Atlanta Snowpocalypse 2014

It has been an interesting days in Atlanta filled with snow, day long traffic jams, and the beauty of Southern hospitality. I luckily did not spend 20 hours in my car or sleep at Kroger (or the hospital) like most of my other co-workers and friends and cannot entertain you with horror stories that I hope we can all laugh at now.

Instead I managed my way out of the hospital during the "Code White" and slowly trekked home in the ice. SNOW DAY was needed in our household so once all the roomies ventured back into the safety of our abode, we set to work playing, eating, and day drinking. It is important to never forget the true meaning of snow day.

But the snow kept falling into the night causing people to be stuck on highways, in accidents, and in bad situations. However, it turned our yard into a winter wonderland.

On Wednesday it was very obvious we would not be making our way into work that day so we started the morning with a big breakfast and Bloody Mary Snow Slushies while we waited for B to make his way back on the ice rinks we were calling our roads. He had made it to a friend's house the night before thankfully!

We did everything in our power to get rid of the snow plaguing our city. Filling our glasses to the top with fresh snow, adding a splash (or two) of Tit-o's and drinking those snow drifts away.

Goodbye snow, hello day drinks!

Then we took to the streets like kids out of school - sledding on our garbage lids (fail) and frolicking through the snow.

The boys ventured out for essentials since I obviously did not purchase enough Modelo the evening before. Cabin fever was already starting in for me, so I tagged along just to get out of the house.

By mid-afternoon the streets were thawing out but it was still treacherous in others!

Wanting to be (somewhat) productive, B took the time to teach me how to make pasta. He is the best pasta chef in the city so I tried hard to get it right and listen to every instruction. There is no recipe and no list of measurements. He decides everything by texture and experience. Sure, B sounds simple...

Did you know pasta can be made with only flour and egg yolks? When I admitted that I think he knew this was going to be a long lesson but we were snowed in and he was stuck with me!

B grabbed our 00 flour and farm fresh eggs to create our dough. A reference is using 1 egg to 3/4 C flour. 00 flour is the most highly refined flour and is ground into a talc-powder softness. As you can probably tell I learned alot of information on Snow Day!

We  He created a well in the flour and cracked each of the egg yolks into, discarding the whites. The dough is made by slowly mixing to incorporate the flour from the sides into the center of yolks. After it forms the dough must be kneaded to activate the gluten. (So much for cutting my gluten this year...) but at least I was good at this part of the project!

After your sough forms, let the pasta sit for about 30 minutes or the rest of the afternoon as we did. The dough should be tacky but not sticky and not stick to the plastic wrap when you are ready to use.

And then the fun began. We rolled the dough, fortified, folded, ran it through the machine and REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT.

We used KitchenAid mixers for this process which are wonderful! Start with the #1 setting as this will be the widest and slowly work down to your thickness. Make sure to fortify the dough each time by lightly coating it with flour and then wiping it off. It doesn't need to be rubbed in because the rollers will do this but wipe it off because you don't want any excess flour when running it through again. Otherwise it will be cracked and you want a soft velvety texture instead. This also helps if you are an amateur like me to not get the dough stuck on the rollers. 

I watched the master at work and finally pushed him aside when I thought I knew what I was doing. FYI - I didn't. He just made it look so easy!

One of the hardest parts was holding the dough so your fingertips were not touching the sides or creasing the pasta. Plus you have to feed the dough in straight and even so it doesn't crack the edges. If you do that you fold over the opposite direction and create new edges. So, no this is not a fast process.

B cuts each of his noodles. Yes, really. So next time you are at the restuarant think of all the hard work and time goes into EACH. NOODLE. It really is more than putting a pot of water on.

I, on the other hand used the KitchenAid mixer attachment that cuts for pasta of all types. Run it through one time and create perfect little noodles. At this step they are very soft and dough-y so we placed them on a cooking sheet using chop sticks and covered with a towel to keep the moisture in the air from drying it out. 

Next were a few steps I could handle. 1. Pouring wine. 2. Boiling water (B did yell at me for not adding salt - is that a thing you are always supposed to do?) The pasta noodles we made from scratch cooked within minutes so if you make your own make sure to time it right with the rest of your meal.

What a great family dinner and I have to admit I make a DELICIOUS pasta (ok, it was B) but I helped. Don't you think this pasta looks like a heart? Just in time for Valentines!

Happy Snow Day everyone! Pray that it will be our LAST.