Rating: 💋 💋 💋
And here we have my first review of my roommate and older sister's cooking - the pressure is on!
For our first weekend back in New York, my sister and I decided to have a Girl's Night on Friday night. Face masks, manicures, pedicures, movie night, the whole bit. This all rose out of Shannon inviting me to join her for the beef and gnocchi soup she planned to make, me mentioning I was planning to do my nails that night, and suddenly we were planning a whole event. It is very fun to build up a big fuss out of nothing.
Unfortunately, it was not all good vibes on the beauty night front. When Shannon came home with the groceries on Friday night, I was in my room, blow dryer in one hand, smoothing cream in the other, lamenting my unruly, wavy hair. For the past six months, people have been telling me they prefer my hair straight. According to my hair dryer that night, they are just going to have to suck it up and deal with the curls. Smooth isn't working, and conformity is out of style, kiddos. That's the great big welcome that greeted Shannon upon her homecoming. Firecrackers abound. Whoops. Sorry.
I gave up on my hair and revamped beauty night after dinner by whipping out the indigo nail polish and Korean face masks.
First though, Shannon put me to work dicing a whole yellow onion so I could cry it out.
I admit, chopping onions and guarding the bottle of Haut-Medoc while it breathed was the extent of my kitchen work that day. It was the very same bottle I used to crush mint candies for those Christmas cookies back in early December, so it was a fun reunion for us.
Meanwhile, Shannon chopped celery and sizzled the beef in olive oil on the stove.She took care of building the tomato broth with the diced celery and onions, fresh-cut tomatoes, sautéed beef, and spinach. With just ten minutes left on cook time, she added the gnocchi.
I was crowned taste-tester, so I had to bite into the pasta to make sure it was perfectly al dente. It was cooked properly for sure, but when we fished the gnocchi out I was more distracted by its shape. Gnocchi is not usually my go to for pasta shapes, and I had to wonder - do all gnocchi look like maggots?
Shannon and I laughed about this over dinner.
Dinner was served!
The wine was perhaps a bit spicier than I like, but perfect to Shannon's taste. I am very hard on red wine, I admit. We likened its flavor to a riojas, so if that's the kind of red you are into, be sure to check out the Haut-Medoc for the French version. Personally, I think I will relegate it to candy crusher exclusively. It paired well with the soup though. The Parmesan melted perfectly into the soup, the spinach added a fresh, peppery flavor, and I raved about the beef. She had done an excellent job sautéing it so it crumbled into the oil, which sealed the juices inside.I didn't get any gnocchi in my serving, so Shannon went back and picked them out of the spot on the stove to ensure I got the full dish. So sweet!
It was not my favorite version of soup ever, but I think if we amended the recipe to go lighter on the celery and add a bit more tomato, pepper, and gnocchi, it would be great. Overall, Shannon followed the recipe to a T and I was very impressed with the lovely meal she provided.
My offering? This tasty Mediterranean bread my co-worker gave me because it came extra with his Seamless order. He came over to my desk and asked, "Do you like bread?" I stared up at him and asked, "Am I a human?" Of course! It was so kind of him, and the bread was this big disk of thick, fluffy dough. Delicious! Shannon and I tore it in two and each took a half to dip in our soup. Then, in a horrific turns of events a corner of my piece got so over-soggy with soup it gave up all hope and broke right off, nosediving into my bowl and disappearing at the bottom. Oh horror! Soggy bread is such a trivial matter; still, I passionately lamented the fallen bread. I needed to lighten a dark mood that had dampened our Girl's Night, and this did the trick. Shannon laughed so hard she almost fell off her chair.
The truth was, that morning we had woken up to the horrible news about Iran. Between that, the continued devastation in Australia, the earthquakes in Puerto Rico, and everything else that blasts across the headlines, the world is giving us a heavy load of worries. It seems to me that, while I have personally decided to have a fantastic 2020, the state of our country and Mother Nature herself are not on that same page. I almost feel like a fool when I came into the year with such hope, and then these horrific events start the calendar off. It is deeply upsetting, and I am very concerned about what is to come.
We have to do as much as we can to prevent further devastation and take the best action possible to fix what has gone wrong. We have to hold ourselves accountable for our part in it. Everything does not have to have gone to ruin, if we don't let it. Whether it is donating to the koalas, doing volunteer work, or even just taking the time to be kind to the people we encounter, every little bit counts. I cannot put out the fires in Australia, but I can make my sister laugh over something silly when she is sad about it, and I can buy a cute koala laptop sticker that will fund rescue efforts for those precious animals (link below!). I am trying to make sense of the big puzzle of a world we live in, recognize what I need to come to peace with, and understand what I can do to make positive changes. Otherwise, I'll drive myself mad, and that's no way to live.
Keep hopeful!
XX,
MK
Kommentare