Fresh Pasta

Whenever I cook for a dinner party, I love doing a fresh pasta for the first course. In Italy, dry pasta is not considered inferior to fresh pasta. It is just considered different. However, here, we mostly eat dry pasta & we rarely get to eat the fresh stuff. So, serving fresh has quite a bit more value.

The past 3 dinner parties I made a simple regular pasta.

In a mixing bowl, I put in:
3 Cups of A.P. Flour
3 Eggs
1T Salt
1/2 Cup Water



And I started to mix it around:





At this point, I determined my dough was still too wet, and added another half a cup of flour.


It is easy to work more flour into a dough that is too soft, too wet. It is much harder to work water into a dough that is too dry. So, I generally like to start my doughs out a little wetter than a recipe calls for & gradually add in more flour.

After the dough had come together, I put it out on a bench, dusted it with more flour, and started to knead it.



I kneaded it for about 15-20 minutes, slowly working more flour in until I liked the feel. I work the flour in just until it loses its stickiness & then knead it to form the gluten. Then I cover it with a towel & let it sit for 5 minutes.


Then I kneaded it for a couple more minutes till it was nice and smooth.


I then wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.


The dough needs to rest for at least 30 minutes. I generally like to do the dough the day before and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.


I also made a fresh spinach pasta.

Spinach pasta has a very neutral flavor. It tastes exactly like regular pasta, but the spinach is used for color alone.

I started by getting a sauce pan of salted water boiling. You want the water to taste like the sea whenever you blanch vegetables in it.


I then added a handful of baby spinach leaves for about 30 - 40 seconds.


And then removed the leaves from the water and shocked them in an ice bath.


After the spinach was completely cooled, I drained it & squeezed out most of the water in it.


I put the spinach in a food processor with 3 eggs, 1T salt, and 1/2C water.


And then I blended it until it was nice and smooth.


I put 3 1/2 Cups of flour in a mixing bowl and added the spinach liquid to it.


And I started to mix it & work it just as I did with the regular pasta dough.

Cowboy Artist Museum Charity Dinner

We had another dinner party on October 24th for the Cowboy Artist Museum. 10 people who had bought it in an auction came out to the camp. We decided to go with 7 courses.

First Course: Ricotta-Mushroom Beggar's Purse with a Brown Butter Sage Sauce


Second Course: Heirloom Tomato-Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese, a Watermelon Reduction, and Mint


Third Course: Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with Thyme, Chives & Pumpkin Seeds


Fourth Course: Apple Cornish Game Hens with a Soft Blue Cheese Polenta


Fifth Course: Pork & Cabbage Duo. Smoked Pork Tenderloin with Braised Red Cabbage and Fresh Sage Sausages with Butter Cabbage.


Sixth Course: Beef Tenderloin with Parsnip Risotto (Same as the Chamber Dinner).


Seventh Course: Chocolate Coconut Cream Cake with Coconut Ice Cream & Coconut Caramel (Same as the Chamber Dinner but with the Ice Cream Added).


And like the Chamber of Commerce Dinner, my family helped out.


Kathleen helped take pictures and plate.


And she helped with all the prep.


Edward, Mary Liz and Edward Jr. came and helped.






As Well as Britt, Catie, George and Charlie




My sweet Mom who organized everything was, as always, a huge help.


And once again, Peter Beeman supplied and paired the wine.

Beef Tenderloin

This was the 5th Course of the Chamber Dinner Party.

I decided to do the Tenderloin Sous Vide, which is a relatively new process, and one I have just recently started playing around with. As with most new and shiny things, it has a good bit of my attention.

To start, I took a full tenderloin and trimmed it of its fat and silver skin. I then cut it in half, seasoned it with salt & pepper and vacuum sealed the halves separately.


I took my immersion circulatory and heated a container of water to 131 degrees Fahrenheit. I then put the sealed bags of tenderloin in the water and cooked them for a little over an hour.


I cut the bags open and let the meat rest for about 20 minutes.


I then took a pan and got it nice and hot with some olive oil. And started to sear the meat.


When I got all the sides nice and seared, I added butter, some garlic cloves, and some fresh thyme.



I tilted the pan and basted the meat with the butter to add flavor and shine.




I then took the meat out of the pan, and let it rest for another 15 to 20 minutes.

I then sliced the meat into moderately thin pieces.



For the topping, I cut parsnips into small matchsticks (Julienne) and then fried then in hot oil.




To plate, we spooned the parsnip risotto into molds.


I placed a few slices of the tenderloin onto the center of the risotto and then spooned the mushroom demi glace on top.


I garnished it with chopped fine herbs and some fried parsnips.