Cooking Kick.

I just realized that I really am quite obsessed with food. I love eating it, making it, making it for others and eating it with them. Food is good. :)

Tonight we had a roommate dinner. It was slightly sad as the reason for this dinner was because all 3 of my roommates are moving out within the next 2 months. I'm happy for all of them, as each of them is actually moving in with his/her significant other; however, I can't help but be a little sad. I will miss them! Anyway, to celebrate properly, we all brought our part. I originally said I would make a sweet potato something. Then, after working in a coffee shop all afternoon on that paper that I've been procrastinating (yes, it was every bit as painful as I anticipated), I decided that I needed to let loose. I went in search of interesting sweet potato recipes and ended up with this one. So, I ended up deciding on Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter. I mean, if you are going to cook, might as well go all out? Let me preface this by saying that my only other experience trying to make pasta pretty much failed miserably--the end result was not really edible. Luckily, my roommate, Lena, has helped someone make gnocchi before! (Of course!) She helped me with the consistency and size.

They were so cute, I laughed as I rolled them into their little bee shapes. :) Lena laughed along with me. Then I made the brown butter sauce. If I could have captured the smell, that would have been ideal. The picture does not do justice to the sensation of being near this concoction.

In the end, they kind of looked like freaky little half-fingers, BUT they were pretty amazing. Scarlett even agreed--and she told me (as she was helping me roll them into their bee-shapes) that this is one of her favorite meals! (No pressure...) The final product:



If you are curious about creating your own gnocchi, here are a few things I learned from this recipe:

1. If you read the recipe, you'll notice it says "cooking time: 15 mins." Any recipe that only has "cooking time" is not to be trusted. Prep time is HUGE. ESPECIALLY with pasta. Luckily, I knew this. I started everything at a little past 5pm, maybe even 5:30pm. Dinner was served around 7:45pm. It's safe to say this took 2 hours and would take 2 hours again. Also, I knew that I would be facing a time issue, so that didn't include baking the potatoes; I stuck them in the microwave, and they were cooked in about 7 mins.

2. The recipe called for 1 1/4 c flour to be added to the "dough mixture." I feel like I added at least double that. I ended up sectioning out the dough into balls and adding flour with my hands until it stopped sticking to them. THEN, I rolled them into sticks, then cut them, etc.

3. When you cook gnocchi, you only want as many in the pot as cover the bottom of the pot. Don't do more than one layer. This is because...

4. Gnocchi tell you when they are cooked by rising from the bottom of the pot and floating in the water! Then you fish them out with a slotted spoon.

5. This recipe actually comes out tasting SUPER sweet. If I were to make it again, I would leave the cinnamon and maple syrup OUT of the brown butter sauce to go for a more savory dish.

All in all, making this dish was delightful, but I could not have done it without Lena's input, knowledge, and encouragement. She is directly responsible for #3 and #4 and also part of #2. Thanks, Lena!