Cooking My Way Through My Pinterest Recipes Board(s): Baked Mushrooms With Parmesan and Rosemary Over Polenta

 Beginning to cook my way through my Pinterest food boards is more like it.  They are labelled:

YUM (everything that looks good to me)

YUM:  Seasonal Eating Winter (squash recipes)

PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD (from my own rice krispie sushi pics to anything else that could pass for both something entertaining as well as yummy)

and

Fungus Love (I love mushrooms)

Yes, I love me the fungus.  Hubby hates it.  As in, he walks into the kitchen and says, "Ew!  Fungus.  I can smell it."  It's a texture thing.  Same as I have heard from other friends-who-are-also-haters.

I pinned this recipe for Baked Mushrooms With Rosemary and Parmesan.  All ingredients I love, and, conveniently, had in the house.  Well, the rosemary is technically outside of the house, on the porch.  Yes, in winter.  Rosemary's second successful winter on the porch.  Bizarre. 

Things I make in batches and keep in the fridge to pick on all week:  brown rice (boil in a bag, 10 min in the microwave, you can do it at work in an emergency), quinoa, polenta, bean and rice patties.  I ate polenta with mushrooms til the mushrooms were gone.  So delicious and so very easy.  

Here's the secret to the polenta: Turn the heat way down as soon as you can.  It bubbles, and when those bubbles burst, they burn you and leave a scar.  Trust me.  

Adapted recipe:

Baked Fungus with Parmesan and Rosemary

• lemon juice (1-2 T squeezed fresh from 1 lemon or the lemon juice from that plastic yellow lemon I keep in my fridge and you should keep in yours for when you have no lemons)
• 3-4 stalks of fresh rosemary, chopped fine, save the naked stalks
• 1 T Olive oil, enough to lightly coat
• 1 lb sliced button mushrooms(pre-sliced and packaged if you are short on time, or buy in bulk and just slice them.  If you have an egg slicer, toss them in there if you are OCD and like nice perfect cuts.)
• 1/4 c Parmesan, grated
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400. 
2. Slice mushrooms if you did not buy pre-sliced. 
3. Place the sliced mushrooms on a cookie sheet.  Toss in the olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, and add the nekkid rosemary stalks, then mix to coat. Season with 1/8 t salt and a few grinds of pepper.
4. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes. Then sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the mushrooms and continue to bake for five more minutes until the cheese has browned lightly. 
5. Remove rosemary stalks.  Transfer mushrooms to a serving dish and dig in/serve over polenta or pasta, and save some for lunch tomorrow, too.

Polenta:

Follow the side of the box. Seriously.  So easy.
Water, polenta, bring to a boil. IMMEDIATELY tun heat to lowest simmer.  Stand back if you see bubbles forming, until the heat is low enough to prevent them.  A whisk works best.  Stir frequently.  Do NOT cover (this causes the polenta to steam rather than cook).

If you would like, add a few tablespoons of butter and/or some Parmesan (fontina is also excellent and turns super creamy in polenta).  Add a healthy teaspoon of salt (I use kosher salt), or more, to taste.

I smooth mine into a baking dish and let it cool.  Then I slice it up and put it in containers in the fridge and just pull it out a square or two at a time during the week. 

This is the polenta I used.  It belongs on the counter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my kitty.  She does not belong on the counter. But it's better than when she gets on the range hood.

Have a great day, friends and let me know if you have any questions at all about safe polenta preparation and enjoyment or cooking fungus.

Mwah!

JPV

Busy Girl's Fancy Ravioli in Brown Butter and Sage Sauce

I could rename this blog "I Love Fungus. And Other Stuff."  If my husband had a blog he could name it "The Smell of Fungus Cooking Makes Me Retch." Ergo, I boiled up a lovely ready made mushroom ravioli, for one, and not from scratch (so there would be no fungus fumes from filling-making to upset hubby’s sensitive nostrils). You know I like to make my own rav filling and use wonton wrappers like I did this summer when we had all that leftover lobster (oh Lordy, my photography sucked! Guess I'll just have to make it again and rephotograph!).

 This pasta was amazing! It is the first time first time I had it retail. I recognize it from some DC area restaurants. It’s a DC based pasta maker/supplier called LaPasta. I went to their website and you gotta check out how beautiful this is – it’s like the periodic table of ravioli. I want it as a poster for my kitchen. I tried to pin it but you can only pin the individual raviolis, not all 36 at once. And that's JUST the ravioli, they also have gnocchi, totellini/tortelloni, and agnolotti. (Curse you, Spellcheck, for thinking the three preceding words are incorrect, clearly you have no taste for Italian food.)

 Got it from MOM’s organic market in Alexandria.  I was there to buy ginger chews, and walked out with ravioli and gnocchi. 

Last night was the first night it was going to dip way down to 20 degrees, so I went out to the bare garden and cut the last of my brave and stunningly hardy sage and parsley.   

 Here is pretty parsley extracted on the same mission this evening as the brave little sage plants.  Parsley will soon become pesto and get frozen. (The veggie giclees in the background were a kitchen-warming gift from mom by a Boston artist. The top print is a pretty one of asparagus.)

 Now the sage is drying on every surface in the kitchen (I mean EVERY SURFACE, note this one is on the stove, a well utilized work surface in a tiny kitchen. Please do not note how badly I need my shellac mani redone.).  I thought it was a great idea to lay some out in the bright sunshine to dry. Joke was on me as I came home to paper towels and sage scattered all over the porch and backyard.

Perfect for Browned Butter and fried sage sauce.

Luxurious, delicious, easy.  If you’re in DC (I mean you, Jessica L.) and need sage to do this, let me know… I have lots and can drop some by your office. J

I used unsalted butter, about 4 tablespoons (2-3 would have been fine).   

I put them in the pan cold and heated it to medium high. 

I slid 15 sage leave in as the butter just fully melted.  

 Watch it carefully because the browning can turn to burned very quickly.   

As soon as I see browning, I turn off the heat.   

I put a few ravioli, well drained into the butter an quickly cover with the splatter shield, just in case.  Then I pour it all over the rest of the ravioli.

Everyone in the bowl!

It was so exquisite.  Definitely try some soon.  Friday night?  Home watching Grimm?  Perfect!

Early morning at the Farmers' Markets Saturday.  Can't wait to see what they've got.

Yours, in mushroom love,

Julia

Busy Girl's Tomato, Goat Cheese & Arugula Flatbread -- Gorgeous + Tasty Enough to Bring to Someone Else's House

When I made this, I hoped it would be yummy.  It was, and I lucked out that it is pretty, too!  I based this on a great looking recipe from the Prevention website called  "Arugula and Goat Cheese Pizza." I didn't have the recipe handy when I was cooking so I improvised. I ended up changing the recipe substantially, so I have listed that I am only putting my recipe down at the bottom.  Please refer to the other, also.  The site has great, healthy recipes.

I  LOVED how it turned out.  So elegant and delicious.  

About four teaspoons or less of oil.  I used canola instead of olive so I could cook those onions at a higher heat in order to finish cooking them more quickly.  You can see the thin, whole wheat Boboli in the background.

Cooking the onions at high heat causes splatter.  Ergo, the splatter shield. Using it makes me feel very chef-like.  Splatter does not make me feel chef-like. Splatter is never good, especially in a tiny kitchen.

Pioneer Woman says to show pictures with movement (see pouring oil above) whenever possible.  Maybe that didn't include dropping sliced yellow pear tomatoes into my pan, but hey, I'm new, and and I'm tryin'!

One pint of grape tomatoes, sliced in half, and about the same amount (eyeballed) from my last crop of yellow pear tomatoes from my garden (*sniff* *sniff* see you next year my sweet little beauties).

[Hey, cat, what about this smells like tuna to you?  You'd better tune up your tuna sniffer. Additional note to cat, you do not like tomatoes, you like salty french fries.]

Back to our regularly scheduled flatbread...Keep up the heat and cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes just start to soften. I added about a teaspoon of Kosher salt to bring out the tomato flavor.

Mild goat cheese with rind that cuts like a brie.  Remove the rind or use the crumble goat cheese ithout rind.  I am a rind person.  Into the oven it goes, 450 for 8-10 min, and out to the garden I go for the arugula to mix with a little olive oil and put on top when it comes out of the oven.

Spouse refers to this (below) as "The Arugula Situation."  As in, "When are you going to take care of that Arugula Situation you have in the backyard?"  The growing issues of the garden this year make me really enjoy anything that is able to become wildly overgrown.  Please note, to the right of The Arugula Situation, is the up-and-coming "Parsley Situation."  Since it is not overflowing onto the walkway hubby built, he doesn't notice it right now.  He will, soon, though, when it becomes the "Pesto Situation" taking over our tiny, elegant little freezer.

Hacked off this handful (below) and pulled the best leaves off to top our pizza!

Tomato, Goat Cheese & Arugula Flatbread

Ingredients:  (You can totally eyeball everything for this recipe.  Except the flatbread)

• 2-4 teaspoons canola oil
• One medium onion, chopped (use a larger onion if you love onions like I do!)
• 1 thin whole wheat pizza crust (I used the Boboli 12” 100% whole wheat)
• 2 pints (or 2-3 cups) grape tomatoes.  If you see any yellows, use those with the reds!
• A pinch of salt (about ¼ teaspoon)
• 1 1/2 ounce(s) goat cheese, sliced or crumbled
• 1-1.5 cup(s) loosely packed baby arugula
• 1 teaspoon olive oil (or olive oil spray)

Make it!

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2.  Heat canola oil in non-stick skillet over medium to medium high heat, add chopped onion.  Cook, stirring until onion is softened and golden or darker (At the Valentine house, we like it dark brown, almost crispy) 5-7 minutes.

3.  Now add the tomatoes to the onions, sprinkle salt and let it cook without stirring for about two minutes while the tomatoes cook and the then stir to flip the tomatoes and cook another rwo minutes.

3.  Place crust on baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Scoop tomato and onion mixture onto flatbread. 

4.  Slice (or crumble) and place goat cheese evenly on top.

5.  Bake approximately 8 minutes, according to directions on flatbread/pizza crust packaging.

6.  Toss arugula with teaspoon of olive oil and arrange on top of cooked flatbread.

Cut into quarters, or cut into smaller slices for finger food/appetizers, or hide half and eat it for breakfast with a poached egg, and for lunch with smoked salmon, chicken breast or chicken sausage.

Enjoy!
xo JPV

BTW, when I went in the fridge to get the goat cheese, I was reminded of this, below, my Squash Situation! AARRGGHH!!!

Finally! A Watermelon From My Garden (A Lesson in Patience)

It has been a super rough summer for the garden with the heat.  Clearly, the yellow squash loves it [see previous post, "(I Am) Awash In Squash."]  But the tomatoes, celery and watermelon do not agree.  That said, here is the first edible melon!!  Before potentially disappointing myself when I cut into it, thought I'd take some glamour shots. (That's garden dust on it. I liked how it looked.)

 After the watermelon shots, as I was snapping ten, ok, maybe fifteen pictures of the cat (looking SUPER cute), spouse said to me that he thought the point of an "expensive" camera was that I would only need to take ONE picture.  I started to explain, but gave up and just ordered said, "Hey, hold that cat still."  

I showed him just how cool a camera like this can be.  When wielded by a newbie photographer like me, it can make a watermelon bounce like a basketball!

HEY!  How did that squash get in the picture?! More importantly, where did yet ANOTHER squash come from in my little garden? I swear, I'm cooking them as fast as I can! 

Happy holiday weekend, Mom and friends!  I hope the only laboring you are doing is turning your veggies and meat on the grill in this beautiful weather (in the DC area) or laboring to get that giant juicy burger up to your mouth.

Mwah! JPV

Lobstarama Goes Lobstah Ravioli (LobRav!)

I lived in Southern California when for two years from 21-23.  I represented a fun restaurant out there doing PR.  I used to hang out the chefs.  One, named, NOT kidding, Fabio, a few years fresh from Trieste, Italy (so close the border accounted for his being a 6'5" redhead).  He showed me the easiest way to make ravioli that everyone uses now:  the fabulous wonton wrapper.  Open a can of pumpkin puree, scoop onto a wrapper, use a little water to seal it into a triangle shape over the filling, boil very gently and voila!  Serve with sauce to dip in or as a dish on its own.



With all of that leftover lobster meat, and mom taking Valentine + Valentine (my husband and his wonderful brother) to wait in line for tickets to watch batting practice at Fenway (Red Sox - White Sox game, V+V are rabid fans of the latter), I decided to put that lobster meat to good use.