Let the world change you...: Feelin' fine at 29!

In honor of my birthday I had a party at my house. I wanted to do it potluck style and of course I always have to have food and drinks on hand.

Before the party started we cooked up a storm. Two of my colleagues came over early to cook and they made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and butternut squash salad. I was sad that one of my favorite restaurants in town, Papyrus, had closed so in tribute I made gnocchi with vodka sauce.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough

Chopping the chocolate!

Butternut squash salad

A pinch of salt to the start of a vodka sauce

I combined a few recipes for the gnocchi with vodka sauce and came up with the following (this is made with ingredients found in Rwanda as well as kitchen supplies):

Gnocchi:
6 potatoes (about 1 kilo)
3 cups flour (plus more if its too soft)
1 egg

Boil potatoes with skin on. Once they are boiled, remove the skin and mash them to a pulp with a fork (A potato masher would have been excellent if I had one). Create a well in the middle and add in the flour. Mix with your hands until they are thoroughly covered in dough and sticky. Add a lot of salt and pepper. The dough should be soft but not too sticky. Roll dough into "snakes" on a table and cut with a butter knife into small pieces. Use a fork to put pretty lines on the gnocchi (also serves the purpose of getting more sauce on it). Meanwhile, boil water with salt. Once the gnocchi are made, drop them in the boiling water until they float up from the top. Put cooked gnocchi in an aluminum foil made "take away" container that can go in the oven.

Vodka Sauce:
6 tomatoes, diced
2 onions (red)
2 cloves garlic
fresh basil (from friend's garden)
1 cup vodka
1 container Masaka farms creme fresh (or any other creme)
Akabanga sauce/piri piri/ hot sauce/ red pepper flakes
Parmesean cheese

Chop up the garlic, onions and tomatoes. Saute onion and garlic in a pan until soft. Add diced tomatoes and chopped basil let simmer for 30 minutes. Add in 1 cup vodka and simmer for 30 minutes. Whisk in the creme with a fork so that it doesn't curdle. Add in some shredded parmesean. Add hot spices to taste.

Putting them together:
Add sauce to aluminum foil container (ie baking dish) and top with extra parmesean. Bake as long as you can take it before you think you NEED to eat, ie 10 minutes. Voila! Delicious!

People started arriving and eating. After awhile we started up the dance party and for the next 4 hours we were standing outside my house in a circle taking turns going in the middle. It was a little intimidating but a lot of fun!