Thursday, October 18, 2012

"D'oh!" Dough

I am going to need a second cup of coffee this morning. Why? Because I am terrible at making dough, and I was too ambitious to try three different dough recipes in the past week. I stayed up until 11 p.m. making this new recipe. WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!

Back a few posts to the Kitchen Mischief Review, I said how you should never swear in the kitchen. I think that foods pick up on your moods and act accordingly. I once made a layer cake (granted, I was doing this WAY too late at night in order to have it done for a friend's birthday party the next day), and the top layer kept sliding off since I kept swearing at it. Now, I'm normally not a potty mouth, but sometimes I slip. And when that happens, all of a sudden your rolling pin slips out of your hands and sends flour across your kitchen floor. Ugh, dough problems.

Anyway, I had the house to myself last night, so I thought I would spend some quality time in the kitchen attempting to make this drool-worthy Butternut Squash Gnocchi from Iowa Girl Eats. My high school friend Kelly suggested that I start reading this blog, and she was right! Kristin from Iowa Girl Eats is adorable and a total kitchen crush. We both like running, cooking, traveling and all sorts of stuff, so it's fun to read! She probably now thinks that I'm obsessed and/or crazy, but no, I'm just a fan. *waves hi to Kristin*

Major props to Kristin who could actually make these lovely hand-rolled gnocchi with what sounds like cool confidence. I'm only going to guess that she did this without getting frustrated at how sticky the dough was. I felt like I could not get enough flour into this dough. Granted, I probably should have measured it out like a good little student instead of eye-balling it. Argh.

I did manage to get a few pictures of the process until my hands became covered in dough while trying to roll them out. I'm going to direct you right to Iowa Girl Eats for the recipe instead of writing down what I did, especially since mine got a little out of control. However, I've got a big ol' bag of these gnocchi in my freezer now, so I hope I didn't botch them. I was too tired when I finished these at 11 p.m. to actually boil some and add the buttery sauce. This will happen soon though, and I'll report back.

Here are the pictures:

Pop the olive oil covered butternut squash in the oven for roasting with a sprinkling of pepper and salt

Food processor full of delicious roasted squash!
I could have stopped right here and eaten the whole thing of butternut squash puree.

Frozen (hopefully) tasty freezer bag of gnocchi.
Note the cooking instructions written on the bag.

TEASER: These are my entry in the newspaper's holiday cookie contest.
Recipe soon to come. Stay posted.

2 comments:

  1. Actually a lot of holistic / yoga type theories say that you should always be calm & happy in the kitchen. Not only is the food "uncooperative" when you're angry - but it supposedly doesn't nourish the body as well when cooked in anger/frustration...

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  2. That's very interesting. I bet the frustration doesn't help digestion! Fortunately, I was able to enjoy a bowl of the gnocchi the next night after we both cooled down - the gnocchi in the freezer and me with my temper!

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