December 2009

I am like a kid on Christmas morning! The pasta maker that my mom gave us for Christmas came out of its box today, and I am never turning back to store bought pasta again!

First, I will rewind to this morning when I woke up to a gloriously warm winter morning. Well, it was probably around 35, but it felt warm! I did a brisk 2.5 mile walk to my gym and then did another 2.5 miles of hills on the elliptical. My legs were still quite sore from Saturday’s 10 miler, but all of the movement really helped me work out the kinks.

For lunch I had a new Trader Joe’s product, a boxed cheese lasagna which turned out being quite delicious. I normally like to make my own fresh lunches, but once in awhile its nice to be able to grab something and go in the morning. I will be keeping an eye out for these again in the future. Since they are shelf stable they would make a good desk drawer, last minute lunch option.

My day was pretty bleh, so I will go straight to the pasta making. The temperatures have certainly dropped since this morning, so the pasta dish I had planned was the perfect dinner.

I love pasta that is full of flavor, so I decided to make a cracked black pepper whole wheat pasta, making it a little bit healthier than using regular flour. My pasta dough was simple,a whole bunch of cracked black pepper, 2.5 cups of whole wheat flour, 3 eggs, and enough water to help the mixture become a firm ball of dough. It was a little crumbly, so I guess a bit more water would help.

The hubs and I were like little kids playing with play dough as we rolled out the sheets and fed them through the fettuccini blades.

The sauce was simple, one container of chopped shitake mushrooms, a head of chopped broccoli, about 1/4 stick of butter, 3 TSP olive oil, crushed red pepper, and shredded parmesan cheese.

Making the pasta was quick and easy, and the topping was earthy, delicious, and sort of healthy, well, minus the butter. I am not sure why I always thought making pasta was so difficult. After my first try, without a machine, I started brainstorming pasta flavors, and now I am hooked!

Monday is over, and it is a short week, hooray! I am working on a “Memorable Foods of 2009” post as well as a review of a skin product I received samples of, PLUS, a healthy, VERY easy, fresh, crunchy veggie dinner for healthifying the new year and lots more. I finally feel like blogging again!

Have a great night everyone, and be careful out there. At least on the East coast, temps have dropped and black ice is everywhere!

I’m back! I know I haven’t been the only one MIA from the blog world this past weekend. I have to say that it was really nice to take some time away from thinking about what to write next. I am not feeling entirely refreshed, but I feel like I am ready to write a little and to slowly ease my way back into things.

How were your Christmas weekends? I hope they were wonderful, and if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you got a nice long weekend in!

We arrived in New Jersey on Wednesday and from then on just had a wonderful time with my family.

We spent Christmas Eve at my uncle’s house as we do every year, after visiting my nana at her nursing home. The spread was delicious, as always. Cocktail style food made it easy for every to sit in the living room while eating.

There were stuffed mushrooms:

Lots of these were consumed with a spicy sauce that had a horseradish kick:

Our family’s Lithuanian side came out with a little bit of kielbasa and pierogies which I bought in one of Dorchester’s great Eastern European markets:

We used the wintry weather to our advantage to chill the champagne and white wine:

My sister’s table was decorated beautifully.

We enjoyed a Paula Deen turkey, spiced with a Southern spice rub. It was one of the best turkeys  I have ever eaten! I usually find turkey to be a little bland, but not this one. We also had ham, corn, sweet potatoes, rolls, string beans and some yummy appetizers including a cheese and nut log and olive tapenade, my favorite.

Christmas did not pass without some great gifts. My mom got my a pasta maker! After this post where I had my first attempt at homemade pasta making, she knew I would love a machine to roll and cut the pasta dough. I can not wait to get it installed on my counter. There will be lots of pasta on the blog in the coming weeks. . .

My niece got me a Vinturi wine aerator and a beautiful silver wine bucket for chilling wine. More on that later as I have a few wine reviews coming up.

My sister’s in laws brought us gifts of deliciousness from Illinois, Home Foods fudge brownies and Garrett Popcorn. Yum yum yum! The Chicago Mix popcorn was a mix of cheese and caramel, the perfect salty sweet combination. Unfortunately we ate it too quickly to snap a photo!

These brownies are a favorite of Oprah and the Obamas and I can see why!

The food and gifts were all wonderful, but the best part was truly getting to visit with lots of family members AND to see my friend Brooke’s two week old twins on Christmas morning!

I am off now to get ready for the work week and to do some travel planning. I think we have finally decided on a trip to Prague and I am very excited. I just have to get through a work trip to Scottsdale next week, and then we are off to Europe for ten days. I will be putting the Travel back into Travel Eat Love!

Still looking for guest posts for the weeks that I am traveling. If you are interested please email me at traveleatlove2009@hotmail.com.