Two ingredient Elephants

you are probably asking what am I talking about, right?

Here's some quick background. I've been really getting on board with making homemade, natural foods AND with taking control of our food budget. Not that we currently spend a ton, but in a few months, we will be a family of 4 and want to get on top of things now.

So anyhow, after reading Jenna Woginrich's, Made from Scratch, I decided to try the recipe for homemade spaghetti. Yes, spaghetti can be purchased for $1, but taking a hard look at the ingredients, I still find a lot of "extras".

So, I enthusiastically went on to make my own and with Jenna's recipe, this even involves a "homesteading" technique. Meaning: BY SCRATCH -- no pasta maker for us!

3 large eggs
2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1. Crack the eggs into a medium-sized bowl and beat them lightly. Add flour to the eggs, ½ cup at a time, mixing until you have a slightly sticky dough. Knead it for a short time and when you’re content with the ball, wrap it in foil or plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.

2. Place it on a lightly floured surface and roll it as thin as you can while keeping it a solid sheet or dough. Sprinkle flour over the sheet of dough and gently roll it up into a long tube. Cut the tube into ⅛- or ¼-inch slices and unroll each slice into a long strand of pasta. Drape them over a coat hanger.

I ended up cutting the pasta with a pizza cutter. The most difficult part was hanging them on the hanger -- they seem to be "heavy" that they ended up allowing gravity to take over...(which this should have been a clue, see below for the blog post title connection).

3. Boil the pasta for 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and serve with Chunky Pasta Sauce.

They took no time at all....puffed right up.

Beaming, quite happy with "my very own pasta and sauce", I enthusiastically called my husband and son for dinner....

Looking at the dish, my husband says "Whoa, look elephant noodles!"

and yeah, yeah, even though the noodles were um, quite big...(I do admit they looked like elephant trunks or legs :P), the taste was so --- wholesome. Not "processed" as I have come to find grocery store pasta. Also, with the difference in taste, and well, size, you don't need to eat as much -- they are quite filling! It actually wasn't a hard process at all and it really doesn't take too much time. I just have to cut smaller and master the "drying process".....

And so another little notch on my Homesteading apron!!!

Cooking up for the Challenge...

As you can see from my sidebar, I am taking part in the "Eat from Your Pantry" Challenge.

Added to the desire to take part in this, it was also been out of neccessity, with this reno. You must be soo tired of hearing me talk about this kitchen. I hope you will still be awed, amazed and overly "woooowed" when you see this...but anyhow...

So part of the challenge is to use what you got...so yesterday, I held my own.
For I made pancakes, y'all.



Yes, the mix was from a box BUT what I came up with and put INTO them came from my pantry. Even Eliel gummed on one (a plain one that is, I thought all the extras might be too much for his first intro to pancakes...)

Introducing: Honey-Almond, Coconut Chocolate Chip Pancakes. (guess it's like a big coconut macaroon for breakfast!)

And um, yeah, no recipe, just mix the batter and pour in some honey, almond extract and some coconut flakes. Pour a little of the batter on to the well buttered pan (estimating about how big you want your pancakes. Personally, I am a smaller pancake person with them stacked all cute. My husband, on the other hand, is the mega sized pancake type, that you have to flip in the air bc it doesn't actually fit on the spatula....) When just a little cooked, THEN you put the choc chips on, pushing them in a little. And you can be all Martha Stewart if you like, with making sure of proper placement and ample distance from each other, to ensure maximum chocolate-ness in every bite. When the pancake is slightly browned on the edges and there are bubbles on the top (looking like a moon cake), then flip over for just a very short time. Carefully, slide your spatuala under to pick up without destroying.

And a couple of tricks and tips:
1. To ensure perfect pancakes each time, a trick is to wipe the pan with a dry paper towel after removing the cooked pancake. Then add a little more butter, to sizzle and then start all over again.(I learned this from the magazine Cooking Light, when I was in the States and all on my own....)
2. I put the cooked pancakes on a plate with a colander over them to keep warm and from drying out or getting too moist from being on top of each other. That way, I can continue in peace making other 15 or so. (My husband eats a lot.....and Eliel is following behind in suit).