I Say Yes...You Say Gnocchi

I tried something new a few weeks ago that was fun to make and eat! I am usually skeptical new foods that I have never tried, but this when I saw this was sweet potato, I decided I couldn't go wrong. Then one of my homemaking heroes, Sheila, accepted an invitation to dinner, so I took a chance on a new recipe.

I found this recipe on a blog and unfortunately I can't find it again. I wanted to give the blog credit, because I enjoyed this so much.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi 

With Summer Vegetables

Ingredients:
2 (8 ounce) sweet potatoes
1 clove garlic, pressed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake sweet potatoes for 30 minutes, or until soft to the touch. Remove from the oven, and set aside to cool. Once the potatoes are cool enough to work with, remove the peels, and mash them, or press them through a ricer into a large bowl. Blend in the garlic, salt, nutmeg, and egg. Mix in the flour a little at a time until you have soft dough. Use more or less flour as needed.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. While you wait for the water, make the gnocchi. On a floured surface, roll the dough out in several long snakes, and cut into 1-inch sections. Drop the pieces into the boiling water, and allow them to cook until they float to the surface. Remove the floating pieces with a slotted spoon, and keep warm in a serving dish. Serve with butter or cream sauce.

Gnocchi dough rolled into a long snake-I did this at least 2 times

I cut the gnocchi into short pieces, and then pressed fork marks into them.

I thought the ones without fork marks were prettier. 

I put the gnocchi into a large pot with boiling water and they float to the top when they are finished. This only takes a minute or two.

Finished Gnocchi

Vegetables and Sauce:

serves 4
prep time: 15 min


Total time: 15 min



1 tbsp olive oil

2 zucchini or summer squash, or one of each quartered and sliced (we used one of each!)


2 garlic cloves, minced


coarse salt and ground pepper

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 package (15 to 16oz)

gnocchi
1/4 cup

fresh basil, chopped


2tbsp grated romano cheese


1 tbsp butter


2 tsp fresh lemon juice



1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add squash and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until squash in crisp-tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until juicy, about 2 minutes.



2. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook gnocchi according to package instructions. Reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid, drain gnocchi and transfer to skillet. Toss gnocchi, adding enough cooking liquid to create a sauce. Remove from heat and stir in basil, cheese, butter, and lemon juice


If you try it, tell me how you liked it. There are also a lot of recipes online for sweet potato gnocchi with a brown sugar sauce. I will have to try that too! Enjoy!

Praying for Thomas

Because I have loved the Lord for so long, I have had so many opportunities for him to mold me. I know, in his infinite wisdom that he has been with me in every phase of life. He has been holding me over the fire, shaping me .

There are certain parts of my life that it was even more apparent that was what God was doing. And when I worked as a minister to youth and children at Parkway Baptist Church, I know God's hand was in my work there

. 

What I remember most now is the relationships that I formed and the how those children taught me.  Thomas Waggoner was one of the children who taught me along the way. No one could accuse Thomas of sleeping through life.  He loves with no conditions and works as if he is working for the Lord. Even at a young age, he approached learning about God and ministering to others with singular focus.

Even today, I often remember the boy who encouraged me to approach the knowledge of God with passion, and the work of God with intention.  He is lying today in a hospital bed, recovering from a motorcycle accident. I am praying for his full recovery, and that he will feel my love in the prayers I am lifting up for him. 

Get better soon, Thomas. We are all praying for you.

http://www.reporterherald.com/news_story.asp?ID=26613

"Offer"tunity

I have been thinking about this for at least a couple of days. My deep thoughts were prompted by an 8 year old in my 3rd grade class. This particular student is exceptionally bright and she has infinite stores of energy as do most of the little ones I spend each day with.

Now, I should probably preface all of this by saying that I have 16 girls and only 4 boys in my class. (If this was the situation a few years down the road, they might have been asking themselves how they could be so lucky, but right now they exist in a girl's world like visitors to the circus: they watch in awe, but are reluctant to join.) I also have learned that 8 year old girls together are not that much different than 18 or 28 year old girls together. They love to talk about their clothes and hair. They move in packs and the claws are bound to come out every now and then. And so teacher and referee enters the ring! I have had more than one conversation with this little girl about being kind and how much I expect of her because of the gifts she possesses.

Right before Christmas break, she came to me in the morning and said that she and some other students on her bus had seen me that morning near the buses. I thought that this might be the typical report of a teacher sighting, since most students are as excited to see you outside of the school building, as they might be to see a fish breathing out of water. Nevertheless, the story continued. These students had been discussing penguins when they had spotted me and decided that I was rather penguin like. As I am not black and white, it wasn't hard to figure out how they had reached this conclusion. I continued to listen to my student as she described how she jumped to my defense. In that moment I think that I politely listened to the story and thanked her for thinking of me, but in the rush of morning activities we moved on and I honestly did not give it anymore thought until a couple of days ago. When I finally did think about it, I thought about how proud I was of this little girl. She was offered an opportunity to show real maturity and rise above. She accepted the offer when it would have been so easy to skirt past that moment.

Then I went to see the movie "The Blind Side" last night with Lynda, and I watched a family be offered a chance to invest in a person. Against the odds and without the approval of others around them, they accepted a challenge to love and it made all the difference in a young person's life.

All of this got me thinking about how may times God offers me opportunities to love like Him, to invest in others, to listen to His voice. Am I paying attention? Do I hear his voice and will I accept the offer?

My Post-Christmas Table

So, you know your a southern girl when...you sound like Paula Dean...yeees, but also when...

You receive formal china for Christmas and you are excited about it.

I think my friend Jessica, from California, will get a big kick out of this because she wouldn't consider registering for china for her own wedding, much less for a Christmas gift. To each their own, and I am loving my beautiful Christmas table. Thanks Mom and Dad!

My step-mother, Lynda, collects different patterns of Christmas china. Each person at her table has different Christmas plate. For years, I have admired this beautiful Lenox pattern and usually tried to make sure it was my plate, so it was a very thoughtful gift.

I received a couple more awesome pieces that I just had to share!

A Blue and While plate from my Mema

A beautiful brown and blue pottery dish from the Fitchetts in CO