Gnocchi with butternut squash and gold beet

It's summer, and a verrrrrry hot one, no good (by Trump :D).
It means we don't really feel like eating all the meaty meals, but would rather stick to a lighter one. 
Speaking for myself, I was also in for something new.
Gnocchi is known as an italian potato dumpling, but it is actually a Hungarian pasta as well that's running under the name of nudli.
It is one of my childhood favorites with nothing but tossed in roasted bredcrumbs and a pinch of salt.
Today I was in for some boost from those beautiful butternut squashes I found, as well as the bunch of fresh golden beets. The outcome got a thumbs up from every family member.

The nudli (gnocchi) could be home made, but I was way too lazy and settled with some store bought ones, more precicely some Costco bought gnocchis. Worth every penny, not to mention that $5.9. A steel..
The topping is also very simple, and could be a side dish on its own.

Butternut squash topping (baked for 30 min at 350F/180 C)
Ingredients
1 medium sized squash
4 garlic heads
salt (about a small teaspoon, but alter based on your taste, try with less and add salt as needed)
freshly grated peppercorn mix
olive oil (2-3 tbs)

Gold beet topping (baked for 20 min at 350F/180 C)
Ingredients
2 large gold beets, peeled
2 garlic heads
salt (a large pinch, but alter based on your taste, try with less and add salt as needed)
freshly grated peppercorn mix
olive oil (2 tbs)

Gnocchi
1 bag (16 oz) home made, or store bough gnocchi

Fresh leaves
Fresh beet leaves, thinly sliced (try other salads, too, I think a rucola could work well)
or pea shoots

Serving
fresh-fried bacon slices

Preheat the oven to 350F, 180 C. Lay parchment paper in two smaller, or one large tray. I used two smaller ones because I removed the beets a bit earlier from the oven, and it was way more convenient to remove the whole tray than scoop them out from the larger one. However, if you have one large tray, go for it, it might be a bit of inconvenience, but all worth it.

Peel the butternut squash, slice and chop into about 1"x1" cubes, maybe a bit smaller, like 2x2 cm.
Slice the gold beets as well into 1/6" thin slices, about 2-3 mm thin.
Place a parchment paper in both trays and spread the squash cubes into one, and the gold beet slices into the other. Sprinkle with salt, ground a little peppercorn on top, and drizzle with olive oil, until they are lightly coated.  Mix with your fingers, or just joggle the trays to coat them.
Place them uncovered in the preheated oven, and bake for 10 minutes.
Turn the beets, mix in lightly the squash, and bake for additional 10 minutes.
Now you can remove the beets, and leave the squash for additional 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven.
Prepare the gnocchi/nudli according to the instructions, and serve while hot, topped with some bacon and beet leaves.
Enjoy!

Bon appétit!

Rázott, alias "shaken" or nyers lecsó

Ok.. This is cheating, 'cause it isn't really baked or cooked. But it's season, and summer, and I just love it.
Just couple of years ago, khhhmmm..  I reached teenage age and appearance started to matter. And me, the picky kid who ate only the meat sauce with bread, rarely the meat itself, and tho' loved veggies I wasn't choosing it over some comfort food, moved from the block of flats to my grandparent's village with a HUGE garden full of seasonal veggies.
Every evening I went to water the tomatoes, peppers and at the same time pick a handful for dinner.
My favorite was the beef tomato, so I picked a large one, with a medium sized pepper, a yellow, sweetish pepper, and a green onion with a large head.
Night, after night, after night...
I guess, besides the veggies, I loved the ritual as well: first doing my duties, that picking the tasty, fresh reward right away.
Those summers changed my life forever.. Having experienced this, I'm so happy that in addition to our little home garden, the schools around, including our elementary school, started to "grow" some green thumbs as well :).

I prepared this salad for middle one for dinner tonight and I thought I'll take the opportunity to snap a pic and share the story with you.
Our garden offers an amazing variety of tomatoes, thanks to the organic plants I purchased from Costco months ago.
In the picture you can see some of them: green zebra, sweet 100, super sweet 100, better bush and plum tomato. One is more delicious that the other, and they all taste DIFFERENT! What a feast!

Well, the story behind is longer than the ingredient list, plus I described it already, but here it is.

Ingredients for 1 person
1 large tomato
1 medium sized pepper
2 green onions (you can add half or quarter of a sweet onion as well)
1-2 tbsp oil, I like avocado oil for this purpose
salt
pepper (optional) 

In a small bowl, a cereal size bowl, cut the peppers in small finger size, sprinkle with salt. Cut the tomatoes in your favorite shapes, add to the pepper, as well as the onions, cut into small slices.
Sprinkle the oil on top, add more salt if wanted, SHAKE them together, and enjoy!
I suggest serving it with a freshly baked baguette or a slice or two of home made bread.
Or just as is..
Don't forget to dip the bread in the sauce left to clean the bowl completely :D.

Gluten free Karelian pies

Today I felt like doing some healthy (or fancy, or necessity, depends who you ask) stuff.
I decided to make gluten and lactose free Karelian pies, and not only, but have them for lunch with a cup of coconut milk, in the half shade of the patio.
They were good, they had a bit stronger taste and more rich color than rye, and they were sooo much more meticulous to make :(. The gluten in the white flour from "normal" pies is more forgiving and elastic, and the end result looks so much better than with gluten free flour...
However for those who can't eat gluten it is a fair deal.
However, the filling made with both almond and coconut milk were absolute gorgeous! I will seriously consider changing for coconut milk for our regular porridge.
Next, I will also experiment with other gluten free flour mixes for easier-to-work-with dough, milder taste and lighter color.

Ingredients
380 ml (1 1/2 cup) buckwheat flour
130 ml (1/2 cup) sweet white sorghum flour
200 ml water
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sunflower oil

Porridge
0.4 l sushi or short grain rice (it should stick together not like the Basmati rice for example)
0.5 litre (2 cups) almond or coconut milk (head for them to Costco for a good price)
1 litre (4 cups) water
1/5 tsp salt

For brushing
1 dl sunflower oil
1 dl almond oil

Cook the rice in the water for ~10 min, then add the almond milk, season with salt and cook under lid over very low heat for additional ~25 min, until the rice is soft enough but not over boiled. It should be a quite soft, easy to spread. Stir occasionally.
Let it cool under the lid, meanwhile prepare the dough. It can be made the day before, to shorten your preparation time.

In a bowl mix the buckwheat flour with the salt, sorghum flour, and water. It should be a rather soft though, barely dry enough to separate from the walls of the bowl.
Knead them together, roll it in a ~5 cm (2 in) rod, and cut ~1 cm slices from the rod.
Roll the slices into small balls.
Half of the dough is enough to cut and roll at a time, or it will dry, and leave the dough you are not working with under a cloth all the time.
Now roll the small balls into circle-oval shapes (~10-12cm), quite thin, using a lot of buckwheat flour on and under not to stick to the table.
Place an oval shaped, flat scoop of rice in the middle (~7mm thick), leaving about 2 cm of though around the rice.
On the sides fold the dough on top of the rice, and start lifting with your finger the rest of the dough and kinda folding it on top of the rice towards the top. Turn and repeat with the other side until it looks BETTER like the ones on the picture. :D
Mix some oil with almond milk, about 2/3 oil - 1/3 almond milk.
Place the piirakka-s in the tray. Spread some oil-almond milk mixture on the piirakka, sides as well.
Bake them at 300 C, (550 F), for ~10 min on the top most rack, (or second top most), until bits on the top get a little golden-brown shade.
Meanwhile mix some more oil with almond milk, approximately half-half.
Remove the piirakka from the oven and spread the oil-almond milk mixture ALL OVER the piirakka, bottom, sides, top.
Place them under a cloth and let the piirakka soften.

Serve with chopped hard boiled eggs mixed with butter, scrambled eggs and many more...
We also placed a slice of ham & cheese on top, and let it in the oven for couple of minutes for the cheese to melt..
Enjoy!

OBS. Cut the dough slices depending how big pirrakka you want. I cut about 22-25 g / piece dough and got a generous half-palm sized piirakka, one, with topping, would definitely be enough for breakfast for the kids.