Taking the gloves off!

After I put them on, of course!!
This morning, I geared up and headed out to harvest:

 I had to wear gloves because I was cooking with fire!

Stinging Nettles to be precise!   I was making a batch of crackers so would have the pasta roller out and knew that I wanted to make pasta.  When I was out to let out the chickens I noticed that the nettles were about 6-7 inches high already.  Mmmm... nettle pasta!
I harvested my bowl of nettles (sorry, I didn't measure) they were then blanched and cooled.  I squeezed the excess water out to them and popped them into the fridge until I was ready to make pasta later in the afternoon.  I did save all the water used to blanch them and what was squeezed out, let it cool and used it to water plants.  I figure it must have some nutrients in it!
Later, it was pasta time!  I put the cooked nettles in the blender with an egg and gave it a whirl.  Then added it into my pasta dough.

 The basic recipe:
2 1/4 cups flour (I completely forgot that I had gotten semolina flour last weekend- duh!)
approximately 1/2 cup cooked nettles, blended with one egg until smooth
2 additional eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Put the wet ingredients into a well in the dry ingredients and slowly mix the dry into the wet with a fork.  As it gets firmer, use your hands.  Knead it until it becomes smooth and silky, adding additional flour as necessary.

Cover it (either wrap in plastic or cover with an oiled bowl) for 20 minutes. Then cut into pieces, roll thin and cut into noodles.

 I dry mine on an old flour sack towel draped over a wooden clothes rack.
At this point, you can either dry them completely for storage, dry them partially for freezing or cook them fresh.  Mine dried for about an hour before dinner:

 Mmm, nettle pasta with tomato sauce!  These were really good.  Everyone liked them so I hope to make some more of these and maybe some with lambs quarters in a few weeks.  I'm seeing all kinds of colors of pasta coming up.  Beets, spinach, tomato. maybe some more lemon pepper... and I still want to order some squid ink from somewhere.  J17 and I searched local stores this weekend but no one locally carries it.  We LOVE our black pasta!

And now, other things of the day.  First- I lied....  I did not work on that baby quilt.  Yeah, I'm bad.  But since I didn't go to the baby shower I figure I don't have a deadline.  If it had been raining, as was forecast, I probably would have worked on it.  But, today was another glorious, mostly sunny day near 80F again.  I couldn't bring myself to sit in that basement room without windows!
But I got a lot done in addition to crackers and pasta.  I got the old canes cut out of the raspberries, cleared off the herb/flower bed in the garden, cleared off the mint bed and pruned some dead tips off the roses.
And I took a few photos:

 This little ground squirrel posed for me.  I was able to get quite a few shots before he got bored and left.
And- look at this green grass!!

I'm sorry, but the grass isn't supposed to be this green- it is still officially Winter- at least until tomorrow.

 And my bush cherries are blooming!  The first year they have bloomed. I do hope some bees show up soon. There are so few flowers about that I fear the neighboring bees haven't ventured far afield yet.

And the daffodils are blooming.  I know you probably can't see it well, but on the top right petal of that front flower is a lovely little lacewing. I do hope she finds some food and lays lots of eggs :-)

V and I even had a "Date Lunch" today!   We had some errands to run so we had lunch at the Bluebird Cafe.  Lovely! I also repotted my little cabbage and kale seedlings. If they were a bit bigger, I'd harden them off and set them out- but they've only got 2 leaves on them so I'll let them be for a while. I did get my broccoli started but I wonder if I should have just direct sowed it in the garden, LOL!
That was my Monday off. The rain finally arrived around 7pm.  We had a thunderstorm with ferocious winds but now it has tapered off to just rain.  I do hope we get a decent amount.  We have had so little snow that we really need the moisture.  It's not good when there are already cracks in the ground in March.

I wish you all a lovely week.