7453. Make gnocchi

 When I saw that the Little Chute Library was having a gnocchi making class, I immediately signed up. Danielle offered to come with me. 

Local Chef Spencer Webster volunteered to teach us how to make gnocchi. I thought we were making regular gnocchi but we were making goat cheese gnocchi with tomato fig sauce. I was intrigued to say the least. 

Gnocchi is an Italian Potato dumpling but instead of potato we were going to use goat cheese. Apparently the fig sauce was going to compliment the goat cheese. Okay... we shall see. 

We were given the ingredients for the gnocchi. Flour, Eggs, Goat Cheese, Nutmeg, Pepper. It was a pretty simple recipe.

First we mixed the goat cheese and flour together and got it crumbly.

Then we added the eggs and kneaded well.

We wanted to make sure it sprung back when poked. This takes longer than you think. This is why I don't make putzy things. I am too impatient.

We added the spices and continued to knead until it sprung back.

Then we got a lesson in shaping the gnocchi. This step works best when the dough has been chilled for several hours. Spencer showed how to make snakes with the dough.

Then he cut it into pieces and showed us how to roll the gnocchi using a fork to get the grooves. There is a such a thing as a gnocchi board which has built in grooves for this purpose. But if you don't want to spend $10 on Amazon the back of fork works too. The grooves are only there to hold sauce.. so be lazy and just cut off pieces.

I did try rolling a gnocchi. It was harder than it looked.

Since process was going to take a while, Danielle and I headed out with our dough. I had way to much going on to wait around to try tomato fig sauce.

A few days later, I busted out the dough and rolled my dough into gnocchi snakes and chopped them into pieces which I then rolled on the back of a fork.

I boiled my gnocchi for about 2-3 minutes until tender.

Since I didn't have fig sauce, I just used olive oil and pepperoni. It was pretty dang tasty. If I didn't know there was goat cheese in it, I wouldn't have known. Nutmeg was the dominate flavor but I think that was because we had too much nutmeg and pepper. 

I definitely enjoyed the culinary experience. Now to convince the hubby that we need to have proper potato gnocchi sometime. 

Cooking Adventures: Pastelillos

 Kimberly Library was having a Puerto Rican cooking class. Always one up for a new food experience, I signed up and Danielle joined me. 

Goly and Eve are the owners of Goly and Eve's Puerto Rican Kitchen. They run a food truck in Green Bay and had a small restaurant in Kimberly. They are working to re-open the restaurant. Having the food truck in Green Bay has been very successful. I did not even know such a place or food truck existed. It is definitely needed and most welcomed addition to the community. Everything is homemade.

Goly and Even taught us to make Pastelillos -- Puerto Rican Empanadas. They are big hit on the food truck. 

We were given all the necessary ingredients -- Pastelillos dough, chicken or beef, and shredded cheese.

They were super simple to make.. Fill half of the dough with chicken or beef and top with cheese. Fold in half.

Then you can either press with a fork to seal or braid it. 

I opted to make a beef and a chicken one as well as a braided one and a forked one.

We then took our creations home to bake. You could deep fry, pan fried, air fry, or even bake them. If you weren't going to have them right away freeze them and cook them frozen.

I saved mine for lunch during the week.

They both were very good. I preferred the chicken to the beef but I would totally eat either one of them. 

I would love to find the food truck or even try the restaurant when it opens again. They are supposed to have some great desserts. 

24 in 2024 -- Try at least one new recipe: Beer Cheese Dip

 The hubby and I have struggled to find the perfect beer cheese dip. I suck at making roux because I'm too impatient. Stovetop cheese beer dip isn't my forte. Stacy mentioned using cream cheese instead of a roux. I found an easy crock pot recipe that didn't sound bad and decided to give it a try since we had a giant pretzel in the freezer.

Ingredients -- I cut this down to a 1/3 of a recipe since it was only the two of us

• Cream Cheese
• Cheddar Cheese -- Use good cheese. I did not,
• Lager -- I seriously was looking for a straight lager. I didn't realize lager encompasses so many different types of beer. We used Sam Adams because it was Boston Lager. I didn't want Miller Lite or Bud Lite because I wanted to be able to drink the beer. Not a fan of those.
• Dijon Mustard
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Garlic Powder
• Salt

Toss everything in the crockpot and cook for an hour. 

It was okay. 

I think we need a milder beer (less beer) and better cheese. It had too much of a beer taste and not enough of a cheese taste. The hubby really wasn't a fan but I think I have a starting point to continue to experiment.