Sweet, Beautiful Gnocchi - My Nonna would be proud...

So, I'm on a mission to make homemade gnocchi sometime before the end of this month. I've even talked to a girlfriend about doing it together one weekend afternoon... and, I've found the perfect sauce to go with it. Ragu. No, not the kind in a jar, but the real ragu. I recently watched a late-night Channel 9 "Create" cooking show hosted by Nick Stellino, featuring Seattle's Jason Wilson, of Crush fame. They did his Pork Ragu with gremolata, and it looked amazing.

I was recalling the ingredients at the grocery the next day, and missed a few, so made the recipe my own, and it was fantastic. Especially with the packaged gnocchi from Trader Joe's.

I did a lot of things differently, including using a fantastic white wine in place of the red... and carrots instead of fennel and leeks, spicy peppers and green olives. I went with what I had — sweet onion, diced; celery and carrot, diced (all from Yakima Fruit Market); pork shoulder, sliced fresh garlic, white wine, chopped canned tomatoes... and the gremolata was Italian parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic and Spanish olive oil. Fantastic.

You'll have to trust me that it was phenomenal - the photo is terrible, but I plan to try it again this week!

Ragu

4 pounds fresh pork shoulder large-chopped

1/2 c Spanish olive oil

sea salt and Johnny's seasoning (bad, I know)

1/2 large sweet onion, small dice

3 medium stalks celery, small dice

2 medium carrots, small dice

2 stalks celery, cut into small dice

6 cloves garlic, sliced

1 c Portugese white wine

1 quart canned chopped tomatoes

Gremolata

Italian parsley, chopped fine (about 1/2 cup)

Garlic cloves, chopped fine (about 6 cloves)

juice and zest of one large lemon

Spanish Olive Oil (until it looks right)

Gnocchi package from Trader Joes (with red label)

And, we did some ginger cut-outs with Elsa when she came for a sleepover on Thursday last week. Love the fun decorations!!

Wordless Wednesday: Velvety Birthday Goodness...

Frozen Buttercream Transfer

Aura and Rowan were having a combined birthday party this year, and they both love Transformers. So, ever the pesky friend, I told Miki about this fabulous new thing I'd learned about... the frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT). And, then I found a handy little graphic to use for tracing that included everyone's favorite Autobot, Optimus Prime, and a female Autobot, Elita One. But, since I'm just crazy enough to think that this sort of thing is fun, I went to Miki's last Friday to help her try this new technique.So, armed with a print-out of the image, we prepared buttercream, tinted it the appropriate colors, taped the image to a sturdy plastic cutting board, covered it with plastic wrap, then started tracing.
First, you do the black outline of all the detail, and then you fill in with the colored frosting, filling the image in from front to back. Then, you push the frosting down with a off-set spatula, and even it out, and pop it into the freezer.

When you are ready to use it, you just lay it on top of your frosted cake, and peel the plastic wrap off. Miki did Happy Birthday Aura & Rowan too, and you have to remember to reverse images and text since the image is flipped. There are some great videos on You Tube that demonstrate how to do the FBCT.

Miki did chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, grouped them into a "cake" and frosted with vanilla buttercream, then popped the transfers on (we added colored frosting as background to the letters so they'd be easier to manage). It's a technique I'll be using in the future for sure. I can just see a cake covered in Madeline and Erik's transferred artwork... now that would be cool!

Lovely, and 21-years Old!

Happy Birthday to Ro!

Rochelle's birthday being in January, and specifically right when I'm working out and lightening/healthy-ing up the diet, she got a non-fat chocolate cake for her birthday today. Now, don't go away just yet. It's good. Really. Moist and delicious, chocolate-heaven. It really doesn't taste light at all... And, while Ro is also lovely, she's got a couple years on this lovely cake recipe that I've kept for 21 years... I've saved it since I was a sophomore in high school. It's originally from SHAPE magazine, circa 1989, and it's got a nearly fat-free frosting to go with it. But, seeing as I'm far less extremist these days, I skipped that super-healthy frosting in favor of a little bit of chocolate-peppermint buttercream for the filling and sides, and a simple ganache poured over the top. Balance is a good thing. I also grated two Lindor dark chocolate truffles over the top and added some candy-cane hearts and other decor to make a flower shape. You know, because this was a birthday celebration cake!Here's the whole SHAPE-approved recipe...

Nonfat Chocolate Cake & Frosting (SHAPE magazine 1989)
1.5 c sugar
1.75 c flour
3/4 c cocoa powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 c nonfat milk
1/2 c applesauce
2 tsp vanilla
1 c boiling water

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Spray and flour pan/s (really - do it, or the cake will not come out of the pan). Combine dry ingredients, then add all the wet ingredients except the boiling water. Beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes, then stir in boiling water. Bake 35-40 minutes.

Nearly Fat-Free Chocolate Frosting
4 Tbs light margarine
2 Tbs plain, non-fat yogurt
1/2 c cocoa powder
2 c powdered sugar
3 Tbs non-fat milk
2 tsp vanilla

Cream margarine and yogurt, then add cocoa and sugar alternately with milk. Add vanilla, and add additional milk as needed to get the consistency that you want.

Oh, and to do the candy cane hearts... just heat the oven to 200-degrees F, arrange two mini candy canes for each heart in heart shape on parchment and bake for 8-9 minutes. Remove pan, and shape/squish connection points with chopsticks or spoons (so you don't burn fingers), then pop back in the oven for an additional 1-2 minutes. Voila! Wouldn't these be fun Christmas ornaments to hang on the tree? I just found them online last week, and luckily had an extra box of mini candy canes that fit the bill!