5 Courses to Celebrate 5 Years

August, 3rd: Bri and I had a really great year.  One year ago, we moved into our apartment and celebrated our 4-year anniversary.  Now, we have been living together for a year and are on year 5 of our relationship!  It has been really great and I am so appreciative for all the amazing times we have experienced together.  To celebrate year 5, I thought it would be cute to cook dinner together and have 5 courses in honor of 5 years.  We shared this amazing meal and watched a movie and it was a quiet and lovely anniversary.

Zucchini Soup

Strawberry Poppyseed Salad

Whole Wheat Gnocchi with Feta and Peas in a Brown Butter Balsamic Sauce

Toasty Parmesan Tomatoes

Creme Brûlée Cupcakes

Whole Wheat Gnocchi with Feta and Peas in a Brown Butter Balsamic Sauce

Whole Wheat Gnocchi with Feta and Peas in a Brown Butter Balsamic Sauce

Ingredients:
1 box whole wheat gnocchi (or homemade)
tbsp crumbled feta cheese
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Directions:
1. Cook gnocchi according to directions, drain and place back into pot.
2. In a medium pan, brown butter by melting butter over medium heat and then swirling until it just starts to brown.  Remove butter from heat and stir in the balsamic and the frozen peas.  Continue to cook over low heat until peas are cooked.
3. Pour butter and balsamic mixture over the cooked gnocchi and then stir in the feta cheese.

Brown Butter Gnocchi with Roasted Corn and Green Onions

I recently ran the longest run that I've done in a while.  I've been sort of lazy this winter because it has been so cold and snowy and it is just no fun to run outside.  So, I've been running on the treadmill we have at our apartment building, but I get so bored and it is hard to stay motivated.  I do have Netflix and I worked my way through the entire series of Gossip Girl, but now I don't know what to watch next.  I'm thinking Breaking Bad?  I hear its great so hopefully that will keep me interested and running.  My long run happened because I found Grease on Netflix!  It was fantastic! I ran through most of the movie and then when I started to get tired around 7 miles, I skipped to the end to watch the last few song scenes and made it up to 8 miles! Typically, I've been getting to 5 or 6 on the weekends and then feeling tired/bored.  I felt really good about this run and it was so fun to watch all those classic scenes from Grease.  I don't know what I would do without Netflix!

Running is my way to stay fit and shed a few pounds this winter.  I have also been trying out new, healthy recipes.  The one today is a vegetarian recipe that incorporates some great veggies.  It was also delicious and I gotta send my thanks to How Sweet It Is for the great idea! I love her blog and I always find something delicious on it! It's awesome.

Brown Butter Gnocchi with Roasted Corn and Green Onions
(adapted from How Sweet It Is)

Ingredients:
1 package whole wheat gnocchi, cooked according to directions
2 ears corn
5 green onions, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper
4 tbsp unsalted butter
parmesan cheese
few basil leaves, chopped

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and then swirl the pot until the butter browns.  Set aside.
2. Season the corn with a little salt and pepper.  In a large skillet, pour a few tbsp olive oil and place the corn on the skillet.  Turn occasionally and continue to cook until the kernels become bright yellow.  Take the corn off the heat and cut off the kernels. Place back into the skillet and add the chopped green onion and cooked gnocchi.  Cook over medium-low heat until gnocchi becomes toasted.  Turn off the heat, pour in the brown butter, toss to combine and top with parmesan cheese and chopped basil.

Enjoy :)

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Gnocchi and Peas with a Baslamic Sage Brown Butter and Goat Cheese Sauce

Bri was still on break for my first week back to school.  So, he came up to Madison with me and it was great!  We had a lot of fun hanging out together after school/work and it was nice to have the company since Madison is so dead right now with Winter Break still going on.  During the days, I had school and work so Bri worked a ton on his thesis.  It worked out perfectly that he had so much to do because I was so busy all day long.  However, at night we were able to get in some really fun activities around Madison!

On Tuesday, Bri got into town pretty late so he got a bite to eat at Potbelly's and then we discovered a new frozen yogurt place called Cherry Berry.  It was pretty awesome and it's really close (too close) to where I am teaching.

The next night, we made dinner and dessert. It was a really nice time.  The dinner we made was Sweet Potato Gnocchi and Peas in a Brown Butter Balsamic and Sage sauce and then for dessert, Creme Brulee. Everything was delicious and people thought it was our anniversary or something.  Nope, just Wednesday night.

On Thursday, we went to Ella's Deli for dinner on the way to the movie theater.  We saw Les Mis.  It was fantastic.  It is my favorite musical to begin with and now I can watch it whenever I want.  Anne Hathaway truly deserves her Oscar nomination.  I bawled my eyes out at the end and was a tad embarrassed leaving the theater looking like a splotchy mess.  We were able to make it to the 6 p.m. movie time, which was great since it was almost 3 hours long and I was exhausted after my long day of teaching/work.

Friday was when Bri had to leave to get back to Chicago before his long drive back to school so we went to Panera for a quick lunch between school and work and then it was time to say goodbye.  It was really nice having him around for the week.  It felt like a little preview of what next year could be like with me teaching and him in law school.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Gnocchi and Peas with Balsamic Sage Brown Butter Sauce and Goat Cheese
(adapted from Aida Mollenkamp)

Ingredients:
1 16 oz package Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Gnocchi
3/4 cup frozen peas
2 oz. goat cheese
4 tbsp unsalted butter
12-16 sage leaves
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 shallots, chopped
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1.  Cook the gnocchi according to the directions.  Drain and set aside in a large bowl.
2. Cook the peas according to directions and add to the gnocchi.
3.  In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  When it starts to foam, add in the sage leaves and cook for a few minutes.  Remove the leaves and place them in the gnocchi bowl.  Return the butter to the stove and add in the shallots.  Cook until butter browns, stirring often.  Scrape the brown bits from the bottom and remove from heat.  Stir in the balsamic and pour over the gnocchi.
4.  Top with goat cheese and season with the pepper to taste.  Toss everything together and serve!

Enjoy :)

Charleston, SC Day 3

After my run in the morning, we lounged around before heading into Charleston for our cooking class at Charleston Cooks!  This place is a fantastic cooking store that also hosts demonstation and participation cooking classes.  The participation classes were totally booked, but we were able to get a spot in one of the demonstration classes.  It was a fabulous time!  We watched Chef Marcus cook up some Shrimp and Grits and Upside Down Apple Cupcakes.  Everything was fabulous and we even got a glass of wine with our food!  It was so much fun.  Also, I learned some fun times on how to hold a knife, how to cut an onion, and tons of fun facts about eggs and baking!  It was really cool!

After our class, we walked around the Market for a bit before dinner at Slightly North of Broad.  This place books up fast and if you don't have a reservation you can just forget it...however, we were able to walk in right at 5 when their bar opened and put our name in for one of the few tables they keep open for walk ins.  The table we ended up at was actually the "chefs table" where you eat your dinner while watching all the action go down in the kitchen.  It was pretty cool.  Also, the food was fabulous! Oh my was it delicious!  My dad got the tilefish (the special), my mom and I split a pear salad and flounder dish, and Zack and Bri got the gnocchi.

The Grits on the Side 

Butternut Squash Custard on the Side

Following dinner, we were too full for dessert (which was hard to walk away from...) and we went to a fun bar down the street to watch the end of the Packers game.  We are pretty avid Bears fans, being from Chicago, but we needed the Packers to win in order for the Bears to go to the playoffs.  The bar we found was called Mac's and was a great find since it was a "midwest bar" that specialized in hosting midwest and big 10 games.  It was really cool to see so many Wisconsin-ites and Chicago-ans in Charleston!  Unfortunately for the Bears, the Packers lost.  So, we decided to comfort ourselves with some ice cream (we were feeling less full at this point).

We drove to the Marble Slab Creamery (I even found a groupon!), which was known for some of the best ice cream in Mt. Pleasant.  We had amazing creations and proceeded to feel crazy full once again.  It was awesome.  My dad also got ice cream, but ate it before I got a picture...Here are some of the treats we indulged in:

Birthday Cake Ice Cream with Twix, Cookie Dough,
and Fudge (Zack's)

Red Velvet Ice Cream with Brownies and Fudge (mine)

Coffee Ice Cream with Health and Snickers (mom's)

Now it's time to digest and play Hoopla!  Good night!

Homemade Lemon Gnocchi with a Spinach and Peas Sauce

I am in St. Louis for the weekend.  St. Louis is a great city and since Brian goes to school here I have gotten to see a lot of it.  Last night we went to this great restaurant called Bailey’s Chocolate Bar.  This place was fantastic.  Quite appropriately, the menu starts off with the dessert section and then moves to appetizers and entrees.  How could I not love this place? Instead of putting bread out on the table, they have cookies and they have a HUGE drink menu full of alcoholic and non-alcoholic sweet drinks.  Dinner and (not surprisingly) dessert were fantastic. 

Seriously great chocolatini

For tonight, we are making our own dinner.  Brian and I love to cook together and find new and exciting recipes to try out.  Isn’t that just adorable?  Anyways, I spent some time browsing epicurious and came across this fun little Valentine’s Day Menu Quiz.  You take this quiz and it tells you what the perfect menu is for you and your significant other.  I thought it was pretty silly, but the menu that it came up with actually sounded great.  I did not really feel like making the dessert, plus I had those mine heart shaped cheesecake pans, and so we decided to just make the entrée portion: Lemon Spinach Gnocchi.  We also decided to try making our own gnocchi.  Don’t worry though; we bought some gnocchi just in case the homemade stuff didn’t go according to plan J.

Homemade Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas (adapted from BLOG and Epicurious)

Make the Gnocchi:

Ingredients:

2 pounds Russet Potatoes (about 4)

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp flour, plus more for dusting

1 tsp salt, plus more for cooking

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Microwave the potatoes on high for 5 minutes.  Then, turn them over and microwave for another 5 minutes or until the ends start to soften.

2. Place potatoes directly on oven rack and bake 18-20 minutes or until you can easily slide a fork in and out of them.

3. Once potatoes are done, immediately peel them and place unpeeled potatoes in a bowl.  We found that the skins just sort of fell off and we ended up scooping potato out of the skin. Once in a bowl, use an electric mixer or potato masher and mash the potatoes. Spread mashed potatoes out on a baking sheet (we lined ours with parchment paper) and allow to cool for about 5 minute

4.  Scoop 2 cups of potatoes into a bowl.  You may have leftover potato, we didn’t, but don’t add it to the bowl.  Top warm potatoes with the beaten egg and using a fork mix until just combined.  Next, top with the flour and salt, and mix until no plain pockets of flour exist.  Don’t over mix.  The batter will not come together and will look crumbly.

5.  Lightly flour a clean surface and knead the dough until it comes together and appears smooth, about a minute.  Form into a ball and slice into 8 pieces.  Generously flour a baking sheet and, using one piece of dough at a time, roll the dough out into a long rope about ½ inch thick. Repeat with all 8 pieces.  Then, cut the rope into about ½ to 1 inch pieces.  You can leave the gnocchi like this, or using a fork, you can form the ridges as follows:

6.  Using a fork, place a piece of gnocchi between the back of the fork and your thumb and then roll the gnocchi along the fork.  You may need to use a fairly large fork.  This will create the traditional ridges!

Now, you can make the gnocchi right away, or place gnocchi on a baking sheet so that they are not touching and freeze them.  Once frozen you can transfer them to a sealed bag for future use.

We made ours right away:

Lemon with Spinach and Peas Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen baby peas (not thawed)

½ cup heavy cream

¼ tsp dried hot red pepper flakes

1 garlic clove, smashed

¼ tsp salt

3 cups packed baby spinach

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

1 pound of gnocchi (the homemade stuff or store bought if all the above stuff is too much for you)

¼ cup of fresh, shredded parmesan

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, simmer peas, cream, red pepper flakes, garlic and salt covered for about 5 minutes.

2. Add spinach and cook over medium heat, uncovered, stirring until the spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and lemon zest

3.  Cook gnocchi in the pot of boiling water: if using the homemade stuff, cook about half a batch at a time.  Gnocchi is done once all the pieces float to the top.  Using a strainer, scoop the gnocchi out of the pot and place into a large bowl.  Then, make the other half the same way.  Reserve ½ cup of cooking water.

4. Pour the sauce over the gnocchi and toss to coat.  Add about ½ cup of pasta cooking water to thin out the sauce.  Add more if you like. Top with the cheese.

Enjoy J

Note: the red pepper in this recipe causes the sauce to have quite the kick.  We loved this, but if this is not to your taste, use less or leave it out.  Also, we added a little more lemon than what the original recipe called for and it was great!  

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