What to make for dinner?

All day I pondered this. For lunch I knew I was having ooey gooey deep dish pizza with Daniel and Richie. It was fabulous! And so was the company ;) Still, after that I decided I wanted something light for dinner. At first I was thinking soup...it was kind of gross outside and soup seemed like a good idea. But I couldn't decide what kind. I wanted a vegetarian meal too...So as I was walking into the store to get lettuce, because I knew I wanted salad, my Mom suggested just making a big salad and getting french bread. Perfect! So I headed to the produce section to see what might catch my eye for the salad: I got red leaf lettuce and romaine to go with some things I already had at home. Then some portabellini mushrooms caught my eye! Perfect size for stuffing and there were 6 of them. Perfect for 2!

Here are the mushrooms before baking:


You can stuff these with anything. Bacon and cream cheese, crab meat and bread crumbs...anything. Tonight I used: 2 marinated pieces of artichoke heart, about 2 tbsp of finely chopped onion, 1/2 tbsp of cream cheese, 4 tbsp of parmesan cheese, and about 4 tbsp of bread crumbs. I mixed and mashed everything together in a bowl and added just a drop or two of olive oil for moisture. I scooped out the "gills" of the mushrooms and brushed the tops off with a damp paper towel then filled each one with the cheese mixture. With the oven heating to 450 I popped them in for about 15 minutes. The finished product, as you can see below, will be a little wrinkly, with nicely browning tops. They might even be bubbling.


My salad had a creamy cheddar cheese in it, roasted red pepper, marinated artichoke, cucumber, carrots...but hey, it's a salad, throw in whatever you want!

Recipes are nothing but outlines

Here's one thing to remember: following a recipe exactly is only necessary when baking. If you're making an italian dish or even just a family favorite main course, be inventive! Don't have green olives? Use some capers! Out of noodles? Try rice! No cream of mushroom? What about cream of chicken or celery?

Today I had no idea what to make. I remembered I had some polenta (the kind already molded into a roll) in the refrigerator and so I looked on my favorite website Food Network and found a great one. It was basically fried polenta rounds with a cream cheese mixture and a red sauce on top.

I had to go to the store anyway so I grabbed some basil and cream cheese while I was there. The recipe called for Mascarpone cheese which is pretty expensive, so I kind of made my own with cream cheese, sour cream, and a little drop of milk. When I got home I:

1. Sliced the polenta into rounds--maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick? And basically fried them in olive oil and butter. About 1 tbsp of each, mixed together.
2. I mixed 1/2 a block of cream cheese with 2 spoonfuls of sour cream and 1 tbsp of milk. Then I added 2 tbsp of capers and about 1 tbsp of lemon juice. This I set aside.
3. I chopped up 1/2 a jar of roasted red peppers, 4 roma tomatoes and 1 clove of garlic. Once all the polenta rounds were browned all over I removed them from the pan and threw in the garlic. As soon as it sizzled I added the tomatoes and roasted red pepper.
4. I was hesitant to add much salt as that can draw out the water from the tomatoes and make the sauce watery. I added about a tbsp more olive oil and let everything cook and soften. Then I added a sprinkle of salt and about 1/4 cup of spaghetti sauce, just to add a deeper flavor.
5. Finally I tore up 4 large leaves of basil and added that to the sauce.

To assemble: Place 4 or 5 polenta rounds on a plate. Top with 1/2 cup of the cheese mix and then cover with 1/2 to 2/3 cup of the red sauce.

This recipe can be adapted to whatever you have: black olives, onion, bell pepper, just garlic and tomato sauce...you can do anything with this!

Thai Peanut Sauce and Wasabi-They'll cure what ails you!

For the past few weeks I thought I had really dodged the cold bullet that brought down the BF, my boss and several other people at work. Friday night I started to feel that scratchy feeling in the back of my throat...Saturday I was stuffy. Sunday I was miserable. I ate Tabasco on everything Sunday. On my cheese omelet and grits (Hey, I'm from Georgia, deal with it!), had Rotel and Velveeta for a snack with chips--plenty of heat there, and had fajitas for dinner with Tabasco on every bite. Still stuffy. Today I pulled this out:


Wasabi paste is easily found on the Asian food aisle in most grocery stores. I find it easier to use than wasabi powder and it keeps in the fridge for at least a month. So I decided on a two-part meal: Pasta and Stir-Fry Veggies with Thai Peanut Sauce and sauteed shrimp with Wasabi Mayo. This is a meal that can be made with so many improvisations...I'll give you the basic method with a few ideas for how to make it your own:

I chop (approximately) 1/2 of a large onion, 1 cup of carrots, sliced on a diagonal, 1 large bell pepper (yellow or red is best), and I wash 1 1/2 cups of sugar snap peas. This is what I had on hand. You could add green peas, snow peas, asparagus, broccoli, a hot pepper like a thai chili pepper or serrano, even water chestnuts or bamboo shoots which are commonly found canned on the Asian food aisle. Start by sauteeing (I'm not fast enough to really be stir frying) the food that will take the longest: the carrots. Start them in the pan with about 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil and 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Use vegetable oil because it doesn't get quite as hot as Olive oil and is less likely to burn things. Add 1 clove of crushed garlic if you want. Let this cook for 3-4 minutes and then add the middle veggies: peppers, onions, asparagus, broccoli. Stir fry for 3-4 more minutes or until things are getting more tender. Then add the snow or sugar snap peas or green peas. This is also when you'd add the bamboo shoots or water chestnuts. Cook for about 3 more minutes or until everything is tender, but still with a bite and still colorful.

In the meantime, heat water in a large pot for pasta. Use about half a box of penne or, if you prefer, spaghetti noodles. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain pasta and pour it back in the pot along with the vegetables. Add THAI PEANUT SAUCE. This stuff is amazing. Peanutty, spicy, sweet...start with a few tablespoons and then add to taste.

THEN: Make the Wasabi Mayo: 1 cup mayo, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar, and 1 tbsp (or to taste) Wasabi paste. Mix everything together and refrigerate.

NEXT: Shell, devein, clean whatever, about 20 shrimp. Place them directly into the saute pan from earlier over medium heat. As soon as the bottom turns pink, flip them over. Cook for about another minute. AS SOON as they are pink take them off the heat.

Serve the veggies and pasta along side the shrimp with Wasabi Mayo for dipping. It'll clear your sinus and fill your tummy all at the same time!

British Flapjacks

I got this from this month's Bon Appetit magazine in an article by Molly Wizenberg.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup (apparently found in some supermarkets and specialty stores...I used regular syrup because it's what I had.)
2 1/3 cups quick-cooking oats (not instant or old fashioned) (or if you're me, you have 1 1/2 cups of oats and you substitute in like 3/4 cup of granola cereal).

Prehead oven to 350. Butter an 8x8x2 pan. Combine the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and cook stirring constantly over medium-low heat until everything is dissolved, melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Add oats and a pinch of salt. Stir until coated. Transfer mixture to prepared pan and spread out in an even layer.

Bake for 25 minutes until top is golden (edges will be darker). Remove and let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Cut into 4 squares then cut each square into 2 triangles. It will still be a little soft. Let cool completely in pan before serving.

Enjoy!

Why I love risotto

I discovered risotto only about a year ago. The BF was making dinner and he made an asparagus risotto that was unbelievable. So creamy, so comforting...I couldn't believe it was rice! Don't get me wrong, I like rice pudding, but this was a savory dish, and it was better than any pasta I'd ever had. Since then I've made it myself-once. It was great then too, and tonight I decided to make a very simple risotto almost without a recipe. I knew that for 3 cups of Arborio rice I'd need 6 cups of chicken stock (I used about a cup and a half of water and 4 and a half of stock). I chopped about 3/4 cup of onion and one large clove of garlic and sauteed it with 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil while the broth came to a simmer. I poured in a dash of white wine with the onions--just about 1/4 cup for flavor, if that much. I added in the rice and stirred the onions, garlic and rice for a few minutes, then started adding the broth one ladle full at a time. I set the timer for 22 minutes so I would make sure to cook it long enough.

In the meantime, between ladling in broth, stirring, letting it absorb the liquid and adding another ladle full I: defrosted about 1 cup of green peas to add at the end of the cooking time. I also got out some asparagus, cut off the bottom 1/3 of the spears, drizzled them with olive oil, added salt and stuck them in a 400 degree oven for about 23 minutes (longer if the stems are thick).

The risotto started to get a little thicker and I could tell it was growing in the pan. I was halfway through and did a taste test: good, but it needed salt and certainly wasn't tender enough yet. I added about 1/4 tsp salt. (I was using unsalted chicken broth). I also added about 1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper.

The broth was nearing its end...I added one more ladle full and stirred. As the liquid started to absorb, I added in the green peas and let the risotto cook for another minute or two before adding one last bit of liquid (like a quarter of a ladle full). I stirred again and measured out 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese. As I turned off the heat I added in the cheese. As I stirred you could see the whole dish come together--the creamy consistency formed and it seemed to be calling to me!

My asparagus spears were crunchy at the tip and sweetly salty through and through. And, as you can tell from the picture, I really really enjoyed my risotto tonight. I finished this bowl too!

Really? This is a recipe?

While eating dinner tonight I noticed the recipe below on the back of the crouton box. Since my phone was closer than the digital camera I snapped a quick photo so I could share the ridiculousness that is this recipe. For real.


Now I know not everyone knows how to cook. I realize that. But who doesn't know how to throw some lettuce and carrots in a bowl and put dressing and croutons on it? Who needs a recipe for THAT?

What are your favorite salad ingredients? We like green leaf lettuce or baby spinach, carrots, sugar snap peas, frozen corn (defrosted of course) and walnuts. Sometimes I throw on avocado or marinated artichokes. Once in a while I'll add egg and maybe some ham or chicken. I make ranch dressing using a packet, light mayo and 2% milk. We LOVE salad, and never once have I used a recipe to make a BASIC green salad. Ever.

Book Blog Mondays

I read this blog by John Douglas Marshall the other day: Three Overlooked Gems and decided I needed some new reading material. For a while now I've been wading through Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Pete Dexter's Spooner. Still, I found myself losing interest. There's only so much cattle feed lot, corn fed everything I can take before I have to move on...don't get me wrong, I like what Pollan has to say, but I have to take it in small doses so as not to throw out everything in my cabinets and go digging in the dirt for food.

Spooner is a great book. It's got quirky characters, great southern charm at the beginning, and some interesting conflicts...but about 2/3 of the way through I start to wonder where it's going and why I'm going there with it. The story seems to come to a stand still and just doesn't move anymore.

SO, after reading Marshall's blog, I ordered 2 of the 3 books: A Sudden Country and Trauma Farm. I like the sound of the first one because it seems to be more of a young-adult novel and I can always use those for my work over at Gourmet Learning, Inc.. I like history and the ideas in this novel fit what I was looking for. The second one sounds like a great, down-to-earth, honest look at farm life. That sounds more entertaining than a lot of fiction I read! So I'm continuing to wade through my other two choices while i wait, not so patiently, for these new ones to arrive!