Gnocchi Class Fun Here At Windmill Farm Kitchen

We are now in the 11th month of 2016 and it is hard to believe Christmas is coming quickly.  I hope to do a re-cap of all my classes this year in the next blog, but wanted to tell you how much fun our last class was here at the farm this past week.

The class was Learn To Make Italian Gnocchi.  If you don't know what gnocchi is, it is a small pillow of a dough/pasta made from potatoes.  

I personally don't believe it is tasty enough to eat by itself.  It needs a bit of fresh herbs or vegetables, cheese or even meat all combined in different ways.  Very similar to a raviolis.

The cooking classes are done in my own kitchen so naturally, a few days before the class, I get down and dirty and clean, clean.  This class was a little difficult to figure out in my head how I could get 8 people around my center island and side island to roll out and cut these little gnocchi pillows.  I think teaming up worked out very well since out of only 1 pound of potatoes, you get tons of gnocchi so they each got a turn at kneading the dough and rolling it into very thin long noodles to be cut.

Just before the class started, I made a large batch of my own sauce using garlic, olive oil, a little butter, parsley, basil.  As each person finished some gnocchi I popped it into the boiling water to cook for about 3-5 minutes, then put them into a bowl and spooned my sauce over it, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and let them taste their very own gnocchi, just made fresh.

My door prizes were fun, I had baskets of fresh Meyer Lemons from our Windmill Farm trees, baskets of persimmons, pomegranates, fresh eggs, 2 beautiful fresh flower bouquets

from our gardens (that are still blooming) and the grand prize was a bunting/banner I crocheted of fall leaves.

Along with some wonderful snacks and drinks that made the evening complete.

 At one point I was telling people some special point about gnocchi, but the noise and laughter was so loud, I had to interrupt them from having so much fun to listen to me!!!  Ha Ha. As usual, once the class got going, I was too busy to take photos.  But one participant took a few so I am sharing them with you.

A wonderful night together with some wonderful past participants to my classes and a few new ones.

Thank you all for coming and for being part of our small, sustainable, Windmill Farm experiences.  

Our last classes for 2016 are coming up, 2 days of Make Holiday Farm Fresh Wreaths.  Both days are full right now, but that can change as we get closer to December 7th and December 8th. PS-These 2 lovely ladies from our 2015 wreath class happened to also attend this gnocchi class.  Thank you Jo Ann and Lori for supporting our small and local farm.

Thank you all for spending the time with us.