You might think that, with nine days to go until the wedding, I'm referring to Katey.
I'm not.
I'm talking about our new KitchenAid stand mixer.
We received this as a wedding gift, and it has really changed our eating habits. Prior to getting the mixer, we bought our pasta from the store, and usually fretted about whether or not get the organic pasta at three times the price of the regular stuff. Now, nothing but fresh pasta. Katey has taken up cookie baking, and we also make pizza dough to freeze.Also, our garden is finally producing for us this year. We've got six quarts of pesto in the freezer, a couple quarts of swiss chard (blanched and frozen), lettuce, spinach, and kale. A few zucchini have been harvested with many more on the way, I'm sure.
The onions and tomatoes seem to be doing well, as are all of the winter squash. Our pepper plants are slowly developing, but I'm afraid our potato crop is being destroyed by grasshoppers. We have a solution for the bugs next summer, but I'll save that for another post.
Tonight, we had a few friends over to do some wedding planning. We made fresh pasta dough, and Katey hand cut and shaped enough farfalle (bowties) for the six of us to eat well. We tossed the pasta with fresh basil pesto, prepared only a few minutes before serving. We also had a salad with greens from the garden, and some store-bought radishes, cucumber, and carrots. We dressed it with a home-made ranch dressing. To drink, Katey brewed a pitcher of iced tea, and we had fresh squeezed lemonade as well. A great summer meal.
