Friday, April 7, 2017

Three Beautiful Things 04/06/17: Mom Update, Gnocchi and Shrimp Debut, *Chopped:Star Power*

1.  Mom has been sleeping more than usual lately. Again, this morning, she slept until about 7:30 this morning and during the day she nodded off frequently in her chair.  Mom has had short periods of fogginess, slow to respond to questions sometimes, and her memory hasn't been as sharp as usual. Mom is far from incapacitated. We worked together to get her Avista bill straightened out. It is. She is eating well. We are making plans to go to Marguerite Gallaher's funeral at 5:00 on Friday afternoon and the Easter Cantata on Sunday.

2. When I was last in Kellogg during November and December, our friend Rosie dropped by and she and Mom talked a bit about gnocchis. At the time, I looked at some gnocchi recipes and told Mom that I thought I could make gnocchis. This morning, as I started to trot off to the grocery store, Mom told me she wanted fish for dinner. I did some reading around and found a gnocchi and shrimp recipe and decided I would go all the way with preparing and cooking things I'd never done before. I bought raw shrimp. For the first time ever, I shelled and deveined shrimp, successfully(!). I think I kneaded the gnocchi dough too much and I'm not sure I got the ratio of flour and potatoes quite right. I might bake, rather than boil, the potatoes next time. I also want to figure out which variety of potato works best.  I'm hoping my next gnocchis will be lighter, and after doing some post-dinner reading, I learned some ideas about how I might make them lighter and better. The dinner I prepared was a skillet dinner -- boiled and browned gnochhi, shrimp, broccoli, shallots, chicken broth, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese.

3.  I capped off the day with a visit to Christy and Everett's to watch an episode of Chopped: Star Power and had fun watching Dorothy Hamill and three other athletes compete in the kitchen. I won't give away who won the day, but I'll say it was an entertaining half an hour of cookery t.v.

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