#cookininmyboots
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#gardeninginmybowtie

Need to know how to open champagne or bottle of sparkling wine? Here is the perfect technique. #cookininmyboots Subscribe for more at www.bootsandbowties.com

Making your own pasta is not hard. I promise! You do need a Kitchen Aid Mixer or similar appliance for this recipe along with a pasta maker attachment. Once you have those tools it could not be more simple. You can also use store bought pasta with this sauce but It won't be quite as good as this sauce lets your homemade pasta sing and dance in your mouth. How many times have I watch the contestants of the Great British Baking show knead and knead pasta dough? That is for the birds! This is the twenty-first century! Surely we have come up with something better? Well, we have, its call a dough hook. I start this pasta in the Kitchen Aid Mixer bowl with the paddle attachment. Once the egg, flour, salt and olive oil come together I switch out the paddle for the dough hook, set the mixer on medium-low and set a 10 minute timer. Then wham the dough is done and all in about 15 minutes maximum with little effort. Pop it out onto some plastic wrap and let it rest for an hour. You would want a rest too if you can been pulled and stretched for 10 minutes. It's the kneading the builds the gluten molecules in the pasta that lets it be rolled, cut and boiled and still look like a noodle. The pasta sauce is so simple too, just a light lemon cream with some parmesan. Simple is sometimes the best, less is often so much more! I love to make this on a night when I have little time for dinner. A chardonnay wine also is a great accompaniment. Read the full story at https://www.bootsandbowties.com/post/light-lemon-cream-with-easy-homemade-pasta #cookininmyboots

The Christmas decorations have been packed away. The forrest's trees are silvery skeletons and nothing is blooming or growing in sight. What is a gardener to do? Force! Anyone, even a black thumb can force branches into spectacular blooms and it couldn't be easier. Choose any woody plant that blooms early in the spring with flowers that open first before it sets leaves. These trees and shrubs include saucer magnolia (Magnolia x soulangeana), forsythia (Forsythia × intermedia), red bud (Cercis canadensis), Yoshino cherry (Prunus × yedoensis) etc. All you need do is cut some of these branches with dormancy flower buds and place them in a container of water in a warm place in your home. In a few weeks these branches will burst to life with a floral show in your house. VISIT THE BLOG AT https://www.bootsandbowties.com/post/may-the-force-be-with-you-forcing-branches

So you probably have popped some things into the wash and found they come out just about as dirty as when you put them in or the stain remains. What are you to do? Enter your friend, soaking. No matter what I'm presented with in the laundry from poo to blood, I soak it. I also believe that powdered detergents work better than liquids.

Centuries of Christmas symbols pervade our culture and are unchanging stalwarts like wreaths, trees, balls and glitter, but each year some elements are more trendy than others. Here are my picks for what we are seeing in the stores and magazines this year. Add a few elements to your home or packages this year to add freshness to some of your old cherished decorations. You can also recombine some older items you have in different ways to get a fresh look. Visit https://www.bootsandbowties.com/post/top-ten-trends-for-christmas-2019 for the full story.

During the holiday season our church's music secretary, Monica Davis, related a story of her grandmother or "Maw Maw" as she called her. Monica's Maw Maw had a staple chocolate cake she made for her grandchildren on her Kentucky farm. The kids would grab a piece and hang over her porch letting the crumbs fall onto the ground to be eaten by Maw Maw's chickens. Maw Maw's recipe, called Mrs. D's French Chocolate Cake, was cut from the Louisville Newspaper in 1948 from a local Kentucky high school bake sale. This is the stuff of Southern culinary legend so I knew Monica needed to be a guest on my vlog. READ THE FULL STORY AT https://www.bootsandbowties.com/post/monica-s-maw-maw-s-chocolate-cake #cookininmyboots

My wife and I love anything English. We are the original Anglophiles. We love all the English shows on BritBox, Monty Don, Mary Berry, The Great British Baking Show and Downton Abbey. One of our family favorite weeknight meals is one of the most simple of English fare. Straight from the small British Pubs is my bangers and mash recipe. Bangers are any type of sausage. Pick the one of your choice and roast it in the oven at a high temp to brown and heat through, and bang! You have a protein. They can be hot, savory or even sweet. Mash is simply mashed potatoes, but I make my Famous Mustard Mashed Potatoes. Our eldest son who claims to hate potatoes gobbles these down. He cleans his plate when we have this meal which I garnish with just a little something green to have him say, "eeew!" For my mash I start with boiled Yukon Gold Potatoes that I pressure cook for 5 minutes in my Instant Pot, but you can certainly boil them in a Dutch Oven until fork tender. Then, I add copious amounts of dairy: sour cream, butter and milk along with Dijon Mustard, dry mustard, onion and garlic powder and certainly bunches of fresh cracked pepper and Himalayan Sea Salt. All of this gets whipped to perfection in my KitchenAid Mixer with the wire whip attachment. #cookininmyboots

Have you eaten everything in sight this holiday? Here is my easy weeknight recovery meal even the kids will eat. Check it out- Panko Salmon, Cauliflower and Pineapple. #cookininmyboots #gardeninginmybowtie

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