food stuffs

first up: we had a blast making delicious & nutritious (and easy!) gnocchi. They turned out okay, but I'll make some adjustments to the recipe for next time. I think I'll try boiling the potatoes in the skins instead of baking. And maybe use more egg and more flour and maybe some ricotta.


Lib's job was to cut the dough into individual dumplings


Fiona's job was putting the divots in each dumpling (the better to hold the sauce)


don't they look good -even before boiling?


after boiling


Fi chose to test the divots & decorated her plate before eating. Presentation counts for something, right?


Dinner at my good friend Kelly's house. Both recipes came from the Barefoot Contessa. So delicious!


I was hungry for matzo ball soup, well before fall. Homemade stock, natch-what else to do with the leftovers from beer can chicken? I took my inspiration & a few tips from this website. MMMMMM comfort food!


the banana bread recipe that I've been using for so long that I don't need to refer to it anymore. This time I improvised a bit & used peanut butter for the fat instead of vegetable shortening. It was tasty without being overwhelming. Bonus: peanut butter has less fat than shortening -& it's a healthy fat too! I also used white chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet or milk chocolate. I will definitely try this again.