Sweet potato gnocchi

We had a lot of roasted sweet potatoes left over from Thanksgiving dinner tonight and I made sweet potato gnocchi.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups roasted sweet potatoes
2 eggs
3-4 cups flour
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground pepper
1 pinch dried sage
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Mash potatoes with a masher until pretty smooth, it's ok if there are a few lumps. Place on the counter in a lump. Make a small dent in the middle of the potatoes and add the 2 eggs and spices.

Knead with your hands (THIS PART IS VERY MESSY!). Slowly add in the flour little by little, and knead until it isn't very sticky. This part is a little hard to gauge, but it should feel softer than bread dough.

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 freezes really well. While you roll the gnocchi, place them on a lightly floured cookie sheet then freeze. Once frozen, place in a ziplock bag and when ready to use, boil water and follow directions for cooking.

Creamy chicken with carrots

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I can hardly wait! I have to admit that the Thanksgiving meal is my favorite meal of all the holidays. We are going to a friends house and I spent a good part of today baking and cooking.

I wanted to have something for dinner tonight that was easy and could be made way ahead of time.

Rinse 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

Heat 1 tbs. olive oil in a large nonstick pan with a lid. While the oil heats, season chicken with Greek seasoning, kosher salt and pepper. Add chicken to the pan and brown both sides for 3 minutes per side. While the chicken browns, slice 4 carrots and add to the pan. I had about 5 cloves of garlic which I sliced in half and added to the pan as well. If you have any onions, thinly slice and add those too.

After the chicken has browned, add in 1 c. light cream, 1 C. chicken stock, and the juice from a lemon. Stir everything around, lower the heat to medium low, simmer and cover for at least 40 minutes. We turned the heat way down and let it cook on low for a couple hours.

The chicken was so tender and flavorful, we all enjoyed dinner, even the kids didn't make a peep and ate all of it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Breakfast for dinner

One kiddie stayed home from school and the other had a play date this afternoon. It's still freeeeezing here. What better Friday evening dinner than Chocolate Chip Pancakes??

I don't have a fancy recipe, we use the Aunt Jemima Box and I add a handful of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. You don't need a lot, as a little chocolate goes a long way!

We have an electric skillet and it makes cooking pancakes infinitely easier. Instead of 3 pancakes in a pan at a time, we make 12 silver dollar cakes.

The skillets are relatively inexpensive and very easy to keep clean.

If you don't have one, they are the perfect thing to ask Santa for!

Homemade chicken soup in an hour

We are all feeling slightly under the weather, not enough to screech to a halt, but not 100%. I thought the best thing for us was a big bowl of Jewish Penicillin or Chicken soup.

This is a very easy recipe and yields a large pot.

Add a little olive oil to a large soup pot. Add in a container of Mir Au Poix from Trader Joe's. If you don't have it, add in 2 chopped carrots, 4 stalks of celery and 1 chopped onion. Saute for a minute or two and add a good pinch of kosher salt.

While the veggies are sauteing, rinse a smallish whole chicken. Season generously with Poultry or Italian seasoning and a few grinds of pepper. Add the chicken to the pot and brown for about 2 minutes per side.

Add in 8-10 cups of water, another good pinch of Kosher salt and a couple bay leaves. Bring to a boil and let chicken cook until it begins to fall away from the bone.

I had a couple ears of cooked corn which I added in also. You could also add mushrooms or zucchini, but I stuck to simple soup.

When the chicken is cooked, remove from the pot and carefully pull the meat off the bone. Do this carefully because the chicken is HOT!

Add the meat back into the soup.

We keep bags of frozen brown rice on hand from Whole Foods. I added about 1/2 C. to the bottom of my soup bowl -frozen. Ladle the soup over the rice and it cooks instantly.

Viola! Delicious, homemade chicken and brown rice soup. We all enjoyed it last night with a green salad with a simple dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

I still haven't quite gotten the hang of homemade bread, but I am still trying. If anyone has any good recipes, please let me know.

Shrimp Scampi with mushrooms and angel hair pasta

I haven't made shrimp in a while, even though it is one of my favorite foods. Mainly because the kids throw such a fuss. I tried a different tactic last night and asked them if they wanted fish or shrimp. Of course -1 said fish and the other said shrimp. I told them ok, we will have shrimp tomorrow and salmon the next night. They were a little confused, but at least forewarned.

Shrimp scampi is very easy:

Defrost a dozen or so peeled, cleaned and deveined raw shrimp in a bowl of warm water.

Put on a pot of water to boil the angel hair pasta.

In a large nonstick pan, add 1 tbs. unsalted butter and 1 Tbs. olive oil

While the oil heats drop in either 2-3 cubes of frozen garlic or chop 2-3 cloves of fresh. Add it into the oil.

Wash and thinly slice 7-8 mushrooms and add to the pan. Add in a pinch of kosher salt and pepper and saute for 3 minutes until mushrooms are brown.

When the water boils, add the angel hair and cook for about 5 minutes.

After the mushrooms have sauteed, add in the shrimp and stir around until the shrimp are coated with the oil from the pan. Zest 1/2 a lemon then cut and add the juice from that 1/2 a lemon. Add in 1 diced tomato. I didn't have any fresh, so I added in 3 tbs. of canned diced tomatoes.

Normally, I would add in 2 Tbs. of capers and some freshly chopped parsley, but I didn't want to push my luck with the kids, so I left those out. When the pasta is cooked through, add it to the shrimp and stir to combine. Serve.

Kirk added a little red pepper flakes, and I added a little grated Parmesan cheese.

The kids ate it, along with some red and green raw peppers, which we renamed "sweeties" as we all agreed that peppers was a bit of a misnomer as they aren't actually peppery!

They both ate 1 shrimp and pushed it around their plate for a while. BUT... they ate it and didn't whine.

Tomorrow's dinner will be a bit of a push for them. I am going to make a salmon in a coconut curry sauce. This probably won't go over well, but we'll give it a try. That's what PB sandwiches are for!!

Budget-Friendly Holiday Entertaining Recipes

Here are a few of the recipes from WTNH and News 12 and the Book signing I did today at Whole Foods. Thanks to everyone who came out to nibble and buy books.

Wasabi bites with lime infused crab
($14) Makes 20-25 pieces


1 package wasabi flavored rice crackers
2 Tbs. wasabi paste
6 oz. cream cheese
1 C. lump crab meat
1 lime (for zest and juicing)
½ tsp. Kosher salt
Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)


Combine cream cheese with 2 Tbs. wasabi paste. In another bowl combine crab meat, lime zest, juice from lime, and Kosher salt. Stir until combined.

Place a small dollop of wasabi cream cheese atop a rice cracker followed by a small spoonful of crab mixture. Sprinkle with a pinch of sesame seeds.


White bean and sun-dried tomato bruschetta

($15) Makes 20-25 pieces


1 can white cannelini beans, drained
1 lemon, for zest and juice
3 tbs. olive oil
kosher salt and pepper to taste
½ C. sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
4-5 roasted peppers from a jar
1 bunch parsley
1 loaf sour dough bread


In a bowl, combine rinsed beans, juice and zest from a lemon, olive oil and a good pinch of kosher salt and pepper. Mash with a fork until beans are combined. In a food processor add sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers and ½ bunch of washed parsley. Pulse for a few seconds until ingredients are chopped but NOT pureed. Combine mixture with beans. Season to taste. Spread on slices of fresh or toasted bread. Garnish with a few fresh sprigs parsley.


Cannoli bites with strawberries
($12) Makes 20 pieces


1 8 oz. container ricotta cheese
1 C. powdered sugar
1 prepared chocolate angel food cake
1 pint strawberries


Slice pound cake into 1” slices, then slice each piece in half or use a round biscuit cutter.
In a bowl combine ricotta cheese and powdered sugar. Add more sugar as needed.

Rinse and thinly slice strawberries. Place ricotta mixture in a ziplock bag. Cut a small hole at one of the bottom edges. Squeeze a small amount of ricotta mixture on each piece of pound cake. Add a thin slice of strawberry, and garnish with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Serve.

Pear Turnovers

We had 6 pears that were too ripe to eat and I had a package of the DuFour Puff Pastry in the freezer. I thought it would be fun to make pear turnovers. They were easy to make and Abby had a great time "painting" the pastry dough and sprinkling sparkly sugar to the top.

To make pear turnovers:
Peel, core and dice 6 pears ( I used my Vidalia chop wizard) and add to a large mixing bowl
Add 2 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. ground ginger or apple pie spice
Add 4-5 tsp. sugar or brown sugar
juice from 1/2 lemon
2 Tbs. flour

Stir to combine and let sit for a couple minutes

For egg wash:
1 egg
2 tbs. milk

Stir to combine.


Unwrap the pastry and cut into 4x4 squares. I am bad at measuring and made rectangles, they work fine also, but you won't get the traditional turnover shape. As long as the top half covers the bottom half you're fine.

Brush the edges of the puff pastry with the egg wash and a pastry brush. Add 1 large Tbs. of the pear mixture to the lower half of the puff pastry square (or rectangle) and fold the other half over the pear mixture to completely enclose the mixture. Press down firmly to seal the turnover. Brush the top of the turnover with more of the egg mixture and sprinkle with demerra sugar or regular white sugar.

Continue until you run out. I got 8 turnovers from 1 box of the DuFour Puff Pastry and had lots of leftover pear mixture.

Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes until turnovers are golden. Remove and let cool as the pear mixture will be VERY hot.

Lentil soup with roasted root vegetables

The party on Saturday went well. The cumin and lime scented shrimp went fast. I was pretty tired today, but wanted to use some of the leftover roasted root vegetables from yesterday.

I made a lentil soup (see older entry for lentil soup recipe), and added in some of the chopped up roasted root veggies. The soup was ready in under 45 minutes and it was warm and hearty.

Oddly enough, the one daughter who usually makes a fuss about food ate the soup happily without a pee,p and the other daughter who usually eats everything asked for a peanut butter sandwich.

Go figure...