January's quotable quote

"People do weird ass shit."

Is she even Italian?

This post spans a couple days and involves several embarrassing Google searches.

Last week, on Friday night, I cooked a meal from scratch. I made the Pioneer Woman's meatballs and some mashed potatoes.

Yummy!

I decided to make it a tradition, this made from scratch meal thing.

This week, I decided to attempt gnocchi. I've never made it, but I'm pretty good at eating it.

It's worth a shot.

I started out grocery shopping on Friday night.

The first problem I encountered was with the sauce.  I love Top Chef, and Mike Isabella's pepperoni sauce is something that I've always wanted to try.

Okay, back to the problem.

The sauce recipe calls for a pound of pepperoni, cut up.

Um, I didn't even know you could buy pepperoni by the pound. I looked all over the store for it. I found chorizo, and wondered if I could substitute that instead.

Wait, you have to cook chorizo first, right?

The embarrassing Google searches started, asking what chorizo is, if it was the same as pepperoni, and how to cook it.

After roaming around aimlessly in the store, I finally found the pepperoni. FYI, it's not in the refrigerated section. It's tucked away, on the bottom of a cardboard display that has pizza stuff on the top of it.

It's also kind of pricey. Oh well, it's worth it. 

A few other problems:

- the imported Italian stewed tomatoes ended up being a .59 cent can of tomatoes at the grocery store up the street from my house. I live in western Kansas. I had to make do.

- I couldn't find fresh bay leaves, so I had to settle for the dried kind. Ah, bummer.

- Pepperoni is really hard to cut up. First world problem.

- Toasting fennel seed makes me feel like a grown up.

The gnocchi recipe goes like this.

First, you bake two Russet potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour. While you wait, go back to watching Orange is the new Black.

After an hour, take the potatoes out of the oven. Wait for them to cool. Again, you can go watch your Netflix show, because you're cool and you finally opened up your wallet for Netflix.

Next, scoop the potatoes out with a spoon, leaving the skin behind. Add a beaten egg, a little flour (I used a little less than 1.5 cups), until the mixture is kinda sticky, but not too sticky.

I rolled the dough out in four thin rolls, then cut them up into sort of even pieces. I'm not going for perfection here, so it really doesn't matter if some are big and some are small.

Like the picture shows below, drop those cute little gnocchis in boiling water. When they float, they're done cooking.

Taste testers

Pepperoni? Please?

Look at my gnocchi! They're so cute!

First gnocchi in the pot. I feel like my kid just went off to college. I had a hard time letting go.

The sauce part also takes forever. Feel free to go back to watching TV.

Instead of typing it out, I'll just tell you to Google Mike Isabella's pepperoni sauce. I added a can of tomato sauce, because I read online it was way too meaty and concentrated for some people.

I also read online that some people add the sauce to pasta sauce. I might try that one of these nights.

The verdict?

The gnocchi definitely needs salt, or an added boost of something to make it more flavorful. It was definitely a solid first attempt, though.

I'm pretty proud of myself right now. I made Italian food from scratch.

I turned out okay after all.

The sauce is really pretty.

Yummy.

Conversations

A conversation about a sushi place in town that's really, really good:

Boss: You need to try the sushi pizza

It's like an angel crapped on your plate

I'm listening

There are several things I love in life. Those things include journalism, words, and story telling.

I've been listening to podcasts lately. I didn't have internet or television in my house for the first seven months I lived there (which was up until three weeks ago). To pass time, I'd stick my headphones on and listen to stories.

Here's what I'm listening to.

1. Serial 

Can we talk about how amazing the first series is?

I've listen to it three(ish) times. I never thought I would be interested in a bunch of teenage lives on the other side of the country, but it turns out I am.

Where was Adnan on Jan. 13? What's going on with Jay? Was the Nisha call a butt dial? Was Don really working that afternoon?

I love this podcast. It's great storytelling.

I listened to the final episode at around midnight one night. I couldn't wait to hear the end.

Well, I mean, the "end."

The second season is...well, meh. Mental health issues and the Army aren't really my favorite things, but I'll still listen faithfully every other Thursday.

Plus, I love the intro: A story told week by week. Sort of.

2. Fresh Air

I especially love the Jennifer Lawrence episode. I don't like all the topics, but I've listened to some really interesting ones this week.

The Koch brothers episode was really interesting.

3. Moth Radio Hour

There was a recent podcast about adoption that I really, really liked. I don't like every episode, but every once in a while I'll listen to something and I can't believe how amazing it is.

4. Stuff Mom Never Told You

This used to be my favorite podcast. Again, I don't like all the episodes, but every once in a while, I'll find one that's life-changing.

I appreciate the topics of women and work, the imposter syndrome, and anxiety. It actually took me a few tries to get completely through the anxiety podcast. I was too anxious to listen to it.

5. Missing 

I'm giving this a try right now. I'll give it a chance before I pass judgement.

Colors

My Mom: "Are you still watching that show, Orange is Black?" 

That show would actually be Orange is the new Black, Mom.

And yes, I am.

Ask me about me dreams sometime. They're all about drugs and prison.

Haha.

Would you look at that.

New year.

It's been a while since I've blogged.

On Facebook, I'm seeing memories of last year at this time, in which I was chilling out on a beach drinking delicious drinks.

A lot can change in a year.

Since that beautiful picture was taken on the beach, I've added a house, two more dogs, plenty of things wrong with my house, one kind of expensive ticket for not stopping at a stop sign that no one ever stops at (oops), plenty of lessons learned, a new niece, and some things that probably aren't meant to be shared online.

My life is totally different from this time last year.

I completed a leadership program and gained a ton of new contacts and friends. I've also lost a few contacts and friends from this time last year, which is okay, I suppose.

Ain't no one got time for those people!

Things I have right now: I have a house! I have a house with problems!

I have a broken front screen door, a lean-to in my backyard that blew over a couple weeks ago, wallpaper that won't come off, and trim that was apparently held up with hot glue in my kitchen.

Oh, dear.

I'm hoping for a peaceful year. One with minimal dental work, not too many unexpected expenses, obedience class for my cute but monster of a puppy, eye surgery for my other dog, happy memories with my nieces, and more games of Cards Against Humanity (I really need to order the expansion packs).

Before life got in the way, I was going to post a Top 10 list of moments from last year.

I might still do that. In the meantime, here's another beach picture.