Fall Comfort Food ~ Sweet Potato Gnocchi

 October 1st was the first time I had to light the woodstoves to take the chill off of the air in our home and we awoke to our first hard frost of the season yesterday! The lawn was crispy and white and all of the water buckets for the cows and chickens had a layer of ice locking in the fresh water below. All of this cold weather has definitely left me yearning for warm comfort foods :)

I've been building up a little recipe cache on Pinterest which is where I found a yummy recipe for sweet potato gnocchi but I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand so I took a chance and remixed the recipe a bit and it turned out delicious!

 In place of the ricotta cheese I used one egg, subbed in 1/2 a cup of asiago cheese instead of the parmesan, reduced the salt to 1 tsp. of sea salt in the dough instead of the two she called for and I baked my sweet potatoes in the oven for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit instead of microwaving them.

Now this was my very first time making gnocchi so I had no idea how sticky the dough would be but I found that I needed to use at least 4 cups of flour to get my dough to be workable and not crazy sticky but the original recipe only called for 2 3/4 cups. So I'm thinking my sweet potatoes were much larger than hers but you'll definitely know if you need to add more flour *grin*. 

 With my dough all ready to go I got busy rolling out dough snakes, chopping them into little bite sized pieces with my pastry cutter and then rolling them around with the tines of a fork to give them the little indentations in the photo. Nobody told me how many little gnocchi this recipe made though!!

I kept cutting and rolling and cutting and rolling...

until I had two giant cookie sheets full of them plus more all over the counter. On my final count I had over 200 of them so they all went into the freezer except for the ones I kept out for dinner and we're all stocked up for a good while now I think :)

The kids aren't real big on the taste of sage so I omitted the sage butter that went along with the recipe as well and instead made an easy sauce with basil and homemade chicken stock. 

I used:

1 cup homemade chicken stock

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp arrowroot powder

1 tbsp onion powder

salt & pepper to taste

Mix all of the above together in the cold chicken stock and pour over two carrots cut into matchsticks, two cups of broccoli florets and 3 cloves of pressed garlic that have been sauteed until just tender. The arrowroot created a nice thick sauce just perfect for our fresh gnocchi to be coated in. Mmm, mmm good. Now if only there were leftovers *grin*.

Hugs,

Rosina

Chickpea Cannelloni ~ Recipe

When daddy is away the rest of us go vegetarian *grin*.

Hubby is completely meat crazy and wants it pretty much for breakfast, lunch and dinner and by the time he leaves to go back to work the kids and I are totally ready for a meat moratorium :)

We love chickpeas so I thought it would be fun to make cannelloni with a vegetable and chickpea filling and for a first try I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

I started with:

2 large carrots
1 stalk of celery
5 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 a sweet onion (approx. 1/2 cup)

I grated the celery and carrot and then pureed all of it in my blender until it was completely smooth.

Next I added:

1 egg
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 cup cooked spinach
2 cups of chickpeas
2 big bunches of fresh basil & parsley (approx. 3/4 cup each)
Salt and pepper to taste

Add all of the above ingredients into your blender or food processor and blend until smooth. I like to puree it like this so that the kids don't know exactly what vegetables I've put in because each of them has specific likes and dislikes and if they see something they don't like they want to pick it out. This way it just tastes good *grin*. If you like more texture then you can definitely blend it less and personally if it was just for me I wouldn't blend in the spinach. It all depends on who your food critics are! LOL

Note: I used dried chickpeas. If you want to try making your own place your 1 1/4 cups of dried chickpeas in a large glass bowl with 4 cups of water and let sit overnight until morning. When you wake up transfer your beans and water to a cooking pot and make sure you have at least twice to three times as much water as your beans. Bring to a raging boil and boil uncovered on high for 10 minutes. After that reduce the heat and simmer for 1-2 hours until tender. I find it usually takes closer to the 2 hours for mine to be fully cooked. You can also do a double or triple batch of beans all at one time and through the rest of it in the freezer portioned out for future meals to save on some cooking time next time!

With your chickpeas and vegetables all mixed together add 1 cup of shredded Pecorino Romano cheese or another one of your favorite cheeses and 1/2 a cup of brown bread crumbs, stir together and you're ready to start filling your cannelloni noodles :)

Oven ready cannelloni noodles have to be the easiest type to work with because you can fill them in their rigid uncooked form but you have to have enough liquid in the pot when you cook them for them to soften properly.

So to create my tomato cooking sauce I used two tins of regular tomato sauce plus two tinfuls of water to double the volume and then added the following herbs to create an italian flavor :)

1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon onion powder

In a large 10 x 13 greased baking dish pour in enough of your tomato sauce to thoroughly cover the base of the pan.

I have to tell you I came across the EASIEST way to fill your cannelloni noodle!! Put all of your filling into a large freezer bag, snip off one of the bottom corners and you have created the perfect piping bag for filling your noodles :)

If you place the tip of the bag right inside the noodle while you're filling it, the pressure as it gets nearer the top will actually push all of the filling down towards the bottom creating an even fill. Just keep the base of the noodle against the palm of your hand to prevent it from blowing out the bottom. Don't ask me how I know that *grin*.

Place each filled noodle into your tomato sauce leaving a little bit of space in between each for expansion...

and once all of your noodles are filled and in the pan, top with the remaining tomato sauce and a sprinkle more of cheese :)

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and serve up with some garlic bread and salad :) So yummy and the kids had second helpings so I'm calling this a smashing good success! LOL

Hugs,
Rosina

PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop :)

Spicy Lentil Burrito ~ Recipe

I've had a bag of lentils in my pantry for quite some time just waiting to be used in something yummy for dinner and when my friend Debbie had mentioned she was making lentil sloppy joes I just had to make something with them *grin*.

Out came some walla walla onion, fresh garlic, garlic chile spice, cumin,
some olive oil for frying and things started smelling mighty good! I added in some lentils and water, simmered until tender and thickened and I had some super tasty lentils for my burritos.

Okay so here's the specifics:

1 cup of finely diced walla walla or other sweet onion

3 cloves of fresh garlic, pressed

1 - 2 tsp. garlic chile paste

2 tsp. cumin

sea salt to taste

a splash of olive oil

Fry all of the above ingredients in a large sauce pan until your garlic is translucent and just tender and add:

2 cups of green lentils (rinsed well in cool water)

6 cups of water

Bring your pot of lentils and water to a rapid boil and then reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cover. Cook for approximately one hour or until tender and they have taken on a nice thick consistency.

With your lentils all ready to rock and roll, grab your tortillas and spread a bit of salsa and sour cream in the center, top with some of your cooked lentils, a sprinkle of cheese and we're seriously addicted to pea shoots so we added them to ours as well. You could add guacamole, shredded lettuce, sliced peppers or tomatoes to!

Wrap up your tortilla like a burrito by pulling in the bottom and top sides of your tortilla towards the center of your lentils and then turning the whole thing 180 degrees and rolling it again away from you so that those tucked sides you did first create a nice little pocket to hold all your lentil yumminess in place :)

Sometimes I find that it's a little hard for the kids to keep their burritos all together while they're eating them without having one of the sides pop open and some of the filling slipping out so this time I thought I'd pan fry and use some of the melted cheese like a glue to hold it all together!

Heat your frying pan on medium high heat and place one of your burritos in the pan, flipping to the other side when ready. The high heat will brown it up quite quickly melting the cheese and crisping up the outer skin just perfect for little hands :)

We LOVED these and the filling made enough for leftovers which made a perfect lunch the following day :)

Enjoy!
Rosina

PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop :)

Cheesy Onion Bread ~ Recipe

You just have to try this bread!! It is so delicious and they are fantastic for open faced sandwiches, dipping in soup or toasting with garlic butter on top :) They never last long around here so that is definitely a good sign that they are well loved *grin*.

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 4 cups freshly ground 'spring red' hard wheat berries or you can substitute whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp wheat gluten (not needed if you use store bought whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese, seperated
  

Start by combining your warm water, yeast and honey and let sit for 10 minutes to activate the yeast. While your yeast is sitting you can finely chop and fry the onion in the oil until the onion is soft and transparent. Once your onion is cooked add the onions to your yeast mixture and add the flour, mustard, spices and ½ a cup of the cheddar cheese. You need to reserve the extra ¼ cup for the top of your loaves :)

If you are using an electric mixer you will want to let it knead your dough for about 5 minutes. If you are strong arming it *grin* and kneading by hand then you will want to work your dough for about 8 minutes as you're going to need a little more muscle power to get the same effect as the mixer :) When finished place your dough in a greased bowl, cover it and let it rise in a nice warm spot until the dough has doubled.

When your dough has risen enough you can turn it out onto a lightly greased counter top. I like to spray mine with a touch of Pam and then you can easily work with your dough, it won't stick to the counter and you won't have to add any extra flour which will toughen your dough if you accidentally add to much :)

Punch your dough down and divide it into two equal halves. You will then want to take each half and roll it out out into a long snake shape and place each roll into your greased french bread pans or a regular cookie sheet will work to if you don't have a french bread pan :) No worries!

Using a sharp knife slice some diagonal lines on the top of each loaf and and then sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of cheese on top.Now for the final rise. Cover your loaves once more and set them in a warm spot to double in size again. As soon as they are finished rising bake them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 25 minutes until they are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap on them.

Enjoy!

~ Rosina