Sunday, January 31, 2010

I do the Richard Petty Experience RideAlong



Thanks to the great folks at my distributor Tech Data's Advanced Infrastructure Systems group I got to check another item off my life-list - a NASCAR Ride-along at 140 mph at Disney Motor Speedway!  Wow - fastest 3 miles I've ever ridden.  This is courtesy of the folks at the Richard Petty Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Motor Speedway!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Making Lemon Basil Pasta from scratch

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Ingredients:

Per batch of lemon basil pasta:
2 3/4 C pasta 00 flour (Hodgson Mills makes a nice semolina)
4 eggs
Zest of 3 lemons
1 batch fresh basil from wegmans - chopped
1 tsp of salt
1 tbs of EVOO

To make:
1. 2 3/4 c pasta 00 flour make a well 4 eggs http://twitpic.com/ze8fj
2. Add 3 farm fresh free range room temp eggs+yolk of 4th to well http://twitpic.com/ze8w6
3. Add 3 lemons worth zest + basil and 1 tsp salt 2 eggs http://twitpic.com/ze9g5  + 1 tbs evoo
4. Using fingertips mix liquid ingredients 2gether and slowly incorporate flour from edge of well kneaded add water a few drops at a time
5. Until dough looks like this http://twitpic.com/zecck  & flour sticks only 2 itself then knead 4 5 min http://twitpic.com/zecr8 
6. Make 4 even balls wrap in plastic wrap and let sit 4 15 http://twitpic.com/zee7u
7. Part 2 rolling out the. dough and cutting into pepperdella size first clamp to sturdy surface http://twitpic.com/zemmq
8. Set pasta machine on 1 widest setting http://twitpic.com/zemxx
9. Feed 1 ball through http://twitpic.com/zenoo  &
10. fold 2x http://twitpic.com/zenv7  repeat 5x
11. Click to 2 and repeat 3-5x then 3 2-3x http://twitpic.com/zeolu  for thick peppardella/tagliara should look like this http://twitpic.com/zeph0 If you want thinner, continue on down through the sizes to 4 or 5 and use the spaghetti cutter rather than the middle cuter.
12. Move handle to middle cutting position and feed through cutters http://twitpic.com/zepo9  lay pasta out and lightly flour
13. Repeat for each ball of dough http://twitpic.com/zeq9z
14. The finished product let dry at least an hour b4 cooking 3 min 30 sec http://twitpic.com/zezqf