Day One Hundred Forty-Five

The weather's been pretty blustery and chilly but I did manage to get out and go to the grocery store. However, this afternoon was a different story - it warmed up and the snow has been melting quite rapidly. Despite the warmer temperatures, I felt colder this afternoon than at any other time during the day. So, with that said, I decided I needed to get in the kitchen to warm up. I pulled out a ricotta gnocchi recipe from Cook's Ilustrated as I've been coveting some homemade ricotta I had stored away a couple of weeks ago. The recipe was surprisingly simple as it didn't require any potato mashing, but instead used the ricotta as the base. Since my ricotta was homemade, I was able to omit the necessity of straining the store bought cheese which saved me a lot of time. I think all in all, it only took me about 20 minutes to get the gnocchi ready to cook. While the batter refrigerating for about 15 minutes before cutting, I cooked the sauce which consisted of some leftover marinara with a splash of vodka, some roasted pine nuts and finished with about 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese. I think Bob likes it as I haven't heard a word from him since I put the plate on the table. A good glass of sauvignon is washing it down as we speak. I did taste it and I certainly could eat a whole bowl full, but because my heartburn has been a real issue for the past couple of weeks, I'm not going to risk the tomato acid. Oh well, at least I'm able to feed my husband, and guess what? - I'm sweating!