worth the effort?

Feelis like I just had a marathon cooking weekend! Had pasta'n sauce & garlic bread on Saturday, with a slight difference - I made the pasta. I've made it an Italian cookery class before but that was many years ago, so I turned to Nick Nairn's book which I'm finding time consuming but easy to follow (and the food is undeniably good). Naturally I already have a pasta machine (what self-respecting would-be cook doesn't have one, stashed unused somewhere in the back of a cupboard?!) so R & I made up a team - I made the dough and when it was ready (you have to let it (& yourself!) "rest" for an hour) he wound the handle while I fed it through the rollers.

So, as our tagliatelle on Saturday was pretty successful I decided to go ahead with the ravioli for Sunday dinner, at which Emily & Nick would both be present. Well! First of all, don't let your husband anywhere near the cookery books - R found another filling he liked the sound of (crabmeat & mascarpone) better than the one I was doing (butternut squash) so I had to do both. Plus as I wasnt' sure how many people were going to be there I did double the amount. Phew... I started at 11.30am and finished at 4.30pm!!!

What with the dough making, making the fillings while it rested, then the rolling-out (and dragging R away from the golf for these!), the filling and the cutting. Then the initial cooking followed by laying-out, covering in oiled clingfilm and finding space in the fridge... After which I had about an hour's collapse on the sofa then back to cooking it all and freezing the ones I hadn't cooked, making two different butter sauces etc...

oh yes and I made a trifle for dessert too, which R won't have seconds of til I get some Flake to put on the top!

Don't get me wrong I actually enjoyed most of it, and you get a feeling of satisfaction from having done all that but in the end given that that was basically half my weekend used up, I think next time I'll stick to bought pasta. Or just pasta shapes without the filling, cutting etc..

Still - that's me surely crowned domestic goddess for now?! (and it gets you out the dogwalking)