Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Browned Butter Basil Sauce

I love to cook. Tonight, however, not so much. I ate a half a bag of salad with a half a carton of sliced mushrooms on top. Then I had a leftover cinnamon granola bar from J's packing for his trip...crumbled up over French vanilla ice cream because I didn't feel like boiling my pasta. That kind of day? Yes!

This is not that kind of recipe though, so no fear. I made this Friday night for "Happy, happy, J is home!" night (always a good night). 

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Browned Butter Basil Sauce

-One package of sweet potato gnocchi...I found this awesome whole wheat brand that is four servings per package (read: two servings in real life)
-6 tablespoons of butter
-6 tablespoons of olive oil
-3 cloves of garlic
-1/3 cup walnuts
-fresh basil (lots!) I used a little less than a half cup loosely packed (the remainder of what was on our little plant)
-grated Parmesan cheese
-Pinot Grigio...not necessary, but recommended ;)

Begin boiling water for the gnocchi. It takes three minutes to cook, tops, so be ready to go!

In a sauce ban, heat butter til it melts (add garlic now!) and eventually cooks to a light brown. At this point add in the olive oil and turn the heat down. Add the walnuts.

Back in the pot of boiling water, toss the gnocchi in for 2-3 minutes. Right before you drain the gnocchi, add the basil to the butter sauce just to wilt it. Remove from heat. Drain gnocchi and add to sauce.

Sprinkle with Parmesan on top.

It's that easy. In our house, of course, serve with a huge salad and aforementioned wine. As a bonus, enjoy with thunderstorms and a rainbow.

All of the Lights...Happy Fourth!

#1Fan Sitting in The Purple Row (denotes 5280 ft./1 mi. above sea level)

Last night J and I celebrated the Fourth with our second annual Colorado Rockies
fireworks game. It's a great time...and we get three shows for the price of one: the Rox game, the sunset, and the fireworks. All three delivered this year. :)


This morning consisted of a lazy trip to the farmer's market and un-rushed midday, and BBQ at a friend's. I can't believe I still have two days off...yay for long weekends!

Climbing in Trees

Dramatic Sunset (and Dramatic At-Bat too!)

The show kicked off with
Katy Perry's aptly named "Firework"

Union Station in LoDo

The game was a shutout (go Rockies!) but it wasn't boring on any account. It was especially fun to watch Charlie Blackmon hit the first homer of his MLB career - on his 25th birthday. I've been cheering him on since Dexter Fowler was called down to Colorado Springs. The Rockies brand spanking new acquisition Mark Ellis was also a treat...he was great, and we enjoyed speculating on how long his beginner's luck is going to last. Current answer at the time of this writing: two games. ;)

After the game we walked our friends to Union Station so they could begin their trek home. We decided to stop along 17th Street for house-made, fruit-infused, vodka cocktails; spicy shrimp egg rolls; and watching the lights and reflections of Denver.

Mid-Week Vaca!

 

Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon of this week was a raging good time. :) On Wednesday evening, J and I went to the Rockies - White Sox game at Coors and sat in the upper infield area (as opposed to the upper outfield area where we normally chill) for some baseball. We also treated ourselves to some burgers, fries, rings, and cokes from the No. 17 Burger Shack (after Todd Helton). The Rockies didn't win that evening (but our appetites did).

Mariposa Lily

Some of the easily sloping landscape
along the side and to the bottom of the mountain.

J calls this the "egg white" flower
(we can't find it in the guide book)

 Thursday I had taken off to volunteer with J at JeffCo. We spent the morning helping with volunteer newsletters and we spent the afternoon at beautiful North Table Mountain. I think that this is quickly becoming one of my favorite parks because it is so different then many of the other landscapes in the area. Rather than being in a foothill region, North Table Mountain is "flat-topped mountain that rises almost 1,000 feet above the surrounding plains with very steep side slope" according to JeffCo's information page located here.
Especially fun right now were several wildflowers (and noxious weeds: bull thistle - not pictured) we saw along the trail.
We took a shorter hike than we were going to because the sky became dark and we saw rain in the distance. Good call because the sky opened up when we left!

Flowering Cactus

Impending gloomy weather and amazing view

The hike:

North Table Loop to Tilting Mesa Trail to North Table Loop.
Created by My Tracks on Android.
Total Distance: 5.73 km (3.6 mi)
Total Time: 1:43:30
Moving Time: 1:16:52
Average Speed: 3.32 km/h (2.1 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 4.47 km/h (2.8 mi/h)
Max Speed: 67.61 km/h (42.0 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 1692 m (5550 ft)
Max Elevation: 1991 m (6533 ft)
Elevation Gain: 236 m (774 ft)
Max Grade: 53 %
Min Grade: 1 %
Recorded: Thu Jun 30 13:02:18 MST 2011
Activity type: North Table Mountain

View 2011-06-30 13:02 in a larger map

Also, check out Clear Creek! This is the section raging right through Golden's city center. :)

Clear Creek at its finest