the best day ever!

Ok, so yesterday I've had the loveliest day! I realized Monday that both Joe & Kanan were off Tuesday (School Holiday for Veteran's Day) so I took the day off too & we just hung out at home mostly! We slept in 'til 9, made a yummy scrummy breakfast. I soaked some grains the night before in excited anticipation & made raspberry muffins (NT recipe). While they were baking I made coffee, bacon & an egg/cheese Frittata. YUM! The bacon was Niman Ranch, the eggs were pastured....as I've shared, we are making baby steps. ;) Trying to focus on quality & packing the extra nutrition in wherever possible.
I prepped a jam recipe & put Tami's sourdough bread recipe in the breadmaker on 'dough cycle' and the three of us went for a hike to top of our hill, man is it steep! Sheeshenheimer! I was dying! But we gotta start somewhere, right?
We hurried over to the pet store (we've recently started the process of allowing our cats to maybe think about going outside once in awhile - long story) but the first step is to make sure they have proper collars & tags...
Ran back home, put the bread in the pan to rise again, the dough looked pretty good this time (I've been struggling with this for a few weeks, more on this later - perhaps with recipes?)....I made a batch of Pear Raspbery (Yes, the same jam I made on Sunday, but it IS the most popular flavor I make, so I must stock up!)
I had canned some Cranberry Jalapeno Chutney last week, but had completely forgotten the ginger!!!! Hello, now I remember that I called it Cranberry Ginger Jalapeno Chutney last year! DUH. I knew I was missing something, but sallied forth. Well, now that I had remembered, I decided to fix it - isn't canning great? You can just re-do it! I emptied out all the jars, heated it up, added the fresh & candied ginger, let it stew a bit, washed the jars, sterilized them & was done in no time! It tasted MUCH better after that - thank goodness I caught my mistake before I started selling & giving it away!
So, in the midst of the canning, the bread came out of the oven. I am VERY pleased to say that this is MUCH close to what I've been intending to produce! YAY - finally! ;) The only thing is that Joe pointed out a 'sour' taste, my natural response was "well, babe, it IS supposed to be Sourdough bread, you know...?" LOL We examined this a bit further & have decided that the 'bitter-ish', sour-ish taste he was referring to was indeed present & I think it's the Olive Oil! Next time I'm going to use butter & see if our theory is correct...makes sense though...I think.
Olive oil, especially the good kind, the organic extra virgin, has a very distinct flavor, that may be less obvious when sauteing veggies, but in THIS bread, it really stands out!
Ok, so after a few slices of bread & butter for an afternoon snack.....Kanan & I began making homemade pasta. I had bought a pound of Semolina at Lassen's over the weekend, so we chucked it in the Food Processor with a pinch of sea salt, Kanan cracked 4 eggs into a bowl & we added them slowly to the flour as the machine ran. It was still too dry, so I added my yummy RO (reverse osmosis) water, a little at a time, until finally it formed a ball! Woo Hoo! I wrapped it in Cling film & let it rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes...Meantime, I got the kitchen aid fitted with the pasta roller, floured a couple of baking sheets & put the Heavy Cream in a Saucepan (I use Berndes nonstick - Haven't done that research yet! Anyone?) Anyhoo, as the cream was reducing for Alfredo sauce (Kanan's pick) we rolled the pasta thru the roller & then cut it with the other attachment into Spaghetti....threw it into the rolling, sea salted, boiling water, stirred it a couple of times, seasoned the cream sauce....it actually looked a bit too thick, so I added some of the pasta water - professional trick, now I've told you I might just have to kill you - Shhhh! We drained the pasta, tossed it back in the big pot, added the cream sauce, tossed it together, added some Parm (Trader Joe's brand) and "Voila"!! It was SOOOO yummy!
After we ate our fill, I rolled out the rest (half the dough made enough pasta for a small portion for 3 of us - we also had plain ole' oven roasted acorn squash & some garlicky cheese toast - what??!! I did NOT claim to be well balanced all the time!), and took it to our Book Club to give away....everyone was excited!
So, we came home & went straight to bed & I can say with complete satisfaction that it was "the best day ever!" (I'm not that big a dork, it's a Sponge Bob Song!)
I wish you many happy returns of my glorious home day! Work hard in doors & out...and bon appetite!!