Sunday is one of my work days. Usually I am so tired after 10 hours of helping folks out of bed and moving heavy arms and legs that I don't want to do much cooking...especially if I don't have anything planned and prepped already. So, Sunday, I called Justin on my way home from work with my usual "What do you want to eat?" (hoping he would suggest ordering a pizza). He said "Oh, just whatever we have..." Ugh, I really didn't want to cook and we were low on groceries, so I said "Well,I will just fix a salad or something." I drove home trying to scrounge up the energy to throw together some sort of dinner salad.
Well, to my surprise, I walk in the door to find THIS going on:
Yep, that's my husband and a rack of lamb. Probably the sexiest thing I have ever seen. Just saying.
He got the recipe from his Men's Journal magazine. He went to the grocery store (The Fresh Market!!) and got all the ingredients himself. Then, he cooked this fabulous dinner for me. So sweet, right?
I know.
Here are the recipes for my amazing dinner:
Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb
Asparagus with red pepper dressing
Both from Men's Journal
Strawberry Mint Smoothie
From The Fresh Market
He picked up the recipe for the dessert smoothie while he was at the grocery store. It was all delicious. I love you baby!!
As I was cleaning up after dinner, I saw a pound of potatoes, a huge bunch of basil, and some cherry tomatoes on the counter. I know I didn't buy this stuff, so I asked Justin what they were for. If you read further into the asparagus recipe, you already know the answer. He said he bought all the ingredients, but just didn't have time to make all that gnocchi by hand.
My next thought was, "What kind of MEN'S magazine has recipes for rack of lamb and gnocchi, anyway?" Justin said these were part of an article titled, "Five recipes every man should be able to cook"
EVERY man? Not that I disagree, (I mean, wouldn't that be awesome?) but that's a bit excessive, right?
WELL....I have always wanted to try making gnocchi. Giada makes it look so easy on the Food Network! All the ingredients were there and Jacob and Jessy were coming over for dinner, so why not now?!
After looking at the recipe, I quickly realized that this would be an all day event. So, I got started early.
You can find the recipe for the gnocchi in the asparagus link above from Men's Journal...
Here is how you do it, adapted from Men's Journal:
1. Bake 1 pound of potatoes (any kind, really. I used Yukon Golds) for an hour.
2. Cut them in half and scoop out the insides.
3. Put the hot potatoes through a potato ricer.
4. Mound the hot potatoes on a clean countertop and make a well in the center.
5. Put 1/2 cup flour then 2 egg yolks then another 1/2 cup flour into the well.
6. With a bench scraper, chop everything together quickly until a dough forms.
7. Shape dough into a ball and roll in flour.
8. Pull off a section of dough and roll it into a snake.
9. Cut the snake into 1/2 inch pieces.
10. Roll each piece into a ball in your hand
11. Place the ball on your floured counter top and roll it with a fork or gnocchi paddle into an oval shape with indentations. (I don't have a gnocchi paddle, so i used a fork)
12. Once all the gnocchi are shaped, drop them into boiling, salted water. Scoop them out when they float to the top and dunk them in an ice bath to cool.
13. Take them out of the ice bath and drain on paper towels.
14. Refiridgerate or freeze until ready to use.
All of the above took about 2 and a half hours. Making the actual gnocchi dish was quick and simple. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of our dinner.
I made Steak Diane, Gnocchi with tomatoes and basil, and Strawberry goat cheese salad.
The salad is my creation (and one of Jessy's favorites). Here is what goes in it:
Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad
4-5 cups fresh mixed baby greens
1 pint strawberries, halved
1/2 pint blueberries
1 small package goat cheese, crumbled
3 Tbsp. toasted pecans
4 Tbsp Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette (I use Ken's)
Toss together and serve!
The gnocchi was delicious. Much better texture and taste than the store-bought kind...but a lot of work!
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