Out of Commission!

This is my apology entry!  I haven't posted in a while.  Part of the reason is that I am out of commission (more on that later) and the other part is a slight tantrum I took Tuesday night....

So, let's get right down to it.  To Tuesday night, and my temper tantrum.  I decided to make dinner, and since Kenzie was home sick thay day, I told her to get the ingredients for ricotta gnocchi.  I had pinned it on Pinterest, and Laura had made it and said it was delicious.  I love gnocchi, and I was intrigued by the sage brown butter sauce, and I have a love for all things gnocchi, so I was excited.

I decided to triple the recipe.  Laura said that one recipe did not make a ton, and we had about 8 people for dinner!  So... I tripled it.  It took forever to roll out the dough, cut them, and fork them to make them pretty (this step makes me sick now... so much work, all for nothing...) and then it was time to put them into boiling water.... annnnd they completely disintegrated.  Immediately.  It looked like I was attempting to boil polenta.  I started to panic, and Mark attempted to calm me down by trying to pan-fry a few of them (what a good man), but they were beyond all help.  We ended up scraping lots of food down the disposal, which I really hate.  What you should be inferring is that throughout this fiasco, I was crying and swearing and generally handling things quite poorly.  I do not deal well with my own mistakes, and I read over that recipe over and over again, and still cannot figure out what went wrong.

Ironically, Laura had made the gnocchi again the same night, and doubled it, and it worked just fine.  My theory had been that the tripling somehow ruined the recipe, but obviously that is not it.  I used skim ricotta, but she used part skim.  The only thing we can think of is that I used pre-grated parmesan cheese, and she used the real deal and grated it.  We figured that has more moisture and helps the gnocchi to stick together.  I am not sure if I can emotionally handle trying again, but I really do want to eat them, so we'll see.  Laura says it is a good lesson to learn that the first time you make a recipe, you follow it exactly.  She's such a know-it-all (just kidding!  Love you LG!)  In the meantime, I might have to make more ricotta blackberry muffins...

Then yesterday I made herbed focaccia.  I had made this back in December, and it is an amazingly easy yeast bread that comes out deeeeelish.  Kenzie was craving something salty and warm and soft (she has strep) and that was all I felt up to doing (my back was bothering me).    Yet again, it came out wonderfully.  Perhaps this time it is even better because I used fresh rosemary and thyme.  I really recommend this bread!

And now it brings us to today.  I actually just called out of work tomorrow because my back is so bad!  Don't ask what I did: the answer is nothing.  It started bothering me yesterday, and as time went on, it hurt more and  more until today I am crippled!  I have had to just sadly flip through food magazines and take the day off from the kitchen.  This explains the lack of photos in this post.  Just take it from me that the bread looks good.  I'd have to stand up and walk to get photos, and that is beyond me right now!

Recipes:
Ricotta gnocchi in brown  butter sage sauce
Herbed focaccia