Making pasta makes me happy

A few weeks back I was inspired to dig out my pasta machine and make some modifications so it would clamp adequately onto the bench in my parents' kitchen. It's been ages since I made fresh pasta, and it's a lovely way to pass the time. Like most crafts, it's hell frustrating when you're starting out and still getting a feel for it, but very rewarding when you finally learn how to get the right dough consistency and how not to get it all bunched up and stuck in the rollers.

The dough is just flour and eggs, and a little goes a long way. I made this batch for three people and used two eggs and a couple of cups of flour.

So this is my fettucini, which I made by rolling out long sheets of dough, a little thicker than you'd use for stuffed pasta, letting them dry for about ten minutes, and then rolling them through the cutter attachment. Letting the sheets dry a bit first helps prevent the strands from sticking together once they're cut.



My fabulous pasta drying rack was a birthday present from my flatmates at Selwyn Street, after Helen and I rigged up an inventive but slightly inefficient wooden spoon contraption to hang the pasta on.



It's very satisfying cooking fresh spaghetti or fettucini in the biggest pot you have. It also stops it sticking together, but as far as I'm concerned that's the secondary reason.



The sauce for this batch was very simple to make, but quite decadent in these days of expensive cheese and 99% fat free. For three people, it was made by heating 50g of butter in a pan over a low heat, then adding around 150mls of cream and three quarters of a cup of grated Parmesan. Once it's brought to the boil and seasoned with salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of chopped parsley, you add it to the pasta. It's very tasty.



Handmade fresh pasta is quite different to dried pasta – it's softer and has a smooth, silky texture and I think it holds the sauce more evenly. It's also surprisingly quick to make, once you get the hang of it – like bread, it's one of those things you make in phases and go off and do something else in between steps.

My next challenge is drying spaghetti in nests for future use. Done properly and stored in an air-tight container, it can apparently be kept indefinitely. Perhaps in a simple glass jar it would make a nice gift – what do you think?

Making crafty connections

The first ever session of Crafty Business kicks off at Churchills tomorrow evening at 7. Millie, Amy and I have been mulling this idea over for while. Following the success of Craft2.0 in Christchurch, we thought there might be a niche for a group for Christchurch crafters to get together and exchange ideas, make new contacts, collaborate and socialise with like-minded people.

It should be a lot of fun and hopefully a productive endeavour as well. If you're based in Christchurch and have crafty inclinations, come along. It's at 7pm, Monday 2 February, at Churchills Public House, 441 Colombo Street in Sydenham.

25 Random Things

1. I've seen my blood under a microscope.
2. I'd like to illustrate children's books.
3. I speak rabbit.
4. I'm hanging out for an occasion to wear my fascinator.
5. I once stayed in a convent in Venice.
6. My great grandfather was a professor of architecture at Cairo University.
7. I'm learning how to spin and I just got my very own spinning wheel.
8. If I could time travel I'd hang out at parties in the 1920s.
9. My brother was born on my 5th birthday.
10. I've made more than 300 pairs of armwarmers.
11. I took my sewing machine apart and when I put it back together I had two bits left over.
12. I like writing on whiteboards.
13. Nearly everything I own has been licked or nibbled by a rabbit.
14. I found consolation in Alain De Botton's Consolations of Philosophy.
15. I like green and everything it stands for.
16. Making pasta makes me happy.
17. I can make a passable flat white with a heart on the top.
18. Douglas Adams and Ayn Rand are my heroes.
19. I come up with a new business idea just about every other day.
20. A Rodin exhibition made me cry.
21. I take pride in a well written email.
22. I can't pronounce "patent" or "origins" without concentrating.
23. I was a Gap student at Chris Martin's old school.
24. Cocktails starting with "m" are my favourites: Mojitos, Moscow Mules and margueritas.
25. When I'm hanging out washing, I match the pegs because that's how my mum taught me my colours.

Fantails are cute

This week I took part in my first ever craft swap, participating in the In Stitches Christmas tree ornament secret Santa swap.

Now that the secret is out, I can reveal that my recipient was Emily. Here are the results of my extensive initial research:

1. Emily is from ...I want to say Colorado, but now that it comes to committing it to the page, I'm worried I might have just made that up. Emily is from one of the United States.
2. She likes tramping and gardening.
3. Perhaps most importantly, her favourite colours are brown and tan.

So upon beginning my project, my first question was: what's cute, brown, quintessentially New Zealandy and looks good in a tree?

I did come up with more than one answer but really, it had to be a fantail.

Somewhat naively, I decided to make it 3D. I figured there would be small 3D bird making instructions all over the internet, but this proved to be slightly optimistic. And so I embarked on a mission to create my own pattern. It wasn't easy. There may have been small pieces of felt thrown down in frustration and there may have been name-calling. But after all that, I think he turned out quite well.



Motivated by the outcome, I am currently working on a small flock of fantails, so I will take more photos this time around and publish a "Making of...". If you leave a comment on this post, I may even be persuaded to publish a tutorial.

So tied up was I in the production of my ornament, that I forgot that I would get one too! I had the good fortune to receive an ornament from the lovely and supremely talented Millie, who gave me a gorgeous and as yet unphotographed tiki. I will add a photo of it installed on the tree this weekend.

A cuddle with Damien

Sticky toes

Helen and I went for a wander on Tuesday and discovered Roma Street Parkland, which is a lovely garden in central Brisbane. We met many lizards, which we have since identified as Eastern Water Dragons – they look like this:



It was like walking through Jurassic Park, seriously.

Back at Dilia's place, the lizards are of a smaller variety. They run about on the outside of the house and occasionally the inside (Teflon is the only known surface to which a gecko cannot stick) and they make a noise you wouldn't expect a gecko to make. Well I didn't. It sounds like across between a chirp and a knock on the door.

One small amphibian

Brisbane, day one. Dilia's house.



After a period of indecision as to whether this was a cute little frog or an ugly toad, the final verdict is juvenile cane toad. Not cutie cutie.

The antidote to ugly cane toads is young Ava, who, without wishing to get too mushy, is adorable.



I tried my luck at taking a crochet hook in my cabin luggage, but alas it was deemed a potential weapon of mass destruction. As Dilia pointed out, anyone who could kill using a size 3.5 bamboo crochet hook is likely to be quite capable of doing so without a bamboo crochet hook, but this line of reasoning would seem to be a little too rational when it comes to airline security.

Consequently, instead of a productive three and a half hours of baby cardigan crochet, I was forced to watch The X-Files: I Wanted To Believe – "The truth is out there. And so is the plot" was the accurate summing up in the in-flight magazine.