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Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the doodle...
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So many of the things I make, I make because I've had some commercial version or other, or had it in a restaurant and want to see if I can do it myself. Which is pretty much how I've gotten into trouble my entire life. I decided I wanted to try knitting, and the first project I ever finished was a cabled project on double pointed needles. Because I didn't know that was supposed to be hard. (I clued in that I might have bitten off more than I had anticipated when I discovered that in addition to calling for up to seven needles at any given time, I would be learning five new types of stitches. Still, I love my Kindle purse, and while it's not perfect, I'm very proud of it.)
My chef ex-husband, when I told him I was going to make gnocchi, said, "Good luck." In a tone of voice that told me he was anticipating the inevitable horror stories that would accompany my abject failure.
Enter Cook's Illustrated's website. I'm a fan, in case y'all didn't know. :)
They have a fantastic recipe and a great video of making gnocchi that I had to try. It turns out that making gnocchi is so easy and so inexpensive that we have it at least once a week around here. It does take time, but most of it is waiting on the potatoes to bake. You can be doing other things.
So, let's see how these:
Become these:
I'll give you the sauce recipes, too, but have no photos of the process. And I should note that the ingredients photo above has both gnocchi and sauce ingredients. To make the gnocchi, you need potatoes, salt, flour, and egg. That's it.
The first thing you do is preheat your oven to 450 and set the rack in the center. Then, pierce two pounds of russet potatoes 8 times with a paring knife. Then pop your potatoes into the microwave for 10 minutes, turning over halfway through cooking time.
Once the potatoes are done in the microwave, place them into the oven, directly on the rack. Cook for another 18-20 minutes.
Peel the potatoes. I use the method CI suggests: Hold the potato in an oven mitt and remove the skin with a paring knife. The recipe calls for putting the potatoes through a ricer, but my Oxo ricer died a nasty death awhile back, and left me so disgusted with the ricer that I replaced it with an old fashioned potato masher. It works fine, but you end up having to knead the ultimate dough more. I may re-invest in a ricer. If I can get over my bitterness. I digress....
Spread the processed potatoes out in one layer on a cookie sheet. Let cool for five minutes.
This step is important. Follow it exactly. Scoop up 16 oz (roughly 3 cups) of potato into a bowl. You will have leftover potatoes. IGNORE THE LEFTOVERS. Slap some butter on them and give them to your significant other. Or the dog. Just don't go over 16 oz of potatoes in the bowl.
Add egg and mix into mixture.
Add 4 oz flour and 1 tsp salt, and mix until all flour is incorporated.
Shape dough into a rough ball and let sit for five minutes.
Turn out onto lightly floured work surface and divide into 8 sections
Roll each section out into ropes that are about 1/2 inch thick
Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Returning to the dough ropes, cut into 3/4" long sections
Take each piece and roll it down the tines of a fork you're holding upside down. If the dough sticks, dip the fork in flour. Place piece on cookie sheet.
Bring 4 quarts of water and 1 TBSP salt to a boil. When water is boiling, using the parchment paper as a sling, gently pour the gnocchi into the water. Cook fully, about 90 seconds. After about 60 seconds, the gnocchi will rise to the top. Remove with slotted spoon and add to sauce of your choice.
While the water is heating up, I'll make my sauces. The sauces I make most frequently are Gorgonzola Cream Sauce, which is 3/4 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup dry white wine and 4 oz gorgonzola. Mix cream and wine in a 12" skillet. Bring to a simmer and gradually add the gorgonzola. Stir until it melts.
The other sauce I make is similarly simple - In a stainless steel 12" skillet, melt and brown 4 TBSP butter. Remove from heat once butter has browned and released that marvelous nutty aroma. Add one finely diced shallot and 2 TBSP finely chopped sage. Add 1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
The sauces I refer to above are supposedly enough for one whole recipe of gnocchi. While I find this to be true of the gorgonzola, it is NOT true of the browned butter and sage sauce. So I typically make a half recipe of the gorgonzola sauce and have one cookie sheet's worth of gnocchi go to that and the other go for the browned butter and sage.
Serve! And enjoy....
Now, before we get to the main attraction, I need some suggestions. I have a friend coming over for dinner next weekend, and she's on a very restricted diet - low carb, low fat, low sugar. What the HELL do I make for her? Please, suggestions much appreciated.
Now, onto today's comment submissions and more! Once again, many thanks to my faithful sidekick, brillig, whose hard work allows me to submit this diary a night early (or in today's case on my lunch hour yet again) and publish a diary even as I'm driving home from work!
(brillig's note: once again I'm left drooling all over the keyboard while adding various "Tops". Must get potatoes at store tomorrow....)
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Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From marykk:
BenderRodriguez identifies the guys in the famous Bain Capital "in the money" photo.
From commonmass:
Kossack Murphoney has a top comment right here.
From MKSinSA:
I don't know if you accept illustrated Top Comments or not (brillig's note: we DO!) but blue aardvark's pie visual is remarkable and mind-blowing (if he does say so himself!)
From bronte17:
ParkRanger reminds us how just one voice can make all the difference in arcing that moral universe. From an outstanding post on this Martin Luther King Day titled Do Something About the War on Voting by BooMan23.
Another great comment sharing the experience of MLK Day in Madison, WI from madtowntj in the diary post Tomorrow in Wisconsin - We Didn't Start the War (3000 lbs of Democracy) from Puddytat.
... Sherrilyn Ifill was the featured speaker. She gave the best speech I have heard in person. It was electric. It talked about false nostalgia and how MLK resisted nostalgia and always continued to fight for the next right or freedom. Most of what MLK fought for is the polar opposite of what Walker represents. So when Ifill talked about voter suppression efforts, for example, the crowd in the capital would go nuts and you couldn't hear what Ifill had to say next because the cheering was so loud...
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And one last comment to share is from 4CasandChlo, Over 50 years ago, Dr. King went to occupy Memphis:
Dr. King was in Memphis not to protest racial injustice per se, but to support striking union members. At the end of his life (unbeknownst to him) Dr. King was transitioning away from a solely racial justice stance to a broader "social justice" encompassing all people oppressed by the "establishment."
From indycam:
Another person - oscarsmom - gets it.
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Top Mojo for yesterday, January 15th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic!
1) "even football doesn't escape." by kestrel9000 — 203
2) ! by Polly Syllabic — 182
3) Naw, Jesus is givin' Tim a spankie. by kestrel9000 — 158
4) More please, much more by davidkc — 145
5) Even as an atheist, I know Matthew 6:5 by tekno2600 — 121
6) K9k .. the parallels by twigg — 112
7) How is a climate scientist still a by DemocraticLuntz — 106
8) This is class warfare by cheminMD — 105
9) I would give ANYTHING for deniers alone by Blicero — 103
10) no fear yet - by teacherken — 99
11) They created this system..... by dweb8231 — 94
12) Mitt's statement comes down to this by murasaki — 92
13) I didn't realize it was Lithgow narrating. by Bob Love — 88
14) Oh, come on now... by Raggedy Ann — 83
15) As wildly over-the-top as the ad is, by AnnieJo — 83
16) go to the police. NOW. by G2geek — 81
17) Further, at Matthew 6:6: by Observerinvancouver — 80
18) From Dem Party of WI by ATL Dem — 79
19) Didn't you see this by TexDem — 79
20) I applaud the ardent Perry supporter... by Dr Erich Bloodaxe RN — 78
21) Here is the Goodness ... by Cartoon Peril — 77
22) Oviously a Right wing plot... by Radical def — 77
23) he did...on ABC This Week... by justmy2 — 77
24) Great minds ... by Adam B — 77
25) Apparently by twigg — 75
26) A gift from Wisconsin by Polly Syllabic — 74
27) Even when he's right, he's wrong. by Troubadour — 73
28) I just can't understand how by grannycarol — 70
29) Ahh...the ReTHUGlican treatment...we know it well by ranton — 70
30) A.W.E.S.O.M.E. add......... by SeaTurtle — 69
31) They needed 540,000, they wanted 750,000. by expatjourno — 69
32) It sometimes appears by twigg — 69
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Top Pictures for yesterday, January 15th. Thank you jotter for the image magic!