Homemade Noodles and Small Things

When discussing my blog posting strategy for November, my husband suggested that I incorporate things for which I am thankful along with recipes for your Thanksgiving feast.  This past year has been one of the most challenging of my life and it’s easy to lose sight of how lucky I am.  I decided to take his suggestion to heart.  For the month of November I will be dedicating each post to one thing that I am truly thankful for.  This week, I present you with:

Small Things

The simple touch of a hand when you are feeling adrift.  A smile across the room that makes you feel less alone.  The smirk that shows you are part of joke instead of the butt of it.  The feeling of warm grass on bare feet.  Mud squishing between your toes.  The lilac drunk smell of springtime.

There are so many little things to be thankful every single day.  The other day I was at a coffeeshop and a father was putting his baby into the carseat.  The baby wasn’t happy.  I looked at the baby over his father’s shoulder and smiled and waved.  The baby ceased his fussing and smiled at me.

My husband smiled the other day as my daughter proclaimed him the best dad ever because he bought cereal that she likes.  His eyes have the best happy crinkle I’ve ever seen.  He doesn’t even have to have the smile on his lips yet, because his eyes betray his feelings.

When we had kids over the other day, it was amazing to watch them learn.  You could see their brains working as they put pieces together and figured things out.

At work, the moment you know you did good work.  I made a diagram for something the other day.  It wasn’t amazing new technology.  Other people could’ve done it better, but I figured it out.  I made it legible.  It was what was needed.

The first snowflakes started falling here.  White flakes drifted down to our back yard.  The kids smiled as they watched the lawn turning white.  It was a perfect moment.

It’s things like that text when you don’t expect it, but really need it.  It’s the girl interrupting your typing to smile in your face just because.  It’s the coworker who catches you smiling at your own thoughts and smiles back and tells you that she had to make sure that you saw her smiling back.

There are so many small kindnesses in the world that make everything a little more magical.  My sons hold doors. Not always because they don’t always remember, but often enough that I notice.

One day, my son decided I needed flowers just because he thinks I’m a great mom.  For the next week, every time I saw the flowers I smiled.

I have this picture of my grandparents that I love.  They are sitting in their garden and watching my kids play on the lawn.  Grandma has her hand up in the air as she laughs.  Grandpa’s face is wide open as he chuckles at the antics of the children.

But it’s also the tear that escapes when people don’t expect it.  The real moments that happen in between all those other moments.  

I love taking pictures of my garden, but nothing pleases me more than when I discover a perfect imperfection in my photos.  I have pictures of flowers in their full glory with an insect marring their pristine blossoms.

It’s all of these small things that make the world a richer place.  It’s the details that matter most some times.  It’s like putting homemade noodles into soup.

When I was young, my mom would sometimes bring out the pasta maker.  She would let us turn the crank and flatten the dough.  After a few passes we ran the sheets of dough through the mechanism that cut them and hung homemade noodles from drying racks in the kitchen. Usually mom had stock simmering on the stove while this went on.  I didn’t really care about soup for supper, but loved the homemade noodles. 

When I got my first Kitchen Aid mixer, I asked for, and received, the pasta roller attachment.  I don’t use it as often as I should because I keep forgetting how easy homemade noodles are to make.  They are time consuming and they are messy, but they aren’t hard.

If you don’t have a pasta machine, you can just roll the dough into a thin sheet, coat it lightly with flour, roll it up into a cigar shape and cut off ribbons.  Of course there are millions of ways to get fancy with it.  Add herbs or veggies to basic noodles to change the flavor or color.  Parsley and spinach are common.

A single recipe makes a lot of noodles.  It may have been more than my soup actually needed, but homemade noodles are so good that I didn’t care.  My daughter wanted to eat leftover soup for breakfast, after school snack, and as an appetizer before dinner.  The boys didn’t like it quite that much, but still enjoyed it.

Do not let the intimidation factor prevent you from making this recipe.   Mix all the ingredients together to make a stiff dough.  Let it rest for 10 minutes and roll it out to desired thickness.  Use flour to prevent the dough from sticking.  Throw those noodles in pot of boiling water and cook for a few minutes.  Serve buttered, as a base for stroganoff, or throw into a pot of soup.  You probably have turkey bones sitting around anyway, with all the colds and viruses waiting around to infect you, nothing is better than a nice hot bowl of soup.

The Recipe:

Homemade Noodles

1 1/2 cup flour
1 t salt
1 t fat (I used butter, but you can use anything)
1 egg

Mix ingredients together to form a stiff dough.  Knead until smooth.  Let rest for 10 minutes.  Cut into pieces and roll each piece to desired thickness using a pasta maker or a rolling pin.  Flour both sides to prevent sticking.  Cut into desired width.  Boil in for 3-4 minutes until done.

If you liked this post and want to see what I made last Thanksgiving, check out:  Whiskey Slush, Champion Apple Pie, Cherry Meringue Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and Food Roadtrip: Honey and Cinnamon Candied Yams.