french onion soup + butternut squash gnocchi = LOVE

Valentine's Day 2009. That holiday for all the unlucky people who don't have a birthday on Feb. 12th or 13th. Nice consolation prize I guess. Kev and I never pay too much attention to V-Day, since we are still stuffed to the gills from our birthdays and there's only so many Hallmark cards two people can exchange. Kev had projects to do all day and I had some much needed lounge lizarding to do. It's tough, I know. Oh, but I did get a 4 mile run in, so I guess I did something productive. I wanted to do some work on the veggie garden, but the rain put a serious dampener on that.

I wanted to make a nice dinner at home since it's rare that I have time to spend the afternoon in the kitchen. That has to be one of my favorite ways to pass time -- in the kitchen, cook, cook, cookin' away.

Valentine's Day Menu
French Onion Soup
Roasted Asparagus
Butternut Squash Gnocchi with a Sage Brown Butter Sauce

French Onion Soup:
Outstanding! I got the recipe from the Barefoot Contessa Parties cookbook. Ina never stears me wrong. Her recipe called for equal parts fennel to onions. Oh, it was so very delicious, and easy! I'll definitely be making this again.

Roasted Asparagus:
Nothing out of the norm. Asparagus spears with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. In the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes. Crisp and tender at the same time. Delightful!

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter Sauce
The gnocchi were super easy to make. I guess I just always assumed gnocchi were going to be a pain in the a$$ to make like ravioli or tortellini, but surprisingly no. The sage brown butter sauce was good. I was kind of winging it as I never cook with butter, but I'd say for a first attempt at the whole thing it came out pretty good. It needed a little tweaking...the gnocchi should have been smaller; I should have put the sage in a little closer to when the sauce was almost done, but I didn't hear any complaints from the peanut gallery of one.