home made french fries

In one month I will be getting home from a shift at Coffee O and making supper with my new rookie Katie. Boy does that feel like a million miles away! In the mean time, I am going to keep experimenting with this amazing home made french fry recipe.

image from 3-Chairs

Holy cannoli these are so good and easy! Keegan and I made them with turkey burgers to celebrate the summer-like weather, it's 80 degrees here. I think any potato would be good with this recipe, we used Dutch baby golds, but next up I want to try sweet potatoes :))

In book news, i just finished the novel A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham, the first in a  quartet. I really enjoyed it but honestly I am not sure everyone else would as I indiscriminately love all sic-fi/ fantasy books with really cool worlds. The story follows two young men who were trained to be poets, but only one of them finished his education. Poets in this world are people who describe an action in a way that gives the action itself into a physical manifestation, a human body, and then the poet can magnify that action a thousand fold. For example, in the book, a poet uses his creation as a tool to harvest grains for his city - he can harvest it all at once by using his mind. PRETTY AWESOME.

happy weekend!

Happy Saturday!!

I am heading to New Orleans on Wednesday and I am incredibly excited (if a little nervous about going out with my party hardy friends). But I hate packing so I am watching the West Wing on Netflix and snuggling with a heating pad because I ate some nachos too fast…. here are a few things around the internet that I have collected this afternoon which I am excited for!

• I'm going to make this meatballs (but with ground turkey) and baked zucchini tonight, so delish.

• I made "cupboard cookies" last week (throw everything you have into a cookie - we ended up with oatmeal, raisins, chocolate chips, peanuts, and cinnamon - but next time I do some serious baking I want to try earl grey infused chocolate chip cookies.

• I am a sucker for a great mid length skirt and Forever 21 has been saving me lately for spring wear - I have a lovely red one that buttons up the front and recently got a black and white horizontal striped on (for my trip). Here are some super cheap easy skirts in a variety of fun colors!

• I'm downloading all the new Ted Radio Hours for my trip. I have also been running to them lately and they make the time fly, I was able to run for 20 more minutes than usual today because I didn't want my show to end!

• I drew some fun little geometric animals on coffee filters during a slow, rainy day at work this week - they are based off these awesome needlepoint creations - I really need to get better with a needle so I can create some.

xoxo

butternut squash risotto without the risotto recipe

I made a delicious butternut squash and grain dish the other night based of this risotto recipe. I did not have the ingredients to make that but it looks amazing and someone should try it out!!

Here's what I managed: 

and it was pretty delicious!! Even better the next day with pesto chicken sausage :)

Continue for the recipe, but first some book recommendations….

ricotta gnocchi recipe

For 2015 I decided to try and cook more and with greater variety. This week I made gnocchi for the first time! My mom and I made a lot of pasta at the beginning of this summer, but as I do not have a pasta maker here, I decided to try a style that is easier to do by hand.

Ricotta Gnocchi

We used to eat gnocchi at "Gracious Dinner", a fancy supper put on at holidays by Mount Holyoke. Traditionally gnocchi is made with mashed potatoes, but because I am always looking for a way to eat more cheese, I decided to try an easier version with a ricotta base.

Made three servings: two large supper portions and a left-overs lunch the next day.

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups of ricotta

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup of flour

pasta sauce

olive oil

extra cheese for serving :)