This is one of those perfect perfect fall-winter recipes that you must make for Thanksgiving. Because it’s super-simple. If you’ve never made gnocchi before, please trust me that it’s easier than you think…please don’t be intimidated by the “gn”

Two throaty letters THAT close together sometimes scare me too.

But I promise you, it’s not bad at all. Here, let me hold your hand and walk you through it.

1. Mix together some canned pumpkin, lemon zest, salt, ricotta cheese, egg yolk and grated parmesan. In a separate bowl, add the flour. Now, here’s a secret shortcut. The recipe calls for “sifted flour” but I’m lazy. I don’t like to sift. I use a whisky-thingy to briskly whisk through the flour which breaks up any clumps. Does the same job. Plus, I like saying “briskly whisk.”

2. Add some of the flour (not all) You’re gonna mix with a spatula until the flour disappears.

3. Now add the rest of the flour and use your fingertips and lightly mix/knead. It’s a wet, sticky dough, but you’ll only do this for a minute. You can add more flour if it’s too sticky.

4. How do you know when you’ve added enough flour? Press your finger into the dough. It should be slightly tacky but clean. Then divide that dough ball into 4…and roll out with your hands one of the sections into a 1-inch diameter, long snake.

5. Cut into 1-inch pieces with a knife. Then you can use your fingers to lightly roll each piece to get them evenly sized. But seriously, this step is not necessary at all – you’ll be pan frying the gnocchi and any fancy handwork or groovy fork-marks will disappear anyways.

6. Heat a pan with some butter, add gnocchi pieces, fry until both sides golden.

7. After you fry all batches, clean the pan. Add new butter and olive oil. Fry the sage until fragrant. Remove and discard the sage. Then whisk in balsamic vinegar. Pour over the gnocchi. THAT’S IT!

8. Shave some parmesan and serve.

See, I told you gnocchi was gneasy.

I’m currently in San Francisco (yay!) and this afternoon, I’ll be cooking live on View From the Bay which is also streamed live online. It’s on at 3-4pm and I think the cooking segment is on towards the end of the hour.

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Then tonight I’ll be at Omnivore Books from 6pm-7pm with a quick talk, booksigning and jackpot giveaway from my tour sponsors, Scanpan, Chefs Catalog, Earthy and MacSpeech.

Oh, wait til you see the goodie bags…I think I have enough for each event that I’m doing here in SF.

Elise of Simply Recipes is spending the next 2 nights with me. Where is she gonna sleep?

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Tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll be spending some time with the good people over at Foodbuzz and will be at the Metreon for book signing 2pm to 3:30pm.

Saturday night is a cooking class at Sur La Table in Union Square 6:30pm. We’ll be making this:

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I Love L.A.

I’ve just come back from Los Angeles where the highlight of my trip was walking into a Barnes & Noble hand-in-hand with my Mom and showing her the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook on the shelf. I had the camera all ready to capture the moment, gave it to Dad and the moment he was JUST about to depress the trigger finger, the manager walked by and said no-no to cameras in the store. Party pooper.

I also taught at Sur La Table in Los Angeles…my first class at my favorite splurge store. Not knowing what to expect, I arrived 2 hours prior to start of class ready to start prepping and working to get the class ready. When I arrived in the LA store, there was a kitchen staff of 4 already at work, prepping everything!

I wanna bring them home!

Wonderful class, fantastic food and lots of laughs.

What an amazing smile…

Got to hang with fun people like Jenny Kayano and Rachael of La Fuji Mama

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Then there was this party that my very very favorite people in the world threw for me….but that’s for another post….

It’s hard to capture the moments on my camera sometimes when I’m smack dab in the middle of the action. Outside of my little food world in my kitchen, there’s no “pause” button or “do-over” button in life while I fumble with my camera.

By the time I whip out the camera, turn it on, adjust, focus and click,

The moment is gone.

And it’s just not quite the same to say, “hey guys, um…I missed that moment, can you spill that drink all over yourself again?”

So for my very first book signing party in my hometown, I handed my beloved camera to Nathan. He’s almost 5, so of course I duct-taped the camera around his forehead, over his shoulder so he couldn’t drop it. With specific instructions on “take a picture of these lovely people” and “take a pic of this yummy plate of food!”, here is Nathan’s take on the evening.

I love the eyes of a 5 year old!

Right after that party, I was off to NYC, where my first event was the NYC Dumpling Festival. Oh…what’s this coming my way?

Hmmm…closer inspection…

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a massive dumpling filled with BABY dumplings – I think like close to 1,200 dumplings. This thing weighed 900+ pounds.

I was the M.C. for the Dumpling Festival sponsored by TMI Foods, the makers of frozen dumplings, noodles and dumpling wrappers. They raised $30,000 for the Food Bank of NYC that day! I could just lay here and fall asleep on this giant pillow.

I never got a chance to show you behind the scenes at the Today Show. The day before I went on air, we had a rehearsal. Yes, a rehearsal because this show is very professionally produced and they probably wanted to meet me first to make sure that I was not an insane person who dresses up like Rachael Ray….well…at least in Photoshop anyways.

When I get there, I was all ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work prepping for my segment.

There’s vegetables to cut! Meat to marinate!

But nope.

They are PROFESSIONAL.

Everything was already done. evvvveerrrryything.

There’s a kitchen staff that chops, preps, styles, organizes and choreographs. All I had to do was walk through the what we were going to do on the segment and make sure all the ingredients were in place.

My segment was to be 4 minutes 45 seconds and we literally walked through every second of the segment – timing everything and even choreographing the exact moment when we walk over to the stove, when the rice is stirred and what gets handed over to whom with what hand.

Confused?

Yeah, so was I, especially when I scribbled my notes on the back of a crusty envelope.

And then…they asked me, “Shall we go to the prop room and pick out dishes?”

I nearly fainted. I want. Mommy.

Could I sneak past security and bring home with me? Will all cram in my suitcase?

The next day, they sent a car to my hotel to come pick me up and then I was promptly whisked to the green room.

Which isn’t green.

But who cares because Rod Stewart is in the house!

I got made up like a big girl.

As I was waiting for my turn to go downstairs to the studio, I had a moment of panic.

What if the kitchen crew all called in sick today? SHITSHITSHITSHIT!!!

But sure enough, they were all there. Very busily getting things ready for the segment.

There was nothing for me to do.

Except just stand there and look all purty.

And then ACTION! (Don’t you love my big whoooooosh! bangs? I forgot to look in the mirror SIDEWAYS) If I haven’t forced you to watch the segment 5 times already, you can click on that image right below and it should go to the video clip.

Such a tacky image….but I really do suck at Photoshop. My image was supposed to convey that TLC is giving away one Steamy Kitchen cookbook every day of the week — you can enter every day! I’ve also posted one of my favorite recipes from the book, Sweet and Sour Lychee Meatballs. To enter the contest, all you have to do is comment telling me what your favorite comfort food is!

Enter to win a STEAMY KITCHEN COOKBOOK over at TLC!

(not here – enter over at TLC’s site!)

Snickertini.

Peppermint Pattini.

Starburst Martini.

Almond Joy Martini.

See this sexy woman right here? (my husband saw this photo and said, “cocktails? what cocktails?!”)

This is Jessie Jane Lee, a very talented bartender who helped me mix, taste test some fantastic drink recipes for Halloween.

Come read all about it and the get recipes on Steamy Kitchen on TLC!