Warming smoked sausage stew

I have adjusted! Today was a great day as I’ve finally picked up my stride at work and am starting to settle in. All we humans need is a little time. So, in the theme of today, I have made a list of good things that made up my day.

1. I had a delicious muffin for breakfast

2. I treated myself to something I really should have bought a long time ago, Nigella Lawson’s How to be a domestic goddess

3. I found out I’m allowed a free half-day’s holiday as I worked back these past two weeks

4. We had the most amazing custard/pastry thing to celebrate one of the chef’s birthdays. Not only was it delicious, but the chef is a minor celebrity and I was chuffed!

5. My monthly subscription to Australian Good Food magazine was waiting for me in the post box, so now I have something new to read before bed

6. Frank walked me home from the station tonight. We haven’t gone to or from the station together in ages.

7. I FOUND MY SENSE OF HUMOUR! Woo hoo, I was worried this one was gone for good after last week

8. I discovered there is a departmental dance (not the noun but the verb), and this dance I have been eager to attempt in public for almost 5 years now. See the dog on this link.

9. I sang “Lady in red” and “when a man loves a woman” with the radio to Frank. Nothing gets him running out the room quite like it!

10. I attempted dance from point 8 while cooking dinner. Frank just looked at me with a mix of fear and confusion.

As fantastic as it is have my ‘groove’ back, I was late home again tonight. I was held up at work as I was discussing cook books with my colleague. (How many? Stopped counting. Which ones? AWW, with a good mix of others. Which are good? ALL!) So when I got home I was in search of something quick and hearty for dinner. I had picked up some rookwurst on Tuesday night, so I decided to make a sausage casserole/stew and serve it with some pasta. Once again, it was slightly on the spicy side (and Frank’s response is “when is it NOT spicy?”) but it warmed us up and filled our bellies, which is what food was made to do.

Rookwurst stew – a lollcakes original

Serves three big eaters, so probably four normal…

350g smoked sausage (you can use chorizo if you can’t find smoked sausage), sliced
1 brown onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red chilli (add more or less, depending on your taste)
1 carrot, chopped into cubes
1 capsicum, chopped into cubes
1 courgette, chopped into cubes
1 tin tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chicken stock powder
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

To serve:
grated cheese and either pasta or rice

Fry onion and garlic until soft, add chilli and paprika and fry until fragrant. Add in sausages and fry for a couple of minutes. Add in tin of tomatoes, tomato paste, stock powder, sugar, Worcestershire sauce and red wine; stir to combine. Add in carrot and simmer for 15 minutes. Put pasta on to boil, and add capsicum and courgette to stew. Simmer until pasta is done, then toss pasta into sauce.
Top with grated cheese and pile into a bowl.
Enjoy!

Frank reading his book while I'm cooking

“Fettucine bolognaise – ta dah!”

It was my birthday two months ago, and, at the request of Frank, I made a list of what I wanted. (A verbal list of course, wouldn’t want to make it too easy!) Most of the items on the list related to cooking, which made me incredibly excited for the actual day. One of the fantastic presents I got was a pasta maker from Popsie & Parksie, which I wanted for ages and was forbidden to buy. And it isn’t just any pasta maker, it is a beautiful pasta maker.

As I am on a mission to make food from scratch, I tried to make fresh tortellini a couple of months ago. At that stage I didn’t have a pasta maker, or even a rolling pin, so I used an empty wine bottle dusted in flour. It felt like I was running backwards on a treadmill, every time I rolled the darned dough out it shrank back to its original size within seconds! I persevered until I got the dough slightly bigger, and then continued to make the tortellini with 5mm thick pasta dough. Needless to say, Frank had a massive sigh of relief when he saw my new pasta maker, as he had to chew though all the tortellini I put on his plate!

I’ve had some issues with my stomach lately, and I’ve been put on a gluten-free diet. Unfortunately this happened right after my birthday, so I haven’t been able to make any pasta. After Popsie asked me for the third time if I’ve used my shiny new gadget, I decided to cheat on my diet for one night (or perhaps once every night as it seems lately…) and crack out my new baby! Following the recipe provided in the manual, I managed to make the thinnest, most wonderful fettucine ever to grace the Pig Palace kitchen – if I don’t mind saying so myself! Not only was the pasta easy to make (so no cursing coming from the kitchen, Frank was even worried at how quiet it was), it was really fun. I made fettucine to go with bolognaise, but next time I’ll be giving the tortellini another go!
Fresh pasta – from my Pasta Roller manual

2 eggs
2 cups ’00′ flour

Put the flour directly on a workbench.

Make a well in the middle and add the eggs. Beat the eggs with a fork, while slowly incorporating flour from the sides of the well. Once you can no longer beat with a fork, start kneading the dough until smooth. Form into a ball, cover with cling wrap and leave on the bench for 30 minutes. Cut dough into 6 pieces and run them all through a pasta roller – 6 to 8 times on the widest setting, and once on every setting after that getting progressively smaller.

Feed through cutter and hang up to dry. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes and serve!