Homemade Potato Gnocchi!

So what do you do when you have a billion potatoes.. Make pounds and pounds of gnocchi!

In the joy of cooking cookbook, my wonderful sister in law found a recipe for gnocchi that Cousin Shana was wanting to learn to make. The first step is to bake 2 pounds of potatoes (in our case 15 pounds!!!). The wonderful hubby and and sister in law scrapped all the potatoe out of the skin. Carefully measuring out 2 2/3 cups of cooked potato, which we did mash before adding in 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

Next, after adjusting the amount of flour to make it the "right" consistency (kind of like playdoh, or a slightly crumbly dough). Flour your work area and grab a handful. Start to roll it out in to a log. 

You want to use a butter knife and try to cut it in to equal parts. Here you see, BIL, Jake uses the side of a fork.. You get the same result and dirty less dishes.. Right?!?!

Now, holding the fork flat to the cut piece, roll it slightly to slightly flatten and "score" the dough.

This is a sample of how some of ours turned out...

Now for the fun part.... Cooking the dough...

You want to cook the gnocchi floats in the water.. Then it's done!

Floating for 20 seconds.. Out to my plate and add a sauce! Yummy!

Recipe from the joy of cooking book:

Potato Gnocchi

2 pounds baking potatoes, cooked, scooped out, pushed through a ricer or sieve with the back of a spoon and divided into 2 2/3 cups

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Stir together vigorously, then turn out onto a work surface and knead until smooth and blended. Roll into a log about 3/4 inch wide, cut into pieces 3/4 inch long. Roll each piece against the tines of a fork while pressing a small dent into the opposite side with your finger.

To cook:

Bring salted water to a boil. Drop gnocchi into simmering water until they float, about 2 minutes. They should hold a firm shape and be chewy to the bite.

Now, for use we are freezing our for future meals... You know since we had a harvest of some houndreds of potatoes. However, we will hold out enough to have some made with homemade spaghetti sauce, tomorrow. Pictures will be updates.... Well tomorrow :)

<3 T

Muffin-polooza

We'll hey there fancy meeting you here again!!! Yes, it has been SEVERAL months since a post has been posted :) Emma and I are back in the kitchen and this time we have a brand new tool! An iPad 2 which should make blogging easier! Woohoo!! So this weekend is our monthly family weekend! So, for Sunday brunch Em and I are making muffins.. All sorts of muffins!! To start with we are making the pin "tha standard muffin" found here: http://thewholesomedish.com/standard-muffin-recipe/ . Since this recipe gives you an opportunity to be extra creative we are making blueberry and peach! 

Here we start with the dry ingredients:

We are doubling the original recipe. Next, we added all the wet ingredients (and the sugar into a separate bowl to whisk together:

Next, add the wet to the dry and mix... Now the original cooknesta said it will be lumpy and not to over mix.. This we shall do :)

And this is where the fun starts!!! Time to fill cups!

We decided to start with blueberry... After washing her hands really well, my awesome helper started topping!

In the oven these babies go for 20 minutes!

Out of the oven and on to my plater!!!

Now once my taste-tester has had lunch, she said these are "ummmmm!!! Good!!!"

Now, I did try the peach one and Em the blueberry. We both seemed to like it! Personally I wouldn't mind seeing a glaze drizzled over the top! So we will call this one a success! <3

We like this tried pin! Now, try it for yourself! Let us know how yours turn out, as well as what creative favors you used!

<3 T

Peach Cobbler.. Way easy!

We have finally been able to enjoy the "spring" weather, now that it's so close to summer (less the 6 weeks away). And with all of this amazing sun shine, rainbows, nature's sounds and amazing cloud work... I make you want to bake pies and place them in the window, so as the kids are playing out side they can smell sweet pie! Oh, the dreams those wonderful cartoons gave us as kids on Sunday morning! :)

Now, for the dessert... I grabbed a can of peach halves from the pantry (big 'ol can) and sliced them up. While slicing, I had a sauce pot on the stove with about 3 tbsp of butterscotch caramel ice cream topping and 1/4 cup of coconut water wait for it to boil.

 Once this married and boiled I added in some of the peach juice from the can, mixed well with the caramel sauce then added in the peach slices.

While all of this was simmering and making happiness.. I took 1 stick of butter and melted it in a 350° oven in a square 9x9 baking dish. I then worked on the batter for the cobbler. I added all the dry batter ingredients. then slowly added in the milk. Of course, I was out of vanilla extract so, I use the same amount of almond extract. Once this was well combined and no lumps I pour this into the melted butter in the pan. DO NOT STIR or MIX these two together.. you want it to look like this:

 Next, you want to spoon in the peaches and sauce on top of the mixture.. AGAIN: do NOT stir or mix these together.. looking like this:

Last, Place this amazing smelling sweet dish into your 350° oven for about 45-55 minutes or until the crust browns and looks some what like this..lol :

And in our house when you have a bazillion kids you get topping choices!!

Strawberry ice cream and whipped cream! soooo GOOD!!


The Recipe:

Peaches
1 1/2 to 2 lbs fresh peaches (about 3 or 4 large peaches), peeled, pitted and sliced, to equal 3 to 4 cups.
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (I also made one mixing dark and light brown sugar – 6 tablespoons of each – equally good)
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter
1/2 cup water

Batter
1 stick of butter, melted in the baking dish
1 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk  (if you want a thicker crust, use only 1/2 cup milk)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:1. Combine the 3/4 cup brown sugar, water and butter  in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer until sugar is dissolved.  Stir in sliced peaches, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let sit while you prepare the batter.  Place the stick of butter on the bottom of your baking dish and let it melt  in a 350 F oven.  Leave the oven at 350 while you make the batter.

2.For the batter. In a bowl..mix the 1/2 cup sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together.  Slowly pour in the milk, stirring, to prevent clumps, until smooth. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Carefully spoon all the peaches and syrup on top of the batter.  Do not mix or stir anything.  You want three separate layers; 1. melted butter, 2. batter, 3. fruit in syrup.

3.  Place the baking dish on the middle rack in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes.  The batter will rise to the top and it’s done when its golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream, yogurt, creme fraiche and/or whipped cream.

The Site:

http://parsleysagesweet.com/2013/04/08/butterscotch-peach-cobbler-and-part-20-2/

Now, go be creative.. see where your senses take you.. Mine took me here with a mix of Roast Beef Pot Pie.. Tell us here in the comment's section where you imagination lead you!

<3 T

Roast Beef Pot Pie

I know, I know.. It's finally spring, But I couldn't help myself. A roast sounded good and when we had leftovers, Pot Pie sounded better! My only dilemma with this was, what do I use for a crust. I thought about a pie type crust super flaky. Then I thought about maybe using a pie crust on the bottom and biscuits on top. Then it hit me.. ummmm... Biscuits!! So, I wanted to make the entire crust out of biscuits. The search began to find a super simple biscuit recipe that included the ingredients I had.... Leading me too:

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits!

You guessed right.. It's was the one recipe easy to follow (the wording on the directions that is) and I had juuust about all the ingredients.. Buttermilk, was missing it. But since I wanted to make this a savory biscuit, I did not want to put honey in it so what I changed was I used 1 whole cup of milk and added 1 tablespoon of vinegar (white).

All the dry ingredients.. Now I must stop here to say this.. I greatly apologize for the amount of pictures and the quality..lol my camera, aka my new best friend, well the batteries are DEAD! I just have to go to the store and get some.. but that won't stop me spunk or need to share :)

Ok then I mixed the milk and vinegar together the slowly added it to the flour mix. After adding all the milk the dough was VERY sticky.. so I added a little bit of flour at a time until I could maneuver the dough with my hands with out being coated in doughy goo... ha ha! Then I took about 1/4 - 1/3 of the dough and set it a side. I rolled out the biggest portion of the dough into the best square I could then placed it in the bottom of my baking dish. NOTE: I did not spray the bottom of my pan before placing the dough in.. DO NOT DO THIS!! grease the bottom of you baking dish before adding the dough...

I now have my bottom crust done and my top rolled out and waiting. I took my left over roast and what juice the kids saved when putting dinner away (Love leftovers). I poured the juice into the bottom of a pot on the stove. Once it began to boil I added about 2 tbsp of flour til it was thick. Then added the meat which I had cut up into bite size pieces (sizes may very depending on the mouth that's cutting it..ha!). I had some leftover California medley veg (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) and some frozen mixed veg (pea, corn, green beans and carrots)..

I did place this into the fridge to cool off. I was not sure what to do at this point, so I figured it was better to place cool/warm meat mix into a semi cool biscuit dough.. My mind said that made since.. hehehe! Whilst this wonderful creation that was marrying nicely in the fridge, I decided a dessert was a must! Peach Cobbler went into the works! NOTE: Epic fail on my end! I did not take a picture of the final put together Pot Pie! :(

Once the pie filling, I felt, was cool enough I spooned it into the dish. Next I took the top of the pie and placed it as squarely as I could and "rolled" and pinched the sides together. I then set it back in the fridge until my cobbler was completely done. I cooks this at 375° for about 35-45 minutes. Served way hot..lol

I will say the kids had seconds and really enjoyed it. Very hearty way to use up a few leftovers!

Recipe:
Roast Beef Pot Pie:
Biscuit Dough found here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/flaky-buttermilk-biscuits-10000001853981/

Filling:
1 1/2 cups cut roast beef
1/4 cup (maybe less) broth from roast, or beef broth
2 cups of pre-cooked or frozen veg
2 tbsp flour

Roll out about 3/4 of your biscuit dough and place in the bottom of you greased baking dish. I used a square 8x8 dish. Pour your broth int a pot over medium heat. Once it boils add in flour a little at a time to just thicken the broth. once thick add in meat and cook for a few minutes. Last add in your veg. Let simmer until it looks like a very thick beef stew. Remove from heat, allow to cool. Was cool or hardly warm, add to the bottom crust. Take the rest of the dough and roll it out (this can be done while the filling is simmering or cooling) into a square and place over the top and roll and/or crimp the edges together. Cook in a 375° oven for 35-45 minutes or until the biscuit dough is cooked all the way through. Serve warm.

Try it for your self.. Like it, leave a comment... Don't like it, leave a comment.. Suggestions?!?! Leave a comment! :)

Go create your world!
<3 T

Stuffed Bell Peppers

I wish I had some amazing tale to tell with this recipe, unfortunately there is not.. Just a normal family wanting normal food.. ha ha yeah right normal!! Well, I had a taste for stuffed peppers and Jeremy said it was one of his favorite meals.

Confession: Mom has always made them and I have had them other place but make them myself.. nope not this girl. So, I went based on the theory that this was basically meat loaf in a pepper.

Here goes my attempt....

Starting with 2 pounds of ground beef, big family here.. its an easy recipe so the amounts can be adjusted.. about 1 tsp of dried Oregano, Parsley and Basil, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp of salt and pepper.

OK, normally you would add in an egg, well like always I am continuously out of something... I used about 1/4ish of a cup of olive oil and 1/2 cup of Italian seasoned bread crumbs. Mixed together with my fingers (more like squished) the chopped up about 1/4 of a large yellow onion. Again mixed well...

Getting creative and stuff I took 4 Roma tomatoes sliced them up.. place one in the bottom of all the pepper (7 for my family)...

Next, scoop in your meat mix, filling it just shy of half way. Place another tomato slice on the meat mix then fill the rest up with meat mix...

Lastly, place one last slice of tomato on top of the last layer of meat mix, sprinkle mozzarella cheese and BACON bits on top! I know can't pass up an opportunity to add bacon to something :)





Hopefully you thought a head and pre heated your oven to 350°, once your oven is at temp place your fabulous peppers in the oven for 35-45 minutes.. until the meat in the middle is cooked and the peppers are of a "darker" green and wrinkly :) I just love my cooking terminology!

Ok, recipe time.. try and put this in to the "right" form.. he he

Recipe:
2lbs Ground Beef
1 Tsp Dried Oregano
1 Tsp Dried Parsley
1 Tsp Dried Basil
1/2 Tsp Paprika
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1/2 cup Italian Bread crumbs
7 Bell Pepper, top cut off and center cleaned out
4 Roma tomatoes
1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese
2 Tbsp Bacon bits

Pre-heat oven to 350°Mix the meat, seasonings, olive oil and bread crumbs together very well. Tip: use your clean hand. In each pepper place a slice of tomato add in meat mix til you have reached half way up the pepper (amount will vary depending on the size of the pepper).  Place another tomato on top of the meat mix. Add more meat mix until it is barely to the top of the pepper. Lastly, place one last slice of tomato on top, sprinkle the cheese and bacon bits on each pepper. Place in pre-heated oven for about 35-45 minute (time may vary depending on the oven). Enjoy! :)

I hope you like this as much as my very picky eaters did!! No they didn't go back for seconds but at least the 6,5 and 4 yr olds each tried, and 2 of them really liked it!


Now its your turn get in your kitchen and create..

<3 T

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, with banana

I got a bit "off" the other day and just had the will to bake but lacked creativity... So what does any blogger do.. I suppose :) I polled my Facebook page as to what they would like to see. The final verdict, after taking and combining several suggestions (sorry Dad, but I just couldn't do the Christmas shaped), Oatmeal Chocolate Chips cookies with purple chocolate drizzle.. Crazy right?!?! I love my Facebook fans <3

First thing I suppose I should apologize, dealing with the 5 wonderful kiddos in and out of the kitchen asking 1 million and 1 questions and such.... I failed to take a lot of pictures.. SORRY :(... On to the adventure in Nordlund's Yumminess Lab...

Our adventure starts off (that day anyways) with beautiful Spring day.. RIGHT?!?!

 4 inches of snow (followed by 12-14 inches over the next day) was one way to be inspired to bake.. :)

I went to Pinterest, as usual, to find a pretty easy oatmeal cookie recipe the I could tweak. Found one, however realizing this after I wanted to bake.. I found I had NO butter.. sigh to Google I went to find a substitute: Banana. So with the one stick of butter I mustard up I substituted the other stick of butter with 1 banana. 1 banana = 1 stick of butter. The hubs says healthy eating I say butter alternative stumbling upon healthiness :)

I throw the batter together following the recipe to the letter (except for that butter issue)...

I began the cookie making process, the first 10 cookies I may have been a little heavy hand with the spooning of the batter using about a tablespoon of batter per cookie, the rest I slimmed it back some to about a teaspoon size...

While the yummy cookies were baking I used a double boiler system to melt white almond bark (aka white chocolate in my book..lol) and added 1/4 cup of milk to thin it out some, 2 drops of blue food coloring and 4 drops of red food coloring to get purple!

As the cookies cooled I drizzled the the purple mix over them to give a nice look and added flavor to the cookie :)

Then I got really adventurous and thought hmmm... use all banana no butter and make oatmeal bars for a hearty breakfast treat... Oh what a great choice!!!

The recipe:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Printable Recipe

1 cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups light brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a large bowl beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs and vanilla with a hand held mixer until well blended. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, stirring until just combined.

Fold in rolled oats and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Source: Annie’s Eats originally from Deborah’s Culinary Confections

The site:

http://www.seededatthetable.com/2011/01/19/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Now, go off and try it too!! Oh so good you won't regret it!

<3  T

Salt and Lime Guacamole.. Ole!

We had a fun fun weekend with the family over!! Lots of time spent tromping through the woods collecting sap and even sitting in the sugar shack boiling the sap down.. all while it was snowing outside on and off, more on then off :). A beautiful way to bring in the spring! So, I did stay back a few times.. ok most of the time due to the little ones and my stupid toes being cold.. Northern Minnesota what are you going to do.. ha ha! I made treats for the troops! I made Cookie Pie with all the right ingredients including the M&M's.. salsa (which I will not post that recipe until I have all the FRESH ingredients.. I used canned tomatoes..sigh) and guacamole!

Whilst napping had commenced and the oldest 6 kiddos were out sapping with 5 adults.. I did my thing in the kitchen. starting with juicing 1 1/2 limes:

Next, I chopped up fresh cilantro and chive, from my window herb garden :) Now, the amount use can be up to you, I used, chopped, lets say about a tsp of cilantro and a 1/2 tsp of chive..

Next, I added about (since i always forget to measure!) 1/2 tsp of pepper, 1/2 tsp of salt (which I added a whole tsp of salt later, Salt is definitely to the individual taste buds!) and a tsp (give or take) of our homemade horseradish..

I had a fresh tomato left over from when the hubbs made burgers for the kiddos.. I diced up the whole tomato, reserving about 1/3 of the tomato and chopping if smaller to add in later. I diced up about 1/2 to 2/3 of a medium yellow onion...

Notice I am stirring each addition with a fork to help all the ingredients to marry nicely with each other. So my next step was to cut, pit and dice the avocado up. Of course I bought 3 fresh avocados to which 1 of the 3 was still a bit "green".. it funny to call a green fruit/veg "green" when it is not quite ripe enough.. he he. Once, the avocado is dice I place ALL the ingredients in to my food processor and pressed go..

One the mix got to the texture that I think it good for guac, (which for me is just before pureed, still has some little lumps) I poured it into a bowl. Remember the reserve tomatoes.. insert now!!

Looks, good right?!?!? Ok stir the tomatoes in, put the guac in a container let sit in the fridge and get happy, for me this was like 4 hours before the crew got back to try a snack while waiting on dinner. Spoon some in a bowl, or tea cup like me and my awesome serving dishes, serve with tortilla chips.. and ENJOY!!

Alright lets see if I can type up a recipe for you *wink, wink*

The Recipe:
3 Ripe avocados
1 vine ripe tomato, diced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
juice of 1 1/2 limes
1/2 tsp of pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt (depending on your pallet)
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp fresh chive

Starting with the lime juice add in the pepper, salt, horseradish, cilantro and chive. Stir together with a fork. Once well combined added in your tomato (reserving out 1/3) and onion, stir with the fork. Once combined, again, add in the avocado and pour in to the food processor. Process together until you get the consistency of almost baby food (nice description right?!?!) or the texture you desire. Pour from processor into another container, stir in the remaining tomato, cover and chill in fridge til your ready to eat! Enjoy!

Now, its your turn again.. go get in your kitchen and see what your wonderful mind creates!

<3 T