in the kitchen

today i tried my hand at making pasta again.  last fall i tried to make homemade butternut squash ravioli and i wasn't able to roll the dough out thin enough and they were little dough bombs that just sat in your stomach.  what a disappointment. 
my husband no longer has his jaw wired shut so now i can start making real meals again.  i had a little helper to roll and cut the dough, so it wasn't the prettiest pasta, but boy did it taste good. 
i made a large batch of pesto with fresh basil  from our garden.  i used some for the pasta and then froze the rest in ice cube trays which then i will put in ziplock bags to freeze for the winter.  it is such a winter treat to have pesto from our garden! 
whenever i have pasta i always feel the need to have fresh bread with it.  i usually use the bread recipe  from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  it's great because you make a large batch of dough,  let it rise and then you put it in the refrigerator, then when you want fresh bread, (it also makes great pizza dough), you just cut off a large chunk, let it rise, bake and  you have fresh bread.  there's all sorts of things you can make with the dough but regular bread and pizza are my favorite.
our meal was probably a bit carb heavy but very delicious, we had all sorts of yummy veggies from the farmer's market and our garden in the pasta, so that helps balance it out, right?  the kids ate theirs right up, so i'll count that as success.  i think there will be more pasta making in the future.