Gnocchi and Chive Oil

The amount of prep work I've put into the first dinner is crazy… but at the same time, I love having a little something to do each night when I get home from work. Upon my arrival home today, I discovered my potato ricer came (along with the cornet molds I ordered). I have loved all of the excuses to buy new kitchen stuff :) So, with having a potato ricer, I decided it was time to make the gnocchi.

The ingredients were super simple:

I baked the massive potatoes while I cooked dinner for the baby and got him ready for bread. I attempted to scoop out the potato after it was cooked (per instructions), but quickly realized it was much more efficient to just peel the skin off. I was also a little concerned about using the ricer… but it turned out to be SUPER simple.

After quickly combining everything, making the ball of dough, then a mini snake from a piece of the dough and chopping the gnocchi, I thought I would even have time to sit and watch tv for a while with Brandon.

And then. And then I realized that I had to roll each of the gnocchi over a fork. And there were like a billion of them. Seriously, I realized it made 20 dozen, but I didn't really wrap my head around how many that was until I had to make the little grooves. And that I had to cook them. And freeze them.

2 hours and an extreme backache later, I had this:

Notice how they got bigger as I went along? I'm glad I sucked it up and made all of them, though, since Alex LOVES them and it’s super easy to just toss a dozen (or two – kids got a big appetite) frozen gnocchi in a pan and heat them. Yum.

While mentally psyching myself out about making the gnocchi, I also made the chive oil started. First I ran a packed of chopped up chives under burning hot water. Then I blended with oil and stuck it in the fridge. Easy-peasy.