Dee is for D-isastor

So I got a new cookbook...

I was leaving for ceramic class last week and I asked Goods to pick out some recipes that looked appealing to him so I/we could make them that coming weekend. All the little colored tabbies were the recipes he choose, obviously I/we didn't make them all....but here are the ones we decided on:

• Garlic Puree with Croutons (page 12)


• Provencal Chickpea Flour Pancake to serve w/ above (page 8)


• Fennel, Orange & Black Olive Salad (page 69)


• Squash Gnocchi with Walnut Sauce (pages 107 & 108)

Sounds yummy, no?

So here I am boiling 2 heads of garlic for the Garlic Puree....

And another picture to show you my fancy spoon holder I forgot I had and never used.

The whole object of the Garlic Puree was to cook the garlic, with the skins on and put it through a food mill....with the remaining broth that was left and it would come out a garlic paste and spread that your bread or croutons...so I envisioned. It came out more like a broth with a hint of garlic. No way was I going to waste 2 bulbs of garlic goodness - so I set forth to remedy the "puree".
I got my emulsion blender out, added a couple of gloves of raw garlic and some olive oil. It helped, but it sure wasn't what we were expecting.

For the Chickpea Flour Pancake - well the recipe was a runny mess, so I added A LOT more chickpea flour and made a butt load of pancakes in a skillet - sorry no picture. They were good, but I've made them before that way.

Now onto the Gnocchi- let me stat that this was my virgin attempt in making these....and I need some practice. They came out really puffy spongy, so instead of baking them in the oven, as the recipe calls for, we "fried" them in a skillet to try and take some of the moisture out.

With the Pesto Sauce (which was a pretty good pesto)

With just some butter and nutritional yeast, oh and maybe some seasonings.

And here is a pic of the rest of the food....

I made the croutons for Goods, I try and stay on a low gluten diet as much as possible. The mustardy colored stuff on the left is the garlic mess. The Fennel Salad...I had high hopes for it....but we sere disappointed - it was bland....pretty, but bland.

And here is a close-up of the gnocchi.....just to torture you some more.

We will be attempting gnocchi again. I think more flour was needed. You couldn't taste the butternut squash in them which was disappointing. BUT....a couple of days later we had left overs....to torture Goods some more. The gnocchi actually firmed up some, but this time they were baked with spaghetti sauce and vegan cheese.

That is the end of the disaster.

Next entry will be much more positive...probably.