To keep things interesting in our kitchen, my goal is to try an average of one new recipe a week. This week's experiment was to create butternut squash gnocci and I figured it was low key enough that M and L could help me in the kitchen.
I did most of the prep work the night before (roasting the butternut squash and making the dough) so that all I would have to supervise was the shaping of the gnoccis. About 5 minutes into helping my two favorite two-year-olds roll out the dough into snakes and trying to teach them how to cut the snakes into pieces (with dull table knives, mind you), I realized that they had more interest in squishing and squashing the dough than actually following my lead. So I changed course, gave them each a section of dough and presented them with the playdough tools and some forks for making patterns. I also brought out a bowl of sprinkles from my cookie decorating supplies to give them additional decoration options.
(note: anyone dealing with the dough should consider using a clip to keep their hair out of their eyes/face or be prepared to get sticky dough all over your face/hair when you go to brush it away... that's why both the kids have hair clips) The kids were occupied for a good thirty minutes... enough time for me to roll out the gnoccis, cook them and assemble the rest of our lunch.
And even though they ate almost all of their dough by the time I had our actual lunch ready, they both cleaned their plates and asked for seconds. I think that is pretty high praise for this recipe, indeed.
