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20 Minute Gnocchi with Pomodoro Sauce…

Sundays. I love Sundays. They are my make a big breakfast and eat it slowly. They are making and enjoying big Sunday dinners, relaxing before another busy week. 

Yesterday, Sunday, I was crawling the walls. I told Marty I missed work and wanted to go into spätzle production the next day. We flip our weekend by using Mondays as Saturdays like the Monday through Friday folks have. Our TGIF is actually on Saturday nights after the farmer’s market.

Our Mondays include but are not limited to banking, paying bills, cleaning, projects, laundry, and catching up on clerical work. 

Some Mondays, we are in production when we have a lot of spätzle to make. All of our chores are then squeezed in during the week. 

Over the three days of our snowstorm hiatus, I counted the orders coming in and looked forward to making spätzle. Even after five years, I still love making our spätzle; it’s the 2+ hours of dishes and clean-up that isn’t my favorite.

What else did I do during the three days off? I cooked, a real shocker, right? These days I am in a total food rut, struggling to think of dishes we aren’t tired of. I want to cook springtime food this time of the year, even though it still feels like comfort food weather. 

I tried a new recipe, Chicken in a Madeira Wine Sauce, along with Spätzle in Garlic and Oil, and Glazed Carrots. It was delicious! Better than I thought it would.

Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe I found but used the same ingredients with different prep and cooking methods. I will make this again, and I’ll write it done to share with you.

I made Mongolian Beef with Jasmine Rice and Crispy Tofu Triangles with Peanut Sauce. I will share the tofu and peanut sauce recipes in another post. My cooking class was surprised how much they liked this dish when we made it since some were afraid of the tofu.

Yesterday, I made my 20-minute gnocchi recipe. I added a small amount of pesto to the gnocchi for a taste of basil. I made a pomodoro sauce, which is slightly different from the usual marinara sauce. 

Both marinara and pomodoro sauces contain the same ingredients yet are different: tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil, salt & sugar.

There are plenty of arguments regarding the preparation of the tomatoes and should onions be added. I hand crushed my tomatoes yesterday; I was too lazy to get out the blender. Truth be told.

Authentic pomodoro sauce uses tomatoes blended into a purée and no onions. The tomatoes are left chunky in marinara sauce, and onions are added. The other difference is the color of the sauces and their texture. 

Marinara sauce on the left with pompador sauce on the right.

Marinara sauce is cooked quickly in under 30 minutes, leaving the tomatoes an orange-red color. The texture of the sauce is loose or runny with tomato chunks. Marinara sauce is light and bright, like a taste of summer. 

Pomodoro sauce is cooked slowly, producing a deep red and thickly textured sauce. A heavy flavorful sauce like this screams cold weather to me. Here is a basic pomodoro recipe.

Now a pot of “sauce” or gravy is entirely different from both of these sauces. “Sauce” is made in large quantities using crushed tomatoes or tomato purée. Meats like sausage, meatballs, and pork are added along with garlic, onions, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and a little sugar. 

“Sauce” starts thin and cooks for hours, getting thicker over time. When the sauce is done the texture is like smooth, red velvet. Yum! Just thinking about having some sexy-ass velvety sauce with tender pieces of meat makes me drool. 

I mentioned I made my 20-minute gnocchi to serve with the pomodoro sauce. Potato gnocchi is made with leftover mashed potatoes or grated baked potatoes. I use my quick cheat method when I don’t have either; I use potato flakes instead. Gnocchi can also be made with ricotta cheese; we can cover that another day.

This recipe is foolproof after making it many times with the same success. I always cook one trial gnocchi to ensure it holds together and floats. It always does, but I do it anyway, then eat it. 😉 Here is my recipe:

20 Minute Gnocchi

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup mashed potato flakes
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup potato stach
  • 1/2 cup flour plus more for flouring surface * I use Bobs 1:1 Gluten Free Flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 tsp kosher salt for water
  • Olive oil to coat cooked gnocchi

Directions:

Place potato flakes in a large bowl. Stir in boiling water; add the flour, kosher salt, and egg. On a lightly floured surface, knead until smooth, forming a soft dough.

Divide dough into four portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into 1/2-in.-thick ropes; cut into 3/4-inch pieces. Press and roll each piece with a lightly floured fork.

In a large saucepan, add kosher salt to the water and bring to a boil. Cook gnocchi in batches for 30-60 seconds or until they float. Remove with a slotted spoon. Drain and place on a sheet pan and lightly coat with olive oil to prevent sticking.

Serve as desired or heated in a tomato sauce, sautéed with butter and topped with parmesan or pan-fried with brown butter and sage. There are as many endless possibilities as there are with regular pasta.

***  If you enjoy my recipes, please consider making a small donation to my blog in the “support my blog” section. No matter how small, all donations are welcome and make me feel like my time and effort is appreciated. Thank you so much for your support! 🤗

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Pivoting…

Snowfall around noon today.

Pivot- piv·ot/ˈpivət/

~ The central point, pin, or shaft on which a mechanism turns or oscillates. (noun)
~ To turn on or as if on a pivot. (verb)

The word pivot has a lot of meaning in my day-to-day life, more than you would think. 

In belly dance, we do pivot bumps, which is turning a dance move called a bump in a circle, and we use one foot to pivot on while doing calibrated spins which is four spins in a row.

Chefs have to pivot on a dime in the culinary world and even in my kitchen. This has two meanings. The first is to turn in their cooking stations from one to another quickly. For example, they pivot from the work table station to the stove or oven then back again.

The second pivot in a kitchen is to change the food preparation or menu from one idea to the next for various reasons. I’ve seen many chefs on Top Chef use this word during one of the cooking competitions.

A chef must adjust if a sauce “breaks” during service by fixing the problem or removing the sauce altogether. A chef may also have to pivot if an ingredient has an issue or availability. Being able to think on your feet is essential in any kitchen. 

When the pandemic hit, it became a pivotal point for many businesses. Restaurants needed to pivot by changing their dine-in status to take-out only or to make family-style dinners instead of individual meals. Some restaurants had to close entirely. This is still so sad to think and write about.

Many other types of businesses needed to pivot quickly during the pandemic or risk going out of business. For example, by offering zoom classes for dance, yoga, or exercise. Some switched to zoom for business meetings and employees working from home.

Some people had no options to work, such as landscapers and hairstylists, until mandates were lifted. This was such a scary, terrible time for all of us.

This week we needed to pivot our business plans for the rest of the week. It happens quite often, so we are good at it now. Our production schedule can change daily depending on orders that come in or deliveries that need to go out.

During the pandemic, the biggest pivot or curveball for us was not getting the packaging we used to pack our spätzle in for retail stores. We had to use three different kinds we didn’t necessarily like, even though we knew the difference, they cost three times as much.

This week’s productional pivot came about because of Mother Nature. Getting orders to our wholesale customers needed to happen, snowstorm or not.

When Marty got up on Thursday, he saw the weather forecast for Friday night through Saturday night with the possibility of dumping 12-15 more inches of snow. 

The original plan was for Marty to drop me off at the farmers market on Saturday, and then he would make our deliveries in Albany and Schenectady, NY. 

Typically, we would make these deliveries after production one day during the week. Still, with the rise of gasoline prices, we decided we couldn’t afford to make that extra trip anymore and make our deliveries on Saturdays.

That plan changed quickly because we couldn’t risk the weather forecast and could not make the deliveries on Saturday. The stores in Albany waiting for our delivery would still be open and busy with customers coming in for food even if it storms, especially if it storms.

So after a shorter than scheduled production week, we loaded up Skye (my pickup truck) on Thursday and headed down to Albany. We were glad we did since one of our best customers was completely sold out. Now we knew their customers could get our product for the weekend.

Niskayuna and Honest Weight Co-ops.

We also decided not to go to our farmer’s market today on Thursday. I am glad we made the call because the storm did precisely what was predicted for a change and started dumping snow during the market hours. As a company that makes a fresh, perishable product, we have to decide early since we make spätzle specifically for the market a day or two ahead.

I always feel like Lucy Van Pelt this time of the year.

It’s always a little depressing getting these late winter snowstorms. Hopefully, today will be Mother Nature’s last hurrah for the season. The difference with these kinds of storms is they don’t last long like they do in January. Vermonters call these storms “natures fertilizer.”

It felt strange yesterday not being in production on a Friday and staying home today. We can’t wait to get back to normal next week.

Lastly, why all this made me think of the word pivot is beyond me, but I decided to write about it anyway to describe my week.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, guys, and don’t forget to spring ahead by one hour tonight! It’s always been worth it for me, even when the kids were small, losing an hour of sleep to have it stay lighter later. Now, spring is literally right around the corner.🙂

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5th birthday! 🥳

Once upon a time, an Irish girl tried to make gluten-free spätzle for her German husband. She tried, and she tried, then she finally nailed it on 3/11/17.

That’s how it all started. I found out in 2010 I couldn’t have gluten anymore due to medical issues. Ironically, a year later, Marty found out he was gluten intolerant. After following my strict gluten-free diet, it made him sick when he did try to eat it. Very sick. We both loved food so much; this really sucked for us.

We could find shitty bread, bagels, pizza, and pasta. When I say shitty, I mean shitty—products with terrible texture, taste, and shelf life. The gluten-free food industry has improved by leaps and bounds over the last ten years.

As I said, we could find all the essential gluten-free items we missed, but I couldn’t find spätzle anywhere. I couldn’t find a recipe or product anywhere in the world. That’s when it became my mission to make a gluten-free spätzle for us.

Over the next seven years, I developed recipe after recipe to come up empty-handed. I used various gluten-free flours and grains, different liquids, and mixing methods. Every time I thought I had it, the spätzle disintegrated in the pasta water. You know me by now; there are still curse words out there floating around the galaxy.

Then on March 11, 2017, I had an idea and tried something new. I was getting closer and closer each time I tried, so I crossed my fingers and held my breath as I pushed the spätzle batter through the spätzle press into the simmering water.

It held together! It floated to the top of the water when cooked like it was supposed to! It tasted delicious! I said out loud, “This is the birth of the Vermont Spätzle Company!”

I drained the spätzle and sautéed it in some butter, put it on a big white platter with pork schnitzel, and served it to my family. Marty took one taste and said, “We need to share this with the world.” The rest is history!

OMG! Deliciousness! So much better than that dry af cake I made for Marty’s bday!

This morning I made us pineapple upside-down gluten-free pancakes to celebrate. Our productions plans have changed with making deliveries yesterday and today instead of making product for the farmers market tomorrow.

We decided to stay home from the market due to the impending snowstorm, which is forecasted to be at its worst with one inch of snow per hour while we would be at the market. High winds at 40 phr are also predicted, making us nervous that our power will go out again. At the end of the day, the hour drives there and back with the thought of what we may find when we get home isn’t worth the stress and anxiety involved.

I hope our customers who venture out won’t be too disappointed we won’t be there and will understand we live an hour away with more snow in the forecast in VT. It’s always tough to call closing your business due to weather, which is definitely something we don’t like to do.

Happy Friday! Today I will be making deliveries, doing chores, getting ready for the storm, and possibly losing power…again. Be safe and stay warm, everyone!

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Doesn’t hurt to ask…

This post is a day late, but I ran out of time yesterday to write. We renovated our backroom/sunroom/mudroom/new pantry back in 2008. I remember because a huge chunk of ice slid off the upper room and came through the mudroom roof. Since we had to renovate anyway, we decided we would make it a 4 season room.

We took out inefficient windows and put in new sliders. Then about 5 years ago, the first set of windows got cloudy. A seal must have broken. Then the same thing happened to the second set, then the third. It sucked that we couldn’t see out the windows well anymore, and it didn’t matter if I cleaned them or not; they always looked like shit.

We decided to see if we could order new windows, not the frames, just the windows. We got the company’s phone number from Home Depot to call ourselves. It was so long ago we weren’t in their system.

Marty called American Glider and got the sweetest mid-western woman on the phone. He explained our situation thinking the windows were out of warranty. She said they weren’t they stand behind their product. We would be receiving 3 new sets of windows for free! We are never lucky like this. Yay!

We got 5 of the 6 windows and installed them right away. Of course, the 6th window is lost; FedEx is trying to track it down. We have to wait on the 3rd window now and keep our fingers crossed the window is found and delivered in one piece.

I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask, something I now believe.

Quick post since I just home from belly dance…Marty took me and picked me up due to the snowstorm. I am so glad I went because all 3 of my new students came even in the snow!

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Growing old is a privilege…

I haven’t written a raw and honest post about myself for months. This post is entirely contradictory while working through the self-realization this week.

Whenever I thought about getting old, I never thought your age mattered. I’ve heard and seen people 10 years younger than me call themselves old men or women.

How you feel mentally and physically makes you feel old or young. I know people 10-20 years older than me that are very young for their age. 

So why is that? Your physical health plays a significant role. A body in motion stays in motion, they say. If you are in poor health or horrible physical shape, it can also affect your mental shape. 

My biological mother is beautiful and in fantastic shape. She easily looks and acts 20 years younger than she is. It shows on her face and attitude. I think she is gorgeous, and I hope I inherited those genes.

I feel like your age shouldn’t have any effect (within reason, of course) on the way you dress, wear your hair, what kind of activities or music you listen to, or how old your friends are. 

Last year, I painfully admitted on my blog how I had been hiding behind my black only wardrobe for more than 10 years. I was ashamed of my post-menopausal body; I hated it.

Whenever I looked in a mirror or saw myself in a photo, all I would see was my thick waist. It made me sick, and I wanted to cry. I body shamed myself every minute of every day. 

Last year’s blog posts took me through 6 months of dieting and working out 6 days a week. I figured if I didn’t try my hardest to get my figure back then, I never would. All that work, and I didn’t lose one fucking ounce or inch. 

That’s when I finally decided that “this is me. This was who I am meant to be; this is me.” This is a line from one of the songs from one of my favorite movies, The Greatest Showman. 

After that, I said fuck it and went out and bought some new clothes. I added colorful pieces to my black wardrobe. People noticed right away; they said color looked good on me. 

Ok, so I just wrote age shouldn’t affect how you feel. I also said I needed to accept myself for who I am. But, I was still holding on to more shame. 

For the last 7 or so years, I was disgusted by the crepey skin on my neck. I started noticing age spots on my body and hands. It put me into panic mode, and I went in search of creams and moisturizers promising to have younger-looking skin in as little as two weeks. Bullshit! I wasted a lot of money.

I have always taken good care of my skin, so I felt betrayed by my body. Every time I looked in the mirror or a photo, just like seeing my thick waist, all I saw were wrinkles. It was mortifying!

That was until this past week. I watched a tv show where hair designer and grooming expert Jonathan Van Ness was working with a 58-year-old woman. 

I saw myself in the way this woman saw herself. She was afraid to look old and went to great lengths to hide it. She was petrified by it, as was I. 

Before
After
Photos credit Queer Eye of Terri.

Jonathan told her that getting old is a privilege that many don’t get. He talked about the importance of acceptance and how gorgeous she was inside and out. 

His client was pretty and in great shape, teaching dance and working on her farm with horses. She had a gorgeous figure with nice boobs and great legs. Sadly, she didn’t see that when she looked in the mirror. 

What she did see was thinning hair and wrinkles. She dressed too young and trashy and wore a wig that she denied throughout the show. She wore lots of makeup, trying to look younger, making her appear older. She was ashamed and was afraid to trust Jonathan. 

She didn’t entirely trust him by the end of the show, but he left with advice and the tools she needed, including a hair club type of cap to help regrow her hair, making it thicker again.

Before
A year later
Photo credit Queer Eye.

The show went back and checked on her a year later. They usually check back sooner but couldn’t because covid hit and stopped everyone dead in their tracks, including their show Queer Eye. 

They found a younger-looking woman wearing cute clothing accentuating her knock-out figure with her natural hair. Jonathan told her how brave she was to step out from under the wig and trust him. Her hair looked beautiful, and she looked 100 times better.

I cried when I watched the end of the show. I was so happy for Terri. I didn’t expect how my feelings about myself started to change. All it took was a Facebook selfie the next day that appeared in my memories from 10 years ago. 

I looked at the photo and thought, well, shit, I pretty much look the same. I showed it to Marty, and he told me I did look the same. He pulls no punches with me, so I believed him. 

2012
2022
I tried to recreate my pose and can’t believe I nailed it so closely. I couldn’t duplicate the lighting since the before was taken with my old Ipad at night with different lights before we updated the bathroom. My eyebrows are thinner as of only two weeks ago, which is the only real difference.

I had those same wrinkles back when I felt good about myself. Maybe I didn’t look as old as I thought. Perhaps people focused on my smile, personality, deep voice, or hair? 

So that’s it. That’s what it took. I have worked my way to think that I look and feel young for my age. Maybe people aren’t blowing smoke up my ass when they say I look like I am in my 40s and not 56. 

As you read this post, some of you may think, “that will never happen to me.” This post may resonate with some of you that feel the same as me, whether it’s wrinkles, excess weight, or hair loss. Some may think it’s ridiculous to be worried about appearances in the first place, or “who is she kidding; she does look old.” 

Whatever the case, I wanted to share another step on my journey with you. Another tough post for me to write like the “This is me” one from last year. If you would like to read it, click on the underlined link. 

I wrote today while we are on the road making deliveries and picking up some Trex decking boards at a bargain barn surplus place for a small deck we will be building to get in and out of the pool easier. 

Thanks for being on this journey with me. ❤️

***Marty pointed out I spelled waist as waste. I fixed it. Thanks auto correct for that little gem!

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Deleting posts…

The yard at 2 pm now most of the snow is completely melted! Yipee!

Some blog posts are easy to write, especially the food ones; the words flow freely. Writing about when we are out and about is also easy. So is belly dance, but some posts are harder to write. Whenever I try to force a blog post, it sucks, and I delete it.

I follow my friend Jon’s advice about only writing if you have something to write about. Don’t write just for the sake of writing. It’s ok to take a day or two as a break and then return refreshed.

When I write a post, I let it simmer for a bit before I hit the publish button. When I reread what I wrote, I find mistakes that I missed while editing and correcting them. Sometimes I left out some crucial details that wrap up the story better. Sometimes I hit the delete button.

It doesn’t happen too often, deleting a post before I publish it, but it does happen. Those posts are ones that I write when I am tired, cranky, or annoyed about something. A couple of them have slipped through the cracks, and I’ve regretted them. I don’t delete a post once it’s published; what’s written has already been read. I learn from my mistakes.

Earlier today, while I was sitting on our back deck enjoying the sunshine and 68-degree temperatures, I wrote. I wrote for an hour. Marty joined me, and I saw his reaction as I talked about my piece. It was a negative post. I didn’t intend it to be, but it was. I hit the delete button. Fuck! What a waste of time, I thought.

I started thinking about my post and figured there are so many terrible things happening in our world right now to innocent people; I have no right to complain about anything. Nothing is significant when I think about it like that. Then I took some time to concentrate on positive energy for the world instead of sending out negativity.

I told Marty I deleted my post. He said good and suggested I write about deleted posts. That would be a good topic, he said. So here I am writing about it.

After talking with Marty, I started focusing on the beautiful weather, and I could grill tonight without snow on the deck! I didn’t have to wear boots or even a coat. It was fantastic! The serving platter didn’t freeze, and I brought a glass of wine outside with me. I know it’s still only March, but today reminded me that spring is just around the corner. ☺️

Cheers! 😉
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Looking up my own recipe…

I decided to make a loaf of Irish soda bread to take to the farmer’s markets tomorrow morning for breakfast. Breakfast is a challenge every week trying to figure out what to bring since there isn’t anything available for breakfast.

Sometimes we have a GF bagel or muffin that we get at Trader Joe’s. Over the summer, I was making us breakfast burritos along with breakfast sandwiches. I made banana bread a couple of weeks ago. Last week, we only had a banana with peanut butter at the complimentary breakfast at the hotel in Schenectady. We had to leave for the market before the hot breakfast items were ready.

Even though St. Patrick’s Day isn’t for another two weeks, I decided to make a loaf of soda bread anyway. Then I remembered I wrote about it last year. You may think it’s easy to remember what I wrote a year ago, but after writing over 300 blog posts, I can’t remember if it was something in my head or that I wrote and published.

I went to google and searched Irish soda bread Julzie Style. Ha! Last year’s blog post and recipe were right there. I could have just as easily gone to the blog site, but it’s more fun for me to see my stuff pop up on google.

The title of the post was “Any day Irish soda bread.” By clicking on the underlined link, you can read my post last year and check out the recipe.

I got out the ingredients I needed for the soda bread and was surprised just how quick and easy the recipe was. Sometimes, I have to go to our VT Spätzle Company website to find a recipe I wrote and published there. Usually, it’s just to remind me what in the hell I did the last time I baked or cooked a dish.

I went with traditional Irish soda bread today. When I read the “with options” part, I wish I had made lemon poppyseed or cranberry orange. Like the blog post is titled, it is ANY day Irish soda bread. That means I can make a different one next week!

The beautiful thing about a loaf of soda bread is that it freezes nicely. I cut mine in half wrap it in saran wrap, then aluminum foil. This is a beautiful thing; when I am in a hurry trying to figure out breakfast, all I have to do is pull it out of the freezer to defrost.

I mentioned earlier this week I am trying to use up my winter stash of pantry items, so I decided on boneless chicken breast stuffed with stuffing. I breaded them in breadcrumbs and will bake them the way I bake my chicken cordon bleu. Take a look at the recipe; the only thing I did differently for today’s recipe is roll-up stuffing instead of ham and cheese. I will be making a chicken velouté sauce, aka chicken gravy, instead of the dijon sauce.

Photo of my recipe since I didn’t have time to retype it.
Photo of the sauce.

What’s the difference between a velouté sauce and gravy, you may ask? Well, guess what? I wrote about it last year in a blog post titled “Hello mother sauce.” Click on the link if you are interested. I love that I can share things you may have missed without writing about them again. Yahoo!

It’s hard to believe it’s been a week since we went and saw Waitress at Proctors Theater. On Monday, I got a huge birthday surprise that included 2 Broadway tickets to my favorite show, round trip train tickets, and a night in a boutique hotel right around the corner from Richard Rodgers Theatre! I will be writing about it later this month, right before we head down to the city. I am so excited!

Happy Friday, guys! Have a great weekend! ☺️

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Manicotti…

Last year I took a stab at making manicotti with homemade pasta sheets. That isn’t a big deal if you use regular flour, but since I had to make gluten-free pasta, my sheets fell apart. 

When life hands you lemons or, in my case, ripped pasta sheets, you make lasagna. Manicotti is like rolled-up lasagna anyway! 

As I’ve mentioned before, my parents grew up in the Peterstown section of Elizabeth, NJ, and I lived in Elizabeth until I was 9. Then we moved Iselin or to the “country,” as my father’s family referred to it. By the way, it is one of the most densely populated areas in NJ, along with the most traffic. 

It is where the Garden State Parkway, NJ Thruway, Routes 1, 9, and 27, and 287 meet. Traffic out the ass is one of the reasons we moved to VT and to get away from my family. A true story there.

Where I grew up, people spoke Jersey or New York Italian, which differs from how others pronounce Italian words. To me, it was normal. I grew up speaking this way; when I moved to VT, no one had a damn clue what I was “tawking” about. 

I found a great read on nj.com about speaking Jersey Restaurant Italian which you can read about here. It’s 💯 so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

For the rest of this blog post, I will write the Italian words the way I say them, so you get the idea. 

I made mani-gott this morning for dinner after belly dance classes. I had a big ass tub of ri-gott to use up and have been craving either ravioli or mani-gott. 

I am craving ravioli because I found a YouTube video that included the one and only Tony Spirito making Spiritos famous ravioli. If you want an authentic experience of Peterstown and the people who still live there, watch this YouTube link. You will believe me now. I felt a little homesick when I watched it. And hungry. 

I decided to use those no-boil lasagna sheets; I had a box of Barilla gluten-free ones in the pantry. This is the time of the year I try to use up the pantry shit I stored for the winter. 

I first made a quick pot of marinara sauce, not a Sunday sauce with meat that cooks all day. 

Next, I softened the lasagna sheets by soaking them in boiling water until they were pliable. 

Then, I made the mani-gott filling. I used ri-gott, parmesan, and moozarell cheeses. I added a couple of eggs, some parsley, kosher salt, and peppers; it had a beautiful creamy consistency. 

After an hour, I put some on the bottom of a roasting pan when the sauce was done. Then, I started making the mani-gott.

Mani-gott are usually longer than mine since I had to turn them in the other direction to roll them up. No big deal.

I used a scoop of the ri-gott filing for each pasta sheet and rolled them up. I placed them in the roasting pan like soldiers.

I covered the mani-gott with some sauce. Not too much or too little. You don’t want your mani-gott to be swimming in sauce or too dry. 

I sprinkled some moozarell on top, covered the pan with foil, and popped it into a 375-degree oven for 30 minutes. I took the foil off and let the cheese brown for 10 more minutes. 

It smells delicious in here. Now, all we have to do is reheat the mani-gott at 8:30 pm when I get home from dance. Mmmmmm! 

Here’s a recipe for mani-gott that is pretty damn close to my freeball method, which isn’t quite as fancy. You can use dried mani-gott tubes you can find at an Italian market or specialty store, or you can use pasta sheets as I did. GF people use the Barilla GF kind. I think the pasta sheets are easier to fill than the tubes. 

This is a perfect dish for Ash Wednesday or Fridays during Lent. This is not why I chose today to make the mani-gott; I just wanted it. My family is lucky when I wake up with specific food cravings since it’s always something everyone likes. 

I pulled the mani-gott out of the oven and let it cool for a bit. I took one for the team and carefully pried the first one out of the pan (the first one is the hardest to get out) for a photo; ok for a “little taste.” Was it good? Forgetaboutit! 

Have a great day; we are already halfway through the week. 😉

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Pork Oscar…

Today is my birthday! I went back yesterday to see what I wrote about last year…food. No surprise there. I’ve mentioned my favorite birthday dinners from when I was a kid; last year, I wrote about my favorite dinner when I was a teenager, Veal Oscar, that I had at the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Shrewsbury, NJ.

Once I read last year’s blog post, I decided to make a version of veal oscar using pork instead of veal this year. Veal Oscar is one of those fabulous lost old school dishes that adorned menus back in the day, along with Steak Diane, Beef Wellington, and Lobster Thermador.

Veal Oscar is a culinary creation served for the first time on September 18, 1897, and said to have been named in honor of Sweden’s King Oscar II, who was especially partial to its ingredients. The dish consists of sautéed veal cutlets topped with crab (or occasionally lobster) meat, and an emulsified butter sauce such as Hollandaise or Béarnaise. Traditionally Veal Oscar is garnished with 2 white asparagus spears, In modern times, the dish is often made with steak. Wikipedia.

Marty took me out to breakfast this morning; then, I hit the supermarket to pick up the ingredients for dinner. I purchased a package of boneless pork chops, asparagus, and two frozen lobster tails.

When we got home, I did my mise en place for dinner. I pounded the pork chops thinly, making them now scaloppini. Scaloppine is a type of Italian dish that comes in many forms. It consists of thinly sliced or pounded meat such as beef, veal, chicken, or pork that is dredged in flour and sautéed in one of a variety of sauces. Wikipedia.

I cut the ends off the asparagus and blanched in salt water, then shocked in cold water. I made a quick poaching liquid or court-bouillon for the lobster tail. I pulled them out, let them cool, and then removed the lobster meat.

I made béarnaise sauce, one of the mother sauces, and set it aside in the double boiler bowl to be reheated later.

I made wild rice as a side dish and used my rice cooker for ease. I threw in the rice, water, and a bunch of seasonings, salt, and pepper. I turned it on and knew it would be perfect in an hour. This is one of the only small appliances I use weekly.

Finally, I made my cherry pie. I made a homemade gluten-free pie crust but didn’t have it in me to make the cherry filling from scratch as I usually do. It wasn’t my prettiest pie, but it looks ok. I picked up some vanilla ice cream to serve with the pie.

Dinner came together quickly. It took 5 minutes to sauté the pork scaloppine; I promptly sautéed the asparagus and lobster meat in butter while reheating the béarnaise sauce.

I plated chef style tonight, making everyone’s plate for them the way I wanted it to be presented on the plate. I plated it the traditional way with the scaloppine on the bottom topped with asparagus, then lobster, and finished with béarnaise sauce.

It was nice that Noah came over after work, and the four of us could celebrate my birthday by having dinner together. Everyone loved the meal; I was happy with how it came out; it was restaurant quality. Yay!

For dessert, the cherry pie came out better than I initially thought, satisfying the craving that I’ve had since Saturday night.

Thanks to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday either on Facebook, Instagram, text, email, or on my blog. You all know how to make a girl feel special. 🥰

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Snowy getaway…

A rolling blockade snowplow job.

The last time I wrote, I was worried about a snowstorm. As it turned out, I worried for nothing. The snowstorm didn’t dump nearly as much as initially forecasted and didn’t hinder our overnight trip to Schenectady at all.

The storm started winding down just as we were leaving Friday around noon. We had our overnight bags packed, cases of spätzle to deliver, and our farmer’s markets coolers ready to go for Saturday morning; then, we hit the road.

The ride was slower than usual since the roads were still snow-covered. Our first stop was the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany to drop off their three cases of spätzle. While we were on the Northway, I saw my first rolling roadblock, snow plowing. I have to say this is genius! Four trucks plowed the entire highway at once, leaving all four lanes snow plowed instead of one lane at a time. Brillant!

I am always stressed out when we are traveling on snowy roads; the only thing I could think of was finding a Bloody Mary somewhere in Schenectady to help my shoulders come back down from up around my ears.

We decided to check-in and park at the hotel before doing anything. After we parked, we saw the Backstage Pub 50 yards away from the parking lot. We didn’t know what to expect; I really didn’t care what the place was like; I just knew I wanted a Bloody Mary.

I haven’t frequented bars, especially during the day, in a long time. I forgot how much I like walking into a dimly lit bar and finding that perfect bar stool. In my case, the perfect bar stool is right on the corner of the bar.

The queen of Bloody Marys!

We had a fantastic young and beautiful female bartender who was very good at her job. I ordered a Bloody Mary with all the “stuff,” and Marty got a fresh berry tequila cocktail. I let out a “Holy shit!” when I saw my drink. It was exactly what I wanted and more. Marty’s drink was gorgeous, fresh, and delicious. I forgot to take a photo of his; I was so over the moon over my drink.

My favorite kind of salad in a glass.

I would consider this Bloody Mary the equivalent of a salad. A healthy salad at that too! Let me break it down for you. My salad drink contained potatoes from the vodka, tomatoes, horseradish, cucumbers, olives, two different hot peppers, cheese, and bacon. I have to say this was the best Bloody Mary I ever had.

These tacos had the thinnest corn tortilla we’ve ever had and stayed together. I rolled my tacos up like a cigar to eat it.

It was already 2 pm, so we didn’t want to eat anything too big since we would have an early dinner before the show. We picked corn tacos with braised brisket, creamy coleslaw, and sriracha. I completely trusted the bartender when she checked with the kitchen if the tacos were gluten-free, something I don’t always do.

My first bite of the taco may have been the best taco bite to date. Everything was balanced with some nice heat. The brisket wasn’t fatty or chewy; the coleslaw had the perfect amount of creaminess to cool down the sriracha. I told Marty that if these tacos ended up making me sick, I didn’t give a fuck; they were that good.

Fortunately, they didn’t make me sick, hallelujah! I will be thinking about these tacos for a long time. They are not a regular menu item, just a special, so I probably won’t be able to have them again.

I had a good buzz on from the Bloody Mary as we walked across the snowy parking lot back to the hotel. We stopped to help push a car out of the driveway, something we always did in Jersey when someone was stuck in the snow. I felt 12 again!

As soon as we got into the hotel room, I yanked off my snowy clothes, jumped into bed, and took a restful nap. Good thing I set the alarm because I am not sure how long I would have slept I was that comfortable.

As I showered and got ready for dinner, Marty made a reservation for an Asian fusion restaurant right across the street that assured him they could prepare us gluten-free food without worry. Good!

Dinner at Zen was ok. The location was perfect. I loved the decor. The hibachis shrimp and vegetables were meh but didn’t make us sick and filled us up. The best part was Proctors Theater was right across the street.

From my seat, I could see Proctors and the hotel.

The Broadway show Waitress was so good! We knew the music and storyline, but I wasn’t expecting to love the play this much. It was witty and funny. The singing and acting were dead on. It made me tear up a couple of times. It had everything that makes up a great show.

We were grateful we stayed only two doors down since the show got over at 11 pm. We played with the idea of hitting one of the bars for a nightcap, but we had an early wake-up call in the morning to get up for the farmer’s market. I should have gone out because I tossed and turned all night like I usually do whenever I am away.

The streets were still slick and snow-covered in areas on our way to the market. The streets and parking for customers with the snowbanks made me think the market would be slow. It was quiet, long, and felt like being in a refrigerator for seven hours.

Saturday nights, I don’t want to cook anything elaborate. A gorgeous bowl of spaghetti, a salad, and a glass of wine is usually what I fall back on. Yes, we make our pasta as a business, but it’s either all gone or has been flash-frozen and in the freezer on Saturday nights. I keep Schar gluten-free spaghetti on hand for these kinds of nights.

I decided on spaghetti with tomato and creamy ricotta sauce, caesar salad, and a glass of red wine. It hit the spot. This morning I slept until 9:45 am, making up for the lack of sleep the night before. I woke up feeling refreshed, which rarely happens.

Parisian crepes with Meyer lemon simple syrup.

I woke up craving French crepes that I topped with a Meyer-lemon simple syrup. It was so light and bright on a cold morning. This dish makes me think about having breakfast on the back deck in the summertime.

The stage at Waitress.

I am relaxing today and deciding what I want to make for dinner for my birthday tomorrow. The curtain on the stage of Waitress was a humongous cherry pie, so that is what I will be making instead of a birthday cake. If we are ever on a game show together, and the question is, what is my favorite pie? It is cherry.