Sweet Gnocchi Lullaby

As a stylist, I spend countless hours perusing blogs, magazines, and any other eye candy I can get my hands on in order to feed the creative machine. Today, as I drank my coffee and sought inspiration, I stumbled upon a recipe for butternut gnocchi on bonappetit.com. The recipe sounded good but I wanted something different than the brown butter sauce they were suggesting. Unsure if I was actually going to follow through with this recipe plan, I headed out to the store to see what I could find. I decided to pick up a variety of fall ingredients which included honeycrisp apples, fresh sage, and a butternut squash. With the intermittent rain and a dreary gray sky, it was the perfect day to get caught up in a culinary escapade so I began my gnocchi production. After rolling and cutting these delicate little pillows, I tossed them in a pot of salted, boiling water and waited for them to pop up to the top. After being scooped out of the water, they landed on a lined baking sheet where they awaited their second act. Opting to forgo the original bon appetit brown butter sauce, I began formulating my own plan to accompany the sweet squash. While the gnocchi sat patiently on the parchment, I chopped a fresh honeycrisp apple and a small red onion that I then sauteed in a skillet with some butter that had been steeping with garlic and sage. Once the onion and apple had softened, in went the gnocchi. A few minutes later the gnocchi had a crispy golden shell. They were sufficiently coated in the sweet and savory mixture and were ready to be devoured. I happily obliged, which lead to the need for a nap. Wake me when it's spring again....