Just say gnocchi

Last night we took a a trip to gnocchi land. It was a nice visit: very rich with diverse flavors but simple ingredients. It's a not a trip I could take everyday, but rather once in awhile. Here's the recipe:

Baked Gnocchi with Pesto, Peas, and Pancetta (followed to a T from biggirlssmallkitchen.com)

Ingredients:

2lbs gnocchi

4oz pancetta, finely diced

4 Tbsp butter

1/3 C flour

3 C milk, at room temperature

¼ Tbsp nutmeg

1/3 C pesto

1 C frozen peas

¾ C grated fontina cheese

1/3 C bread crumbs

Method:

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
• Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook the gnocchi for 2 minutes. They cook extremely quickly and will finish off in the oven, so don’t overdo them.
• In the meantime, fry the pancetta in ½ Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Set aside.
• In the same pan, melt the butter over medium heat. When fully liquefied, whisk in the flour to create a roué. Add the milk and nutmeg, and simmer until reduced by half. Add the pesto, peas, pancetta, and gnocchi. Stir to combine.
• Place mixture in a large casserole dish and cover with the grated fontina. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese has become brown and crispy. Remove from oven, cover with bread crumbs and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.

Now when I dumped the mixture into the casserole dish, I was worried it was way too liquidy, but I gotta say, by the time I took her out after 10 minutes, things were looking up! After the bread crumbs and extra 5 minutes in the oven, the top was crispy and the inside creamy.

I ate a side salad to start, so I couldn't eat much pasta--even someone of my size (over weight), with my so-called hollow leg. My husband said the pasta would make a nice side dish, to a steak possibly? I'd agree with him.

So bottom line: JUST SAY YES TO GNOCCHI!



Source: http://realitytvgifs.tumblr.com/

Three words for you: Small. Town. Security.

Last night I stumbled upon a new reality television show: Small Town Security. Do yourself a favor and head on over to AMC....you've got to check this out. The show is the perfect combination of quirky people, strange situations, small town havoc, and southern accents. Here's a little preview to wet your appetite:

It was after 10pm when I was partaking, and I was laughing out loud. I could have been super tired or wired or whatever, OR MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, THIS WILL BE MY NEW FAVORITE SHOW. I love shows like this because I can watch them, not think, laugh, and be entertained. It's perfect. So thank you, A&E and Small Town Security, and Joan (pictured above there).

In other small town news, tomorrow is McLean Day....and I'm in charge of my women's club booth space. I have a duck pond planned, signs to hang, water to hand out, oh and a 10'x10' canopy. Get this: the canopy's instructions say it takes "less than a minute" to set up. Ok, sure, we'll see about that. So hey, if you're reading this and you're a McLean, VA resident, stop by Lewinsville Park tomorrow between 11-5pm.......and check out booth #52!!

Oh and I cooked cod this week. I'm not a fish person (a fishy person, sometimes yes, but not a fish person. ha.), but the recipe turned out alright. I'll include it here just because a fish recipe will be few and far between on this blog, I'm afraid. I'd rather just 'trust the Gorton's fisherman.....'

Parmesan Crusted Salmon or Cod (fountainavenuekitchen.com)

Ingredients:

4 6oz (1 ½ lbs) salmon fillets (may substitute cod or other flaky white fish)

2 ½ Tbsp plain Greek yogurt

2 ½ Tbsp mayonnaise

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp snipped fresh chives

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

·        Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

·        In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, chives, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper.

·        Place the fillets on a lightly greased baking sheet.

·        Spread mixture evenly over top of fillets.

·        Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the fillets are just cooked through. You might want to use the top rack, which helps to brown the Parmesan mixture a bit.

Have a nice weekend.......

Hungry, not thirsty, Thursday

We try to do a home cooked meal two times a week. Last night I gave chicken potpie a whirl. AND LET ME TELL YOU.....it was glorious. Not only did it taste good, but the recipe required a minimal amount of prep, AND it called for store bought, already cooked rotisserie chicken. Love that. My husband did the shredding of the store bought, already cooked rotisserie chicken, so it was even more glorious! Oh and to make matters just a little better, the recipe made not one but TWO potpies, so we have one frozen for another night. SCORE. Here are the recipe details, with a few candid food shots of Wednesday's potpie progression.

Simple, Classic Chicken Potpie (adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

6 C roasted, shredded rotisserie chicken

2 (15oz) packages refrigerated pie crusts

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, diced

2 medium onions, chopped

3 small stalks celery, cut crosswise 1/4-inch thick

2 C chicken broth

1 (12oz) can evaporated milk

1/3 C butter

½ C all-purpose flour

¾ tsp dried thyme

¼ C dry sherry or white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ C fresh parsley, chopped

1 (16oz) package frozen peas and carrots, not thawed

Directions:
1) Adjust oven rack to low-center position; heat oven to 400 degrees. If using whole rotisserie chicken (uh, duh, yes please), separate meat from skin and bones, and tear into bite-size pieces. Discard skin and bones. Then remove pie dough from its box and follow directions for bringing to room temperature.

2) Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add garlic, onions, and celery; sauté until just tender, about 5-6 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl along with the shredded chicken; set aside.

3) Meanwhile, microwave chicken broth and milk in a microwave-safe bowl until steamy, 4 minutes. Heat butter over medium heat in the empty Dutch oven. When foaming subsides, whisk in flour and thyme; cook until golden, about 1 minute. Whisk in hot chicken broth/milk mixture. Bring to a simmer, and then continue to simmer until sauce fully thickens, about 1 minute more. Turn off heat, stir in sherry or wine, and season to taste with salt and pepper (I used a generous amount of salt and pepper).

4) Stir shredded chicken/onions/celery/garlic mixture, parsley, peas and carrots into the sauce. Lay the bottom pie crust in each 9-inch, deep-dish pie plates. Divide mixture between the two plates. Top each pan with the other pie dough, and flute crust by pinching with your fingers (I trimmed the top crust before fluting it). Make a slice or two on top. Set pie on a baking sheet and bake until pastry is golden brown and bubbly, 30-35 minutes (I took it to the full 35 minutes).

(do you see those trimmed bits of raw dough there, off to the right side of the pic....yep, I ate those...appetizer, what can I say?!)

5) Option for extra potpie: Wrap second potpie in freezer wrap and freeze for a later meal. When you’re ready to bake, remove wrapping, place potpie on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until golden and bubbly, about 1 hour.

And voila, here's the finished product:

For the last 10 minutes or so, I placed a piece of aluminum foil over the potpie so the crust wouldn't burn. That was a good decision, I think.

I have a piece of potpie for lunch today.......oh goodness, I can't wait. It might be one of those days where lunch is at 10am......and so what?! ha.

Really, try the recipe, it's a keeper.

T. G. I. Funny

Last night I taught a swimming lesson to a sweet 5-year-old girl. Here's a little of what we talked about in between floats, kicks, and big arms.

Swimmer: "Miss Ellie, one of my school teachers looks just like you."

Me: "Really? What makes her look like me?"

Swimmer: "Well, she has the same eye color as you, she wears her hair in a bun like you, and her skin is really white, just like you."

Me: "Wow, maybe she's my twin sister?!"

I got a good chuckle out of that! Kids are honest, that's why they're great. Have a good weekend!

Tuesday's "Ten Things I Hate" (but not about you)

10 recent things that really got my goat (some more than others):

1) This article about the modeling industry.

2) Again, Real Simple, you boned me (see May's edition): slow cooker baked rigatoni with mushrooms recipe. Bleh.

3) This:

Source: theobamadiary.com

4) A hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay.

5) This. Sorority. Girl. Is. Nuts.

6) Maybe I don't understand fashion, but, this.

Source: Red Carpet Fashion Awards

7) Oh Gwyneth.

8) It's awful, don't buy it. Not sure what I was thinking.

Source: kozyshack.com

9) Catcher in the Rye is not available in e-book/Kindle form. Gee, maybe I'll have to use my local library, which is perfectly ok. But I ended up accidentally downloading an e-book ABOUT Catcher in the Rye and J.D. Salinger....so Amazon.com, you boned me this week too.

10) J. Crew's shoe prices (damn you, Jenna Lyons).

Diet defiance: chicken fried steak

To spit in the face of all diets, I (almost) cooked and (almost) ate chicken fried steak last night. Up until that point I had done neither, so it was a real experience for me.

Recipe from Real Simple (which makes the meal a tad less tacky, I suppose):

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds sirloin steak (1 inch thick), cut into 4 pieces

Salt and pepper

1 C buttermilk

1 C flour

¼ C canola oil

Directions:

• Pound each piece of steak into a ½-inch thickness. (Really pound this steak down so it's nice and thin.) Season with ½ tsp each salt and pepper.
• Dip the steak first in the buttermilk, then the flour. Fry the steak in two batches in the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until golden, 2-3 minutes per side. (Make sure the oil is good and hot).

We served this little doozie with a side of home fries and scrambled eggs (at my husband's request). You can call it a breakfast-for-dinner night.

Source: buzzfeed.com

So here's where the 'almost' part comes in. I failed at chicken frying the steak: the buttermilk/flour coating fell off, the steak was too thick, the oil wasn't hot enough, it was just bad news. So husband rescued this damsel in distress and cooked the remaining pieces of meat outside on the grill. This actually made the steak a lot healthier (but don't worry, I still loaded up on home fries and eggs!). Husband did try my attempted fried steak, and he said it wasn't terrible.

I'm now in the almost-successfully-cooked-but-didn't-eat-chicken-fried-steak club, will you join me? Please....I don't want to be fat and alone.

Oh and, P.S., I would not recommend this recipe.....out of 5 stars, I'm giving it 2. Sorry Real Simple, love your mag, but sometimes your recipes, hmmmm, how can I put this, they aren't 'real simple.' I'd take tacky over a badly constructed recipe any day.

Yesterday