Carb attack: whole wheat pasta and cheese crackers

I am actually not a carb-aholic. At least not carbs in the traditional sense: breads, pastas, potatoes. Put a chocolate cake in front me, though, and I've got a problem. I prefer my carbs in the simple sugar form.

Alas, two members of my family, Sprog the Elder and Mr. Geeky, are the classic carb-aholics. Put a loaf of bread and wedge of cheese in front of them and they swoon. A big plate of pasta is a sure way for me get a moment of quiet because they gorge and fall asleep. I knew wasn't going to stem this love of bready-type things, so I decided to make the options as healthy as possible. I've been making our bread for a little while now, and I started making cheese crackers to replace the ever-present vat of Goldfish crackers on the counter. Just last weekend I made my own batch of whole wheat pasta and it was a huuuuge hit.

Anyway, I thought the sprogs would be the ones eating the cheese crackers, but it turns out Mr. Geeky usually empties the jar. I use super sharp Cheddar in these crackers, so they've got a stronger cheese flavor than Goldfish. I'm guessing the sprogs resent that.

I don't mind making these crackers, but I do sure hate shredding cheese. No, I don't buy the cheese in bags. Check the ingredients. There's almost always an ingredient to reduce clumping, usually something like a form of cellulose... which, in simpler terms, is sawdust. Would like a side of tree with your cheese? No thanks. So I buy big blocks of all-natural cheese and make Mr. Geeky shred it.

He's really quite good at it.

This is a mixture of whole wheat flour, butter, cheese, salt, and water.

I turn it out onto a floured surface and form it into logs. I used to roll it out and use a pastry cutter to make little squares with pretty fluted edges... and then I realized there's a better, faster, less messy to do it. Duh.

Here's the pretty stick of cheese dough ready to be sliced.

And here are some rounds after Mr. Geeky's done the slicing. I did say he's the one eating them. He can help.

This is after about 12 minutes at 375 degrees. After some trial and error, we discovered that we prefer them cut very thin. They get quite crispy, almost like cheese cracker chips.

And this will be gone in about four days.

Like I mentioned before, I decided to make my own pasta last weekend. I got a pasta machine fairly cheap from Amazon, the Atlas Pasta Machine. I chose that one after perusing many reviews and thinking about getting attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I put the Kitchen Aid attachments on my wish list, but opted to just get the simpler hand cranked version. It seemed easier for a beginner. I'm really glad I did. I love it.

Here's the dough I started with. It's a half-and-half mixture of whole wheat and semolina flours with eggs. I cut this into four pieces and flattened each piece just enough to get it started through the smooth rollers.

Here it is going through the smooth rollers.

And again. I did this five or six times on the widest setting to get it into shape, then reduced the gap between the rollers to get thinner dough. I went up to number five on the pasta maker, whatever distance that corresponds to. Skinny enough.

I'd like to be skinny. I wish it were as easy as this was.

Here it is after I've rolled it out through number 5.

And this is after I cut into lengths for the noodles.

Here I'm running the individual dough pieces through the linguine cutter device. Sprog the Younger was abso-frigging-lutely delighted by this.

And here's the finished product! I boiled these for about four minutes and served them with a basic alfredo-type sauce with a drizzle of truffle oil on top. On the side we had roasted asparagus.

I have lots more to share, but I'll spare you a very lengthy post. Questions? Just leave me a comment!

Wherein I return after a long absence and discuss natural food

Hey there! I haven't posted in a long, long time. I think school started for the sprogs and things just escaped me. I had some good news on the career front that kept me busy for quite awhile. You know, the ohmygodeverythingismovingatmachspeedsomeoneturnofftheridesoIcangetoff scenario.

So anyway.... things are otherwise status quo and good.

I canceled our CSA box in October of that year. I think it was supposed to go through November, but we were wasting a lot despite my best efforts. The sprogs wouldn't eat the kale, we all fought over the few beets we got in a box, and there are only so many tomatillos one family can go through before they go bad. I don't can, so that option was out the door. The CSA group was kind enough to prorate my subscription and give me a refund. I do miss the eggs.

I found out in December that a local pig farm paired with the CSA group to provide half-hogs, and we did take advantage of that. Mmmm... bacon. That's been interesting, since I rarely ever have prepared pork chops (we much prefer pork tenderloin). Younger Sprog adores the chops, since he calls himself a carnivore and loves to gnaw on the bones. Elder Sprog... not so much. He's picky and forces me to get creative.

In February, Younger Sprog got sick. Really sick. In and out of Children's Hospital sick. It was some kind of gastric distress. The first time we took him in, they did an ultrasound of his belly to check his appendix and other organs, but found nothing. Back and forth we went, with him crying and rolled in the fetal position on the couch in between visits. He saw a specialist. Nothing. He was on a medicine to prevent stomach spasms for over a month and some serious antacids. He ate almost nothing but saltines and ginger ale for a month and only went to school for six days in February. We had him completely off dairy for about six weeks. He's back to normal now, but I'm leery and concerned that they never figured it out.

As a result, I've done a lot of research on natural eating. Mr. Geeky and I have decided together that we're going to cut out as much processed food as possible. No preservatives or artificial anythings. I minimize all refined foods and cut out all "low-fat" versions, since they've got a lot of additives.

In some ways this hasn't been overly painful, because I made a lot anyway, but it's harder to convince the sprogs to make the good choices when they're on their own. We've been teaching them about red light-green light foods, which I will elaborate on in another post and I've been making nearly everything we eat. No packaged foods unless they have all natural ingredients and preferably less than five. The sprogs have been surprisingly receptive to this, and Elder Sprog has even been choosing to pack his lunch everyday instead of buying at school.

So I'll have plenty of topics to blog about.

Onto some foodie pictures!

 This was the beginning of flank steak fajitas from the slow cooker. There is actually a 2-lb flank steak under the peppers and onions. Naturally, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. It's tough when it's inhaled anyway.

 This is Sprog the Younger and a loaf of French bread I made. I try to stay away from the refined flours, and this loaf takes bread flour, which is highly refined, but for a treat, it's okay. Still only a few ingredients and it goes very well with pasta.

 This is a loaf of milk bread. I use primarily whole wheat flour for this.

 Pumpkin-spelt muffins. These were gone in less than 24 hours.

 Sprog the Younger helped me with quiche. Here he's chopping up ham (all natural, uncured, no nitrites or nitrates) after he'd grated some Cheddar cheese for me.

 This is the beginning of the quiche crust. Whole wheat flour, butter, salt, and milk. 

 Here's my finished crust. No need to prebake.

 Unbaked quiche.

 Sprog sprinkles ham and cheese bits into the quiche.

 Finished quiche.

 Mmmm.... it was good.

 We had the quiche with the little mandarin oranges last week. I will update with more foodie pictures as I take them. I have more now, but this post is already too long.