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Food Friday–Strong like Ox Edition

One normally does not think of cooking as an upper body strengthening activity, but this morning it certainly was.
After I did my weights work out. I put up the challah dough.  I don’t use a bread machine.  You need to position your body  so all of your weight flows from  your feet to your hips through your arms to knead the dough.  I usually do the first kneading until I have a slight burn in my upper arms.  Here is that dough all smooth and ready to rise.
challah dough after first kneading

Then I got to work on the noodle dough. I used semolina flour.  The had kneading is hard. The dough is much stiffer than the challah dough. Again I knead the dough until it is as smooth as the proverbial baby’s tushie.   The semolina flour makes kneading the challah feel like it’s no work at all.   By time time I’m done with  kneading the noodles  I feel like Wonder Woman.
noodle dough

I left the ball of dough to rest underneath a bowl, let the challah dough do it’s rise and then did some errands. After lunch first I did the second knead of the challah dough and braided the challah.

Then I rolled out the noodles thin using a dowel. I found a ridge pastry cutter to cut the noodles.
lokshen

After letting them rest a bit, I boiled them and made Lokshen mit kaese, the eastern European version of fettuccini Alfredo. I had made the cheese last night.
lokshen mit kaese (2)
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I’m also serving cod.
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I know this meal is very white. I’m serving a kale salad. Dessert is meringues that I had baked yesterday and red grapes.  Yikes! our dairy dishes are white, I had better use bright linens on the table.

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