brought out the spaghetti attachment and rg and sg’s pro 500 kitchenaid for this task. their KA is the whole reason we bought the pasta attachments and a dough hook. we would be remiss if we didn’t start using it to make KA (“kick ass”) pasta. we rolled the dough on 1-4 and then cut it into spaghetti. i didn’t hand flatten it as well as i did the first time so i brought out the rolling pin and that helped. i only added 1/3 cup of water in the food processor but added a couple teaspoons while kneading because i was afraid it was just a wee bit too dry. turns out whatever i did worked out because it was super tasty. i had 4 small-medium helpings and wanted to keep eating and eating. i didn’t, which was brilliant because the pasta expanded in my tummy and i became *very* full about 45 minutes later.

bottom line: i love making pasta (who knew?) and next time we’ll grind our own beef and make our own pasta and make our own sauce. bring on spaghetti and meatballs for the second course of thanksgiving!

made pancakes yesterday with buttermilk labeled as “BEST BY OCT 23.” the container smelled a little off but i poured it into a measuring cup, smelled it, tasted it, and decided it was fine. since *i* didn’t get any GI distress, i made more pancakes today because i wouldn’t want to waste half-spoiled buttermilk.

on a completely different note, i added a pinch more baking powder and they became noticeably fluffier than the ones i made last night. m is right: as baking powder ages, you just need to add a wee bit more.

we replaced the halogens with LEDs. they are keeping us energy-efficient and well-lit.

eating dinner and watching the sunset…

i instantly thought of magritte…

3 beef burgers attempts later, we are trying chicken thigh meat, seasoned with chicken wing seasoning that we had leftover, frank’s hot sauce for that vinegar-y kick, and homemade bleu cheese topping with chives from the garden.

…made with our new hand-crank meat grinder. aside from needing a better surface to clamp onto and figuring out how to extract all the meat from the grinder so we don’t waste, it was easy and amazing.

m slightly undercooked the meat – thank goodness i have an iron stomach. bring on the different cuts of meat and new flavor experimentation!

i have many reasons for why i kept all of my writing: although not published, i consider myself a writer, simply because i write, good or bad; and i always thought that it would be interesting to see what i was like/doing in the past. for example, i kept a log of my 2 10-day midterm breaks during my 6 months in london and even though my writing sometimes reads like a “what i did” list, i can piece together every day and all of the (remaining) memories associated with those activities. i suppose i thought that by keeping all of my writing i might gain some insight into my past and current selves based on where i came from, but i am also an archivist in personality. i love keeping records; i really should become a librarian…

this digitization project has taken me by surprise: i find myself reading it so it takes longer than it should (despite my relatively fast scanner and ocr processing) and i have written some pretty creative stuff and some *really* terrible stuff. ok, neither of those are really surprising.

today is a rainy day and perfect for hunkering down and digitizing/archiving. i have kept every piece of writing since 1989 and whereas most people toss college papers almost as soon as they leave the classroom, i have managed to keep all of mine for almost 20 years. (yeah, packrat comes to mind. – not gonna deny it.)

so, in an effort to free up space in our tiny home and preserve all of my writing, i am converting as much of it as i can from physical paper to digital 1’s and 0’s. searchable OCR, too, of course. because someday i might want to know how many times i used the word “the.”

taken november 4, 2009…

buzz lightyear ride at disneyland