Cooking Papa

Recently I had my 20-something-th birthday. Those who know me knows that I am quite good at spending $$ (both in terms of the amount I spend as well as the types of 'bargains' that I accumulate) and so it would be no surprise that I took full advantage of 'my own birthday' as an excuse to buy myself a little som'in' som'in'. I ended up buying this pasta machine after my quadtriple tut this past Tuesday. I didn't have chance to play with it until tonight because I was working hard at work. There was not the usual Friday nite family dinner tonite so I decided to pull the thing out & play with it. It (the instructions) looked simple enough and after a little cleaning the machine was ready for use. Being very new to this pasta making business it was kinda hard for me to judge exactly how moist/dry the dough should be, so getting the kneading right along took me more than an hour! Then there was getting the flattening part right. I tried pressing it this way & then perpendicularly (is that even a word?) & keep swapping but still it didn't resemble a 'regular shape' which is what the instructions said. Took me quite a few tries (& a couple more hours) before finally finishing the 1st batch using the fettucini extension. I'm pretty sure I got the proportions right at 250g & 1/2 glass of water (I guess taking the water option over the egg option means that it's not technically pasta but just noodles...) for 3 ppl, yet I resulted in this HUGE batch that looks like it couple easier feed 5 or 6! So I lowered the 'dosage' & made a second batch, 1) so I could try out the angel hair extension, & 2) to have something for tomorrow's lunch (fettu is for tomoro's dinner :P). I cut it down to 200g & some water. Didn't knead extensively this time round so the entire batch only took an hr & a half! If that rate of 'improvement' is anything to go by, technically I can be making batches of pasta in NO TIME AT ALL!! But back to reality, alas that won't be the case. It's good arm exercise, but simply too time consuming. let's save it for special occasions only...