Oh, the problems we Homesteaders face…..too many eggs is a Wonderful problem for any Frugal Homesteader to have. We have 16 hens that produce more eggs than 3 people can use up. So, we have some regular customers who take 5-7 dozen a week off our hands and this goes into the ‘Girls’ food and necessities fund! After our customers get their eggs, we look for ways to enjoy them ourselves, besides the usual breakfasts! Here are a few Egg-cellent ways to use up those eggs.
- Sell them to others
- Cooking and baking
- Egg Salad (for sandwiches)
- Deviled Eggs (my mother-in-laws favorite)
- Quiche
- Pudding
- Egg Noodles and other Pasta
Today we made two of our favorites…..Egg Noodles and Spaghetti…both from one recipe. Egg noodles have been a favorite in our family for many years. When our 7 kids were still at home, a big ‘ol pot of noodles with softened butter, fresh pressed garlic (a lot) and freshly grated mozzarella cheese tossed into hot noodles, didn’t last long on our supper table! And I’m certain that would still be the case today. Egg noodles or any fresh homemade pasta will greatly expand your menu and be a hit with your family. Plus use up some of those nutritious eggs.
We’d like to share our favorite basic pasta dough recipe with you and how we go about making our noodles.
Pasta Dough Recipe
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 large eggs
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- water-just enough to make soft dough (add as needed)
Measure your flour out into a large mixing bowl and make a well or indention in the middle of flour. Put your egg, salt and olive oil in the well and stir, pulling flour into the well, mix until it forms a dough ( if needed add water 1 TBSP at a time ) Dough should not be sticky or too hard, but should be a soft but firm dough. Form dough into a ball and place back in bowl, cover and let sit for 15 minutes ( can sit up to 30 minutes) before you start making noodles. This gives you time to set up your drying rack (I use a wooden clothes drying rack I got at a flea market) flour your work surface and set up your pasta making machine.
TOO MANY EGGS….MAKE EGG NOODLES AND OTHER PASTAS
- PASTA MAKER IS A GREAT PIECE OF EQUIPMENT FOR ANY HOMESTEADING KITCHEN
If you don’t have a pasta maker that rolls your dough to the desired thickness and then cuts it into the noodles you want, you can use a heavy or weighted rolling pin to roll out your dough as you would a pie crust. And I’ve used a knife or pizza cutter to cut my dough into noodles. That’s how we did it before we got our pasta maker, which by the way, is not electric. We love it that way because it allows for more control over the dough and noodles.
WE ROLL OUR DOUGH OUT THIN FOR OUR NOODLES AND SPAGHETTI UNLESS WE ARE MAKING A RECIPE THAT CALLS FOR HEARTY NOODLES.
If you do have a pasta maker, GREAT and easy peasy making those noodles! You know to follow the directions that came with it to get the kind of pasta you want.
Our egg noodle making afternoon has yielded enough for 5-6 meals!
A WHOLE LOT OF EGG NOODLES AND SPAGHETTI. I KNOW WHAT WE’LL BE EATING!
We love sharing ways Homesteaders can use the delicious eggs hens work hard to produce. We hope you have enjoyed this great Homesteading Frugally tip! Your family will be glad you did! And try serving your egg noodles the way we served them up to our family. Let us know if they were a hit at your supper table.
Thanks for visiting us here at Homesteading Frugally and come back again.
Marcia and Melvin