Milanese Gnocchi and Vegetable Stew

Day 15-First let me discuss the reality shows I viewed this week. One non-cooking show that I have to complain about is The Real Housewives of NJ. Joe’s story about how he got into his car accident and that he drank right after the accident happened before the police came not while driving. Really?! Do you really think anyone believes you Joe?! And seriously could Teresa and Joe’s children been any more annoying. Every time they were screaming or running or doing who knows what last night I was cringing. Holy cow, if I were Caroline and Albert I would have said no way to babysitting on the cruise. Poor people, I wouldn’t be able to tolerate those children.

Onto the Next Food Network Star. I say thank goodness for Aria finally leaving! I’ve never like her and her stupid family style point of view. I’m pulling for Aarti or Tom to win this thing. Although lately Aarti has really been screwing up, so maybe Tom deserves it more. Hell’s Kitchen update and spoiler alert: Holli won! Yay! I was pulling for either of them, but her son is so dang cute and for that I wanted her to win a little bit more. Holli have fun in London! Lucky duck! MasterChef was much better this week, with the contestants being challenged to slice and dice a ton of onions perfectly. I noticed some contestants struggling with their onions like I do, and for that they were kicked off the show! The egg challenge was next. They each got one egg and had to cook a dish with the egg being the star. I would have failed at that since I don’t eat eggs and have only cooked eggs once or twice. The woman with the same issue ended up baking her egg perfectly though, and she made it through. Poaching is the way to go, and I think I’m going to have to challenging myself with poaching some eggs. I’ll be blogging about the challenge after my vacation.

And then there was me. The minute I got into the kitchen to cook, I checked to make sure all my produce looked okay. Luckily it did. Whew, sigh of relief. Another mold sighting and I would have completely lost my mind. Looking at the page in the cookbook that the recipe was on, I knew I was going to have an easy night. This recipe said that if you eat one bowl of this stew you become 4.7 days younger. I guess that’s better then nothing. None of the other recipes I've made have claimed something like this.

Simple, simple, simple. You heat some olive oil (from the jar of sun dried tomatoes) in a pan with garlic. Add 3 cups of chicken or veggie broth; I used chicken. Bring it to a boil, add your prepackaged gnocchi (you didn’t think I actually made it did you?) and sun dried tomatoes. Cook until the gnocchi are done, which is when they are floating to the top. Stir in 2 cups of escarole, and cook another minute. Stir in diced plum tomatoes and serve in bowls. Top with gorgonzola cheese (we used feta), sage, and hot red pepper flakes.

Final Product:

Loved it! I thought it was super. I will definitely be making this recipe again. I figure if I eat enough of it I could be 30 again in another year! (It’s a joke people; the book claims that you decrease your RealAge by eating this meal.) Anthony seemed to like it too, so it’s a keeper. No changes needed to the recipe, unless you also don’t like gorgonzola.

The blog isn’t a long one today. I’m too tired to write. I think all of the ranting yesterday exhausted all of my energy. Tonight I’m making sliders with chipotle mayo and wedge potatoes. Hoping it’s as yum as it sounds. Think I’ll pull some carrots from the garden and cook them up too.