Inspired

I had a very busy weekend, involving some very good food, of course. After shopping for wedding bands, visiting my grandmother, and getting my teeth cleaned (advantages of having a dentist for a mother), my mom and I went to see Julie & Julia. It was totally adorable! Meryl Streep was great as Julia Child. And all the food just looked amazing! We were very inspired to cook when I got back to my parent's house.

My mother started with a little appetizer of figs baked with brie and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

And we were trying to decide what to cook with corn and zucchini, so I made yet another batch of fritters.

My dad grilled some swordfish, and I topped it with a little salsa of chopped tomatoes, olives, basil, balsamic, and EVOO.

Dessert was chocolate. My parents recently spent a week at LA Burdick's chocolate camp and came home with all kinds of amazing creations that they made themselves. The mice are the cutest! But it all tastes delicious. They learned so much about tempering, cooling, and molding chocolate. We need to start a family chocolate business now.

Sunday morning I woke up and went for a run with my mother. I ran 5 miles with her, and added another 5 on myself for a total of 10 miles. My first time in the double digits! I was getting a little nervous for the half marathon I'm running in October, but after finishing a strong 10 miles I feel much better about it. After the run I came home and my boy was back! He was weary of road food, so I made him a dinner with lots of fresh vegetables. I started by using up some of the potatoes we've collected from the CSA, and made a batch of potato gnocchi. These are so easy and fun to make.

You start by boiling potatoes and mashing them. I used a potato ricer to get a really fine mash. Then you stir in flour and mix and knead until it comes together and forms a sticky dough. Then you roll handfuls of dough into ropes about 1/2" in diameter.

Then slice the dough into 1" pieces.

And roll the pieces of dough under the tines of a floured fork.


To cook these, you just drop them in salted boiling water for 2 - 3 minutes, until they float. I made a ton of them but they freeze really well and can go straight from the freezer to boiling water. For a sauce, I caramelized thin slices of onion and green pepper, then cooked those with a clove of chopped garlic, 1 chopped tomato, red pepper flakes, slices of roasted eggplant and white wine.

The meal was surprisingly light, for being based around gnocchi. It helped that they were so soft and fluffy!