Hi! How was your Thanksgiving? This is actually the first year we celebrated the American holiday. Usually, we celebrate the Canadian version in October and then head to Whistler skiing for the American holiday late November, but seeing as we now have a tiny little American baby (our anchor baby as we like to call him), we decided that we should get on board, and I'm not going to lie, it was really fun. It's nice to feel the holiday spirit with the rest of the country.
I'm not a big fan of the whole black Friday cyber Monday hoopla, but I really enjoyed having the 4 day holiday with Brent, celebrating with good friends, and eating ALOT of pie. I mean 3 slices in one evening. We celebrated Thanksgiving day at a friends house. It was potluck style - I brought stuffing (because that's my dish), a mashed turnip and cheddar casserole, and vegetarian gravy. We had loads of delicious food like turkey with cranberry sauce, salads, a homemade green bean casserole that was actually delicious (thanks Kemp!!), a sweet potato and marshmallow casserole??, rolls, stuffing, and 3 pies! Sebastian was a champ, he slept the whole time, surprise, surprise. We rolled ourselves home at 930 pm and fell asleep shortly after that. Long gone are the days where we stay up later than 10 pm. The rest of the weekend was spent working on our bathroom remodel. We finally passed our electrical, plumbing, and insulation inspection, so we are now working on the finishing stages, and when I say we, I mean Brent, and when I say finishing stages, I mean - is this bathroom remodel ever going to end??? Sebastian and I laid around all weekend staring into each others eyes, him practicing his babbling and spooky ghost noises, and me totally f-ing up on my nursery rhymes.
On Saturday, I got a much-needed haircut, shout out to Heather my amazing stylist. That night I made a large batch of cheesy popcorn with dried Vermont cheese powder - a game changer. We watched the first part of Hunger Games Mockingjay in preparation for part two. Hopefully, my in-laws will watch Sebastian over the holidays so we can go to the theater (things you can't do with a baby) (oh hi Kathy and Ron). We are flying home next Saturday and I am so excited for Sebastian to finally meet his family, particularly his cousins. We will be home for 4 weeks which means 4 weeks of my family wanting to hold and watch Sebastian so I can sleep in until 10 am (hi-fives) !!!!!
This weekend I was also able to work on my gnocchi game, which up until this point has pretty much been non-existent. There' this spot in Capitol Hill that makes the best brown butter gnocchi (with a vegetarian option upon request), but I am pretty sure that we'll never step foot in that place again until Sebastian is enrolled in College, so the next best thing is to learn how to perfect this dish at home.
Gnocchi is a little fussy to make and I was under the impression that unless you have a potato ricer it was not doable, but after doing some research I learned that it is possible to make gnocchi by using a cheese grater to grate the potatoes, and yes, it did work fantastically. After I fiddled around with a few batches to get the hang of rolling and shaping with a fork, I was finally able to come up with a recipe and some easy to follow instructions for you guys.
This brown butter, sage, and chanterelle sauce is fairly easy to make. Beginning in September, chanterelles are really easy to find in the PNW, but I understand that they may not be that available in other parts. If this is the case for you, substituting any of your favorite mushrooms will work just as well. Just make sure NOT to wash your mushrooms. Wiping them dry with a wet cloth is good enough. Mushrooms are extremely porous and soak up a lot of water.
GNOCCHI WITH BROWN BUTTER, SAGE, AND CHANTERELLES
serves 4
prep time: 40 minutes
cooking time: 1 hour
2 lb (3 large) Russet potatoes
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
6 tbsp salted butter
15 large fresh sage leaves
4 cups chanterelle mushrooms, wiped clean with a cloth and chopped
Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Place the potatoes in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until pierced with a fork easily. Remove and let cool slightly, so that you can handle with your hands.
Peel the potatoes and then either pass them through a ricer, or if you don't have a ricer, grate them with a cheese grater into a large bowl.
Add the egg and salt to the potatoes and combine.
Add the flour to the potatoes, a 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough comes together but doesn't stick to your hands.
With your hands, bring the dough together and place on a floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes and then form into a ball and divide into 6 smaller pieces.
Take the dough and roll into long ropes 3/4 - 1 inch thick. Cut the dough into 1-inch pieces. To create ridges on the gnocchi, you can press them into the tines of a fork and gently roll back and forth between your fingers. This step is not necessary, it's purely aesthetic. Place the gnocchis onto a floured pan. At this point, you can freeze the gnocchi for a later time. Place the pan into the freezer and freeze the individual gnocchi. Once frozen, place them into a ziplock bag, and place them back in the freezer, for a maximum of 4 months.
~Depending on how big you make your gnocchi, and the appetites of your guests, you may use all of your gnocchi for this recipe, or you may have some leftover. If so, just freeze for a later time~
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil.
Place the butter into a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Once the butter begins to sizzle, add the sage and mushrooms and gently toss. Cook for a few minutes until the butter has turned light brown in color and the mushrooms are soft. Add the gnocchi and toss with the butter mixture. Serve warm.
Add 4 servings of gnocchi to the water the same time you add the chanterelles to the butter. Once the gnocchi has risen to the top of the water, cook for an additional minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the brown butter mixture. Top with Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
