Kitchen Gadgets are my Jam!
I feel like Steve Martin in the movie “The Jerk” when the phone book arrived. “My Pasta Maker’s here, my Pasta Maker’s here!” Long before the stay at home orders I took a Pasta Class with my daughter and daughter-in-law. It was a retirement gift from Alex’s in-laws Faye and John Waidley. Making Pasta is super therapeutic and I thoroughly enjoyed the class…although when we got home and cooked the pasta we made it wasn’t all that delicious . I decided to watch some YouTube videos and try making pasta at home. I got out the Kitchen Aid pasta roller, I followed the directions, and boy was it FRUSTRATING. I almost threw the whole batch away until my son accused me of being a quitter. “Quitter!!!” I am the try try again lady. So we stuck with it , I combined the kitchen aid sheet roller with some hand rolling and cutting and the end result was delicious but a LOT of work. Additionally, the recipe didn’t make a LOT of pasta so my appetite for making Home Made Pasta was moved to “on occasion”. However, as I have said before, I am not proud and I look to others to improve myself. I noticed that my friends 28 year old daughter and her husband were cranking out pasta like nobodies business. I was impressed! They had two children under the age of 3…if they could do it why couldn’t I? Then one day I found out the key to their love of Home Made Pasta - they had the Phillip’s Pasta Maker. A gadget…now we’re talking…
My kitchen is loaded with gadgets and appliances. I can’t help myself. In fact I think it is genetic because if you ever visited my brother Vito, a carpenter, you would be amazed at the plethora of tools he has in his garage and his custom truck. It must have been a recessive gene because our parents were depression babies and minimalists by necessity. Although I did not have room for any more gadgets I was off researching this Phillip’s Pasta Maker. I found the one I wanted and the reviews were good. I had a gift card to Williams Sonoma and that coupled with a sale allowed me to acquire the gadget at the best price. I ordered it on March 4th and it arrived yesterday on April 15th. I guess a lot of people want to make home made Pasta because I ordered it Pre-COVID19 before all the pasta on the stores shelves was gone! Fortunately, for me, at a time when flour is scarce I had some 00 flour and Semolina so I thought it would be fun to unbox my new gadget with my Cooking Community and give it a spin. Much to my surprise the Pasta Maker prefers All Purpose Flour so I guess I will have to find a different use for my Semolina and 00 Flour. This appliance is not a small investment so this better be good. Let’s learn together.
