Christmastime 2013
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Sparkly mince pies, breakfast cronuts, prezzies galore, venison feast, baked alaska, dancing, wine & merry times… Happy Christmas 2013, and hello 2014!
The nuggets make nuggets
/We have settled into the school holidays now, but for a while there I was going a tiny bit bananas trying to come up with *things to do*. Possibly because there was a rainy week or so, which is always a killer, but beyond plodding from park to picnic to garden London isn't heaving with FUN! for me + two smallies and a wallet on the thinner side. So to the kitchen... we made gnocchi! It was extremely messy but simple, fun, and great for kids to get involved in. Even Indiana got stuck in. Literally.
Sweet Potato Spelt Gnocchi
600g sweet potatoes
200g white spelt flour + more for dusting
1 egg
Chop the potatoes in half and then boil in their skins for 20 mins. Drain and leave to cool, then peel the skins off and mash. This was Pablo's mashing outfit...
he insisted on slippers, in the middle of summer... but god forbid he wear trousers
Mix the mashed potato with the egg and flour. Ours was incredibly sticky, and we just kept adding a little more flour until it became doughy. Make sure your work surface is very floury, split the dough into three and roll out into sausage shapes. Cut into pieces approximately 3cm long and roll them in your hand to make a little gnocchi nugget. Pablo was in charge of all this so ours were....varied in shape and size a bit. He especially enjoyed squishing them with a fork, which is supposed to make them look even more gnocchi-esque, but in our case made them look completely bonkers.
Drop the gnocchi into boiling, salted water in batches and boil until they float to the surface - a few minutes. Drain and then dust flour (we went for a flour/semolina mix for that bit). We then pan fried the gnocchi in a little oil until it was golden, and served it with some pan fried cabbage, cream, lemon and a bit of white wine. It was scrumdiddliumptious. Worth having to clean up gnocchi-dough monster hands for an afternoon....
crush of the week
/I've had a holiday from blogging whilst we had two actual holidays, with some lovely family-wide flu and birthday mayhem in between. But now I'm determined to get back on track - though we have been in the UK two days and already both the squids are up to their eyeballs in snot and I'm spending most of my time fixing hot lemon, cinnamon & manuka honey drinks for them (Indy is most perplexed by these concoctions...)
photos from The Selby
Meanwhile, in my fantasies, I shall be purchasing these dreamy sheets from D. Porthault seen in the snaps of Rita Konig's magical little home on The Selby. I'm trying to hunt them down in the UK - God forbid I have to end up making a trip to Harrods. Also I have discovered they cost an extremely large amount of money and were inspired by the Duke & Duchess of Windsor. Visit the D. Porthault site at your peril - pretty much everything on there is gorgeous and you'll probably end up contemplating selling one of your own children to own a crisp new set of their sheets. Or even just a washcloth.
raspberry ripple birthday dreams
/My gorgeous husband had his latest birthday on Monday, and we were under strict "no presents" instructions, so Pablo & I conjured up a home made gift of his favourite raspberry ripple ice cream and a hand-crafted card. Then I decided that if we were making ice cream we may as well make an ice cream cake (a first for me!) Our freezer is now full to bursting with raspberry ripple but Konch had a lovely birthday and we all made ourselves feel a bit sick eating too much cake.
