Chard--who knew?

Until Sunday, I'd never had chard.  Chard?  What's that?  It's a leafy green with over a day's worth of Vitamins A and K in a serving!  It has half a day's worth of Vitamin C.  The flavor is really mild, like spinach, but I think it holds up better to sauteeing than spinach does.  I decided to do a chard saute with caramelized onions and red wine.  Here's basically what I did (you know I don't ever have an exact recipe!)

Cook about 1 cup thinly sliced onions in 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp oil until golden.  About 20 minutes over medium low heat.

Chop chard (or tear) and rinse well.  Allow to drain and dry thoroughly.

Add bunches of chopped chard to the onions, along with 1 chopped garlic clove.  Shuffle around each bunch of chard until slightly wilted, then add more.

At the end, when all chard is added and slightly wilted, add a splash (like 1/2 tbsp) of red wine.  Toss everything and cook a minute or two.  Final product--wilted chard with caramelized onions and red wine.

To go with this, we were having leftover lasagna.  For whatever reason I thought I needed another side dish and I wanted something slightly decadent.  I took small brown button mushrooms, dusted them off with a damp paper towel, and cut off the stems.  Then I came up with these beauties:

Melt 2.5 tbsp butter and 2.5 tbsp olive oil in a sauce pan or shallow pot.  Add 1/4 cup red wine.  DRY wine. Add in a small carton of button mushrooms (brown or white).  Allow mixture to simmer, with a lid, over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes or until mushrooms are super soft.  Turn the heat up to medium high and allow the liquid to reduce until all wine is cooked out.  Serve warm!