Best of the Month April 2015

A recap of my most popular posts from last month (April 2015).

Check out last years most viewed of April:

Dark Mocha Cheesecake

A dark chocolate cheesecake with coffee flavor. Now has 628 views and 108 +1s.

#BestoftheMonth April 2015: Dark #Mocha #Cheesecake -last years #bestof April via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Now for this year's best of April:

Mocha Chip Cheesecake

A rich chocolate cheesecake with coffee, mini chocolate chips, and a dark chocolate drizzle.  A perfect birthday cake for my husband. 649 views and 125 +1s.

#MochaChip #Cheesecake | #BestoftheMonth April 2015 via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Garlic Butter Gnocchi

Soft fluffy pillows of warm potato gnocchi tossed in a garlic butter sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese.  591 views and 38 +1s.

#Garlic #Butter #Gnocchi | #BestoftheMonth April 2015 via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

How to Make Potato Gnocchi

Soft fluffy pillows of warm potato gnocchi tossed in a garlic butter sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese.  481 views and 50 +1s.

#HowtoMake Potato #Gnocchi | #BestoftheMonth April 2015 via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

A light and fresh salad of crisp cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, and crunchy pistachios tossed in a sweet creamy lemon dressing.  335 views and 66 +1s.

#Tomato and #Cucumber #Salad | #BestoftheMonth April 2015 via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Yummly for Food Bloggers

Yummly is a photo and recipe search/sharing website that is great for showcasing your work and finding new recipes.  292 views and 6 +1s.

#Yummly for #FoodBloggers | #BestoftheMonth April 2015 via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Check out last years Best of April:

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy.

Linked to:  Best of the Weekend, Treasure Box, 2 Cup, Freedom, Full Plate, Foodie Friends

Follow Joy Bee's board Joybee Whats for Dinner blog posts on Pinterest.

Read more ...

Garlic Butter Gnocchi

Soft fluffy pillows of warm potato gnocchi tossed in a garlic butter sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese.

This was one of my first couple of times making homemade gnocchi.  I used a simple sauce so I could really taste the flavor of the gnocchi.   It's incredibly quick and delicious, but it's also filling enough for an entree (maybe with a side salad).

I used a simple sauce so I could really taste the flavor of the gnocchi. [Tweet this]

I love garlic.  It's probably my favorite ingredient and I add it to just about everything (except sweets...but I'll figure out a recipe someday ;)).  Have no fear of garlic it not only keeps vampires away it's healthy in many other ways too; just google it.  I minced up a bunch of garlic for this recipe, but you can use more or less depending on your taste preferences.  The trick is to just soften the garlic when cooking it.  You don't want to brown or burn it just heat it enough to flavor the butter and cook off that raw garlic bite.

Garlic not only keeps vampires away it's healthy in many other ways too. [Tweet this]

Garlic Butter Gnocchi

Ingredients:

Potato Gnocchi
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup minced garlic
Fresh cracked pepper
Parmesan cheese

Bring about 4-5 quarts of lightly salted water to a boil in a large stockpot.

Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan.  add the olive oil and garlic.  Gently cook and stir the garlic until it's fragrant and tender.  Remove from the heat.

Place frozen or fresh gnocchi in the boiling water and let boil until it floats.  Fish the floating gnocchi out of the water with a slotted spoon or spider (skimmer) and drop into the garlic butter.  Stir and toss until the gnocchi is coated with the oil.

You can optionally turn the heat back on and cook the gnocchi in the sauce for a little just don't burn the garlic.

Place the gnocchi in bowls and top with fresh cracked pepper and Parmesan.

Makes about 2 servings depending on how much gnocchi you use.  Serve alongside a salad if you like.

Enjoy.

Don't forget to check out How to Make Potato Gnocchi:

Check out some of my pasta recipes (I know gnocchi isn't technically pasta but some of these sauces might be great with gnocchi too):

Clam Linguine    -------------------------

Mushroom Spinach Tomato Pasta

Cheesy Chicken     Garlic Penne      --------------

Very Veggie             Pasta         ----------

Spinach Pasta Bake

Pasta Primavera    --

Shrimp Scampi           --

Blue Cheese Alfredo

Linked to:  2 Cup, Treasure box, Lou Lou Girls, Tasty, Whimsy, Tickle My Tastebuds, Cook Craft Share, Full Plate, Freedom, Foodie Friends, Best of the Weekend, Show Off, Pretty Pintastic

Follow Joy Bee's board Joybee Whats for Dinner blog posts on Pinterest.

Read more ...

How to Make Potato Gnocchi

A simple tutorial and recipe for how to make potato gnocchi (potato dumplings).

Update:  3/20/16 pin-able image and minor editing

Gnocchi are delicious soft dumplings made of flour, eggs, and potatoes.  I'm focusing on potato gnocchi in this post but apparently they can also be made with ricotta, butternut squash, or other similar ingredients.

Gnocchi are delicious soft dumplings made of flour, eggs, and potatoes. [Tweet this]

Everything I know about potato gnocchi I learned from Italian Food Forever's How to make Potato Gnocchi.  It's a great step by step tutorial all about how to make gnocchi.  The main points I took away from this post were:  it's easier than most people think, bake instead of boil your potatoes, and don't use too much flour.  With these tips, I made potato gnocchi.  I loved it and so did my husband it was simple, inexpensive, and delicious.  There are many variations of gnocchi but for my first time, I kept it simple.  It turned out great so I'll definitely experiment with adding herbs and spices in the future and maybe even other main ingredients.  I want to try ricotta gnocchi some time too, but I think it's a good idea to start basic and get this recipe down before I start to experiment.

It's easier than you think, bake don't boil potatoes, & easy on the flour. [Tweet this]

Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients:

4 russet potatoes (about 2 cups of potato insides)
1 egg
1-1 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Start with baked potatoes and scrape out the insides.  Keep the potato skins for Loaded Baked Potato Skins.  You want about 2 cups of potato insides.

Squeeze the potato through your fingers, use a potato ricer, a fork, or a masher to break up the potato as finely as you can get it.

Place the potato mash in a medium bowl, add the salt, egg, and 1 cup of flour.  Stir briefly to combine then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead gently by hand adding the rest of the flour as needed until ingredients just come together and you have a smooth dough.  Don't overwork the dough and don't add too much flour.

Cut the dough in half (or more) and roll each half into a thick rope about the thickness of a thumb.  Thicker is fine you'll just have bigger gnocchi and if you get too thin the rope will break (so you will easily know if you are getting too thin).  Short ropes are easier to roll than long ropes but roll however you're comfortable.

Cut the rope into segments about the same size as the thickness of the rope.  The gnocchi are fine like this, but you can also indent them with your thumb against the tines of a fork to dimple and give them texture (great for holding sauce).

At this point, you can refrigerate the gnocchi until ready to cook, or I find it easier to freeze them (so they are more solid).  I use the gnocchi the same day I make them so I don't know how well they keep.

Drop the prepared gnocchi into boiling, lightly salted water and boil until they float.  Remove from the water and sauce as desired.  A simple garlic butter sauce is what I made (I'll post this next time) but a simple (tomato based) pasta sauce would be great, or a pesto, or a white wine sauce.

Makes about 2 servings (maybe more if you scrape out more potato insides or have really big potatoes)

Experiment and enjoy.

Other recipes mentioned in this post:

How to Make a Great Baked Potato	Loaded Baked Potato Skins	Simple Pasta Sauce  -----------------
White Wine Sauce and Shrimp Scampi	Spinach Pistachio Pesto

Linked to:  2 Cup, Treasure Box, Teach Me, LouLou Girls, Tickle My Tastebuds, Tasty Tues, Full Plate, Cook Craft Share, Freedom, FoodieFriends

Follow Joy Bee's board Joybee Whats for Dinner blog posts on Pinterest.

Read more ...

Loaded Baked Potato Skins

Warm potato skins loaded with cheese, bacon, sour cream, and green onions.  A delicious gameday snack.

The first College Football Playoff National Championship is tonight (this afternoon for us in Hawaii) so I thought I'd share a football snack.  These Potato skins really hit the spot.  They are slightly salty and crisp baked potato skins loaded with all my favorite toppings.  These skins are baked and not fried so they don't get as crisp as the deep fried kind you can get at restaurants but they are delicious and easy to make.

Declicious #bakednotfried Loaded Baked #PotatoSkins  [Tweet this]

First off you need to start with great baked potatoes and I have a trick that makes them awesome.  You rub the potatoes with olive oil and sea salt before baking them (it's super simple but makes a huge difference).  Click the link for more details.  Then cut into wedges and slightly hollow each wedge.  Now you have the base potato skin.  Don't throw away the potato insides.  I saved them to make Gnocchi (I'll post that recipe eventually) or add them with some eggs and sausage/bacon to make a breakfast hash...there are plenty of things you can make with it.

Start with great #bakedpotatos for Loaded Baked Potato Skins  [Tweet this]

Loaded Baked Potato Skins

Ingredients:

4 baked russet potatoes, cooled (even refrigerated over night would be fine I think)
Shredded cheddar cheese
Bacon, cooked and chopped
Sour cream
Green onions, sliced

Cut each baked potato into wedges.  I had medium to small potatoes so I cut them into quarters (cut in half long ways then cut each half in half again--longways) if you have really big potatoes you may be able to get more.

Carefully scoop out, you don't want to tear the skins, all but about 1/4-1/2 inch of the potato insides making the wedges concave so they can hold toppings.  At this point I refrigerated them to make the next day (or just make them the same day) but I bet you could freeze them laid out on a sheet pan for about 1-2 hours then store in a freezer bag until you want to use them too.

Lay out the skins, skin side down, on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle on as much cheese as you like and bake at 400 F for about 10-15 minutes.  Then switch to broil and broil for a little while until cheese is well melted.

Remove skins from oven and top with bacon bits, a dollop of sour cream, and some green onions.
(alternatively just use a dollop of Loaded Baked Potato Dip on top of the re-baked skins)

Serve immediately.  Makes about 12 skins which was fine for 2 people but we would have liked even more...they're delicious.

Enjoy.

Linked to: 2 cup, Teach Me, Lou Lou Girls, Ticke my tastebuds, Tasty, Merry Mon, Wed Roundup, Cook Craft share, Full Plate, Freedom, Foodie Friends, Best of the Weekend

Follow Joy Bee's board Joybee Whats for Dinner blog posts on Pinterest.

Read more ...