There's a giant wad of potato yumminess in the bottom of my tummy. I'm pretty sure that I don't have to eat for the next three days and I'll be fine. We had a couple of the people who helped us move over for dinner and I made gnocchi from scratch. It was really freaking good, but I'm super full. It was also pretty simple.
4 lbs potatoes
3-ish c all purpose flour
2 eggs
1 t kosher salt
Boil the potatoes and let them cool enough to handle. Remove the skins and rice the potatoes into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Gently sprinkle/fold about 2.5 c of the flour into the potatoes. It's really important to not overwork the dough. Gently break the yolks of the eggs and pour into the center of the potato bowl. Knead the dough until it comes together, adding in the rest of the flour if it's needed. In my case, I needed all 3 c because the potatoes were a little bit wet from being a bit overboiled.
Grab a baseball sized amount of dough and place on a well floured surface. Roll into a long skinny tube and cut into individual pieces. You can smash each piece a bit with a fork to get the "grooved" look of gnocchi (and also so that sauce has a place to go). Boil the gnocchi for ~1 minute or so. The pieces should float to the top. Nom nom nom.
14 November 2009
13 November 2009
IKEA hijinks
IKEA has a lot of our money. Things we have from IKEA: this desk I'm sitting at, the accompanying drawer set, random kitchen implements, couch, dining table, chairs, bench, about 3 or so of those little LACK tables... the list goes on. In order to celebrate our new house, we went there tonight... and by "we went" I mean that I was driving and Colby had no choice. Mostly, we moved from a cramped 2 BR/1 bath apartment (and by cramped I mean that we had way too much shit) to a house that was over twice as large so we needed to fill some space. 2 hours later, we came back with a futon chair for the office, 2 bar stools for the kitchen island, another chair for the dining table, a couple garbage cans, closet organizers, and tummies filled with Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jelly.
So... since we had dinner at IKEA, I didn't really eat the pumpkin gnocchi that I made... which is sort of good because I just tried one and it wasn't very good. It turns out that whole wheat flour tastes like bitter ass... which is why little kids like white bread so much. I told myself that I was trying to healthy up the pasta, but in reality, the whole wheat flour that I have is going to expire in the next 6 days... which probably tells me that buying it in the first place was a mistake, but instead of listening to that instinct, i'm just going to try to sneak whole wheat flour into as much stuff as possible. :)
p.s. real post tomorrow. making gnocchi for realz without the pumpkin, whole wheat flour, and ickiness.
So... since we had dinner at IKEA, I didn't really eat the pumpkin gnocchi that I made... which is sort of good because I just tried one and it wasn't very good. It turns out that whole wheat flour tastes like bitter ass... which is why little kids like white bread so much. I told myself that I was trying to healthy up the pasta, but in reality, the whole wheat flour that I have is going to expire in the next 6 days... which probably tells me that buying it in the first place was a mistake, but instead of listening to that instinct, i'm just going to try to sneak whole wheat flour into as much stuff as possible. :)
p.s. real post tomorrow. making gnocchi for realz without the pumpkin, whole wheat flour, and ickiness.
12 November 2009
Musashino is Japanese for yummy
The closest that I've come to preparing food today was either when I washed the apple I ate at 10 am or when I almost set my office on fire when I microwaved my soup for too long. Dinner at Musashino was holy crap amazing, but also crazy expensive. Oops. Oh well, sushi should probably be one of those things you splurge on because cheap sushi makes for terrible nights.
so basically, I'm phoning this entry in because I'm supposed today and I'd really just like to hit the sack.
so basically, I'm phoning this entry in because I'm supposed today and I'd really just like to hit the sack.
11 November 2009
at least it's a post.
Things I almost forgot to do today:
charge my iPod
change the load of laundry
post to the blog
All of these would be tragic, if forgotten. See, if I didn't have my iPod, I pretty much would get no work done. Also, I wouldn't have a white noise generator to take naps. It turns out that the new nanos have a radio feature and you can pick which region you want to listen to. I picked Japan and listened to static for a blissful 30 minutes while I slept in my office under the cover of Colby's hoodie. I only awoke when my butt totally fell asleep, which is ironic, I suppose.
I've been trying to be good about doing the laundry as well, but usually I put in a load, forget it's there, re-wash it a day later. repeat. about 3 more times. This would have been unusually bad this time, though, because our crazy awesome 1000-thread count sheets were in there and I'd really like to sleep on them again free of both dirt and mold.
finally, I'm surprised that I've been able to post every day, considering the move and all the stuff that's going on at school. it's okay, though, because I remembered before I hit the sack... because now I'm old and can't stay up past midnight.
and since this is a food blog, today we ate "mustard chicken", which is something that Colby makes. I should get him to write a "guest post" (so I don't have to write 30 posts in a month) about it. We also had more of the butternut squash soup and I made this pumpkin bread, with a few tweaks. I'm not totally happy with it, so no posts on that... yet.
charge my iPod
change the load of laundry
post to the blog
All of these would be tragic, if forgotten. See, if I didn't have my iPod, I pretty much would get no work done. Also, I wouldn't have a white noise generator to take naps. It turns out that the new nanos have a radio feature and you can pick which region you want to listen to. I picked Japan and listened to static for a blissful 30 minutes while I slept in my office under the cover of Colby's hoodie. I only awoke when my butt totally fell asleep, which is ironic, I suppose.
I've been trying to be good about doing the laundry as well, but usually I put in a load, forget it's there, re-wash it a day later. repeat. about 3 more times. This would have been unusually bad this time, though, because our crazy awesome 1000-thread count sheets were in there and I'd really like to sleep on them again free of both dirt and mold.
finally, I'm surprised that I've been able to post every day, considering the move and all the stuff that's going on at school. it's okay, though, because I remembered before I hit the sack... because now I'm old and can't stay up past midnight.
and since this is a food blog, today we ate "mustard chicken", which is something that Colby makes. I should get him to write a "guest post" (so I don't have to write 30 posts in a month) about it. We also had more of the butternut squash soup and I made this pumpkin bread, with a few tweaks. I'm not totally happy with it, so no posts on that... yet.
10 November 2009
Thai-inspired butternut squash soup
I've been experimenting with butternut squash soup because I want to serve it as part of Thanksgiving dinner. I should probably decide soon enough because Colby's getting sick of it and Thxgvg is just around the corner with the added pressure of Colby's immediate family joining us for dinner. {begin rant} It was pretty awesome... they invited themselves at the last minute after I told everyone in the astronomy department that I would host the department's Thanksgiving party. Colby, being unable to control himself, was totally cool with the idea of his entire family showing up and so then I had to cancel the party because my crazy father-in-law asks me about the alignment of the planets and the year 2012 every *freaking* time I see him, so putting him around a bunch of proto-astronomers was just a bad idea.{end rant} *ahem* where was I?
Oh, right. soup.
My friend pointed me to the Whole Foods recipe for butternut squash soup and it's a great base and I began to experiment from that. My favorite incarnation of it thus far has been Thai inspired and is what we ate for dinner tonight.
1 medium butternut squash, roasted
1 T butter
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, grated
2 T pine nuts
1 T brown sugar
1 T red curry paste
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 large stalk of celery, diced
32 oz vegetable stock, homemade is preferred
salt+pepper
To roast the squash set the oven to 400 and split the squash in half. Take out the seeds and rub 1/4 T butter on both of the cut sides. Season with salt and pepper and place in the oven cut side up for about 35-45 minutes, or until the flesh is easily pierced with a knife. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1/2 T of butter with the olive oil in a stockpot. Add in garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant (~30s). Add in the onion, carrots, celery, and pine nuts and about 1 tsp kosher salt. Let this sweat for a few minutes until the veggies soften. Add in the curry paste and stir until the veggies are all coated and everything starts to smell awesometastic. Add in the vegetable stock and the brown sugar and let the mixture heat through. Add in the squash and attack with a stick blender until smooth.
This could also be served with a tiny dollop of creme fraiche to help cut through the heat. It's a little spicy, but in a really good way.
Oh, right. soup.
My friend pointed me to the Whole Foods recipe for butternut squash soup and it's a great base and I began to experiment from that. My favorite incarnation of it thus far has been Thai inspired and is what we ate for dinner tonight.
1 medium butternut squash, roasted
1 T butter
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, grated
2 T pine nuts
1 T brown sugar
1 T red curry paste
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 large stalk of celery, diced
32 oz vegetable stock, homemade is preferred
salt+pepper
To roast the squash set the oven to 400 and split the squash in half. Take out the seeds and rub 1/4 T butter on both of the cut sides. Season with salt and pepper and place in the oven cut side up for about 35-45 minutes, or until the flesh is easily pierced with a knife. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1/2 T of butter with the olive oil in a stockpot. Add in garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant (~30s). Add in the onion, carrots, celery, and pine nuts and about 1 tsp kosher salt. Let this sweat for a few minutes until the veggies soften. Add in the curry paste and stir until the veggies are all coated and everything starts to smell awesometastic. Add in the vegetable stock and the brown sugar and let the mixture heat through. Add in the squash and attack with a stick blender until smooth.
This could also be served with a tiny dollop of creme fraiche to help cut through the heat. It's a little spicy, but in a really good way.
09 November 2009
New Kitchen
We finally unpacked the kitchen enough such that I could actually find enough bowls, pots, and pans to cook a meal. Granted, the entire house is still in boxes and bags, but there's a ton of space in the kitchen so I settled on my new go to meal: pasta with garlic, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes. I served it with a salad made with spring mix, crimini mushrooms, getost cheese, and croutons with a bottled dressing (shameful, I know!).
garlic pasta toss
1 lb spaghetti, cooked to al dente
reserved pasta water
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 oz jarred artichoke hearts, quartered
1 T dried basil
salt+pepper
parmasean cheese
heat EVOO in a crazy large pan (or stock pot if you don't have one). add in garlic and stir for 30 or until fragrant. add in artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes and stir to heat. add pasta and basil and toss to combine. If it's too thick, add in the reserved pasta water to thin. season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parm.
p.s. if you've never had getost, you should really try it. it's pretty awesome and it goes well with fruit.
garlic pasta toss
1 lb spaghetti, cooked to al dente
reserved pasta water
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 oz jarred artichoke hearts, quartered
1 T dried basil
salt+pepper
parmasean cheese
heat EVOO in a crazy large pan (or stock pot if you don't have one). add in garlic and stir for 30 or until fragrant. add in artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes and stir to heat. add pasta and basil and toss to combine. If it's too thick, add in the reserved pasta water to thin. season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parm.
p.s. if you've never had getost, you should really try it. it's pretty awesome and it goes well with fruit.
08 November 2009
Leaving
There is something completely wonderful about the first time you step into a place that you're going to live. Everything is empty and no boundaries have been drawn. Seeing that same place emptied after living in it for a year and a half, however, is not quite the same. The couch obviously belongs against the wall and the TV in the corner. It's no longer filled with possibility, but rather with memories and indentations from the furniture.
Leaving our apartment was bittersweet. It was the first place that Colby and I lived together and where we spent the first 10 months of our married life. This new house, though, makes up for it. It's amazing and I can finally put all of my kitchen supplies together. We're still in the midst of getting organized, but I almost have my kitchen back... which means that I almost have my food blog back. :)
p.s. pictures soon... once we're done unpacking.
Leaving our apartment was bittersweet. It was the first place that Colby and I lived together and where we spent the first 10 months of our married life. This new house, though, makes up for it. It's amazing and I can finally put all of my kitchen supplies together. We're still in the midst of getting organized, but I almost have my kitchen back... which means that I almost have my food blog back. :)
p.s. pictures soon... once we're done unpacking.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)