Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! We did lots of fun holiday activities this year, but I was bad and barely too any pictures, except for when we went to the Christmas tree farm. We don't have a Christmas tree, but I love to go to the farm to look at the trees and smell them. Isn't that the best smell? Mom and Raf were very nice and went with me. We all had fun! Mom got a wreath. It was really sunny. We had to take this picture like, "One, two, three... OPEN YOUR EYES!!!!" haha The Christmas trees are really pretty and so is the farm.It also has a beautiful view!Happy Holidays everyone!!!! xoxo

Making Pasta

A few weekends ago it wouldn't stop raining so I decided it was time for another cooking adventure. This time I made pasta because I love home made pasta. I seem to be into carbs lately. :) The only special ingredient I used was semolina flour. I love my blue measuring cups!
I think that traditionally pasta is made by putting eggs in a crater of flour on the counter. I tried it in a bowl because I was nervous. It wasn't as hard as I thought though so maybe next time I'll try the other way.

I also added a little olive oil and mixed it all together. It was fun to see it come together! Since I don't have a food processor I had to knead it by hand for about 10 minutes. My arms were really tired the next day! hahaAfter I let it sit for awhile I rolled out the dough. It was really elastic! I'm not sure if it's supposed to be or not but it seemed okay. Then I rolled it up and cut slices to make fettuccine. I realized that it's better to roll it up loosely so the noodles are easier to unroll. I unrolled them all except a few because I was lazy and I wanted to see if they would unroll themselves while they cooked. They didn't, but they tasted good rolled up too, just thicker. Some of my noodles came out like zig-zags. Then I boiled the noodles. I forgot how much fresh pasta grows! I ended up with some giant noodles. hahaThen I added some sauce and parmesan and we were ready to eat.... at 10. Oops! I didn't realize how long it would take. It was super delicious! I just love the texture and the flavor. Looking at these pictures makes me want to eat it again. :)

Happy Birthday to ME! :)

I had a super fun birthday celebration at Mom's house this weekend. Everyone gave me really cool presents, including this beautiful afghan made by Sarah and Mom! We ate enchiladas and Grandma Estelle's chocolate cake!
We even had mini sparklers! So cool :)

Baking Challah

Last week I decided I needed a new project, so I made Challah! It was my first time baking bread and it was really fun! I used the recipe in this article from the New York Times. I wished I had a family recipe, but I did have family dishes! The bowl was Susie's and the spoon was Grandma's. :) Next time I'll have to ask for the recipe.

The recipe says to let the dough rise 3 times: once after everything is mixed together, once after you punch it down, and once after it's braided. I didn't really know how to punch the dough so I looked it up on Youtube, but I'm still not sure if I did it right because it didn't seem to get much smaller. After the dough rose again I started the fun part, the braiding!

I learned how to do a 6 strand braid on Youtube too. I watched this video maybe 7 times, including once mid-braid. It can get confusing!

It was really fun to braid the bread. I even impressed myself with how it looked when I was done! haha.

Then I made a round raisin version, which is usually made for Rosh Hashana, I learned. I guess I was a little late. Here it is with egg wash #1:

Then I let them rise again. I couldn't believe how huge they got this time! It was so exciting. :)

After I gave them egg wash #2 I baked the stick shaped loaf. But....Oops. I forgot to pay attention and baked it too long. I think I have a hot oven. The round raisin version came out much better. I love cooked raisins, don't you? This took a long time, but it was really fun and definitely worth it. I want to make it again and maybe other kinds of bread too! Have you ever made challah? Do you have any tips or recipe recommendations? Thanks!

Cute Animals

We went to the fair a long time ago, but I've been bad about blogging lately so I didn't post any of my pictures. My two favorite things about the fair are food and animals, especially petting the animals. Petting the sheep is my favorite. It's like petting dogs but they're much more calm and warm and their woolly heads feel nice, even if they're under a jacket. They like to sniff like dogs too, but so much more air comes out!Mom and Sarah patted the sweetest sheep of all. It stood up on the fence to visit them!This one really liked to pose. Such a sweet face. :)The cows are pretty fun to pat too, but they make me more nervous. This one licked Raf:And then it licked me! My bag was a little dirty after but it was worth it.We got to pat these two too. They were really soft. They were about to go in a competition. I think cows (or oxen, in this case) have beautiful huge eyes. I'm always amazed by how bony they are!These cows (or I guess oxen) had a goat friend. It reminded me of Seabiscuit, except I think his friend was a sheep. Remember how they lived in the same stall? That was so cute. Here is the cutest picture I took at the fair. Cows (I mean oxen) kissing! I couldn't believe it. :)

Rafael's Pumpkin

Rafael carved a pumpkin for a competition at his office. It was fun! He drew a few designs. The first one has diodes for eyes and a resistor for a mouth. :0 I like the mustache on the second one. He went with the bottom one. He drew his design on the pumpkin very carefully. It was a big pumpkin! Then he scooped out the inside very neatly. :) I like the blurry spoon.
I think the pumpkin came out super cool! I love the big toothy smile! Raf's favorite part is the wink.Spiky (the aloe) liked it too.It looks really cool lit up! Great job Raf!!!!!

Vineyard Beaches

I think the best part of Martha's Vineyard is the beaches. We went to Lambert's Cove first. The sand on the walk in was cool as a cucumber. :)And the beach was really calm and beautiful!We liked going on the big rock:It was a great place to pose for a picture.We had some stormy days but we still went to the beach. I loved Katama. We walked in here:And were greeted by big waves like this! So exciting. The beach is spectacular, even on a gray day! We even saw a cutie seal! We liked it so much we decided to go back when the sun came out. It was so fun to go swimming! It was so nice to have another beach day! I didn't think we would get another one this year. :(
I wish I could go to the beach every day! haha