Today is my birthday and I've had some very grown up presents, including champagne, a teapot, perfume, a knitting kit, a basket of daffodils and … A radio controlled helicopter! Not so grown up after all 🙂

I've spent the afternoon completing number 39 on my list – make my own pasta. I found a simple recipe on the BBC website but it was perhaps too simple – it used only flour and egg and the dough was very stiff and dry and difficult to knead into a ball. Then it had to sit in the fridge for an hour.

I planned on making ravioli so tried caramelising some onions to mix with goats cheese for the filling … But I got distracted and burnt the first batch and had to start that again. So while that was sweating I started working on the pasta. I had to roll it down to about 1/4 inch before putting it through the machine.

It started off okay but as it got thinner it started running through the machine crookedly and tearing. After several attempts at making a band of pasta that would be wide enough to cut out circles for ravioli I gave up and made tagliatelle instead!

I boiled it for a few minutes and then mixed it with some pesto and the onions. There was enough for a very small bowl for each of us and it tasted really good! Not sure if I'll bother again though …. It was a lot of work. But at least I can say I have made my own pasta!

So that was the last thing I've managed to cross off my 101 things in 1001 days list, leaving the total at 51 things completed – more than half, woohoo! I've had great fun working through this list, with the highlights including driving a Formula Renault round the track at Thruxton, dong a firewalk, getting a tattoo and a very silly night on the absinthe. The next list is written and will go live tomorrow … When the whole challenge starts all over again!