Thanksgiving Day dinner in Sofia:  Pumpkin Gnocchi served up with a big spoonful of lyutinitsa and shredded kashkaval cheese.  I make the gnocchi all by myself which is probably why they look um, like a five-year old's craft project.  Anyhow, they taste great and look so-so.

[caption id="attachment_1485" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/img_1210.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1485" title="Homemake Pumpkin Gnocchi" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/img_1210.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

The one thing was that I spent so much time making each one of these little gnocchi I forgot about what I was going to put on them.  One recipe I looked up suggested a browned butter and sage sauce.  But that was too much for me.  So I looked in my fridge and there was the jar of roasted tomato and red pepper sauce (the lyutinitsa) and kashkaval cheese.

I guess that means that I had a Thanksgiving inspired Bulgarian influenced dinner.  And before anyone starts felling bad for me because I am in Bulgaria and I am not with my family, I should remind you that I had a big Thanksgiving dinner last weekend at school.  <!--more-->Oh, and something you don't know is that I am having some Bulgarian friends over for Thanksgiving tomorrow night as well--so there will be plenty of Thanksgiving in my life.

[caption id="attachment_1486" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Bowl of Gnocchi"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/img_1213.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1486" title="Bowl of Gnocchi" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/img_1213.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></a>[/caption]

It's not like the only way to celebrate Thanksgiving is with a Turkey.  Heck the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/us/politics/25dinner.html?em">Obama Thanksgiving </a>meal earlier this week was vegetarian.  (Um and just to add my own commentary: that's so great.  Way to go Obamas.  Not serving turkey on Thanksgiving is a pretty bold move!) So I am happy to each pumpkin gnocchi and I'm just as American as someone eating a turkey, stuffing and all of the fixing right now.

There may however be a reason that gnocchi never ever broke into the American food scene like lasagna or tacos did--they are difficult to make. The recipe seems pretty straight forward and the ingredients are basis.  But the actual dough seems to me to be far from straight forward.  It's unlike any kind of dough that I am used to working with.  It was very sticky but all of the recipes I read said that you don't want to add too much flour or your gnocchi will be tough.  So I worked as best I could with the glue-y sticky dough.  I have to say even though the gnocchi dough was sticky and I probably made the gnocchi bigger than I should have as a result the gnocchi still turned out great.

Okay, okay I think I've said enough about my  slightly irreverent Thanksgiving Day gnocchi. Here's what I really want to say: no matter what you had to eat tonight, I would like to wish you a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving.