Gnocchi

I did intend to make a new dish this past week, but in the end, I just had Mr Oh cook an old staple. :)

We decided to make lunch at my sister-in-law's house on Thursday afternoon. We were both off from work and thought it would be a good time to visit her, our niece, and our newest nephew. Mr Oh did most of the kitchen work while I played with the babies.

Wednesday night I looked through a couple of our poor, neglected cookbooks. I focused mostly on a Rachael Ray one, knowing that the meal could be quickly prepared. A couple recipes looked yummy, but none really jumped out at me as super delicious AND super easy, so we thought we'd make some gnocchi.

We buy our gnocchi at SuperTarget, but have seen it at a couple other big grocery stores. It's by the other packaged pasta. I'm a fan of the tri-color (potato, tomato, and spinach) purely for the colors sake, because I can't taste any difference when they're drenched in sauce. However, last time we stocked up, they only had potato gnocchi.

We used to make gnocchi exclusively with Italian sausage (I think because that's how Olive Garden serves it?), then we were once forced to use ground beef (due to lack of sausage and the result was just fine), and recently, Mr Oh switched it up with chicken. This past week was our second time to make gnocchi and chicken, and I believe both times we used a creamy Rose sauce (with an accent over the 'e'). Lemme tell you...sooo good. Normally gnocchi leftovers with a red sauce aren't so tasty. Yes, first time around, the dish is delicious, but after a reheat in the microwave the gnocchi is very gummy. The creamy chicken gnocchi is delicious fresh AND after a reheat.

We also made up a Caprese salad. Ours has three ingredients: mozzarella, tomatoes, and Tuscan bread. (Yep, no greens.)

I forgot to take any photos, but will do so next time we make it.

Food Funk

Life's busy and we've been eating out a lot.
This month:

Buffalo Wild Wings (to celebrate my first day at my new job)
La Fiesta (took out my parents)
Rio Verde (met for dinner on our anniversary)
Hot Wok (cheap Chinese that's close)
Sonic (drinks and dollar frito pie wraps)
Papa Johns (first time getting pizza delivered)
Cafe Garcia (my mother paid for this one)
Golden Fried Chicken (paid for takeout with my in-laws)
Pei Wei (laziness after church)

When we're at home together for a meal (which seems like hardly ever), we resort to old staples like Mexican skillet or gnocchi with sausage.

I am making it a personal goal to cook something new within a week and will post about it. :)

Tortillas

They're not perfect yet, but I still have four months to work on them...

Breakfast with Friends

This past weekend, we had some friends over. Because both Mr Oh and I had to work, Sunday morning was the only time we could all catch up.

I set the table before going to bed Saturday night.
I love my Ikea glasses.
Love the star napkin rings from a junk store.
Love the big rodeo coasters from somewhere in Texas.



Also before going to bed, I made the casserole. It's way easy.

• Line a pan with frozen hashbrowns (or sandwich bread even). I used ones that are shaped kinda like McDonald's, but shredded ones would work.
  
• Add a layer of sausage. (I browned one pound.)
• In a bowl, mix six eggs, a cup of milk, and as much shredded cheese as you'd like. (When I called my brother for a refresher on the recipe, he reminded me that no one ever says "there was too much cheese".)
• Add that stuff on top, and put it in the fridge over night.
• In the morning, cook it at 350 for 45-60 minutes

One of our friends is a former vegetarian, and she doesn't eat all that much meat now. She also happens to be the one that gave me two oh-so-cute Le Creuset personal casserole dishes. I left the sausage out of these, and put bell peppers in the dish shaped like a bell pepper, and tomatoes in the one shaped like a tomato!

We also had coffee, juice, biscuits, and a fruit dish. We used to have this on major holidays when I was growing up, but it's been dropped from the menu in recent years. It's just strawberries, bananas, and a couple spoonfuls of concentrated orange juice straight from the can. That helps keep the bananas from browning, plus adds a bit of a citrus flavor.

Our Garden Part 2

We've moved, and left our garden behind. :( Hopefully our old landlords are still taking good care of her and she'll keep on producin'...

Beautiful tomatoes on the vine:

Beautiful tomatoes in a bowl:

The husband with a cucumber gun:

Our lone green bell pepper:

And the bell pepper dwarfed by a store bought one:

Our Garden Part 1

Rough Month, Foodwise

This month has been crazy. We've been super busy and super spendy. We've eaten out a ton, and never have food in the house.

I have a couple posts in the works (one about our garden, one about making tortillas), but haven't transferred photos from the camera yet. Soon, I hope!