thyme

Butterscotch Pie with Marshmallow Thyme Meringue and Pretzel Crust

I broke down and bought Joy the Baker’s newest cookbook.  I kept seeing it everywhere and couldn’t resist that pretzel cake on the cover.  That pretzel cake must have still been on my mind while I leafed through the pages because I stopped dead in my tracks at this pie with pretzel crust.  I needed to do some pie research for Thanksgiving, so I gave this a shot.  Strictly for research purposes…

Butterscotch Pie with Thyme Meringue and Pretzel Crust | Hottie Biscotti

The crust is pretty basic, but uses cold buttermilk instead of water.  I had to add a bit more buttermilk than called for in the recipe to get it to stick together easily, but that is the only issue I ran in to with the crust.  It rolls out nicely and bakes up well.  I love the way the pretzels look lining the crust.  It’s really too bad you can’t see it after filling and baking.

Pretzel Crust | Hottie Biscotti

Into the crust goes a butterscotch filling that is rich and creamy and amazing.  When the first step in any recipe is browning butter you can’t be on the wrong track.  After cooking it has to chill for 2 hours, so be sure to plan accordingly.

Butterscotch Filling | Hottie Biscotti

The meringue is surprisingly good.  I was hesitant to add in the thyme, but was very glad I did.  It’s just noticeable enough.  Not overpowering but you still know it’s there, a slight savory note to balance the sweetness.  And the marshmallow does make it very sweet, which I happen to like.  I think it would be especially good on a sweet potato pie.  As we all know, sweet potatoes and marshmallows are meant for each other.

Marshmallow Thyme Meringue | Hottie Biscotti Butterscotch Pie with Thyme Meringue and Pretzel Crust | Hottie Biscotti

After filling and topping, the meringue gets a nice toast in the oven.  I think I under-baked mine just a bit.  I only let it go for about 4 minutes.  It could’ve used just a couple more for color and for the meringue to get a little sturdier.  When sliced the meringue got a little oozy, which makes no difference in taste but makes for a messy presentation.

Butterscotch Pie with Thyme Meringue and Pretzel Crust | Hottie Biscotti

You can serve this immediately after cooking the meringue, or chill it in the fridge.  I had better luck slicing and serving after the pie had time to chill, and my meringue was more cooperative.

Butterscotch Pie with Thyme Meringue and Pretzel Crust | Hottie Biscotti

The pretzels get a little soggy but still have enough crunch to add some nice texture to the pie.  I love the idea and the look of the pretzels, but this would still be a delicious pie without them.

I am really looking forward to trying more recipes from this cookbook!  Go grab a copy, it’s so much fun to look through and drool over.

Butterscotch Pie with Thyme Meringue and Pretzel Crust

From Homemade Decadence by Joy Wilson

Pretzel Crust

Makes 2 crusts

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks butter, cold and cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold buttermilk
  • small twisted pretzels (20-34 depending on size)

Directions

  1. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and whisk together.
  2. Add in butter and work in using either clean hands or a pastry blender.  When butter is broken down into pieces roughly the size of oat flakes with some large pieces make a well in the center and add in the buttermilk.  Mix together using a wooden spoon until dough kind of holds together, but is still loose.
  3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, knead into a disc, cut the disc in half and form each into a round.  Wrap each in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour.  (You only use one of these rounds for this pie, so use or freeze the other.)
  4. Flour a work surface and roll one of the rounds into a circle about 12 inches in diameter.  Move to a 9-inch pie plate, press gently into the plate and trim the edges and fold or crimp the edges.
  5. Arrange the pretzels on the bottom and up the sides of the pie crust, pressing them slightly into the dough.  Chill for at least 30 minutes.
  6. Spray a piece of foil with cooking spray and press gently into the pie plate.  Fill the foil with beans, rice or pie weights.
  7. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Bake crust for 10 minutes, then remove the foil and weights and bake for another 5-7 minutes, until it begins to brown.  Cool completely before filling.

Butterscotch Filling

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 egg yolks (whites reserved for meringue)
  • 1 teaspoon molasses
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

  1. Brown the butter in a small saucepan by heating it over medium heat.  Cook, watching it carefully and swirling the pan frequently until butter begins to brown and smell nutty. Remove from the heat immediately so it doesn’t burn.  Let cool.
  2. In a medium saucepan combine egg yolks, molasses, brown sugar, cornstarch and salt and whisk.  Heat over medium and whisk in the milk.  Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and cook, whisking constantly until mixture thickens to a pudding-like consistency.  Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl.  Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the custard and chill for at least 2 hours.

Thyme Meringue

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, finely chopped
  • 1 jar marshmallow cream (7 ounces)
  • 4 egg whites
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

  1. Combine the sugar and thyme in a small bowl and use your fingers to rub the thyme into the sugar.
  2. Scrape marshmallow into a large bowl and whisk (at least try to, this stuff is sticky!)
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment whisk egg whites on medium speed until they begin to froth.  Add the salt, then add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time while increasing the speed of the mixer gradually to medium high.  Beat until stiff peaks form and the meringue is glossy.
  4. Fold half of the egg whites into the marshmallow to lighten it, then fold in the rest of the egg whites in 3 batches.

Assemble and Bake

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F and move oven rack to the middle or top third depending on your oven size.  You want the pie near the top to brown the meringue.
  2. Spoon custard into pie crust and smooth the top.
  3. Top with the meringue and spread just to the edges without covering the crust.
  4. Bake for 4-7 minutes, until meringue has browned to your liking.
  5. Serve immediately or chill for an hour.

Ham & Cheese Quiche with Thyme

Of  course the first thing that comes to mind for me when I have ham around, after ham sandwiches of course, is quiche.  I’ve made ham & cheese quiche before, and you’ve likely seen this combination many times.  But this one is extra decadent and amazing thanks to some super yummy cheese that I had on hand.  I LOVE when a meal comes together without having to try too hard and when you just so happen to have ingredients that end up being delicious together.

Ham & Cheese Quiche | Hottie Biscotti

I had a little block of gruyere and some wine soaked goat cheese left from the Easter cheese tray.  Any cheese would do, but these seemed to take this quiche to a new level of wonderfulness.  Trader Joe’s has a goat cheese gouda that I think would be awesome, similar in flavor and texture to the goat cheese I used.  It’s not your typical soft and creamy goat cheese, this one is soft but still grate-able.

The crust and the base for this came from this America’s Test Kitchen cookbook.  Have you bought yourself a copy yet?  What’s stopping you?  I had to do some things differently with the crust because I started dinner at 5 and it needed to be on the table at 7.  I didn’t have the time to chill the dough for an hour, roll it and chill for 30 minutes, par-bake for 30 and then bake the custard for another 45 minutes.  So I improvised.  The recipe below shows what I did, but if you have the time, chill the dough before rolling and par-bake for a full 30 minutes.  It will yield a crispier crust.

Ham & Cheese Quiche | Hottie Biscotti

The quiche base is not for the faint of heart.  It’s heavy on the eggs, cream and whole milk.  Add in the ham and cheese and you’ve got yourself a quiche that is hearty enough for the manliest of men.  Add in a little crumbled bacon and they won’t have a hard time scarfing down a few pieces.  But it’s not so heavy that you can’t serve it at a ladies lunch.  It’s just too delicious for any sane person to say “no” to.

Ham & Cheese Quiche | Hottie Biscotti Ham & Cheese Quiche | Hottie Biscotti

You can take this quiche base and add in whatever you want to.  Make it vegetarian with mushrooms, spinach, peppers, asparagus, etc.  Use bacon instead of ham, or cooked chicken or other meat.  Play with the herbs as well.  Endless options.  Enjoy!

Ham & Cheese Quiche with Thyme

Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

Crust

  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into chunks and chilled
  • 4 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks and chilled
  • 4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Custard

  • 5 eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup of cooked chopped ham
  • 4 ounces of shredded cheese, 2 ounces of gruyere and 2 ounces of firm goat cheese such as goat gouda

Directions

Crust

  1. In a food processor combine flour, sugar and salt, and pulse a few times to combine.
  2. Add in the chunks of shortening and butter and pulse a few times until the fat is in coarse pieces.
  3. Add the ice water into the machine, start with 3 tablespoons, pulse a few times, then add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing once or twice in between additions, until dough looks like it is just holding together, but not until it is smooth.
  4. Pour the dough out onto a large piece of parchment and pat it together into a disk.
  5. Place another piece of parchment on top and roll the dough out, as quickly as possible into a 12-inch circle.  Peel off the top piece of parchment, then place the pie plate on top of the dough circle.  Turn it all over together and carefully press the dough into the pie plate and peel off the parchment.  Make sure the dough is pressed into the pan evenly, crimp the edges and transfer to the freezer for 30 minutes.
  6. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  7. Line the crust with foil and fill with pie weights, beans or rice.
  8. Bake for 20-30 minutes, prepare the custard mixture while it cooks.
  9. Remove the foil and weights, then immediately fill with the custard.

Custard

  1. Whisk the eggs, milk and cream well in a bowl.
  2. Whisk in the salt, mustard and thyme.
  3. When the crust comes out of the oven scatter the ham on the bottom of the crust then scatter the cheese on top.
  4. Move the pie plate to the oven then pour the egg mixture slowly into the pan until it is almost full.  You may have egg mixture left over if you have a shallow pie pan.
  5. Close the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes.  Remove from the oven when quiche is just about set.
  6. Let cool before cutting and serving.

 

Shepherd’s Pie with Cheddar Potato Topping

St. Patrick’s Day was yesterday.  After dropping my son off at school I remembered, having dressed him in nothing green.  With blog posts and Instagram feeds full of “pot o’ gold” crafts, kids decked out in green and green or Irish foods, I knew I’d failed as a mom and food blogger.  I figured I should make something for dinner that night that was somewhat Irish, even though I’ve never been big on the holiday.  The more important thing about March 17 is that it’s my niece’s birthday!  Happy 4th birthday, Maren!

I’d seen a few people posting pics of their beautiful Irish soda breads on social media, but I am kind of breaded out at the moment.  The next thing that popped into my head was Shepherd’s Pie.  A complete meal with meat, veggies and starch all in one pan!

shepherdspie5

I found an easy and basic recipe, made a quick grocery list and headed to the store.  This one from Martha is basically what I made, but with a few changes.  I also took some tips from a cookbook just recently added to my collection, America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

In perusing recipes I found some call this dish Shepherd’s Pie, and others call it Cottage Pie.  What’s the difference?  Opinions differ as to whether or not there is one.  Cottage pie was the term first used for the dish.  But over time people began calling it Cottage pie if it contained beef and Shepherd’s pie if it contained lamb.  A lot of what I’ve read says you can use either term.

shepherdspie4

This meal wound up being quite good, a terrific comfort food, and something you can make in advance.  Cook the meat filling and the potatoes, store them separately, refrigerate for up to 1 day, then layer in the casserole and bake when you’re ready.  You can even assemble this in the morning, refrigerate it and bake it in the evening.  I’d recommend adding a little extra milk to the potatoes if you’re going to make it in advance.  For some reason I feel like letting mashed potatoes sit in the fridge dries them out.  This might not be true, but it just makes me feel better to add a little extra liquid.  No one likes dry potatoes.  A couple tablespoons should be enough.

shepherdspie2

I like the combination of carrots, celery, onion and peas in this, but you can leave the peas out if you’re not a fan, or add corn to the mix.  If you don’t have fresh thyme, use 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme leaves.  Instead of water use leftover beef or chicken broth.  It’s not enough to justify opening a new container, but if you have 1 cup that needs to be used, this is a fine time to use it.  Instead of sharp white cheddar you can use regular cheddar cheese, or leave it out if you like.  Use the combination of 2% milk and cream, or use all whole milk or all 2%.  The cream adds a nice richness, but isn’t totally necessary.

You don’t need to serve this with anything, but pairing it with a crispy green salad is a good way to round out the meal.  Enjoy!

shepherdspie1

Shepherd’s Pie

Adapted slightly from Martha Stewart

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

Filling

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 4 stalks celery, cut in half lengthwise then chopped
  • 4 carrots, cut into quarters lengthwise then chopped
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
  • 1 cup water or broth
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • salt and pepper to taste

Potatoes

  • 2 large russet potatoes
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup 2% milk
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 3 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, grated
  • 1 egg

Directions

Filling

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and drizzle with a little olive or vegetable oil.  Add in the beef and cook, breaking up the pieces until it is no longer pink, about 8 minutes.
  2. Line a large plate with paper towels and remove meat from the pan to drain on the paper towels.
  3. Return the pan to the heat and add in onion, celery and carrots.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes, until vegetables become tender.  Season with a pinch of salt and the thyme.
  4. Add in the flour and tomato paste and stir to combine, cook for 2 minutes.
  5. Add in the water or broth, stir to combine and bring to a simmer.  Add in the peas, stir and let cook for 3-5 minutes.

Potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes and then cut into small chunks.
  2. Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cool water.
  3. Place pan over high heat and cook for about 15 minutes, until potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork,
  4. Drain the water from the potatoes, then return to the pan and begin mashing to release some of the steam, mash for about 1 minute.
  5. Add in the butter and milk along with some salt.  Mash it up, then add in the cheese and continue to mash until it reaches a consistency that you like.  Add in more milk if the potatoes seem dry, and taste and adjust seasonings.
  6. Mix in egg.

Assemble and Bake

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Spray a casserole dish (a deep 8×8, 9×9 or 11×17) with non-stick spray.
  3. Layer beef mixture on the bottom of the pan, then layer potatoes on top and spread evenly.
  4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until top begins to brown.

 

Bacon, Potato & Blue Cheese Tart

A good friend of mine made this when we met up for a playdate at her house a while back.  I say “a while back” because it feels like just a few months ago but I think it might have been over a year ago, which reminds me just how quickly a year goes by.  I can’t believe it’s almost 2014.

photo 3 (12)

Candace paired this rich and savory tart with a spinach salad loaded with berries, which made for a well balanced lunch.  I’m still amazed that she fixed this lunch for us since she’d recently had a baby.  My meal of choice when having people over for a playdate is Chick-fil-A…or goldfish and raisins.

The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and is something I can definitely see myself making again, especially for a lunch or brunch.  It’s impressive but not too time or skill intensive.  It’s also fine served room temp, so you can make it hours ahead or even the day before and re-warm it.  I added bacon to the original recipe because I don’t see anything wrong with adding bacon to pretty much everything.  Maybe my new motto for 2014 will be, “Put some bacon on it!” inspired by Portlandia… But of course it’s amazing without the bacon and fits into a vegetarian diet that way.

Other than the bacon, the rest of the recipe is unchanged.  You can use a tart pan or pie plate for this.  I had planned to use a tart pan because it’s just prettier than a pie plate.  Something about that fancy fluted edge.  But the dough recipe provided wouldn’t fit in my 10 inch tart pan, so I used a 9-inch pie plate.  Thankfully the lovely filling makes up for the unimpressive pie plate.  The dough wasn’t impossible to work with, but it was a little crumbly so I had to do some patching up in places.  It was delicious and not hard to whip up in the food processor, so I’d definitely recommend it over a store bought crust.

photo 1 (23)

Ingredients

If you don’t like blue cheese you probably haven’t read to this point in the blog post, and if for some reason you have I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be a fan of this tart.  Which makes me sad, because it’s delicious…if you like blue cheese.  I think you could use goat cheese, but haven’t tried it so I’m not sure how that will effect the final product.  Let me know how it turns out if you try it!

A few tips:

  • Refrigerate your crust before filling to minimize shrinking during baking.
  • For making ahead, you can prep everything, store it in the fridge and assemble right before baking.
  • If using bacon, this cold oven method of cooking it has become my new favorite.  No greasy pan to clean and your house won’t smell like bacon for days.
  • Make sure to let the tart cool or otherwise the filling won’t have time to thicken and could be runny.

photo 2 (22)

Pre-baked Tart

Bacon, Potato & Blue Cheese Tart

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Tart

  • 1 Savory Tart Shell, recipe below, in a 9-inch tart or pie pan and ready to use
  • 1 pound small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • 4-8 slices of good bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1/4 pound blue cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
  • 1 tablespoons finely chopped thyme and rosemary
  • Fine sea salt for sprinkling

Tart Shell

  • 1 and 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons butter, diced
  • 1 large egg

Directions

For Tart Shell

  1. Combine flour, cornstarch and salt in the bowl of your food processor.  Pulse a few times to combine.
  2. Add in butter chunks and pulse until butter is in pea sized pieces.
  3. Add egg and pulse until dough comes together.  It will still be slightly crumbly.
  4. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times so that it comes together.  Flatten into a disk.
  5. Roll out into a 12 inch circle then transfer to your 9-inch tart pan or pie plate.  Press out any air bubbles and trim or crimp edges as desired.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before filling.

For Filling

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Cook potatoes in a medium sized saucepan, just covered in water, over medium heat.  Simmer until tender, 8-10 minutes.  Remove from the water and drain.  Lay the slices out on a clean dishtowel and gently pat dry with another clean towel or paper towels.
  3. Arrange potatoes in concentric circles on the bottom of the crust, overlapping slightly, covering the crust entirely.
  4. Sprinkle cheese over potatoes, followed by bacon and herbs.
  5. Whisk egg and cream in small bowl and pour over everything.
  6. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  7. Bake tart for 45 to 50 minutes until bubbly and browned.  Cool on wire rack.  Serve the tart warm, room temp or cold.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

If I were a good blogger who thought more than a day in advance I would’ve posted this weeks ago so you’d have time to plan and make these when you carved your pumpkin.  I’m not a good blogger, I’m a foggy headed mommy.  So here’s a post about pumpkin seeds that no one is going to use…

You’ve likely already thrown your seeds or roasted them if you’ve already carved your pumpkin.  But if you’re carving your pumpkin today or tomorrow, then you’re in luck and you’ll have pumpkin seeds to roast!  Or you could go buy another pumpkin, scoop out the goo, carve another jack o lantern and roast some seeds.  And if you live in Houston you might need to replace the pumpkin that’s rotting on your porch anyway thanks to 80 degree temps and high humidity in OCTOBER.  Why do I live here?

pumpkinseeds

These pumpkin seeds are very simple and straightforward.  Wash and dry your seeds (preferably overnight), toss in melted butter and spices, and roast in the oven.  Nothing fancy.  I’ve seen so many variations, from buttermilk ranch to salted caramel.  People are so creative!  I thought about trying something out of the ordinary, but ultimately decided to stick with something simple and something nostalgic.  I remember roasting seeds as a kid, and this is what we’d do, although maybe with just salt a pepper or seasoning salt.  I made my own little mix of spices for these seeds.  You could easily adapt this with the spices you like.  Happy carving, happy snacking and Happy Halloween!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

  • 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, washed and dried
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F
  2. In a bowl toss pumpkin seeds with butter and spices to evenly coat.
  3. Pour the seeds out onto a rimmed baking sheet (lined wish parchment for easier clean up).
  4. Roast for 15-20 minutes, shaking the pan every 5 minutes to make sure the seeds are evenly roasted.  The seeds are done when they just begin to brown, but I like mine a little darker so I often go a minute or 2 more.
  5. Cool and store in a sealed container up to a week.

Thyme and Brown Butter Roasted Potatoes

It is grilling season, and we’ve been taking full advantage of it on the weekends.  We had dinner from the grill both Saturday and Sunday night.  Last night we even ate outside.  It was wonderful.  I love this time of year.

Saturday night Ben grilled steaks, I made these potatoes and a green salad.  If we ate this every night of the week Ben would be the happiest man on earth.  Around 5 that afternoon my plan for a side dish went about as far as potatoes, but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with them.  Mashed is always a good choice to accompany steak, but I didn’t feel like something loaded with butter and cream.  So we had roasted potatoes that had been tossed with brown butter and fresh thyme.  Ben said, “We need to have this meal again.”  I think we will.

When garlic cooks and gets nice and brown it is spectacular and crunchy.  When garlic burns, it turns bitter.  I burned my garlic.  So next time I would throw the garlic in with the potatoes when they had about 20 minutes left instead of at the beginning.

Thyme and Brown Butter Roasted Potatoes

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
  • 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Brown butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Watch it closely and swirl the pan periodically to keep it from burning.
  2. Combine warm butter, thyme and salt in a large bowl.  Add in the potatoes and toss to coat.
  3. Pour potatoes onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil or parchment (I used Reynolds parchment/foil pan liner with great results).
  4. Bake at 400°F for 40-45 minutes, stirring the potatoes around so that all sides can get nicely browned every 15-20 minutes.  Toss garlic with potatoes when they have about 20 minutes left to cook.
  5. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes, then serve.

You Can Make Your Own: Potato Gnocchi…But I Can’t

My gnocchi fell apart between boiling  and pan searing with browned butter.  It made for a gooey mess of a meal.  They tasted good.  But what wouldn’t after being tossed in butter and fresh thyme and topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese?

After my failure I started reading a little more about gnocchi and came across an article by Tom Colicchio that includes a nice little video of the chef at Craft making gnocchi.  I was very encouraged to read that the first time you make gnocchi you will probably not get it right.  Thank you, Mr. Colicchio.

I used this recipe from Giada (like how I just use her first name like we’re old pals?) for the proportions and this article and instructions from Fine Cooking for the method.  Maybe mixing the two was one of my problems.  I will probably try the Colicchio method, but it strikes me as one of those things you have to do a lot to get the feel for.  Good thing potatoes are cheap because I think this is going to take me a while.

Honestly the process is not a long or arduous one, but getting the right feel for the dough seems to be the tricky part.  It’s kind of like bread baking.  My mom and I went out to my great aunt’s once to have her teach us how to make her incredible Swedish rye bread.  She didn’t use a recipe, didn’t use times for rising or baking, she just knew what it was supposed to look and feel and smell like.  While mom and I came prepared with pencil and pad in hand, we weren’t able to go home and recreate the bread with our notes.  So I’m not going to be down on myself about this, I’m just going to have to keep doing it if I want to get it right.

Next time I will do the following things differently.

  1. Bake instead of boil my potatoes.
  2. Cut open and rice the potatoes right onto my work space right after baking.
  3. Make and shape the gnocchi right before I want to cook them. (I let them sit our for a couple hours…)
  4. Boil just until they float to the surface to avoid overcooking.
  5. Ice them down before saucing.
I will let you know how batch #2 comes out.  I’m going to try to convince my sister to make some with me.  Cooking is always more fun with someone else, especially when you’re unsure about what you’re doing and someone else can laugh about it with you when it turns into a big mess.
Dough Before Rolling
Dough Rolled Out
Cute Little Gnocchi

 

French Onion Chicken

We ate this for dinner Friday night.  I wish I’d had this recipe a few weeks ago when it was still chilly.  This is really more of a cool weather meal, and it definitely qualifies as comfort food.  Despite the warm weather we’ve had this past week, this was still a wonderful dinner and I will be making it again.

I did everything but bake it in the morning and kept it in the fridge until dinnertime.  That meant I could sit with my husband, a glass of wine and some good cheese and crackers while it baked instead of cleaning up dishes.

Kate sent me the link to this recipe from The Kitchn (Apartment Therapy’s food blog).  I don’t currently subscribe to the blog, but she’s shown me so many great recipes from it that I might just have to break down and add it to my reader.  Here is link to the blog and the recipe.  I’m being lazy with the blogging tonight and not retyping or reposting the recipe here.  I am tired, and I need to go to bed.

The only thing I changed was to use emmental swiss instead of gruyere.  The smallest block of gruyere at my grocery store was $15.  I just couldn’t justify spending that much on cheese.  The swiss was lovely.  I got quite excited when it started bubbling away under the broiler.  There is something magical about cheese in that state.  Yes, magical.

Serve this with lots of good crusty bread.  You do not want to waste any of the yummy juices.  Enjoy.