Bluegrass and Brews

Today, I got in the car with my good friends, Kevin and Sherlly, and we headed out to Bolton, MA for Oktoberfest at the Nashoba Valley Winery. Aside from the locally brewed ales, there were delicious things to eat, winery tours and wine tastings, bluegrass music, and wonderful company! While chilly, we had a relatively good day, weather-wise, and we carved out our spot on the lawn, laying our blankets, opening our camp chairs, and of course, heading off to the beer line!

I opted for the Oaktoberfest brew. I was drawn to the description because it mentions vanilla as one of the undertones of flavor, and I found that intriguing.

I'm glad I went with the Oaktoberfest. I really enjoyed the taste and density. I don't know much about beer, but I'm trying to learn. I know I'll be learning quite a bit as we travel through Belgium and Germany, two weeks from now, and I promise to pass those tips and tricks on to all of you!

But now, we move on to the food! I followed my friend Kevin over to the "snack shack" first, where he purchased a caramel-coated, cider donut. This delicious, apple-y donut was drizzled with a thick, warm coating of gooey caramel. You had to eat it with a fork, and I got to have a bite! Because this winery makes most of their wines from apples, you will find that many of the items I speak of today include apple. At the "snack shack," I also picked up a caramel-coated apple, wrapped in tin foil, to bring home to my husband!

After our trip to the "snack shack," we settled into a very long line in the main food area, to await our turn to place an order. With burgers and hot dogs to choose from, the menu item that stood out to me was the Apple BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich...and it did NOT disappoint! There was a sweetness to the BBQ sauce that was just enough to give a richness to the tender pork, but yet, it was savory at the same time. I tend to lean towards pulled pork at events like this because it's less likely to be overcooked...and again, I scored there. The pork was delicious, tender and moist, and just oozing with the delicious sauce!

There was an offering of Macaroni and Cheese on the "Sides" menu, and I had to try it. I know I've told you all before, I have a weakness for Mac & Cheese, and this one was really good. The flavor that was noticable in this version was rosemary, I think. It might have been thyme, but I'm leaning towards rosemary, and I thought it added a really interesting twist to an otherwise generic dish for a BBQ. It was hot, gooey, and hit the spot on this chilly afternoon!

All in all, we had a really fun day at Nashoba Valley Winery. I bought myself a bottle of wine, enjoyed good eats, good drinks and wonderful company! This was certainly a weekend full of laughter and wonderful memories, and it was nice to sit back, and just relax.

Tomorrow, back to the grind, and getting ready for the Halloween party on Saturday evening. I think I have the menu in place, now I just have to start cooking...and put the finishing touches on our costumes!

P.S. Thanks to my friend, Drae, for the name of this post!

The Trial Run

Hello there, and Happy Valentine's Day Eve! We got home from a great weekend with our friends in Vermont this afternoon, and I decided it would be a great night to try out my new toy - remember the one I wrote about a week or two ago? That's right, my KitchenAid Pasta Press!!! I'm making the Macaroni and Cheese dish from my Current Menu, and thought fresh, homemade pasta would make it even yummier! I didn't take pictures of the whole process for the recipe, but I thought it would be fun to focus on the pasta-making. But just to make you all hungry, here's the finished product first!

I'm not going to knock dried, boxed pasta, but...fresh pasta is SOOOO much better! If you try them both, you will find it very difficult to go back to the dried stuff, I think! The only ingredients you need to make pasta are flour (white, wheat, whatever you want), eggs, and water. So, you really can't say it's too expensive, that's for sure! However it IS time-consuming, and there are most definitely nights that I would much rather open a box and pour it into some boiling water, than go through all the effort of making the dough and rolling it out, etc, but...I won't enjoy my dinner as much, that's for sure!

From Flickr - by *Grant*

Up until recently, the only pastas I made from scratch were the long noodles, since I only had the roller and cutter for those. I've made ravioli, and I've even tried my hand at gnocchi - but those don't really call for a machine. It's the shaped pastas I was after, and my brand new toy solves this dilemma beautifully! This press can make bucatini, small macaroni, large macaroni, fusilli and rigatoni. For the macaroni and cheese recipe, I opted for the large macaroni shape, but decided to leave each piece a little longer, which resembles a ziti, more than an elbow. That's okay with me, because I love how the ziti gets filled in with the delicious sauce as you mix!

The recipes I use to make my pasta dough vary, and I enjoy trying new ones now and then as well. You never know when you might find that perfect recipe. Today, I opted for the recipe that comes with my King Arthur Flour Perfect Pasta Blend. This mixture contains the best combination of all-purpose, semolina and durum flours. It includes a recipe for the dough itself as well. When I want to make regular pasta, I almost always use this blend, but you can use just all-purpose flour to obtain the same effect. If you want to make wheat pasta, just use wheat flour. You might find that you need to alter the amount of flour you use on your work surface, or the amount of water you add, to obtain the correct consistency however, because wheat flour's properties differ slightly. Play with the recipe you are using until you find what works for you!

So, I added 3 cups of my Perfect Pasta Blend to my food processor, and pulsed a few times to even out the flour. I then added 4 eggs as the food processor was going, until the dough resembled the consistency of cornmeal. I then poured just about 3 tablespoons of water in and kept pulsing. Once it looked pretty well combined, I dumped my mixture out onto a floured work surface and kneaded it until it was a nice smooth ball of dough. If it's too sticky, add some flour, if it's too crumbly, add some water...work this way until you have the aforementioned smooth ball of dough. Now it's time to let it rest for 30 minutes.

Okay - 30 minutes later! The dough will look the same, you aren't looking for a rise, or anything like that, so don't think you have to wait longer...30 minutes is long enough. I attached my new pasta press to my KitchenAid Stand Mixer and began to feed the dough into the chute. Right away, macaroni started to come out at a pretty quick pace, so I stood by and waited to cut when they were the length I was looking for. With a bowl to catch the cut noodles, the process went pretty quickly and was a lot less labor-intensive then rolling out the dough and then cutting the noodles with another roller.

I'm so excited to have homemade shaped pasta now! This opens up all sorts of possibilities and I think that making pasta for the week ahead is going to become a regular weekend activity. I will try letting each piece dry on baking sheets and then storing them in the fridge in a tupperware container, ready for an easy weeknight meal when I come home late from the gym! This purchase was totally worth it and you'll be hearing lots more about it in the coming weeks! :)