Chad made homemade habenero fettucine tonight. He made the dough and rolled it and cut it (using our new pasta maker that we just bought today at Williams Sonoma...when did we start shopping there?) and made the pasta sauce. I really, truly just stayed out of his way and helped some with kitty management detail. (These are the most aggressive food obsessed felines I have ever encountered, much more on that to come.) It was delicious and spicy. There is something wonderfully satisfying about the texture of homemade pasta.
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| Chad's homemade pasta |
Chad learned this new skill last weekend when we took a cooking class at the Midtown Global Market. The class was awesome, although I was completely intimidated at first. We were paired up in teams with other students and given the freedom/responsibility to decide what we were going to make. Not only did I feel lost and overwhelmed, but as this was not a vegetarian cooking class, I didn't know how to negotiate the waters. I didn't want to make a meat dish I wouldn't eat, but I didn't want
to deprive anyone of their opportunity to make and enjoy a culinary carnivore delight. About ten minutes in I wanted to burst into tears and run out the door, (my first instinct to many new situations) but I calmed down and hung in there. I have definitely learned from my theater experiences that I can usually survive new situations where I don't know what I'm doing, either by learning or faking it.
Luckily we were paired up with a totally sweet couple that was a little older than us for our team. Our inspiration for our meal was supposed to come from a tour of the market, and at one of our first stops the instructor pointed out flour that was good for homemade pasta. Our team couple was also intrigued by making homemade pasta and voila, we had a vegetarian meal plan.
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Me at the Midtown cooking class
utilizing my most important skill. |
The wine flowed freely during class and we stepped outside our comfort zones and had fun. I mostly stayed away from knives, but I "fireroasted" some peppers (which really does mean just setting them on fire and burning the skins) and rolled and cut pasta (using the machine, of course). And our team was very tickled to have actually made pasta and was thrilled with the result.
If you know Chad and me, you probably know we are avowed non-cookers. We can feed ourselves but generally we don't feel that cooking is worth the effort. This does not mean that I don't like food, and in fact the opposite is true. I love food, am obsessed with eating, and plan my day around eating (Chad, however, resents eating as a daily need). But I think of myself more as a food assembler...I'm pretty hardcore about creating huge salads and I do a mean job of throwing premade/processed foods together and jazzing them up with sriracha and soy sauce. I realize this is not exactly a healthy or quality-conscious approach to eating, but I am honestly more concerned with expending my daily caloric intake in wine and my comfort foods of crackers, cheese and peanut butter.
Anyway...enough about my food obsessions (for now). Why take a cooking class when we are not cooks? It was actually Chad's idea. He gave me a cooking class, of my choosing, that we would attend together, as a Christmas present last year (or something like that. I lose track). Simply put, our goal was the mythical "together time," and I'll proudly embrace my inner-woman's magazine expert to say it was a success. It's definitely energizing to try something new and learn together. While we probably won't be making homemade pasta every night (which is another good lesson for me...we/I can try new things and make changes without having to adopt them on a daily basis) when we do, it will also be "together time." Even if my job is mostly to herd cats and enjoy Chad's culinary skill and creativity, it will be time spent together with intention.
Cooking is actually a good fit for Chad. It's a creative endeavor and he likes to make things. As he said, it's a lot like woodworking. I may never consider myself a "cook," but I do value challenging my preconceived notions about myself, and about "Chamy" as a couple. Just don't expect me to try golfing or geocaching or gardening in the near future!
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Chad kneading the pasta in class
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| Pasta machine magic |
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