“I saw you toss the kite on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass —
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song…”
The Wind; R.L. Stevenson
When the breeze blows around this old home, it stirs my soul. The lace curtains dance in the gentle wind and the lovely wind chimes hanging on the back porch tinkle out a little song. It is very peaceful and calming …
I recently decided to hang wind chimes (which I have always loved) on my Peaceful Porch (Have I explained this yet? If not, I guess it deserves a post…) after I was at our neighbour’s house a few weeks ago. He’s a apiarist and has many brightly-coloured bee hives scattered throughout his property. My husband wanted to stop and ask him a question regarding our bees (which all, tragically, died over the winter months).
After nearing his house one Sunday after church, we decided to stop in. The man of the house came out of his well-used barn when we arrived … his long whitish grey hair was frizzled and frazzled and blew in the wind every which way. He ran his rough hand over his unkept hair and greeted our large family with a loud and hearty greeting. He was incredibly friendly and very helpful.
While my children secretly named our new bee friend “Einstein” (respectfully, of course, after we had just studied the life of Albert Einstein in history) and my husband talked bee-talk with our new fuzzy-haired friend, I stood to the side in the shade of some lilac bushes and heard the tinkling, soothing sound of gentle wind chimes. How lovely, I thought! I wondered it he hung them or if another whimsical soul found a home for such sweet little wind chimes in earlier days.
What saddened me was that when I heard the wind chime song, I thought it was my husband fancy phone with a text message. Yes, indeed, my first reaction to the lovely windchimes was to react and think it was a product of an iphone. Sad, very sad, I must say. I immediately realized we need *real* windchimes in our life so we would not associate the beautiful sound of these little tinkling chimes with a digital device of this century!
So now, there are two wind chimes on the Peaceful Porch. And now, thankfully, I do not think of iphones or any other device when I hear them singing in the summer breeze.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Back to the kitchen … we love egg noodles. They are so delicious and fabulous in soups or dishes! Last week, I decided to make egg noodles for our dinner as I was making beef stroganoff and realized I did not have any egg noodles in the pantry or Provision Room. It is not hard to make homemade noodles and pasta – just reserve a bit of time and enjoy the steps.
Homemade Egg Noodles
2 cups of flour
3 egg yolks
1 egg
2 tablespoons of salt
1/4 cup of water
Measure out your flour into a bowl and make a nice little hole in the middle. This is where your eggs and egg yolk and salt. Start mixing it together with your hands. Yes, it does get messy.
Add your water one tablespoon at a time … make sure you mix well with each addition of water. The dough will feel ready when you can form it into a nice, round ball.
Once you have hit the stage of having your pasta dough form a round ball, dump it out onto a floured surface and give it a bit of kneading. You will want it to be smooth and elastic-like.
Roll the dough out nice and flat. Make sure your surface is still generously floured. Slice into noodle sized pieces using a floured knife or floured pizza cutter.
You may either cook right away or place them on a drying rack until you are ready. I do not own a drying rack so I laid the noodles out onto a cookie sheet to wait until dinner. You don’t want the noodles to be too dry – I only waiting 1/2 hr after making the noodles to cooking time, however I have read that you can wait upwards of two hours before cooking your noodles.
Cooking time is so much faster than store bought noodles. Once your water is boiling, just drop your noodles in and cook for about 3 minutes. Drain and serve your family your lovely homemade egg noodles!
P.S. I did not get a photo of the end product – dinner is very busy around here and it ended up being eaten rather quickly. I suppose that is a good sign of a good recipe, right? Please let me know if you use the recipe and if you like it.
by Gigi
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