I hiked 8 miles today and had bbq for dinner.

My self-imposed Vietnamese food week abruptly ended when Mr. S. came home and made me homemade pizza on Thursday.  There's no picture of that because I was hungry and it was messy.  :)  We had Panera last night, and also discovered the awesomeness that is Babybel cheese.  Try it if you haven't yet; you will not be sorry.

On Wed., I finally put my $5 thrift store pasta machine to work.  I used the recipe and techniques shown here: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/projects/weekend-project-make-pasta-073435

Some things that I learned:

-Mixing the eggs in with the flour was hard.  I had some egg running down the sides of my well, which I had to contain with my fingers.  In the end, I didn't use some of the flour.  Mr. S. reminded me that Alton Brown (our hero) also makes pasta in this fashion, but I think a bowl might be easier.  My metal scraper was so helpful in cleaning up the counter.  I believe that every baker should have one, as it also cuts and scoops!

-I would try to use the vise; holding the machine down with my free hand while turning the crank was difficult.  

-Keep the pasta strands well floured.  By the time I was ready to boil them, they were stuck together.

It didn't look this nice for long. 

Made in Italy and solid metal---easily the best thrift store deal I've ever found.  (And there was a $5 ravioli attachment; I can't wait to try that out!) 

The first batch. 

Yield from 2 cups of flour and 3 eggs.  Not bad. 

Boiled and happy.  I will experiment with dehydration or sun drying next time.

Coming up this week are odes to my favorite food blogs.  :)