Italian Food, Funky Llamas, Cards,and Flowers!

Just some things I've been up to...

I'm hooked on crocheting these cute flowers and embellishing cards! "Hooked"... get it...sometimes I crack myself up! Okay, for those that have no idea how to crochet, you use a "crochet hook"...........oooooooooooooh, now, you get it!!

Some are made using my handspun llama fiber,
some are just a cotton thread. Pattern at the end of this post.

This was for the Featured Stamper challenge.
Artful INKables sentiment

This was for the Limited Supply challenge
Gina K Designs

And this one...can you find the crocheted flower?
This one was for the Inspiration Challenge.
Found it yet?
There isn't one! I just love how this one turned out and wanted to show you!
Gina K Designs/Cornish Heritage Farms

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And I made the yummiest dinner tonight! I made my own gnocchi from scratch! Then made this yummy sauce to go over it! I got the recipe for the sauce online from Olive Garden. I took pics along the way and was going to show you the end result...but it tasted 100x better than it photographed!!

I will show you the gnocchi though, it was very easy to make. Recipes will posted at the end. Next time I'll make them a little smaller too.

The sauce recipe calls for white wine, luckily I had this wine I'd bought because...well, read the label! I had to have it!!

• Gnocchi with Spicy Tomato and Wine Sauce
  
  servings: 4 easily!
  prep: 30 min(s) cook: 30 min(s)
  Ingredients
  1 lb Gnocchi potato dumplings (make your own...or look in frozen section at your grocer)
  2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
  6 cloves Fresh garlic, minced
  1/2 tsp Chili flakes
  1 cup Dry white drinking wine
  1 cup Chicken broth
  2 14 1/2 oz. cans Tomatoes
  1/2 stick Sweet cream butter, 1 inch cubes chilled
  1/2 cup Freshly grated Parmesan cheese.... I used a mixture of Parmesan/Romano/Asiago
  Freshly chopped basil (to taste)....I had some store bought pesto, added approx 1/2 tsp to sauce
  Salt (to taste)Freshly crushed black pepper (to taste)
  
  SAUCE PREPARATION
  Place the olive oil, garlic and chili flakes in a cold pan. On medium heat stir and cook the olive oil, garlic, chili flakes until garlic turns slight golden brown.
  To this mixture add the white wine and chicken broth simmer about 10 minutes.
  Reduce the wine and broth by half, add the tomatoes, and continue to simmer for 30 minutes.
  Puree the sauce in blender with the butter and Parmesan cheese.
  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  
  TIP: Add Cream to sauce to add richness...I added approx 1/2 cup of half and half
  Add vegetables of choice to sauce

This sauce would be good over pasta too!

• Gnocchi
  Ingredients:
  2 large potatoes
  2 cups all-purpose flour
  1 egg (I used 2 because I had enough potato to double the recipe!)
  
  Directions:
  1.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Peel potatoes and add to pot. Cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and mash with a fork or potato masher.
  
  2.Combine 1 cup mashed potato, flour and egg in a large bowl. Knead until dough forms a ball. Shape small portions of the dough into long rolls. On a floured surface, cut rolls into half-inch pieces....You want a nice dough, not sticky, but you don't want to work in too much flour either! Add the flour a little at a time.
  
  3.Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Drop in gnocchi and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until gnocchi have risen to the top; drain and serve.

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Now for the crocheted flowers.....

Rnd 1: ch 2, 5 sc in 2nd ch from hook. Join with sl st to first sc.
[ (ch 2, 3dc, ch 2, sl st) in the same sc, sl st to the next sc], 5 times, making 5 petals. Cut off.

I hope I inspired you to do some cooking or pick up that yarn that's been sitting around for too long!! Enjoy!!

Thanks for stopping!