gnocchi

Gnocchi With Pomodoro Sauce

This simple tomato sauce gets tons of flavor from herbs steeped in olive oil that lusciously coats potato pillows of gnocchi, topped with fresh balls of mozzarella.

It’s a lunch I remember with fondness, and regret.

Fondness because it lit my fire for choosing gnocchi as my favorite thing to order on each and every Italian menu for the rest of my eating out days (ask my husband, I am not kidding) and regret because I didn’t go to that restaurant for more gnocchi more often than I did.

That gnocchi dish was truly made of little pillows of heaven. In fact, that was the name of the dish, Pillows From Heaven, roughly translated into English. I’ve since moved away and honestly, the way restaurants go, it’s probably gone too. But I’ll never forget my first time.

But it doesn’t matter much now, because while I still love going out, I’m just as happy making gnocchi at home.

continue to the recipe… about Gnocchi With Pomodoro Sauce

Truffled Gnocchi Macaroni and Cheese

Gnocchi macaroni and cheese is bathed in an easy white cheddar and truffle infused sauce to add an elegant touch to everyone’s favorite comfort food.

There are some things that come from the kitchen that you just don’t mess with. The classic French onion soup, the best filet mignon ever and my mom’s Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole. Some recipes are just better left alone.

Mac and cheese is not one of those recipes. Mac and cheese just begs to be fashioned to fit your cravings.

In honor of today being National Cheese Lovers Day (hey! did they get my memo and create this day just for me?) I directed my cravings to my brain to create a surprisingly easy, silky and cheesy sauce for a not so traditional macaroni and cheese.

Isn’t eating your cravings the best way to celebrate a day like today?

continue to the recipe… about Truffled Gnocchi Macaroni and Cheese

Garlic and Herb Gnocchi Salad and Better Blog Retreat 2014

A few weeks ago I gathered with a group of blogging friends for a weekend at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, UT. The purpose? To kick off our shoes and cozy up on the couches to learn from one another in an easy and relaxed setting. It’s the best way to conference in my book.

Even with the constant drone of tweets, Instagrams and Facebook updates, not to mention our actual blog posts, you’d think we’d all be totally in tune with one another. But working in a virtual space makes it hard to connect with peers. While I could tell you a lot about what’s going on in each of my blogging friend’s lives, there’s nothing better than connecting in person.

Thats why Maria and I assembled a group of bloggers to spend the weekend at a lovely mountainside Deer Valley home where we could all hang together and talk about new ways to better our blogs, our businesses and share ways to find balance between work and our personal lives. Because when your business is on 24 hours a day, you have a tendency to be too.

Today I’m sharing some of the highlights of what I learned at the retreat with you. For my fellow food bloggers, I hope you’ll find it helpful. And for non-food bloggers, I think you’re going to love this Garlic and Herb Gnocchi Salad I’m sharing at the end of this post. It’s a win win either way!

continue to the recipe… about Garlic and Herb Gnocchi Salad and Better Blog Retreat 2014

Spring Vegetable Gnocchi

Before I talk about today’s recipe, I want to send my heartfelt thoughts to those that were affected by the bombing yesterday at the Boston Marathon finish line. Thankfully my friend, and many of yours, Dara of Cookin’ Canuck and her family—in Boston to cheer on her husband Steve who crossed the finish line just 3 minutes before the bombing—have let us all know via Twitter that they are fine even with the blast happening just one block and three minutes away from them.

Timing. It’s a tenuous thing.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the families and participants, volunteers and emergency care workers who were affected, especially those that could not walk away. Special prayers to the family of the 8 year old who was killed in this manic event. That hits way too close to home. I cannot imagine.

Why did this happen? Why do any of these deranged plots happen? What are people thinking? I just can’t wrap my head around why anyone, ANYONE, thinks this is a good way to prove a point, gain notoriety or to simply create chaos through terror.

The only way I know how to address this is to love my loves and look for beauty and unselfishness in this unstable world. I hope you can too.

I’m very much a creature of habit. Or more likely a creature of cravings. When it comes to going out to eat I can rarely motivate myself to deviate from my standard favorites, especially when it comes to any sort of ethnic food. Mexican food: I always gravitate to the Chile Rellenos. Sushi: I must have Spicy Tuna anything.

When it comes to Italian, its rarely a question of what to order once the waiter rolls around: Gnocchi please. The sad thing is, at most Italian eateries gnocchi isn’t always standard fare. That’s why Sea Salt in Salt Lake City is one of my favorite spots to eat, since they have at least 5 different gnocchi recipes on the menu.

While Gnocchi alla Norma is my favorite and will make the blog sometime in the future, I’m working on spreading my wings and rallying through the rest of the menu at Sea Salt. Yep, I’m going wild around here. At least in the gnocchi department.

How it has taken me this long to get these potato pillows on the blog is beyond me.continue to the recipe… about Spring Vegetable Gnocchi

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Hazelnut Browned Butter and a Magazine Sneak Peek

So happy for the weekend, and wow. Just wow. This fall has been a gorgeous one. There’s almost nothing I love more than fall light–how does it actually warm you to the bones? It always inspires me to get my nesting on/in/done.

But fall is nearly in my rear view mirror, with the forecast of a winter storm set for Saturday. And while I watch those snowflakes fly, I’ll be working at my computer getting my little dream of launching Foodie Crush magazine all stitched together.

sneak peek photo > Britt Chudleigh

We’re in the midst of editing, layouts and photo editing for the debut issue of Foodie Crush magazine, an idea that’s been percolating in my brain for 2 years, that I finally threw myself into just a few short months ago.

I kind of can’t believe its actually happening.

continue to the recipe… about Pumpkin Gnocchi with Hazelnut Browned Butter and a Magazine Sneak Peek