French Friday with Dorie: Gnocchi a la Parisienne

Our Back Yard In North-Eastern Idaho

My Gnocchi Taste--Loved the Bechamel!

GNOCCHI A LA PARISIENNE    Just Out of the Oven

This Arizona sun worshiping, heat loving, 44 oz drink guzzling girl today finds herself in frostbitten,  iceberg, snow bound, mountain man, 4 wheel drive only, refrigerator, Napoleon Dynamite, northern Idaho trying to keep up with French Friday with Dorie cooking in my college daughter’s apartment kitchen.  There are road signs leading to places like Yellowstone National Park, and wild animal parks with grizzly bears and wolves and other local attractions.

The Amazing Snow Mountain Made From Snow In Our Driveway

 Snow Up To My Bedroom Window

Our Walk to the Car

The Tears on my Car Have Frozen into Icicles

After spending the Christmas holidays with our family, another daughter, Stephy-Wephy, her 10 month old baby, and I drove my new-mother-daughter and her new baby to their way up north home.  It was so terrific to have a new baby in our house for Christmas and to have this wonderful young family back home during such a great family time of year.  

My Little Man's December 13th One Month Birthday

All Bundled up For Winter----Stephy-Wephy and Baby A's first Snow

As I write up this blog entry it continues to snow, keeping us all inside.  We are all sitting around the kitchen table playing games, everyone is tasting the gnocchi and giving their opinion, and....we are enjoying soda pop that has been sitting in our kitchen-sink-ice-bucket filled soft, white, fresh snow instead of our usual ice cubes.  

Kitchen Sink Ice Bucket

Everyone agrees that they love the cheese sauce and they all want to know what cheeses I have used...Comte and Parmesan, purchased on our way up at the most local Costco a couple hundred miles south of here.  But they all expected and would have liked a more mac & cheese texture rather than the very soft dumpling texture of the gnocchi.   My 10 month old granddaughter, however, totally loved the gnocchi!!!  Everything about it pleased her; she wants more!

Baby M Wishes He Could Taste--Baby A Wants More!

Actually we all liked the flavor of the gnocchi but would have liked a product that held up better or was more firm...I guess I could say, more “American style.”  (Later, after shoveling snow, my son-in-law came in and ate a large serving...he said that after some heavy work the gnocchi sounded really good!)

Hand Mixing the Gnocchi Dough

Spoon-size Gnocchi Resting While Making the Bechamel

Bechamel Sauce with Comte and Pamesan

Used Comte Cheese for the First Time

Boiling the Gnocchi

Draining the Gnocchi

I enjoyed trying, for the first time, Comte cheese, a new find for me and my family...we all love it and are thinking of ways to use it again.  And combining it with Parmesan created an amazing and very pleasing flavor.  I was also surprised at how far the small amount of cheese sauce went...I was amazed at how it covered the gnocchi and was so creamy and smooth.  I use lots more cheese sauce with mac and cheese as the mac absorbs so much more sauce than the gnocchi.

Half-Baked Gnocchi--Add Cheese and Butter to Top and Turn up the Heat

And many thanks to you, my cyber friends, for helping me with this cooking experience.  I copied only the first page of the recipe before leaving home...only the ingredients and not the instructions...so I had to get on line to see your posts so that I could complete this experience...I also phoned my Frolicking Night Owl daughter who was making this recipe right when I phoned.  So...thanks to you all!  I love trying new things and I really enjoy all of you!

Gnocchi a la Parisienne