Gnocchi? Gno problem!

We had potatoes from Aldi which were not looking that awesome yesterday, so when I had extra time before work, I peeled all of the potatoes leaf in the bag.  I covered them with water and put them in the fridge.
When I got home from work I cut them up and boiled them and mashed them.  Then I added flour and kneaded the very hot result into a dough.  It made more than I thought it would, so I'm not really sure if I got the potato to flour ratio quite right, but it all seems to have worked out. 

After rolling the dough into finger sized rolls, one cuts them and then presses the pieces with a fork.  Flour is key during this whole process.

I wouldn't tell Matt what I was making, here he is eagerly awaiting dinner.  He doesn't look that eager, but the devil eyes are hiding it.

The next step is boiling water to cook the gnocchi in.  This part is really technically tricky- put the pot on the burner and the water in the pot.  With salt.

It'll look about like this when you have it right.

Then the gnocchi goes in the boiling water about twenty at a time.  When it floats, it's ready.

My next plan was to brown the boiled gnocchi in some sage butter.  I underestimated the amount of gnocchi I wound up with.  Next time I will not put it all in the second pot at the same time.  Although, it was all kind of sticking together so I'm not sure I could have only put part of it anyway.  Maybe the key to make more gnocchi before you start to boil them to make the whole process smoother?  I dunno. 

 Here is Matt, eagerly serving himself.  He was excited when I finally told him what I made for dinner.  Gnocchi, sage butter and peas!

Matt says the texture was good, but they seemed a little squishy in the pan.  Again, I think this might be something avoided by less gnocchi in the pan for browning.  I hear an overcrowded pan is the enemy of browning. 

Happy Halloween!

Matt and I continued a tradition we started last year again this year.  (I suppose it counts as a tradition on the 2^nd anniversary.)  We got a fire pit and invited people over to sit around the fire and hand out candy in the front yard.  Unfortunately, we did not have many trick-or-treaters; Matt was especially disappointed-he got excited every time the doorbell rang.  The final number was around twelve- I think next year we’ll buy a smaller bag of candy.

In addition to fire we also had apple cider, brats and German potato salad, all of which was declared delicious by attendees (all three of them).  I found a recipe for spiked apple cider in Glamour, of all places, and I was surprised at how delicious it was.

Halloween Apple Cider of Amazing and Surprising Deliciousness (this is not Glamour’s name, but it should have been):

½ gallon apple cider

4-5 sticks of cinnamon (I found cinnamon sticks at the store, but I did not want to pay $6 for them, so I used ground cinnamon)

4-5 cloves (again, I used ground)

¼ t nutmeg

1 vanilla bean split lengthwise or 1 T vanilla extract (surprise, surprise I used the extract)

3-4 T honey

Measure everything very carefully just like I did (ha!) and bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to low and add 3/4^th bottle Gewürztraminer or other white wine that’s not too dry.  I found a Gewürztraminer pretty easily for about $6.  Don’t bring it to a boil again or the alcohol will evaporate and ruin the whole point of spiked cider.  Add 1 cup or so of fresh cranberries or diced apples and simmer for a few minutes.  It says the extra simmering is to “enhance color”, I suspect that’s when one is using cranberries, which I didn’t, so this step could probably be skipped.  It doesn’t taste or feel alcohol-y.

I had to make a second batch of it for the 5 of us (although we did not make much of a dent in the second batch).  I probably should have taken a picture.

I hope everyone else had a good Halloween!  I also hope that you make this cider, because you won’t be sorry.