More Epic Failing

It makes me sad that I have 2 entries in a row that talk about me failing at cooking - just when I thought I was getting pretty good at it! Luckily, this time I did not give myself second degree burns, but unfortunately the food did not turn out as yummy as last time.

Yesterday I wanted a lighter dinner, so I was just going to make gnocchi with bacon bits in it (considered a lunch dish by MC). Like most things in Mastering none of the steps were too difficult, but it took a while. First there was peeling, boiling and mashing the potatoes. I did this just fine even without a potato ricer. Then making the pate a choux - a fancy way of saying flour water and egg dough - went fine as well. Lastly I just have to combine everything with the bacon and cheese and simmer it till cooked. The key word there was simmer. Apparently, if you boil gnocchi it will break apart and make a mush. Like mine did. In my defense, I had it at a simmer when I started it...then I decided to take a break from the kitchen and watch the end of the Grey's Anatomy from last week. Bad choice. I should have realized that when you leave things on the stove for a long time water boils off and the temperature slowly rises. Thus, my beautiful gnocchi ended up looking like this:

Gnocchi Gunge - .5 on Yum Scale.

At this point I was too frustrated to give up on it, so I racked my brain for a way to fix it. I came up with a less than brilliant plan, but since quitting isn't something I do (even when I should) I plunged ahead. I decided to drain off as much water as I could then put the leftover gnocchi gunge into a baking dish and bake it into some sort of mashed potato dish. I added some flour to thicken it up and some butter and cheddar cheese on top to give it a texture.

3 out of 5 on Yum scale

It didn't taste bad at all, but for all the prep work that went into it, it did not taste like a gourmet dish. It was more comfort food-y and filling. It worked out because Ian wasn't feeling too well, but I was disappointed. To rebound off these two fails I've decided to do a complicated tuna steak and veggie dish tonight...hopefully it will fare better!