#6 – Make My Own Gnocchi

My 28th birthday is 55 days away!  That means I have 55 days left work on my birthday goals list.

As of now I’ve completed 19/27 goals.  Unfortunately, it looks as if there is no way on Earth some of the goals will happen.  I haven’t worked out in months (mega oops) so I don’t think my running goals – both distance and speed based – are in the cards.  But the food based goals?  I’ve got those covered.

Like making gnocchi my own gnocchi from scratch.

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This goal was delicious to complete!  And it was surprisingly easy, too.  With less than an hour of hands-on time we pulled pillows of heaven from thin air mashed potatoes.

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I followed this recipe from Cooking Light for the gnocchi.  But instead of their sauce I tossed my gnocchi in a mix of lemon and brown butter and served them atop a bed of lemon and butter sautéed spinach.  The final taste was out of this world.

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Will we be making gnocchi from scratch ever again?  Adam and I both say “yes!”

Have you ever made gnocchi, or any other kind of pasta, from scratch?

Highlights From OBX

Hey there!  Long time no see!  It has been, and is going to be, a crazy summer.

Among other things, I went to the Outer Banks last week (whee!).

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My in-laws took Adam and me for a couple of days and we had a glorious time.  We beached,

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climbed the sand dunes,

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got a large chocolate-strawberry diet coke from Sonic that rocked my face off,

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and met a Flutter Pony.

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You don’t even want to know how excited I was about that damn horse statue.

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We went to climb the sand dunes in between my spotting the pony and taking my picture with it and I muttered to Adam about The Smooze the whole time.  <– if you got that reference I will kiss you on the mouth

I know I’m behind the times, but I want to post some of our trip eats highlights anyway, mostly so I have a record of them for the next time we visit OBX.  This was a trip where sharing meant caring; the only meals Adam and I didn’t split were dessert!

Lunch at Mulligan’s.

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Coastal Carolina She-Crab soup.

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This was basically a giant bowl of crab meat; ah-maze-ing!  We also swooned over the sherry floater.

California style fish tacos.

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Soft tortillas with local fried fish, cilantro-lime slaw, pico de gallo, and Cajun tartar sauce.  This was our first meal in NC and it set a great tone for the rest of the trip.

BBQ at Sooey’s.

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Pulled chicken platter with cole slaw, hush puppies, and fried okra.

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This stop was a repeat from my first OBX visit and I’m so glad we went back.  Those were the best fried okra I’ve ever had, I was shoving them into my mouth by the handful!

Breakfast at The Dunes Restaurant.

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We got the Greek omelet (spinach, tomato, and feta) with asparagus.  It came with hash-browns and a side and since we were splitting they let us do one hotcake and one biscuit.  Even with two of us eating we couldn’t finish that giant plate of food.

Froyo at The Surfin’ Spoon.

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Such good topping options! I got a little bit of yogurt with marshmallow fluff, peanut butter topping, bananas, and reese’s peanut butter cups.

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Like a fluffernutter in froyo form!

Also, froyo at Wild Berry.

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The yogurt flavors weren’t anything new, but the toppings bar boasted sweetened condensed milk!!!  I was definitely in heaven.

All in all, it was a tasty, terrific trip.

Today

Some of the things I thought today –

Man, it has been a looooong time since I last blogged.

I made the right decision.  Part of the reason I’ve been blogging AWOL is because I was making a giant, life-changing decision and I’m pretty sure positive I made the right one.

The end of this semester is going to be insane.  We have two business plans to create in the next month and we were told to expect 40 plus hours of work each week on top of our clinical hours.

Some of the things I did today – 

Went to my first day of clinical practice in long-term care.

Took a glorious, 70* walk on Elmwood with my husband.

Attended night class.  With the curve I scored a 100% on the first exam!

What I ate today – 

A mealy apple.

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A packet of Artisana Cacao Bliss.

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Chocolate Almond Coconut Clif Mojo Bar.

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A low-fat strawberry milk.

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A (salted caramel chocolate nougat) candy from the latest Yumvelope.

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Veggies from Globe Market, ~.25 lb each.

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Thai carrot salad,

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and Greek vegetable salad.

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Lays Chicken and Waffles potato chips.

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Dinner.

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Amy’s Alphabet Soup,

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and a soft pretzel with yellow mustard.

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I also thought a lot about the tragedies at the Boston Marathon today.  If you or anyone you are close to were effected, please know that you are in my thoughts.

Bloody {Mary} Sunday

My big plans of knocking off some school work didn’t come to fruition, but I did manage to do some day drinking.  That’s a better use of time really, isn’t it?

I started the morning with this bowl of absolute incredibleness.

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Dannon Oikos Cafe Latte Greek Yogurt, 1/2 serving Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola, fresh blackberries, 1 tsp honey, 2 Tbsp coconut butter.

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Oh my goodness, you guys, the coconut butter.  I have been reading Kath talk about coconut butter acting as a magic shell for years but I never quite knew what she meant.  It was amazing.

I also snacked on (approximately 2 servings each) BBQ Pop Chips with reduced-fat french onion dip.

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If I had known I was going to have chips with dinner I might have done a veggie-based snack instead, but at that point I planned on having soup!  Sidenote – did you know that Pop Chips has a new ketchup flavor?!  I’m pretty sure that sounds terrible.

I spent my afternoon at work.  The weather has finally gotten the memo that it’s Spring so lots of people were out and about.

At the end of my shift some friends stopped by to invite me to Blue Monk.  They were having a Bloody Mary special, with celery, hot sauce, tomato, etc infused vodkas.

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A girl from our program sweetly got us a 2nd round so I ended up having two.

Bloody Marys make me crave stick-to-your-ribs food so instead of soup I ended up with Moe’s for dinner.  A rice bowl – rice / black beans/ sautéed onion / mushroom / green pepper / cheese / sour cream / guacamole / corn salsa.

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Plus chips with queso.

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Apparently there’s always room for chips.

Do ketchup flavored chips sound good to you?

Easter Brunch

I hope everyone had a hoppy Easter!  Our day was quite nice; tasty food, nice weather, and tons of tv.

Adam’s parents sent us $ in lieu of an Easter basket so I got to go to brunch with my handsome husband.

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He took me to Left Bank, a spot he’s been to with friends (working weekends means I usually have to skip brunch, boo!) and was dying to share.

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The space was gorgeous and the menu had lots of offer.  Plus, they brought yummy lemon poppy-seed bread.

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Adam ordered a mimosa while I went with an extra-spicy bloody mary,

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but we were on the same page when it came to food.

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We both ordered the Seafood Benedict,

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crab cakes topped with poached eggs and [citrus] hollandaise.  <– I asked for regular hollandaise, served on the side please!

The dish came with sides of fruit and hash browns and was quite good.

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I saved one of my crab cakes for Adam but devoured my eggs.

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Meals where you soak up yolks are my very favorite!

The rest of our day was gloriously low-key.  We knew we were going to hunker down on the couch, so we made sure to take the dog on a quick walk first.  I got an iced, non-fat, caramel macchiato on the way home.

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Why yes, I did ask for extra caramel – it was Easter dammit and no one bought me any candy!

Minus a few hours spent on a take-home exam, we spent the rest of the day screaming at the characters on “Battlestar Galactica.”  My food totally fit the tv marathon vibe…  Chips.

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Leftover buffalo chicken mac and cheese.  (recipe’s coming this week, promise!)

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And no-bake brownie batter.  (recipe’s coming as soon as I work out the kinks!)

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Readers who grew up with the whole bunny thing; do you still get an Easter basket?

Two Meals At One

Our last day in Charleston was our best day yet!  Technically we’ve got tomorrow morning as well, but we head for the airport before 6 am so I don’t have high expectations.  It was our best day of vacation, but I can’t give this post the love it deserves because I still have to pack!  Keeping it quick…

Workout – 25 minutes on the stationary bike.

Breakfast – Virginia’s on King.

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My plate.

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2 sunny side up eggs.

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Hash browns.

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Grits.

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Homemade biscuit (with butter and jam).

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I basically licked my plate clean!

Fun 1 – Middleton Place.

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Fun 2 – A stop at Sonic for a big Coke Zero with strawberries.

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Fun 3 – We explored some more downtown and stopped at a coffee shop to warm up.  While we were hanging out we just might have designed some Easter eggs.

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Dinner – Breakfast was so good that we headed back to Virginia’s for a 2nd meal!  Our instincts weren’t wrong, they brought us tasty cornbread (studded with broccoli!) with butter.

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We also shared an order of pimento cheese with flat bread.

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I went full-on Southern for my final meal.

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Fried catfish.

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Sweet potato fries.

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And baked mac and cheese.

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When in Rome.  Everyone shared bites and agreed that my plate was amazing.

See you in Buffalo!

Charleston, Day 1 And 2

Hello from the South!  I’m blogging in a spring-ish 50-something degrees (it’s better than Buffalo!).  Actually, I’m blogging from Adam’s computer this trip, so I’ve got to keep things quick.  We are having a terrific, delicious time.

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Breakfast day 1 – brunch at the famous Hominy Grill.

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I got a(n extra spicy) bloody mary.

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And a bowl of she crab soup.

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Charleston is famous for its she crab soup; this bowl was super creamy and loaded with pieces of crab.  I adore anything with sherry.

We ordered a piece of buttermilk pie for the table.

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But it was much drier and less custard-y than we were hoping so we all just took a small taste.

It was a rainy first day so we did lots of inside and driving activities.  We got in some good sight-seeing and scoped out a few spots to hit up during the rest of our trip.

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One of our stops was Whole Foods for stocking up on goodies.  <– chocolate coconut butter packets, it’s good to have you back in my life!

There was froyo next door.

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I didn’t really love any of the flavor offerings so I got a small cup of cheesecake yogurt with tons of popping boba.

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Can’t go wrong with boba.

We went to Hyman’s Seafood for dinner and they brought us complimentary hush puppies.

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Best hush puppies ever; they had the perfect amount of sweetness.

We also started with fried pickles.

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Lots of fried food in that dinner.  I got french fries as my side,

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with steamed shrimp.

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Every component of my meal ended up smothered in tartar and cocktail sauce.  I’m a girl who loves her condiments.

I was exhausted by the end of the day and crashed into bed hard.  Let’s pretend it was the 20 minute stationary bike ride I started the day with, and not the heavy dinner!

Day 2 we skipped the gym and slept in.  Instead I made it a healthy morning by starting my day with an apple.

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Then we headed to Bakehouse for breakfast.

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The offerings were as delicious as the space was adorable.  The cookies and bars looks amazing but the closest we came to them was splitting a caramel marshmallow.

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I also did a toasted marshmallow cappuccino.

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Adam and I shared breakfast.

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We had a mixed berry scone.

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And a piece of Greek turkey strata.

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It was a great breakfast.

We spent our second day exploring on foot.  King Street and Meeting Street provided lots to look at.

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We even got to see dolphins!

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I couldn’t get a picture to save my life, but we saw lots of waving flippers and even a mama/baby combo.

Tastes from the day included…. Praline,

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a drop of the spiciest hot sauce available (I stuck a toothpick in it and touched it to my tongue; I honestly didn’t think it was that hot!),

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honey,

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an Earl Grey macaron (<– squeeee!),

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a KIND bar,

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and some watermelon Zots from one of the many old-time candy stores.

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All good, but I am definitely a lunch eater; when we got back to the hotel to change for dinner I was starving.  Enter the perfect snack –

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Diet coke and Cacao Bliss?  Yes please!

But I sure was glad I saved room for dinner.  We had an incredible Southern meal at Magnolias.

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Bread with ridiculous cream cheese herb butter came when we sat down.

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And we ordered a pimento cheese plate to start.

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Sadly, the cheese wasn’t quite as sharp as I was hoping for, but everyone else at the table loved it.  Pimento cheese was at the top of my to-do list for the Southern vacation though, so I hope to try again tomorrow.

I ordered a Bellini to drink (champagne/peach nectar/and a touch of grenadine),

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but ended up swapping with Adam halfway through for his vodka/creme de cassis/pineapple juice martini.

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For dinner I went with the “Fresh, Local, and Vegetarian.”  You can’t go wrong with a name like that!

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Sautéed spinach, fresh corn salad, roasted carrots, fried green tomatoes with jalopeño pimento cheese, and mashed potatoes.

We were too stuffed for dessert, though the menu listed a cream cheese pecan brownie with white chocolate ice cream that I’ll probably be dreaming about!

In fact, I’d like to be dreaming now; goodnight!

Have you ever been to Charleston?  Is there anything we just can’t miss on our last day?