasta dough, cut to manageable lengths.  However long you cut the sections will be the length of your finished noodles. Now switch to the fettuccine cutter attachment and run each sheet of pasta through once.  You don't need to worry about the noodles as they come out the bottom, just let them fall together. This is where it is really important your dough is dry enough to start with.  If you have even the tiniest bit too much water, the noodles will stick together.  I kind of "fluff" or toss the noodles periodically to make sure they are not sticking.  You can let them dry for an hour or two, or you can put them directly into the fridge or freezer for later use.  They can also be cooked immediately.  If you cook them fresh, they only take about 3 minutes in boiling water to cook.  If they are dried, frozen or refrigerated, they take 4-6 minutes in boiling water to cook.   

Now, here are the steps for Alfredo sauce that is M-m good!

I sealed mine in canning jars, so I first boiled the jars and lids to sterilize them.  

Note: this does NOT mean you can store them in a pantry or other non-refrigerated area.  Due to the high dairy content of the sauce and lack of preservatives, it must be refrigerated until used.  I also used a canning funnel and had everything ready to go before I started cooking the sauce.

Assemble your ingredients: 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 1/2 cups whipping cream, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup Romano cheese, 6 jumbo or 7-8 large egg yolks, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 Tbsp fresh ground black pepper, 2 tsp minced garlic.  

In a heavy bottom saucepan, heat the cream and milk until simmering. Use low-medium heat. Once simmering, add the two cheeses.  Whisk until you feel any lumpiness or gooeyness from the cheese completely melt into the cream. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks. Next you are going to temper the egg yolks.  You need to do this so they don't cook from the heat of the cream when you combine the two.  To temper the eggs, slowly add small portions of the hot cream/cheese mixture to the eggs yolks, beating the entire time.  I received a Cuisinart immersion/stick blender from my aunt and uncle or Christmas and it is AWESOME!  I used it for this part of the recipe and it worked great.

Once you have about half of the hot cream added to the eggs, you can switch and use the blender in the remaining cream and add the (now warm) eggs back into the saucepan. Add the salt, pepper and garlic and bring back to a simmer over medium-low heat.  Continue to whisk until sauce starts to thicken.  If it starts to boil, stop! It will thicken a little more as it cools.  It will thicken very nicely if you make it ahead of time and refrigerate it.  It reheats easily in the microwave or on the stove top. 

If you are saving for later or giving as gifts, it's nice to have the pasta sauce in sealed jars.  Pour the hot Alfredo sauce into the jar, wipe the lip if needed and place a lid snugly on using the included lid ring.  As the sauce cools, it will seal the lid.  Once cooled, refrigerate. One batch will make a little over 2 pints.  If you plan on freezing, put into plastic ziplock bags or containers.  This sauce freezes very nicely.

I found cute black wire baskets at the Dollar Tree and a piece of fabric from Joann Fabrics to make it complete.  I also made crispy bread sticks, but this post has gotten entirely too long and you can find the recipe here. 

I have made a 5x7 recipe card with these recipes that you can download here

Thanks for reading (or skimming!) Have a tasty Wednesday.

Fabric Flower Clips

Lately I have been diggin' all the beautiful fabric flowers there are to have and, especially, to make. My favorite way to use them is worn in my hair.  It seems like I end up wearing my hair pulled back the same way every day, so clipping in a fun flower mixes it up.  These pretty blossoms can also be clipped on sweaters, jackets, purses or even shoes!  The can be clipped onto a stretchy headband for baby to wear or even top a simply wrapped gift to make it stunning.  Following, I am going to show you the steps I found online on various tutorials to make the basic flower.  I added the beaded center for my "fresh spin."

First, you need to find fabrics that have a high polyester content.  This allows the edges to curl up when heated.  I used both 100% polyester and some blends.  Both worked well. I also chose a fabric with a sheen to it, but that's personal taste.

To cut the flowers, you can certainly do it by hand, but I found it quick and easy to use my Cuttlebug die cutter.  

If you do use a die cutter, you need to use the type of dies with an actual blade. Some of the dies I've seen are just a metal rim the "presses" the shape out of paper, but these will not work for fabric.  Sizzix work great. This is the die I used.

I layered four layers of fabric and cut them all at once. I used four layers of each size of petal for one flower.  That's 16 layers per flower clip.

I clipped into the flower a little to define the petals a little more.  I only did this on the red flower (check out the finished products at the end). You can leave them as they are, the flower will just turn out a little more like a circle and have less defined petals.

Next, using a flame source, I used a flame stick but you can use a tea light too, carefully heat the edges of the fabric so they just start to melt and curl up.  You can play around with this to get the look you want.  Depending on the blend of your fabric, each material will melt a little differently.  Some will have edges that are more black, others will just be slightly darker than the fabric itself. 

Once you get all the layers flamed on the edges, set them aside.  Now you'll prepare the center of the flower.  I used black medium sized seed beads and black thread for this flower.  I threaded the needle, doubling the thread back over on itself.  Next, thread on one bead and tie one or two square knots to hold it in place at the end of the thread.  Clip any tails close to the bead, without cutting through your knot. 

Now, I just sort of started adding beads one or two at a time and then running the needle through one of the beads already tied on the thread until I had created a little "knot" of beads. 

Once I had the center the size I wanted, I layered the finished petals in the order I wanted, skewing the petals a bit so they were staggered.

You can either run the needle through all layers together, or to make sure they are all centered, you can thread them on one at a time.

Once all your layers or threaded on, thread back up through the center, catch one or two of the beads and thread back down through all of the petal layers and out the back. Repeat this step and pull the threads up firmly to snug everything together.

With the threads coming out the back of the flower, sew on an alligator clip.  You can find these at any craft store.  I like to use this type clip because I have fine hair and they hold on firmly.  You could also use any other type of hair clip. Run the thread around the clip several times and tie off the thread 2-3 times before cutting the tail.

Finished!  Here are the other colors I've made.  All of these use the same Sizzix die.

Here's one I've experimented with using a different shaped die and adding in a sheer fabric alternating with a solid.

The possibilities are endless!

Art Deco Lamp Makeover

This past summer, I bought this vintage gooseneck lamp at an occasional sale I frequent in Carver, MN. When I bought it, it was displayed with its somewhat off kilter lamp shade turned upsidedown and a plant in it. No bulb. No cord. It looked something like this:

I think I paid something like $5.00 for it.  Its cord had been cut, I didn't even care if it worked or not. I planned on using it as a plant stand as I saw it displayed in the store.  And that's what I've done for the last several months.  Recently, I've been looking for some fun vintage lighting for a desk my husband and I are building.  On the internet I came across these cool art deco gooseneck lamps that looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't think of why.  Then it hit me; that's the same kind of lamp I've been using as a plant stand for months!  As it turns out, they fetch a pretty penny on online auctions. Mine didn't look as nice, and I wasn't even sure if it could be restored to working order. But I loved the vintage details, even the cool GE knob.

I asked my husband to wire in a new cord so we could see if it would function.  I was so excited when it did!  Now, I could have used it as it was.  I don't really mind the aged patina...kind of like it actually, but I found this website while I was looking for lamps that has really fantastic reproduction barn lights. The website is http://www.barnlightelectric.com/. I would love to purchase one of theirs but it's out of my budget. This got me thinking about what I could do to the shade that would be fun, unique and vintage-y.  I have a few pieces of enamelware in my family room and between the barn lighting inspiration and the fact that I love the enameled look, I got the idea to paint it to look enameled. First I took it apart.

I used blue painter's tape and taped off the threads that screw the shade onto the base. (In the end, this didn't matter as I ended up painting the threads anyhow, but it depends on how tight of a fit you have.  Mine originally screwed on a bit loosely as I implied before when I mentioned it was off kilter.) I steel wooled the shade thoroughly inside and out and used tack cloth to remove the dust. I picked a color that a.) I love b.) makes me think vintage c.) matches an antique fan that we already have.  I used a spray paint that specifically said it works on metal. First, I painted the the outside by spraying on many thin coats until I had good coverage. Make sure to do this in a well ventilated space.  I always spray outside because of the mess. I let this dry completely.

Once the outside of the shade was covered to my satisfaction and dried, I painted the inside.  I chose to go with white on the inside to add to the enameling effect.  I used gloss white, however, the jade color only came in satin finish. I'll tell you what I did about that in a minute. 

As you can see I didn't worry about having a nice, clean line at the edge, because I planned on covering that.  The way I kept the white from getting on the jade when I sprayed it was by placing a plastic bag over the outside of the lamp shade and using blue painter's tape to "seal" the bag around the lip of the shade.  As you can see, a little white got on the outside of the neck, but I'll tell you what I ended up doing there.  Now, the final touch that gives it that farmhouse enamel look.  I poured gloss black enamel paint into a shallow dish just a tin bit larger than the diameter of the lamp shade.  I eyeballed how deep I thought the paint needed to be to caver the lip of the shade.  Then I carefully dipped the shade in the black paint, being careful to keep the shade level and parallel to the surface of the paint.  I dipped the shade in until it just covered the rim. 

Then, keeping the shade level, I carefully lifted it out and used a sponge brush to wipe away drips as they formed.  I had to brush away drops for several minutes until the paint finally stopped dripping, but the enamel is pretty thick, so it didn't take too long.  To allow the paint to dry without running down into the shade, I propped it over something with a slightly smaller diameter and let it just "hang" there until it was completely dry.  Make sure you have something spread out underneath to catch drips. I used tin foil.

You can see in the above photo how I dealt with the white splotches I got on the neck of the shade.  I ended up painting the whole thing black.  The black ends up being a better visual transition from the patina of the lamp base to the jade paint on the shade.  I hand painted it with a small craft paintbrush and followed the contours of where the neck meets the shade to get a nice straight line. Earlier, I mentioned that the jade paint only came in satin finish.  I really wanted the glossy look of enamel, so the final step was to spray several thin coats f a high gloss clear paint on the outside.  The black on the rim and the white on the inside are already glossy, so I only needed to spray the outside.  Once thoroughly dried, I was able to assemble to lamp back together.  I had purchased a fun oblong bulb from Seven Corner's Hardware in St. Paul http://www.7corners.com/. Side note, this is a super fun place to visit if you live close by. They still hand calculate and hand write all their receipts!  It's a refreshing change from the big box hardware/lumber stores. 

Anyhow, here's the finished product.  I really love how it turned out and would jump at the chance to do another one if the right deal comes along!