Gnocchi - Who Woulda Thought?

When I was at the grocery store the other day, I happen to noticed packaged gnocchi (an Italian dumpling). Logan really liked the chicken gnocchi soup at Olive Garden last time we were there, so I decided to throw the gnocchi in the cart and give it a try sometime. I found this copycat recipe online http://creativecooknson.blogspot.com/2009/01/olive-garden-style-chicken-gnocchi-soup.html, and we had the soup for dinner last night. Yum! Of course, I made a couple of changes. :) I used some shredded chicken that I had in the freezer rather than cooking the chicken in the oil/butter. Also, in an effort to make the soup just a little less fattening, I used half-and-half rather than cream. Finally, I thought the soup was too thick, so I added at least a cup of regular milk (1%) after cooking everything. It turned out quite tasty, and once again, the best part was that Logan LOVED the gnocchi. Garrick tried to declare gnocchi as Logan's new favorite food. (Then I reminded him of mandarin oranges and how Logan could probably eat the whole can if we let him.) Anyway, Logan also ate several bites of soup, which means that I got at least a little carrot and spinach in him. Woo-hoo!

On the down side, I also made some buttermilk spice muffins with a Mimi's copycat recipe, and they were rather dull. I won't even post the recipe. :(

Who Do You Think You Are?

Have you heard of this new NBC show? It's on Friday nights at 7pm here, and each week it features a different celebrity seeking out his/her family history.

I read about this tv show in the newspaper, but then forgot about it and missed the first week. But, I remember this week and recorded Friday night's show featuring Emmit Smith. Garrick and I watched it last night and loved it. It was fun to see how the spirit of geneology really does touch hearts.

So, if you needed a suggestion of a good, clean tv program to watch, there you go. Let me know if you like it, too. :)

Recipe Trial Report

Just wanted to report on a couple of recipes that I tried this week. One was a classic lasagna recipe http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/03/classic-italian-lasagna.html. It was a little bit time consuming, but it was yummy! I only made one change. When I blended up the cooked onions, garlic, and mushrooms, I also threw in some cooked carrots. I figured if I could sneak vegetables into Logan somehow, it would do his body some good! And, he ate the lasagna and didn't even know the carrots were there. :)

The second new recipe that I tried out was the peanut butter mousse that I mentioned in an earlier post http://www.stephanieskitchen.com/. It was scrumptious and rich. I also made the chocolate cupcakes to go with it. They were all right, but nothing to get too excited about. I wished my mousse was a little stiffer. I'm assuming it was my fault - maybe I didn't get my whipped cream to a stiff enough peaks stage. Don't know.

If you do end up trying this recipe, I have a couple of suggestions/tips. First of all, when you fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture, it doesn't seem like it will really mix in. It does. Be patient. I had to take a couple of breaks from folding because my arm was tired, but in the end, it did turn out nice and smooth. Also, I think the perfect way to use this mousse would be in a trifle of some sort. I think I would use either small squares of chocolate cake or brownies, the pbutter mousse, and little chunks of Reese's peanut butter cups. Garrick and I ate the cupcakes with some extra mousse in a bowl, so it reminded me of a trifle. This dessert would be super rich, so you'd want to eat it in small portions, but it would be taaaaasteeeeeeey!

Christmas in March

Food...What More Can I Say?

Ask me why I'm blogging about food at 11:25 pm. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I had a long nap this afternoon. Anywhoo...just thought I'd share an easy and tasty meal that I made this evening. I quite enjoyed it AND what speaks even louder than that, is the fact that Logan ate it (he's been quite picky lately).

Here's the link to the recipe: http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/search/label/Main%20Dish%20-%20Chicken

I made the Skillet BBQ Chicken Pasta. I had some shredded chicken in the fridge, so I used that rather than sauteing cubed chicken. I didn't have a red onion, but I did have some shallots, so I used those. Other than that, I stuck to the recipe. (Boy, I sound like someone leaving a comment on allrecipes.com. They make changes to the recipe then give it a sub-par rating. Makes me laugh.) This recipe is nothing super amazing, but it was tasty, quick, and easy. And to top that off, it was full of ingredients that I usually have on hand.

While I'm speaking of food, just thought I'd post a link to another recipe (dessert this time) that I'm hoping to try out this week. With peanut butter and chocolate, I figure I can't go wrong.
It's the Creamy Peanut Butter Mousse (pictured with chocolate cupcakes): http://www.stephanieskitchen.com/

Lastly, I have this thing for the Food Channel's Food Network Challenges. I know it's kinda weird, but I enjoy watching them - mostly the cake ones. So, I try and record them once in a while and if I need something to watch while folding laundry or just relaxing, I pull one up. A couple of weeks ago Garrick and I saw the Southern Living Cook Off episode. I don't even know what year it was from. Could've been a rerun. There were a few recipes that sounded scrumptious. I looked one up the other day and just might give it a try when I need to take a dessert somewhere. (It'd be way too much dessert for our little clan). Maybe it'll be a Sunriver treat. Here's the link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-challenge/x-treme-chocolate-double-nut-caramel-ladyfinger-torte-recipe/index.html

Is it just me...

...or is it super annoying to move pictures around in a blog? Seriously! Maybe I'm missing out on some neat tricks that I could be using, but it seems like it's such a pain. First of all, they won't insert where you want them in the blog. Then, it's super slow to move them. Oh, and why is the window where you type up the blog so small? (Whine, whine, whine.) It seems like with all of the technology these days, someone could fix some things on blogger. But, maybe then it wouldn't be free. Well, I just needed to vent after that last post. I couldn't get one picture to move past the other, so after several tries, I finally just re-downloaded it. Maybe I ought to download the pictures before I add text. Hmm...

Creative Ways to Dunk

Our little Logan LOOOOVES to play with balls - any type, really. He loves to rebound then pass it to us and watch us shoot, he loves to just carry them around with him, he loves "dribbling" his super big bouncy ball (that we finally bought at Target after he had so much fun with them during several different shopping trips), and apparently, he loves to dunk.

I was in the kitchen cooking the other day and looked over to see what Logan was up to. This is what I saw:

On another note, Logan learned how to take the bed off of his dump truck so he could ride it. I thought it was pretty cute. Oh, and, he has decided that he has to make a squinty-eyed face whenever I'm about to take his picture. I guess it's his "cheese" face.