so very tasty

Meal: homemade pasta, tomato sauce, white sauce, baguettes, apple crisp
Cooking time: about an hour, plus lead time for the bread
Cost per person: about $3.00
Local ingredients: egg, cheese, milk
Organic ingredients: apple, oats, sugar, flour, tomatos

Tuesday night we had our normal space geek movie night. I did homemade pasta, side salads, baguettes, and apple crisp for four.

For the pasta, I used a slightly different recipe than normal; my copy of How to Cook Everything was hiding from me, so I fell back on Betty Crocker.

• 2 cups flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1/4 cup water
  
• 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
  

Mix flour and salt together and form into a mound. Make a well in the middle of the mound, add everything else, and mix well. Adjust the dryness of the dough as necessary with a little extra water. Form a ball with the dough and kneed for five minutes, or until the dough is smooth and workable. Roll out by hand or use your pasta machine.

I was very pleased with this pasta; it was easy to work with, and had a great taste. It met with universal approval.

The apple crisp came from Betty Crocker, as well:

• apples, diced (Betty Crocker recommends 4 medium, but really, your apple to topping ratio is up to you)
  
• 2/3 to 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (you want to err on the high side with this, believe me)
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 cup oats (use the normal kind, not the instant, please? :) )
  
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
  
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinammon
  
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (a little ground ginger never hurt, either)
  

The apples go into an 8×8 pan. Everything else gets mixed and dumped on top of the apples, and the whole thing goes in the oven for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. This makes ahead well; make it early in the day, then put it in the oven whenever you’re ready to eat it.

If you’re feeling decadent and have cream on hand (which we often do, since we make our own butter), pour just a touch of cream in a bowl - a quarter to a half a cup will do it - add sugar to taste (and really, this will take some trial and error), and beat it with electric beaters until you have whipped cream. Add a bit of suger to taste during whipping if you want it sweetened.

The baguette recipe came from here. They were delicious - the four of us killed both loaves.