a lot of catching up to do!

first, i'll start with another gluten free meal. this time, we went over to our friends' house for a lovely fall-inspired meal before thanksgiving. drew and jessica were game to try some gluten free sweet potato gnocchi. gnocchi is one of my favorite foods, and i don't want to miss out on it. so we used our normal gnocchi recipe but substituted sorghum flour for the white flour. it didn't really work... with a little xanthan gum, it probably would have been fine. but i think sorghum was the wrong texture and flavor anyway. the flavor was okay, but the texture was waaaay off, and it didn't look too pretty either...


but with the gnocchi, we had some butternut squash soup, some sauteed chard, and for dessert a chocolate peanut butter silk pie. so, besides the gnocchi it was pretty successful.


and it made their dog smile :)


here is our normal favorite gnocchi recipe. i will continue working on it to make it safe for me to eat and get back to you with those details as they emerge:

2 1/4 lb. sweet potatoes
1 tbsp. salt
2-2 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
black pepper, to taste

1. peel, cube, and boil sweet potatoes in salted water. cook until tender, but not mushy.
2. on your work surface, spread out a layer of flour. puree the hot sweet potatoes with a food mill right onto that layer of flour. sprinkle with about half of the remaining flour and work lightly into the potatoes.
3. break the egg into the mixture. add the pepper and knead lightly, adding more flour as necessary. when the dough is light and no longer sticky, it is ready to roll. DO NOT OVERWORK.
4. divide dough into four parts. form each part into a roll about 1/2 inch in diameter. cut into pieces slightly less than an inch long. use a table fork and create that lovely cock's comb pattern on the surface of the gnocchi.
5. to prevent the gnocchi from getting sticky as the dough warms up, place on cookie sheets and freeze until all the dough is made into gnocchi.

after this step, you can boil water to cook the gnocchi you want for dinner tonight. take the rest of the gnocchi on the cookie sheets in the freezer and put them in freezer bags in ONE LAYER ONLY. this will take a couple of bags, but it prevents the gnocchi from sticking together and creating a large ball of gnocchi when you want to boil up the rest.

for the ones that you are making right now, once the water boils, add the gnocchi. they are done when they float to the top. i like to serve them with a little sauce that consists of equal parts butter, white wine (such as chablis or santa margherita), basil and garlic. then top with toasted pine nuts. yum!