Anne McAlpine: April 25, 2019

I consider myself to be very lucky that my friends and family helped me out with meals these last 6 weeks as I was unable to spend time in my kitchen. Several friends shared their favourite things with me and I will be sharing some of their recipes with you soon. My friend, Jan Gunning, brought some of her homemade pasta, sauce, taco salad, gnocchi in sauce, and her delicious raspberry cranberry scones.

I am sharing Jan’s homemade gnocchi and raspberry cranberry scone recipes with you today as both of them are really tasty. The gnocchi dough lasts 2 to 3 days in the fridge, so you can make it ahead of time. When you are ready to cook, simply boil them for a few minutes in boiling salted water until they float to the top of the pan. Jan usually pan fries them in ghee right before she uses them as she prefers a slightly crunchy texture.

When Jan makes the scones, she freezes the raspberries to take out some of the moisture and then cuts them in with the butter. She does wait until the final mixing to add the cranberries and says that you should just add as many as you wish. She also uses the same recipe with blueberries, strawberries, and lemon rind. Jan has used grated frozen cheese and explained that the reason for freezing it first is that it eliminates the water content. She told me that the possibilities are endless and she has made many variations of this recipe, but the raspberry cranberry ones are her favourite. These scones freeze well and you can eat them cold or simply heat them in the toaster oven.

I recently had a request for my Italian seasoning recipe that I have used for several years. I often make a double batch so I have some to give away as little gifts.

This is an email message that I got from my friend Yvonne, who uses her instant pot often. “Instant pot baked potatoes, 12 minutes, natural release for 8 minutes, mmmm! You must try!”