Homemade gnocchi = crazy delicious

Last Sunday morning, my darling husband awoke with a spring in his step and offered to take the Sadester for the day so I could relax. Relaxing isn't exactly my forte, so instead of reading a book or watching a rom-com, I spent the day unwinding the only way I know how. Cooking!

I drank some coffee, slapped on an apron, and made my very first batch of gnocchi.

Now I'm not a pasta lover. Heck, I avoided the stuff for years. (Carbs! Egad! Silly, 20 year old Sarah). But gnocchi is different. Throw some sweet potatoes and squash in with all that flour and voila! It's healthy(ish). Plus, Sadie LOVES pasta, so I wanted to give her a homemade version of her favorite dish.

Sadie's Gnocchi Delight (recipe modified from myrecipes.com): 

Gnocchi:
1 c cottage cheese 
3 c sweet potato/butternut squash mash (boiled, cooled, mashed/pureed) 
3 tbsp brown sugar 
1/2 c parmesan cheese (good ol' Kraft will do just fine) 
1 tsp nutmeg 
3 1/2(ish) c flour

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Add flour until a soft dough forms. Sticky dough is a pain in the butt to work with, so add as much flour as needed for a malleable dough consistency. Working on a floured surface, divide dough into 8 portions. Roll each portion with your hands into a snake, then cut into 1 inch pieces. Drink a beer, thinking about HOW MUCH FUN rolling gnocchi snakes can be!

 

 

 

 

 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium. Working in batches of 25, drop gnocchi into the water, stirring to prevent sticking, and cook until all of the gnocchi float to the top of water. I love this part because when they're done they just pop up, as if to say "eat me now, oh gnocchi master!". Scoop out the gnocchi into a strainer and then transfer it onto to a lightly oiled pan to cool. Boil/strain/cool the rest of the gnocchi.

Remaining Assembly:

1/4 c butter (mmmmm) 
2 cloves minced garlic  
1 minced sweet onion 
2 c chopped spinach leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp pesto  
parmesan cheese

Sauté the first 6 ingredients in a pan, add gnocchi, sauté some more, then dish it up, sprinkle on some parmesan cheese, and enjoy!

 

It turns out making gnocchi was easier than I thought, tastier then I could imagine, and it's Sadie's new favorite food. Oh happy day!

Dust bunnies are a baby's best friend.

Well it looks like I didn't get around to writing "Our Summer Vacation(?) - Part 2". C'est la vie!

So instead, I'm going to blog about dust bunnies.

Sadie has, oh gee let's see, approximately 50 toys. She has toys that spin, toys that whirl, toys that talk, sparkle, spin, bounce, roll, stack, and sing. However, her favorite toys are those which hide under dressers and inhabit the dark, scary corners of the house: dust bunnies.

From 5 meters across the room, she will spot the little suckers, crawl past her miscellaneous other toys (at lightning speed, I might add!), then proceed to inspect said bunnies...

...by sticking them in her mouth. Bleh. Ick. Yucky. Gross.

She spits out the furry carcasses when I ask her to, although there was that one poop that resembled that of a coyote, or some other scavenging carnivore.

The Sadester - AKA Dust Bunny Hunter

 I need to get my hands on a Dustbuster Mini Vac and put this kid to work!