Slovenian Recipes

I had a limited role for Thanksgiving dinner: the pumpkin pie and the cranberry sauce.  My husband was making the rest. I wanted to slip in a few Slovenian touches. I toyed with the idea of pumpkin strudel.  I knew it was traditional in Slovenia, and in a few other places in Eastern Europe.  But I knew that would be pushing the limit with my family. So it would be traditional pumpkin pie—but I would sneak in a secret Slovenian ingredient: pumpkin seed oil in the filling.  And as long as I was innovating, why not try a gingersnap crust? For the filling, I simply adapted the traditional recipe that you can find everywhere.  For the crust, I used the recipe from the box of our favorite brand of gingersnaps. Pumpkin Pie with Pumpkin Seed Oil and a Gingersnap Crust Gingersnap Crust: 1-1/2 cups crushed gingersnaps 6 T. melted butter 1/4 c. sugar Crush the gingersnaps finely, using the food processor or a rolling pin.  Mix in the sugar...

Gnocchi have been on my mind. The recipe looked good, especially with that rich gouda and gorgonzola sauce. Then I remembered that our friend Marie, whose background is Portuguese and Italian, had recently sent me a recipe for  gnocchi.  When I checked, her recipe (for the dumplings, not the sauce) was very similar. And she used American measures. In adapting the Slovenian recipe, I got a little mixed up with the metric conversions.  I should have used more spinach and less flour, I suspect.  This was my first-ever attempt at gnocchi, so it was all uncharted territory. But it all worked out in the end.  Read on!   Potato and Spinach Dumplings (Njoki) with Gorgonzola-Gouda Sauce 1 c. mashed potatoes (you will need 2 potatoes) ¾ lb. fresh trimmed spinach (2 small bunches), cooked and minced 1 c. white wheat flour 1/3 c. semolina flour 1 egg dash of salt dash of pepper nutmeg, freshly grated fresh basil, 2...