Gnocchi heaven

Little dumplings waiting for their boiling bath!

Cooked and now frying up nicely in some rosemary grapeseed oil. Heavenly smell!

With some chopped chives and parmesan sprinkled on top! Heavenly taste...
I am a big gnocchi fan. Any type, cooked most any way! But the big taste determiner for me is whether they're homemade (or in a restaurant, house-made) or not. "Not" usually means heavy and floury. Made from scratch means lighter, softer, melt-in-your-mouthier. Yum.
So I discovered this recipe for ricotta gnocchi, and another one, and then finally this one (from Martha Stewart, no less) that incorporated butternut squash into the recipe as well. That's always a bonus with me. But none of the recipes were going to work completely on their own to meet my tastes, so I combined a little of one with a little of another, and the most enjoyable lunch was born. And the sweetest thing of all was how easy it was--this wasn't any all-day pasta-making marathon, by any means.
I went with low-fat ricotta and it behaved quite nicely in place of the whole milk variety. If I had more butternut squash on hand, I'd probably have added a bit more of that as well. It was a little mild on the squash flavor, and color-wise was paler than I'd have liked, too. I knew when I added the whole wheat flour that the color would muddy up a bit, but it was worth it to try the less-processed flour, and I am partial to the nuttier flavor of whole wheat, too. All in all, a quite healthy version of gnocchi!
Ricotta and Butternut Squash Gnocchi
(serves 4-6 depending on portion size...)
1 (16-ounce) container of low-fat ricotta
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed roasted butternut squash
1/2 teaspoon salt/
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour + extra for your hands and cutting board

In the bowl of a food processor, mix the ricotta, egg and butternut squash until well combined. Scrape contents into a large bowl and mix in the flour and salt until all ingredients are incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Check the dough by pinching a bit. It should be a bit tacky. If it clings to your fingers too much, incorporate more flour one tablespoon at a time until you reach a workable consistency. Before shaping, put a large pot of water on the stove to bring to a boil. Sprinkle a baking sheet with flour and set it close to your work space.

Sprinkle your hands and work surface with a little flour. Break off a small orange-sized piece of the dough and roll it into a thick log about 3/4-inch thick.

Cut the log into 3/4" pieces. You can shape them if you want to look more traditional--I left them as natural little pillows...

Transfer this batch to the baking sheet and toss with flour to prevent sticking. Repeat rolling process with the remaining dough.

Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the water and a third of the gnocchi. Gently stir the gnocchi to make sure they don't stick. Once they bob to the surface, let them cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove gnocchi with a slotted spoon and transfer to a colander set over a bowl to finish draining.
I wanted to fry them up lightly with some sage and brown butter, but there was no sage in the house... so I went with a lovely rosemary grapeseed oil that I've used with great success in other recipes, and they fried up splendidly. I boiled and fried up the whole batch so that they wouldn't stick to each other horribly in the fridge.
To top, I grated some parmesan over the top with some chopped fresh chives, and it was glorious!

Friday night grateful moment

Today I'm grateful for:

* Sunshine. Kind of explains itself. And alas, it shows off, with startling clarity, the dusting that I have been putting off... until today! Dust bunnies have been banished.

* The husband and the boy. Both fill my life with much joy and love.

* A mostly clean house and a clean garage. Another afternoon project...

* The promise of spring. I know we're being teased again, but it's kind of nice...

* Friendship. New, old, those I see often, those I see less often. Even those I've never met (yes that's you, Warm Bunny)!

* Sushi. I'm not greatly experimental, but what I like, I love. Maybe one day I'll even get the chopsticks figured out. I know this will shock you, but I'm very UNelegant with chopsticks.

* Music, the sharing and exchanging thereof. I have a great musical karmic debt that I am needing to come out from under... kind of like the economy... well, not THAT bad. But still, I have some sharin' to do. My favorite song is STILL Ingrid Michelson's "The Way I Am." Simply. Love. It.



* Reading: with Seth, by myself, last thing at night, first thing in the morning. Online. On my Kindle. Even a "real" book! Tackling the pile on the bedstand, one by one...

* Amazing creativity from this artist, Curtis Steiner, and his 1,000 blocks. Seth and I watched this in awe last night, exclaiming over every iteration.

* New inspiration in the kitchen. This weekend I'm going to experiment with no-knead pasta, some new recipes for the breadmaker (husband will love!), some ricotta gnocchi... why does that all sound so carby? Carby end-of-winter goodness! Soon enough it will be about salad and fresh things... I'll munch on a carrot or two for good measure...

* Family near and far, to be in touch, to be connected; for this I am especially grateful. For phone calls from my Pa while he's out walking, from my Ma when she wants help on FB, from my s.i.l. when she's on the way to the grocery store, from MJ when she wants to hear how warm it is in WW, from Grandma to say thanks for Christmas goodies... from Shelby... wait, no call from Shelby? Must fix that asap!

* Memories. As I watch Seth go through middle school and all its many ups and a few downs, I am reminded so vividly of that time in my life. The commute to school, the friends (ups and downs), the boys (!), making "taco" sandwiches for lunch (salsa and cheese between bread slices!), books I read (the Betsy and Tacy series, Anne of Green Gables and every other book by that author), stories I wrote (true silliness), my room with the giant rolltop desk and lots lof little nooks and crannies for cards and stickers (some things never change), listening to my Bible in Living Sound going to sleep at night, the rubik's cube contests... This week Seth has really decided it's about solving the rubik's cube, and all I can do is one measly side... so he's been watching YouTube videos and plans on enlisting Uncle Shelby's help soon. Meanwhile I shared with him all about the rubik's contests at school as kids and how Uncle S. had a trick to make his rubik's go super-quick, and how if he was going really fast it could catch and explode... Seth loved that visual thought.

* Humor. Our other YouTube adventure this week was delving a bit deeper into Monty Python. Seth had been exposed to some, but not the especially choice bits Mom favors, so we did a little cheese shop, a little argument clinic, a little job interview... now that one really speaks to me!
For your weekend viewing pleasure...

Top Chef Season 5, Episode 10: Super Bowl!

And so it begins... the countdown to the finale. Kind of cool to make it all Super Bowl related, but when I remember that they shot this six months ago, it makes me laugh. Kind of like the ever-present product over-placement... this time with our friends at Quaker Oats...

Yes, it was the Quaker Oats Quickfire... Padma arrives with Scott Conant, who just opened Scarpetta in NYC in 2008 and got three stars from the NYTimes. Very cool. Hard to do. Also a 2004 Food and Wine Best New Chef. So a judge with chops.

They assign everyone to a food group: veggies, fruit, fish, meat, seafood, poultry, dairy... I would have been stumped, initially, other than some sort of fruit crisp. Oats aren't a part of my daily crusting of food... but these guys stepped up the challenge and crusted EVERYTHING, even eggplant, which didn't turn out so hot for Fabio, who picked vegetables. According to him: "There is not reason to eat vegetables when there is meat and fish around." Yeah, well, even a major meat eater should have known not to encrust eggplant with oats!

They have 45 minutes and come up oat-crusted shrimp (Jamie), oat crusted weiner schnitzel (Hosea), banana mousse with oat petit fours (Stefan), fish with oat crust, bacon and escarole (Leah, doing fish again after last week!), oat-crusted tofu and oatmeal/lentil salad (Carla), eggplant and oats (Fabio, who gets interrupted in his explanation by Scott, who says his dish "speaks for itself;" more drama with these two later...) and oat-crusted chicken paillard with grits and fried zucchini (Jeff, once again, too much going on on the plate!).

Great quote from Carla: "The creative monkeys can’t be quieted in Jeff." Ha. Good one.

Fumbles: Leah: fish overcooked (switch from last week!), whole dish clashed with bacon; Fabio: encrusting eggplant was bad idea; Jeff: all brown, heavy plate.

Winner: Stefan!
Other top dishes: Carla and Jamie

So on to the elimination challenge, where all-stars from past TC seasons come out to play.
Spike, Andrew, Josie, Andrea, Camile, Nikki, Miguel all arrive to each take on a Season 5 cheftestant. They each cook for a different NFL team/city and need to represent the area cuisine in their dishes.

Stefan's advantage from winning the quickfire is to pick his team and his opponent: Dallas Cowboys and Andrea. He seems to remember Andrea as a vegetarian who went home pretty early in Season 1. I remember the same, though she claims now NOT to be a vegetarian. Hmm.

Other pairings:
Green Bay Packers: Fabio v. Spike
San Francisio 49ers: Jamie v. Camille
Miami Dolphins: Jeff v. Josie
Seattle Seahawks: Hosea v. Miguel
New Orleans Saints: Carla v. Andrew
New York Giants: Leah v. Nikki

Love Spike and Andrew… for short periods of time. For any extended period, I get drained. I can only imagine prep time in the TC kitchen... like toddlers, really. I was following them on Twitter for a bit during Top Chef, but it's way too ADD for me. Which is saying something.

So Seth watched with me and came up with his faves again quite quickly: Fabio and Carla—he likes spunky Carla. I will hold judgment on his taste in women for at least a few more years. I can appreciate that he sees the "Muppet" in her and likes the quirk.

My favorites remain: Stefan and Jamie, and a little bit of Fabio. Stefan doesn't annoy me like he seems to others... maybe he would in person. But I just see him poking people, playing around, being somewhat charming in his arrogance...

So they all cooked in front of an audience, two cooks per round. A touchdown is 7 points (judges), fan favorite: 3 points. So when you win big, it's 10 points! If you lose a round, on the chopping block you go.

So after some quick rounds of cooking:
Leah v. Nikki up first—Leah won by 3 judges, Nikki got the fan field goal.
Miguel v. Hosea—Hosea won 3 judges and the fans, so Hosea has 10 points.
Carla v. Andrew—Carla unanimously with the judges! Andrew won fan points.

Lovely quote from Carla: "Sometimes you have to have quick love." Really, Carla?

Stefan v. Andrea—Two and two on judges, fans voted for Andrea hands down.
SHOCK. Stefan got beat. He was floored and humbled. Ha. I think it was good for him.
Jamie v. Camille—Two and two on judges, Jamie carries it with the fans.
Jeff v. Josie—Josie got 3 judges, and three fans. Jeff is going down.
Spike v. Fabio—Judges went with Spike, fans went with Fabio…

Total points: Home: 37; All Stars: 33

Winner: Carla.

Can you hear the intake of breath? I am shocked. She won two tickets to the Super Bowl! (Seth is very happy.)

Judges comments:
Carla—The love was there. Even Toby said so. Everyone thought it was all good; Tom liked it too. Hosea—Unique, Asian, great to make a salmon roll and have still medium rare inside. His food draws you back, said Scott Conant. Jamie—Tom liked it even though he didn’t vote for it. Nice comments from Scott about her cooking style, that she was fun to watch and she worked well with her food. That was nice to hear as it's usually all about the taste. Leah—Simple, good dish.

And on to the losing chefs... Stefan, Fabio and Jeff:
Initially I thought it would be Jeff going home, but then worried for a moment when Fabio decided to get defensive about his meat (vension). As Tom said, it was already dead, didn’t need to be killed again… Scott pretty much told Fabio to shut up and accept that he made a losing dish. It was a bit tense. I didn't think too much more of it until I read today on gawker.com about the judging (mostly entertainment value, though their assessment of Andrew and Spike is dead on). Curious. I don't know why Scott thought Fabio so terrible, but he definitely didn't seem to take to the guy, and it didn't all seem to be about the food. I thought Fabio handled himself well at judge's table, and especially at the end, when he accepted his second chance graciously.

Oh, but then I gave it away. Drat. But you knew already. No way Stefan's going home (even though he was missing the strong flavors Dallas is known for). No way Fabio's going home (even though Scott Conant probably wanted him to). But Jeff... no protecting him. Alas, Mr. No-Eye-Contact and Too-Many-Elements-on-a-Plate packed his knives and went back to Miami... but a good loser, truly.

From Seth to the losers as they were defending their dishes: Zip it, bite it, suck it up. (Is this my kid or what?!)

Down to six. It's getting good. I was pleased pleased pleased to see the Season 5 cheftestants really do well against the All Stars. I think it probably reaffirmed for all of them (except maybe Stefan, who was expecting to roll over Andrea... figuratively as well as it seems literally...) that they belong there and they CAN cook. In that closed environment with only each other week in and week out, it's been evident that even the good cooks can start to doubt themselves.

And it seems we get to move past that whole icky Leah and Hosea thing. Other than his snide comments about her fish, they seemed to just avoid each other. Finally.

Soup of many beans (four to be precise)

Admittedly, we're on a bit of a soup roll over here. Can't really explain it other than a) the weather begs for something warm, and b) the guys like it--especially the big guy. And, they are easy, for the most part. At least, the way I choose to do them.

I have been wandering around tastespotting.com and various food blogs, as is my way, and do indeed see that there ARE other things to make and eat besides soup... and I'll get to it, really; tapioca is top on my list again since I burnt a batch last week... But for now, I'm pretty content to put the pot on, go away and putter around, and come back every now and then for stirring and adjustment.

The inspiration for this was finding a couple of different soup recipes online--one used refried beans, which I've never done, and the other had green enchilada sauce in it; again, I've never tried that or even considered it. So I thought, what the hey, let's give it a whirl. It's pathetically easy really quite yummy. All you need is a can opener, almost. But the taste is really good and quite different than the other black bean soup I posted a couple of weeks back.

Four bean soup (it started out three bean, but it was a little brothy so we stepped up the beans!)
1 large onion, diced

1 15 oz can pinto beans

1 15 oz can chile beans or kidney beans

1 15 oz can black beans
1 15 ozcan refried beans

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 28 oz can green enchilada sauce

1 7 oz can of green chiles

1 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup chopped green onions

Saute the onion in a large saucepan in a dash of vegetable oil until translucent. Add the beans (and their juices), tomatoes and enchilada sauce and heat on medium until simmering, stirring occasionally. Reduce to low for an additional 10-15 minutes. Add the cilantro and green onions, and serve. Great garnishments: crushed corn chips, avocadoes, cheddar cheese, more cilantro and green onions, and sour cream, of course! Enjoy!

The soup picture above is pre-garnishment. The one below shows what I actually had for supper... and yes, I do love me some sour cream!

Friday night grateful moment

Remember that TV show Blossom? Wow, that was a really strange show, in my faint memory. But they would always tease to it with: "Tonight, on a very special episode of Blossom," and I always wondered--but not enough to watch--what was so special? Anyway, for some reason tonight, I feel utterly compelled to begin thusly:

Tonight on a very special Blossom, Sherilee is thankful that (and now we switch to first person. Thankfully!):
* I didn't hurt anything too seriously (other than my pride) when I landed helter-skelter on my backside on the sidewalk. Ouch. Ice hurts. There's a rumor of snow this weekend, and that would make me very happy too. Snow would feel warm right about now.
* Seth is home and huggy. Yeah.
* The week is over. Yes, it's over! Restful weekend awaits.
* Extremely thankful that supper was this:

And this (rootbeer floats, if you can't tell!):


And a little family bonding around the dvd game Planet Earth. Quite fun. Who knew the lesser florican jumps up out of the grass to check out potential mates? It sounds plausible, but they could also be looking for predators, no?

* I am thankful that while it was a very historic week, and some people tried to upstage the inauguration by announcing a clean bill of health (you know who you are) on the world wide web, no one quite usurped the limelight like The Hat. The Hat got a lot of press this week. Check out an especially entertaining rundown of the magical properties of The Hat.

* I'm thankful for all things warm and cozy and home-related right now. It's a chilly 29 degrees out there; if I don't leave the house all the weekend I won't be surprised! There's food in the fridge, TV all lined up on the dvr, books on the bookshelf, ample internet access... why leave?

* I'm thankful for my mom and her encouraging and thoughtful emails throughout the week. It's a rare day I don't get a sweet little note. They always make my day better. Today I got a great quote from her:

Life is mostly froth and bubble.
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
–Adam Lindsay Gordon

Kinda rings true, doesn't it? Happy weekend, peoples!

Top Chef, Season 5, Episode 9: Restaurant Wars!

Or: Hosea and Leah go too far.
Or: Lessons in Running a Professional Kitchen by Leah.
Or: Top Chef, High School Style.
(Kim, sorry for stealing your blog title style!)

Couldn't have seen that one coming! Ha. They've only been baiting us for weeks. The drama unfolds below...

Quickfire: Padma and Stephen Starr, restauranteur extraordinaire, challenge the cheftestants to conceive a tasting menu showcasing a restaurant concept. Two winners, one each to head up the restaurants during the elimination of Restaurant Wars! So, no immunity tonight!

On the bottom: Jeff: Salmon isn't the fish to impress apparently. Side note: why can't Jeff make eye contact? Can't look at the camera for any period of time. Not the next Food Network star, I'm thinking.
Fabio: Menu didn't inspire as a restaurant concept. I liked his lunch idea, but it wasn't new or interesting... did like how he took offense to his filet mignon sandwich being called a cheesesteak! Ha.

So the winners, from a mostly fishy menu, lots of "New American” ideas… whatever.
Radhika: Great seasonings, and emerging concept: Indian flavors.
Leah: Clean and forward thinking, Asian influence. (And this she threw together, on the fly, no concept in advance… I’m thinking lucky break.)

So the Restaurant War is on. But first, we have to have a little inappropriate evening cuddle time back at Chez Chef. They had been teasing to it for weeks, but it really was rather mild--what they showed anyway. It seems to prove that eventually people do forget the cameras are on. Or they drink too much. Or a combination thereof. Regardless, quite childish given that they both are supposed to be in respective relationships AND they have to go on to work together/compete against each other. And somehow they both wake up the next day and are ashamed? Whatever. Grow up.

Moving on...thankfully.

Restaurant name: Sahana
Concept: Old spice trade
Radhika: Front of house
Jamie
Carla
Jeff

Restaurant name: Sunset Lounge
Concept: Asian influence
Leah
Hosea
Fabio: Front of house
Stefan

So they work fast and furious for 24 hours to bang out the restaurant. Pier One, restaurant supply stores, Whole Foods and some giant food warehouse... how fun! They had $5,000 to spend on decor, $3,000 on food. I think it should have been switched!

It is easy to see right off that Radhika is in way over her head, not comfortable as a leader (she says as much) and happy to let the others conceive their own dishes based on the loose "spice trade/middle eastern foods" concept. They all get along, for the most part, and Jamie steps into the sous chef/leader position. Jeff works with Jamie while Carla does desserts. With Carla's history so far with desserts, that seems best. Or does it? Ominous noises. Don't look to the end. Don't. Keep your eyes up here.

Team Sahana races around getting ready for service, the time seems really short as usual. Good Jeff quote: I feel like a hummingbird on cocaine. Both teams feel behind though; Leah never even makes it out of the kitchen to see what the front of the house looks like! But Fabio has it all under control!

At the Sunset Lounge, Leah is completely lackluster as a leader as well. She and Hosea give each other a wide berth, Fabio is setting up the front of the house, and Stefan is on desserts. Leah has some pouty moment with her fish and the boniness of it, and Hosea gives her advice to cut them out. Not great advice, but it seems to work, though it certainly isn’t pretty. Unfortunately, she somehow neglects to properly cook the pieces going to the judges, and it is deemed the worst dish of the night. Not such a lucky break there.

Later, when Carla's desserts go out, she knows she hasn't done a good job. She is such a funny lady--her comment is, "A train wreck is a comin', lord I know it is!" Ha. She has no idea how much of a train wreck. No one likes her spiced chocolate cake (how hard is that to wreck?) and her yogurts never set up, so they are more like yogurt soup. Ugh.

Fabio looks good at front of house for the Sunset Lounge in his white suit! He says: "We can serve monkey ass [it was hard to hear with his thick accent, but I swear he did say "ass," I'm not making it up!] and empty clam shell, I'm running the front of the house." The difference between his confidence level and Radhika's is palpable. Radhika is mousey in appearance and demeanor, almost shuffling around, and avoiding her hostess duties. She spends as much time as she can back in the kitchen, and the really appalling thing is that the judges get up and LEAVE her restaurant without her coming to say goodbye--she's hanging out in the kitchen. Wow.

So heading to judges table we know that Stefan's desserts rocked. He did a chocolate rice parfait and a lemongrass ginger panna cotta. Even tough guy Stephen Starr thought they were the best dishes of the night. And he finished with a mango-dark chocolate-mint lollipop. Sounds kind of good, and I'm not even a dark chocolate fan.

We also know that Carla's desserts sucked. And that Radhika's service was appalling. So that made their team a little less appealing. On the other side, Leah's fish was horrible, but Stefan's desserts and Fabio's front-of-house performance was what saved her. (Ugh for us having to see her and Hosea and their adolescent post-coital avoidance moments. I can't wait until one of them is gone now.)

So sure enough, the Sunset Lounge crew wins the day, with Stefan taking home top honors. I still don't see what's so annoying about him. I think he's kind of charming. Not great language, kind of bull headed, but that's probably what separates him from the pack. Radhika needed an ounce of his tenacity and energy, but had none. Zippo on the stamina.

But first, we get to hear from Carla about her amazingly bad desserts:"But I had a good time. I thought, if I can't send out a good dessert, I'm going to send out some love with this dessert." To which our visiting judge replied, "Keep the love in the kitchen. Send out good desserts." The fact that his comment seemed somehow shocking to her tells me (and not for the first time) that she’s living on borrowed time. Tick tock, Beeker lady. (Seth and I think she and Beeker from the Muppets are separated at birth… and that’s really not a mean comparison, really. Endearing.)

Even with that refreshingly honest but unacceptable attitude from Carla, Radhika got the ax. Whew. About time. Originally I had some hopes pinned to her, but it's been a long time since I've seen anything really “wow” from her, or any energy to speak of. Bye bye.

Oh and Toby Young was pretty quiet in this episode. Apparently he's aware of his bad press from the first couple of episodes. He wrote a piece for The Spectator that was pretty full of himself, classic Toby. Loves to be hated, he does. But someone in the editing room is actually helping the audience out, since he's been largely cut out of late. Not too sad about that!

And in other Top Chef news, sweet Chef Colicchio was at an inaugural party this week and saved Joan Nathan from choking on a chicken bone. Way to go, Tom!

Roasted butternut squash salad

This was inspired by an Ina Garten recipe I saw in the local paper a week or so ago. Being a butternut squash fanatic AND a hearty salad freak, this salad was made for me. Well, it looked good on paper anyway. But this time the pantry shelf and the dream didn't align, so adaptation was needed. And it turned out very well. Yum-o.

Butternut squash salad
Arugula, washed
Butternut squash, peeled and cubed, roasted and cooled
Pomegranate seeds
Walnuts

Dressing
2 T. olive oil
4 T. white balsamic vinegar
1T. concentrated pomegranate juice
1 T. Walla Walla Sweet Onion mustard
Whisk together and set aside.

Layer as you will. This is one where you can set the proportions to your individual tastes. I layered the arugula followed by maybe a cup of butternut squash cubes, about a half-cup pomegranate seeds (I added more later--I can rarely have too many pomegrante seeds!) and maybe a 1/3 cup chopped walnuts. Some parmesan or even goat cheese would also have been good, but I didn't think about that until I was already halfway through. (I know, shocking coming from the Cheese Queen!) After you've layered, drizzle the dressing over and enjoy!

This was a lovely supper!

Wonderful onion soup!

I adapted my recipe from The Best Onion Soup Ever, but since it's still stewing away downstairs and I can only smell it so far, the tentative title is simply Wonderful Onion Soup... I may update that later. (Later: it's good. Maybe not the best EVER, but quite yummy.)

This was one of those random cravings that just zinged through my brain and I had to come home and make it immediately. Luckily I had all the ingredients except some gooey white bread to make croutons, but I'll figure that out later. There are worse things than healthier bread croutons, I suppose, and I may even just make do with lovely sprinkles of shredded gruyere on top. (Later: I managed to get out and find a baguette before we devoured the soup. I couldn't really bear to use whole wheat sandwich bread.)

On to the recipe. I found it on a blog that sent me to the original from Cook's Illustrated, which is a big fave of mine. I couldn't help but change it according to my whims and what was in the cupboard. Of course.

Onion Soup
(Serves 6; or me and husband, twice.)
Notes: For the best flavor, make the soup a day or 2 in advance. Alternatively, the onions can be prepared through step 1, cooled in the pot, and refrigerated for up to 3 days before proceeding with the recipe. (I was able to wait a day before eating, and I choose to believe the flavors deepened wonderfully!)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
4 large yellow onions, sliced thinly

Table salt
1/2 cup dry sherry
6 cups vegetable broth

3 bay leaves
Ground black pepper
1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)

Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Generously spray the inside of a heavy-bottomed large Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.

Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, adjusting the heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the broth and bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.

Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves, then season with salt and pepper.

For the croutons:
Lightly toast baguette slices in a toaster. Set aside.

To serve:
Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 10-15 minutes minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving. (As you can see from the picture above, I did soup-for-two in a small shallow baking pan and it worked just perfectly.)

Do you think we liked it?

Friday night grateful moment

Peaceful and quiet around the house right now, and that's a good thing. I've been making a lot of soup lately, more of that to come! Tis winter, so warmth is good. So good. And, there's always hot chocolate... just had some of that. So my tummy's warm and I'm grateful...

* Grateful for the variation in the weather. If that fog had come and just stayed... no thanks. We're cold, but the fog has lifted and maybe there will be a little snow? If we're going to be this cold, it would be nice to see a little of the fluffy stuff.

* The three of us had a home day on Thursday. Some un-wellness in the fam, some run-down feeling... it was just nice to have a day together, not a weekend day. Not grateful for the illness (rather, grateful it's all better), but grateful for our family togetherness.

* Grateful for a son who reminds me at times, in his own sweet way, what the right thing to do is. Much as I'm chagrined at being shown the way by a 12-year-old, I'm still grateful. (Husband does this for me too, but I kind of expect it from him!)

* Grateful for gnocchi. Had a lovely lunch with girlfriends; and the sweet potato gnocchi and a mixture of root vegetables was just heavenly.

* Grateful the dogs are all getting along, for the most part.

* Grateful things are progressing with the annual volunteer fundraising. Feeling good about progress in the face of dismal economic times... this is going to be a tough year to raise money, I think. But I'm grateful so far that more people have been open to talking, rather than just shutting the door.

* Grateful that January is half over. Not to be counting down to green grass, but come on... let's get this spring ball rolling. (This is not necessarily in complete contradiction to the first item above. If we're going to have winter, let's have winter. But if we have a choice, let's move it along to spring. Chop chop.)

* Grateful for skype, so that Corinne and I could "watch" the Golden Globes together. So she could tease me about giving Pierce a pass on his singing in Mamma Mia... and we could admire Eva Mendes' necklace... and question Renee Zellweger's fashion choices... just share happy, catty comments!

* And in the humor department, I'm grateful that every once in awhile something gets passed along that's actually funny. I checked this out online to see where it originated and everywhere I found it, it was listed as "I got an email from a friend." It's truly funny, at least to us working moms!

Life Lesson #45893: Always check your child's homework before it gets to school!
When asked to draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up, second-grader "Sarah" turned in the lovely drawing shown below. Needless to say, the teacher was a bit surprised; Mrs. Smith had always seemed like such a conservative woman. So she sent a note home to the girl's mother asking for clarification as to the picture's meaning.




(Here's the reply the teacher received the following day)
Dear Mrs. Jones, I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out of every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely, Mrs. Smith

* And last but certainly not least I am SO grateful for the plane landing in the Hudson yesterday with everyone safe. I was reading about the pilot tonight and just thinking about how I want him to be my pilot on every flight I take, from now on, forever. Do you think that's possible? What poise and calm under stressful circumstances! Kudos.
Happy weekend!

Healthy veggie soup, or is it stew?

This is a one-pot warm winter soother!

Healthy vegetable soup

2 tsp. olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and chopped roughly

1 cup carrots, cleaned and chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed

3 small zucchini, sliced into half-moons

1 large can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes

2-3 cups vegetable broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a midsize soup pot with the olive oil. Add the onion, mushrooms and carrots and saute for 5-10 on low/med heat, until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and saute a couple of extra minutes. Add the potatoes and squash and stir, then add the crushed tomatoes and vegetable broth. Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes until the potatoes and squash are almost tender. Add the zucchini and cook for another 10 minutes, until ingredients are fully cooked.

If you like your soup a bit wetter, you might add more broth. We're a bit more of the stew type around here, so chunky and hearty is how we roll! I actually got Seth to eat some this week, and didn't tell him all the ingredients until he was done. A small "mom triumph;" butternut squash is NOT how he rolls!