Long Breaks Make for Good Potatoes

Greetings from Israel trusty followers!
It has been quite a while since I have posted a blog post. A semester really. I blame school, and life, and lack of time. But really, those are just excuses. Fortunately, I've been able to cook and bake, just not make web related memories. However, we are breaking that streak here. I'm currently awaiting status reports on my flight back to Baltimore on Thursday due to snow problems in NY. I can't do anything about it and feel useless, so I decided blogging would be a good use of my time. Let's begin?
Everyone loves gnocchi. And if you don't, then we can't be friends, really. Well, actually, I'll think about it. I've always heard that gnocchi is hard to make, only to be attempted by those most worthy. I never really thought of myself as a worthy cook, so I put it off. I was browsing through my collection of food blogs not long ago and came across a similar blog entry about gnocchi. Apparently, even experienced cooks have a hard time? So I said, why not. Let's try new things, let's challenge ourselves, and most of all, let's eat some gnocchi. I took the recipe from my most favorite food blog. I've mentioned it here before and here it goes again. Smitten Kitchen, I owe you many culinary successes. Once again, you did not disappoint me and I bow down in respect and admiration. The gnocchi recipe is linked here.
Just as a warning, let the potatoes cool thoroughly before you peel and grate them. They are hot hot hot and hurt your hands. Also, letting them cool will help keep them dry and reduce the amount of flour needed for the recipe.
Hot potato:

Rolling:

Also, cut them smaller than this. They turned out pretty large and in charge.

As for the ridges, I couldn't really get the hang of it. It's hard, let me warn you. If you master it, call me up and let me know how you did it. Please.

The great thing about gnocchi. It goes with most sauces. I think cream based sauces are better here, but it's up to you really. Knock yourself out. I'd stay away from barbeque sauce though.

I went for a simple mushroom spinach and garlic cream sauce. Here's how to make this baby:
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 small onion, diced
A couple (I used 10-12) button mushrooms, sliced
3 cups of spinach, or really however much you want, chopped loosely
16 oz of heavy cream
S&P
2 tbsp flour
Olive oil

1) Heat the olive oil in a large pan and, once hot, add the onions
2) Heat through until translucent and add the garlic (I mash it, but you can chop it too)
3) Let it cook together for a minute or too and add the mushrooms, cook them until they're browned and cooked through

4) Add 2 tablespoons flour and mix in until all the liquids are soaked up and you get a sort of paste looking thing, it works, trust me
5) Add the heavy cream and mix together to make sure all the flour is dissolved.
6) Let it sit on medium high heat until the sauce thickens, mix every once in a while (should only take about 4 minutes)
7) Once the sauce is thick, you can add S&P and the spinach

8) Let the spinach wilt and turn off the heat, and you my friend have yourself some sauce.

And here is the finished product. Quite decadent. I advise, yes!

I would also like to propose a new years resolution. It's more of a January resolution and mostly because I watched the movie Julie and Julia, again, recently. So here it is. For every day of January, I will be making a new recipe and blogging about it. We'll see how it goes with work, life, the gym, and my budget. For now, let's all hope it happens and mostly that I get back to Baltimore in time to start both this resolution and my new year!