After watching the new hit Netflix series “Master of None,” I was inspired by Aziz Ansari to make my own pasta. I know, it doesn’t seem like the quickest or easiest way to cook a meal. But something about making things from scratch seems so cathartic.

I asked my parents for a pasta maker for Christmas, so as soon as we finished opening presents I got right to making some pasta. I had watched a couple of YouTube videos in preparation, this one especially a couple of times. It shows you two different ways to mix it, one by hand and one with the food processor.

Of course, cleaning a food processor seemed out of the question so I opted to do it by hand. I recommend starting by making a smaller amount of pasta to practice.

I got a mixing bowl and put 3 heaping spoonfuls of flour. Then I made a well in the middle and cracked in one egg. Took a spoon and started scrambling the egg, slowly mixing in the flour until it became a ball of dough. (Looking back at the video, I realized I should’ve put some olive oil and salt/pepper in as well.)

If the dough is sticky, keep adding in flour a spoonful at a time. Then knead the dough until it becomes smooth. Kneading looks hard but it’s actually quite easy. If I can do it, you can do it. Just keep folding the dough and punching it. It is tiring, but that is why we are starting off with a really small quantity.

Cut your ball of dough into two pieces. Cover one with saran wrap to keep it from drying out. Now set your pasta machine roller setting to 0 and roll your dough through. Isn’t it fun? Don’t be too eager though or the handle might fall off… that happened to me a couple of times.

Mmm look how delicious it looks. Ok, now fold your dough into a rectangle and roll it back through with the 0 setting. This will help the dough be more of a rectangular shape as you roll it through.

Now roll it through the 1 setting and so on until you hit 5. This will make your dough thinner and longer as you go through each setting. If the dough starts to become a little long to handle, cut it in half like the picture above.

Yay you’ve rolled out your dough! It’s finally time to roll it through the noodle slicer. Pat a little flour on both sides of the dough to keep it from sticking to the machine, and roll it on through. Don’t forget to catch it on the other side as it’s coming out.

As you make each “section” of noodles, mix them up with a little flour to keep them from sticking to each other as you finish the rest of the noodles. Don’t forget the other ball of dough!

After I finished slicing up the noodles, I boiled some salted water and threw the noodles in. The way to know if they’re cooked is by pinching a noodle and if it breaks in two easily it is al dente.

Drain those noodles and serve them as you please. Do not rinse them!

The right picture is my first attempt at making noodles. I put a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic seasoning on it. Got a meh from the fam.

The left picture is my second attempt at making noodles. 5 eggs and 2 1/2 cups of flour. Sauteed with a jar of marinara sauce. My brother said it tasted like a kid’s meal at Olive Garden. Other people, a little more encouraging and said it was delicious.

So you’re probably wondering, is it really worth making noodles from scratch? I can’t really answer that. I think it depends.  It’s fun and cathartic if you have the time. However, as far as “ease of cooking,” a $1.29 box of pasta from HEB would definitely be much easier. Homemade noodles have certain toothiness and heartiness though the store bought pasta doesn’t always have.

As the video said, making pasta is a labor of love. It’s ok if it doesn’t turn out perfect the first time. You keep doing you. Surround yourself with people who push your boundaries and encourage you.

Merry Christmas, everybody! Hope you got to spend time with the ones you love.

I’ve been thinking about making a breakfast hash for awhile. And today was the day, I was so excited. To get an idea of how to even make a breakfast hash, I did a quick google search to find a recipe to go off of. The first recipe I clicked on said it was necessary to parboil the potatoes before I fried them. I immediately thought to myself, two pans to wash? Nope.

Imma do it my way, ain’t nobody tell me what to do.

First, I stopped by the grocery store to buy some cheese, eggs, and sausage. Has anyone else noticed that egg prices have gone up? Maybe I never paid attention to the price before.

I get home, and I immediately lay out all the ingredient I’m going to use. The only real ingredients you need are potatoes, eggs, and cheese. All those other vegetables I happened to have. You do you boo. When I see a ton of ingredient in a recipe I usually roll my eyes and choose which ones I think are most important.

I used mini bell peppers, golden potatoes, shredded cheese, eggs, sausage, pre-minced garlic (because ain’t nobody got time for that), cherry tomatoes, spinach, and mushroom. Wow that’s a mouthful.

First, lay down some of that fine minced garlic with some cooking oil in a pan and turn it to lowish medium. This is for all those haters who say my food is bland.

Dice up some potatoes. Put in as many as you want! But dice it small or it’ll take too long to cook, and I know I get hungry when I cook. If you put a lot of potatoes though, try to use a bigger pan. My pan was kind of small and I kind of regretted it later.

Toss those potatoes into the pan and put the lid on so it’ll cook faster. Don’t forget to keep stirring those potatoes though, you don’t want those babies to burn. You put too much effort into cooking to have it go to waste.

Slice up some bell peppers. I tried twisting off the stem, but that was too much work so I just lopped that top off.

Look how beautiful this pan is looking.

Toss in some cherry tomatoes.

Slice up some mushrooms. Gonna be real, I don’t know if mushrooms are really meant for a hash. They didn’t really add that much to the dish.

Cut up some sausages (raw). This is where I realized I probably should’ve cooked the sausages first and that maybe you’re probably not supposed to cut raw sausages… it gets kind of ugly.

Oooo this hash is starting to look really good.

Ugh these sausages were kind of hard to cook with so much other stuff in the pan. So I kind of pushed them down in the middle of the pan and hoped for the best.

I added a shot of water into the pan and covered the lid to help the cooking process by steaming it. Don’t forget to keep stirring so your food doesn’t burn.

Then I whisked a couple of eggs with some water. Why water? I don’t know, I saw it on television! Then I mixed some cheese into the mixture and poured it into the pan. Wait for it took cook a little bit, then start stirring your pan again. I think I did it too early and my eggs disintegrated.

Add a bunch of spinach to add some green to the pan. Put in a bunch because spinach spoils quickly and there’s no use in trying to save it for later.

This is where my small pan really presents a problem. How can I get this spinach to cook?? I use my spatula to smoosh the spinach into the bottom middle of the pan in the hopes that it’ll cook and slam that lid on top so my spinach can cook more easily.

Keep stirring your food and then check to see if your potatoes are cooked. If they are, you are done!!! Wow it looks so beautiful.

Food looks okay, it meets my standards! Add in some hot tea to cut that greasy food and you are set for dinner.

I have a confession to make guys, I don’t really like cooking. Like my dream would be to marry a guy who likes cooking, cleaning, and driving (okay, that’s unrelated). Until then, I’ll just keep cooking for me, myself, and I.