A Little Help In The Kitchen

I think I have probably mentioned before how much I love my Kitchen Aid mixer. Mr. Lucas got if for me for Christmas several years back, best gift ever. This thing is awesome and indestructible. So, for my birthday this year Mr. Lucas gave me the pasta attachments, second best gift ever. 

There is nothing quite like homemade pasta. It melts in your mouth. 

I made whole wheat fettuccine. You mix the dough in your mixer. Once you have made the dough you divide it into several small balls that are fed through the lasagna attachment to flatten it all out. 

Once you have one nice long flat piece of pasta dough you run it through one of the pasta attachments that cuts the dough into the type of pasta you would like. My attachments make lasagna, fettuccine, or spaghetti.   

Then you add it to boiling water and it cooks really quickly! 

I made sun dried tomato pasta with Parmesan and red pepper flakes. Yum.

 I think I may be addicted to pasta making. I also made a lasagna from scratch which was so good. We ate it all before I could take any pictures. :)

Cheers! 

I Made Ice Cream!

So, arriving back home after a lovely honeymoon, I had to do something fun. It was so hard to come back! But, having a few wedding gifts to open when we got back made it just a bit easier. One of the wedding gifts, from a rather generous person, was an ice cream maker attachment to my Kitchen Aid Mixer! I have been wanting this for years! What better thing to do to (try to) celebrate being back home?  Well, make homemade ice cream of course!  So, in order to reluctantly celebrate our return home and happily celebrate the month of October, I made pumpkin ice cream! 

It was so neat to watch the ice cream begin to form in the mixer.

First it was very "liquidie." I was a bit concerned about that but...

 ...then it started to freeze up a bit.

At the end if the 15-20 minutes of mixing, it was completely frozen!

I scooped it into little bowls (of fiestaware which were a wedding gift too) and we ate it right up! 

It was sooooo good! I loved making ice cream and can't wait to do it again. My best friend's birthday is coming up soon so I think I may have to break out the ice cream maker and make a fancy ice cream for her birthday!

Any suggestions on what the flavor of birthday ice cream should be?  I am also very willing to accept any recipes! 

Cheers!

The New Year

Well, it has been a bit since I posted. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday. I had a wonderful time filled with family and friends. It is hard to believe it is 2008! There is alot I want to accomplish this next year. I have never really made a New Year resolution. I am the kind of person that makes several goals for myself throughout the year. I think I am a pretty driven ambitious person most of the time so, instead of a New Year resolution list, I have a things to accomplish this year list. It is a list of things to accomplish for the house, career, and personal..with some other random things thrown in. For starters, I have wanted to make curtains for my breakfast nook in the kitchen for the longest time. I bought my house about 2 and a half years ago and have slowly been decorating the house the way I would like. I say slowly, partly because I did not really know how long I would live here because Jeff wanted to be a Veterinarian and go to school in Fort Collins, Colorado to get his Vet degree. Since I thought we were going to move, I did not invest too much time and money into decorating etc. Recently, he has taken a shine to Genetics, better him than me. I will just stick to Social Work for now. Anyhoo, he can go to school for his Master's and Doctorate in Genetics right here in Fort Worth! Which means for me, I will not be moving any time soon and can start doing things around the house that I want! Okay, back to the curtains...this seemed like a simple place to start on my list of things to do so...here you go:

Before:

(I hate those nasty plastic mini blinds. Animal hair sticks to them and will not come off. I have 5 animals...which boils down to a metric TON of animal hair).

After:

I am not sure if I will keep these curtains. I am still deciding if I like them or not. It did not turn out exactly as I had envisioned it too but, they will do for now. I think I am going to go on a estate sale hunt for a vintage kitchen table cloth and turn that into curtains at some point.

I think the kitty liked them. I guess now the curtains will have cat hair all over them now. Well, at least they are washable.

I really cannot remember how long it has been since I wanted Fiesta Ware dishes. I am certain, however, it is when my mom bought the dishes for her kitchen. I just cannot recall when that was. Well...let's just say it was a very long time ago. I love all the vibrant colors of the dishes. You can mix and match them all. Having these dishes has been on my list of things to purchase. Sure enough, Ol' Saint Nick knew exactly what it was I wanted and I was very very surprised (I am sooooooo excited about this).











My sister also made me fantastic dish towels for my kitchen too. It seems as though my kitchen is off on a good start this year! There are a few more things I would like for the kitchen such as a pot rack for my pots and pans. I would also like to give it a fresh coat of paint. I am not certain of the color just yet.

Oh, and I cannot forget the most important thing my kitchen got for Christmas! This is also something I have wanted for a very very long time. A bright blue Kitchen Aid Mixer! Oh, it is so fantastic! I do not know how long I have managed to live without one for all these years. It has a splash guard too. I am quite the neat freak so I was pleased to find out if came with a splash guard. It is beautiful. I feel like an official baker now.

I am not sure what next I will do on my list of things to accomplish...

*New couch for living room

*Organize bills/paperwork

*Go to a concert (well, maybe more than just one)

*Start studying/training for my LCSW

*Participate in the Play Therapy Conference in October

*New, non pet hair stickin' mini blinds for the bedrooms, bathroom, and office

*Purchase a spinning wheel

*Spin wool on the newly purchased spinning wheel

*Re-vamp and work harder at the Etsy site.

*Renew membership to NASW

*Make a headboard for the bed

*Hanging pot rack for the kitchen

*Paint rooms that need painting

*Exercise more

*Visit/write to my Grandparents more





I am sure the list will continue to grow but that is all I have for now.



I hope everyone has a wonderful year in 2008!

Cheers