Showing posts with label kitchen disasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen disasters. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Exploding Gnocci @LibbyKlein

 Libby Klein There is no recipe today. The recipe exploded. 



I was trying to make ricotta gnocchi. I followed the directions exactly. I made a lovely pan sauce of fried pancetta and sage in butter and olive oil. I still have the grated lemon waiting to go overtop the finished dish. When I put the gnocchi in water they exploded like Mentos in Mountain Dew. I had one giant gnocchi that looked like a life raft. 

Totally disgusted, I let it cook the requisite three minutes, then scooped it out of the water with my spider, and dumped the whole concoction into the butter and oil. It looked like it was breathing it was as mad as I was. Then I got the idea to bake it as if it were cheese puffs. So I scooped little meatball sized dumplings onto a parchment lined sheet pan and stuck them in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.




They taste right. They kind of resemble little potato pancakes (even though there is no potato since I'm allergic.) For a side dish to meatloaf these would be pretty good. All they are is cheese, flour, and egg with the butter, sage and prosciutto baked in. I don't recommend trying to make exploding gnocchi. Try Vicki Delaney's recipe for Ricotta Gnocchi instead. But if you ever make it by accident, just know you can recover by baking them in the oven and serving them anyway.


Have you ever had a recipe fail so badly you could only pivot or throw it out? Let me know in the comments.



Vice and VirtueLayla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this ​unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart.


Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.

After her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last . . .

Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included . . .

Silly Libby
Libby Klein writes ridiculously funny murder mysteries from her Northern Virginia office with a very naughty calico Persian named Miss Eliza Doolittle, and a sweet black Lab named Vader. She can name that tune for 70s and 80s rock in the first few notes, and she's translated her love of classic rock into her Layla Virtue Mysteries. Libby was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that prevents her from eating gluten without exploding. Because bread is one of her love languages, she includes the recipes for gluten free goodies in her Cape May based Poppy McAllister series. Most of her hobbies revolve around travel, and eating, and eating while traveling. She insists she can find her way to any coffee shop anywhere in the world, even while blindfolded. Follow all of her nonsense on her website www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Checkerboard Cake: The dessert that almost wasn't!


Everything was going so well,
the Christmas carols were
playing, the Hub and
the dudes were out from
under foot and off with
their new toys. My cake
batter was perfect. All
was right in my kitchen,
and then it wasn't.





For the uninitiated, a checkerboard cake is a three layer cake
that alternates vanilla and chocolate cake so that when you
cut into it, it looks like a checkerboard. There is a special pan
created to make this cake, which my mother gave me several
years ago that I had been wanting to try. Well, what better
day than Christmas day?

The recipe requires that you make all of the cake batter and
then separate a third to which you add the melted chocolate.
As I mentioned, my batter was perfect. I poured the third
into a separate bowl and turned around to add the chocolate
when the blue glass bowl in my hands slipped. For a nanosecond
I thought it might bounce. It did not.

A crash like gunshot sounded, causing my husband who had
just walked into the room to jump and shout while I stared at
the pile of blue glass and batter in a catatonic stupor. As my
husband swept up the mess and tried to talk me back from
the ledge, I was incapable of speech and reduced to making
strange animal noises. This was supposed to be dessert at
my in-laws for thirteen people! The Hub offered to run to
the store to buy whatever I needed. I debated making a
subdued two layer cake. I did some pranayama breathing.
I checked my ingredients. I had just enough, with a tablespoon
of flour to spare, to make a third more of the cake batter.



And this is how it turned out:


PERFECT!

Now for anyone interested in
making this cake on their own,
I am including the link to the
Wilton cake site. The picture
of their cake is prettier than mine.
My one piece of advice (other than
don't drop a third of your batter on
the floor) is to have some wine chilled
for when you get done. This cake is
an accomplishment worthy of a
beverage. Fo Sho!



Happy New Year!!!
Jenn

www.jennmckinlay.com

SPRINKLE WITH MURDER
by Jenn McKinlay
March 2010 (Available for pre-order now)

STUCK ON MURDER
by Lucy Lawrence (aka Jenn McKinlay)
Sept 2009 (Available Now)

CUT TO THE CORPSE
by Lucy Lawrence
April 2010 (Available for pre-order now)

Keep entering ingredient ideas for our Iron Chef week and don't
forget to hunt for Eggsecutive Orders by Julie to be entered
in her contest, too! See? There's always something fun to do
at the Mystery Lover's Kitchen!!!