Gnocchi and Cookies

Happy Friday, everyone!!!! How have ya'll's weeks been???? What do ya'll have going on this weekend? I've had a pretty good week.....like I said Wednesday, mostly school. As for the weekend, as far as I know, we don't have much going on, which will be good for us all!

Besides school, I've been up to some ktitchen experiments this week!!! Wednesday, I made homemade gnocchi (so that is one more thing to check off my list!) and yesterday, I made some super easy peanut butter cookies (mainly just because I wanted some cookies and they required little effort....15 minutes to fresh cookies!). Here are the recipes for ya:

Homemade Gnocchi (based off of this recipe) 

 

(not my picture)

Ingredients:

• 2 lb potatoes 
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of oregano
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup flour (more if needed) 

Directions:

1. Wash potatoes, pierce with a fork, and either bake at 400 for about 45 minutes, or microwave for about 15, flipping them after about 7 minutes. Once the potatoes are tender, let cool until they are easier to handle, about 15 minutes.
2. Scoop the insides of the potatoes out of the skins and push through a potato ricer. Gather the potatoes into a mound on a well-floured counter, sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano and let sit about 15 more minutes to cool off some more. 
3. Pour the egg yolk on top of the potatoes and then sprinkle the cup of flour on top of it. Gently incorporate the yolk and flour into the potatoes, being careful not to overwork the dough. The gnocchi dough should be sticky, but if it is too sticky to handle, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. Pat out into a disc about 1 1/2 in thick and cut into 4 pieces. 
4. Roll one piece out to make a 2 foot long "snake". Cut into pieces about 1/2-3/4 in in size. Repeat with the rest of the dough. 
5. Bring a large pot of water to a gentle boil. Drop about 1/4 of the gnocchi into it. When the gnocchi floats, they are done. Remove with a slotted spoon and repeat with the rest of the dough. 

These were really yummy! I didn't saute them, but served them with a garlic cream sauce! So, so good! :D 

Nooow, for the cookies (most of you have probably already seen this recipe before...:D): 

Quick Peanut Butter Cookies (flourless)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. 
2. Drop by teaspoonfulls onto a baking sheet, flattening each cookie a little bit after you drop it. The dough doesn't spread very much while baking, so you can put the cookies close together. 
3. Sprinkle each cookie with some sugar and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. R
4. Remove from oven and let cookies cool for about 5 minutes or until they firm up a little. 

Easy, no? I bet these would be great with dark chocolate dreams or nutella or something! 

Well, that's about it for today...I'm off to study for some tests! 

See ya'll later!