Pasta-Making Machines

For our mom's 60th birthday Rachel and I treated her (and ourselves) to a Homemade Pasta workshop at the Viking Cooking School in Peapack-Gladstone, NJ. I know, I know, this blog is where Ronak and I write only about our joint culinary experiences, but on this occasion we're making an exception because 1) this workshop was far too amazing not to record and 2) I recreated two of the dishes for Ronak so he has already benefited from the recipes learned. Here's what we made that day:

Lobster Bolognese Sauce with Fettucine
Pansotti with Tomato, Onion, Basil Sauce
Lasagna with Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Bechamel Sauce
Fennel Salad with Red Peppers and Cerignola Olives
Lemon Walnut Biscotti

We had our hands in preparing all the dishes on the menu, though some more than others. For instance, we were more than happy to pass off the job of shelling the lobsters to the Fish Monger on staff. The class was 3 hours long and because we were making our own lunch (and were very hungry), we felt motivated to produce quickly and boost the quantities wherever possible- especially when it came to the pansotti. Once the dishes were plated and served, we ate every last bit but still yearned for a just a small hunk of bread to wipe our plates clean. The lack of bread however did not prevent us from resorting to use our fingers to get those last drops of sauce.

Gone Pickin'

Last weekend Rachel, Fabien, Claire, Jenny, Erik and I spent the afternoon apple picking at Melick's Farm in New Jersey. Ellis and Théo came along for the fun as well. We filled or bushels with golden delicious, granny smith and jonagold apples while eating a few right off the tree.

Sadly, Ron wasn't feeling well so he had to stay home in bed... though he was able to partake in the experience later on in the form of a homemade apple-raspberry crumble.

The Garden State, indeed.

Ron's first trip to "Meet the Parents" for the second time. Excited to see Sara's homeland and even more so to hang with Fabien and Rachel.

We drove by several of Sara's fondest food memories... from Hunan Wok to The Oldwick General Store... funny memories of baby sitting and chilling emerged... with the back drops of green lands, watching the movement of the stick shift, the hands of time seemed to have floated backwards...

My last memory of picking anything was apples, and I must have been 13 years old. It was a class trip, and it felt warm and unbelievable.

The peach orchard at Melick's Farm in Califon was well organized and easy to navigate. The wooden baskets gave us the a u ra of nostalgia, and the rows of peaches were plentiful. And I quickly realized, I like my peaches like I like my woman - good color, firm minded, soft spoken, but delicate... like Sara :)

We collected our peaches, bagged them and got going! Greeting us at home was a game of corn hole, complete with a shiny new scoring kit... I got whooped by Mr. Mills and Fabien (i'll be back...), but so did Sara.

The night ended with a dinner prepared by Mrs. Mills... As the glass with the American flag was filled with Indian beer, and as the crisp corn on the cob was served with a delicious steak, the funny conversations and sharing of stories felt like New Jersey in its truest spirit, born again in us... word born, NJ!