Chicken Gnocchi Soup and Lion House Rolls

Today we had our first snowfall of the season!  Totally soup weather!!!  I absolutely love, Love, LOVE, the Chicken Gnocchi Soup at Olive Garden.  We don't eat out often, and this soup kept calling to me. :)   After a little search on the internet, I found a few different copycat recipes.  The one that looked most authentic to me was  THIS ONE....  you have to scroll down through the comments to find it - not the first recipe listed, but the second.  I'll post the actual recipe - but be sure to click on the link above,  it was interesting to see the different ways people fix it...  I made my own modifications. :)   Also, every recipe I found called for a package of gnocchi.  I've never seen it around here (granted, I've never looked for it either) and didn't fancy a trip to town just for that.  I searched the internet again and found several recipes for gnocchi!  THIS ONE looked the easiest, though a lot of reading.  It was MUCH easier than I thought to make them! (and I'm not serving them to anyone familiar with authentic Italian food, so who cares if they were exactly right)  My husband requested this soup for our contribution for the family Christmas Eve Dinner at my Mom & Dads.  Yes.... it's that good!  ;o)

I also got ambitious and tried a new roll recipe.  The article for Lion House Rolls was interesting, the rolls are pretty easy to make, but take close to 3 hours to complete.  I'd make them again for sure... but if I'm in a hurry, I'll fall back on Grandma's Rolls because they're done in 60 minutes.  The Lion House rolls were easily more tender than what I usually make. 

I tried this recipe and it is the closest you can come to the soup at Olive Garden. As with the Olive Garden soup, it can taste a little different each time you make it. From beginning to end it takes about 10 min. of prep and 30 min. cook time.

1/3 cup butter
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 lb. chicken cubed or large chunks
1/3 cup flour
1/2 carrot shredded
1 stick of celery shredded
1/4 cup onion shredded
1/2 cup fresh spinach torn in pieces
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream (I use half and half)
3 chicken bullion cubes
Cracked pepper to taste
17.6 oz. of Gnocchi

On medium heat.
Melt butter in a soup pot, add in the garlic and sautee, add your chicken and cook through out
Add flour and stir in flour and mix well until the flour is cooked into the chicken.
Next add your milk and heavy cream
Then add the veggies(Carrots, Celery, Onion, Spinach)
Add three bullion cubes
Add your Gnocchi last it takes 3-4 min. to cook throughout
Mix ingredients well until soup thickens and stirring occasionally. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.