Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
Posted by terrepruitt on April 29, 2014
I love eggplant. I read a blog called Dinner of Herbs and she posted a recipe for Eggplant Bruschetta. Yum. I used to not like bruschetta because I didn’t like tomatoes. But I like it now . . . well it depends.
I like some bruschetta and since I love eggplant I thought I would like this. As I was making it I laughed because she only listed amounts for two of the ingredients and it turns out I didn’t use the amounts for those that she stated. Also, I had to laugh–yeah, right!–because I went to the grocery store on Thursday right after my Nia class. I like to do my shopping while I am already out, so on my way home I stopped by the store. My WHOLE reason for going was to get the ingredients for the bruschetta! I even wrote them down. But while I was there I thought of a few other things and completely overlooked one KEY item on my list. I forgot the bread. DUH! Can’t really make bruschetta without the bread. I used to think bruschetta WAS the bread. Then I came to think bruschetta was the tomato mixture. But bruschetta is the bread topped with the tomato mixture. Eggplant bruschetta just has eggplant added to the mixture.
Since I like to run all my errands while I am already out I decided to wait to get the bread on Sunday after my rotation of teaching Nia at the YMCA. HOLY MOLY! My husband is under strict instructions to remind me never to go to the grocery store on a Sunday. Geez louise. I was there over an hour. It was so crowded. But I got the bread! I got two different kind since my husband doesn’t really like bread and he really doesn’t like hard sourdough. So you can imagine he doesn’t like TOASTED sourdough. So I got him some wimpy soft bread and I didn’t even toast it.
Anyway . . . for Dinner of Herb’s recipe I used a very large eggplant and I cut it up into tiny cubes. Way smaller than she shows on her site. I put garlic salt on it. I roasted it for 45 minutes. I only used three tomatoes for roasting. I also roasted them with garlic salt. Then I added a half of a raw tomato along with about two tablespoons of raw chopped onion to the mix of roasted eggplant and tomato. I actually always thought that bruschetta was raw tomatoes so that is why I added some raw tomato.
So I loved it. My hubby ate it. As I said he is not a bread fan so he was not at all excited about it as I was. I thought it was delicious. I think it is so delicious I am going to make it again, but just the eggplant-tomato mixture and put it over pasta.
I am excited about this because – as I just said – it is something else to do for pasta, or heck . . . .anything. To me it is that good that I would just make it as a “salsa” to put on chicken or pork.
I have to say that I did not take good pictures. I was kinda in a hurry. And if you take pictures of food, you know you can’t do it when you are rushed. So . . . .sorry the pictures are not very appetizing, but if you like eggplant and if you like bruschetta you will love this!
Do you like bruschetta? Do you like eggplant? What other type of bruschetta do you make?
Posted in Food | Tagged: aubergine, bruschetta, Dinner of Herbs, eggplant, grocery store, Nia, Nia at the YMCA, Nia class, pasta topping, Tomatoes, YMCA | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 26, 2014
One of the best things for me — besides the potatoes — that came out of the Amateur Chef’s Crispy Smashed Roasted Potatoes recipe was the use of parchment paper. I have always heard about parchment paper. A lot of recipes call for it and a lot of people use it, but I never had. I always thought it was a waste. Why buy paper you are going to put in the oven just to use once? I didn’t really understand it. And I probably still don’t understand all of the benefits of it, but the benefits I do understand make it worth it — to me — to use it. I love using parchment paper to roast/bake on!
One thing I love about it is easy clean up — of course, right? I mean you just put the paper down on the pan and roast/bake/cook on it and then when your food is done you just take it off the pan and throw it away. As I mentioned I used to think that was a waste, but it saves me a few other things. It saves me time . . . . I am not standing at the sink scrubbing a pan. It saves water . . . . again, not standing at the sink scrubbing a pan. Not even really having to wash the pan most of the time. Some times I can just wipe the pan clean. Sometimes I wash it, but it is so quick it is not even comparable. Along the lines of washing, I am saving soap, if you want to go so far as to say that — it would be true. So the clean up alone is GREAT.
Also the food tends to cook differently. I say differently as opposed to better because not everyone might like the way it cooks. It tends to help allow the food’s moisture to evaporate better. Perhaps the paper helps soak it up then it dries. Not sure of the science behind it, but I know that using foil does not allow the food to dry as much so the food does not get as crispy. That is why I broke down and bought some when I was going to make the potatoes. Actually I had bought some a long time ago I just never saw the real point in using (read “WASTING”) it. So the food seems to get “crispier” than without the paper. I like that!
One thing I do when I use parchment paper is I wet the pan a little. The parchment paper I have comes on a roll so it tends to have that curved shape. It also seems really slippery. The paper always wants to move around the pan. So I put a little water on the pan so the paper stays in place. Then usually once the food is on it, it doesn’t slide around.
I usually use it for roasting veggies. Tonight I am roasting sweet potatoes.
I always thought that parchment paper was good up to 450° F so that is what I roast/cook/bake at, but the box says 420° F, which I just noticed as I was taking a picture of it for this post. Oh!
I know there are other uses for parchment paper. I can think of a few, but what about you? Do you use parchment paper? What do you use it for? Don’t you love it?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Amateur Chef, Costco, crisp food, easy clean up, Kirkland brand, parchment paper, roasting vegetables, Smashed potatoes | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 8, 2014
In a recent post I asked for help with the items I received in my produce box. I received some great ideas. One of them was from a Chef, he is the owner of Burke’s Grill in Douglasville, Georgia. He came up with a great idea to use EVERYTHING in the box in one dish. I never would have thought to do that so I just had to try it. I hope I didn’t ruin his recipe by not having sweet basil. I used marjoram instead. Not the same, but I love it. Also, the wild rice he recommended would have added another layer of flavor but I just used the white rice that I had. His comment of the original idea/recipe is on my post Can’t Come Up With Ideas. Below I have arranged it in more of a recipe format and documented it as I did it.
In his comment he said, “First,this is advice from a chef’s view point. Organize your items from the ground up. Onions, radishes, carrots together. Then chard alone (it’s special). Then kiwis,grapefruit and apples. Now we are cooking.” Oh yeah, now we are cooking. Here is what I did.
Ingredients for Dwight’s Delicious Dinner:
2 white spring onions
2 pippin apples
4 carrots
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 grapefruit
2 radishes
salt
pepper
1/2 – 1 teaspoon marjoram
balsamic vinegar
1 lb (or so) ground turkey
4 HUGE leaves of rainbow chard
white rice (enough to make a “bed”)
two kiwis
Chop the onion. Cut the apples and carrots into bite size pieces and saute in 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil until warm. (You don’t want to cook them too much because they are going to be used as a salsa and as an addition to the meat mixture.) After you are done, split the mixture in half. Half will be the salsa used a a topping. The other half will get added to the meat.
While the above is cooking/warming . . . squeeze the grapefruit for the juice.
I used the same pan to cook the turkey, since the mixture is set aside. Cook the turkey in 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil until almost done. While it is cooking chop the rainbow chard. When the turkey is almost done add the chard. Salt the chard and stir. Cook this until the turkey is fully cooked and the chard is how you want it to be done. 
Add the half of the onion, apple carrot mixture you are not using as salsa. Then, add a sprinkle of grapefruit juice. Only cook for a few minutes.
WHILE the turkey is cooking, mix half of the onion, apple carrot mixture with the two thinly sliced radishes, salt, pepper, and 1/2-1 teaspoon marjoram, and sprinkle of balsamic vinegar. Let that set. Add the grapefruit juice after it has set for a bit. Using as much as you want to get the right bite you would like. I probably just used a tablespoon.
At some point in all of this you need to cook the rice. We have a rice maker so I usually put it on when there is 20 minutes left of cooking. This time I forgot and my hubby came to the rescue.
Also, peel and slice the kiwis.
Once the rice is done and all is done cooking. Put the rice on your plate, spoon the turkey, chard, onion, apple carrot mixture on top of the rice. Then the onion, apple carrot salsa on top of that. Garnish the dish with the kiwis. But be sure to eat the kiwis WITH the turkey/rice/mixture, the flavors blend perfectly. This was a very happy dish.
Something I really needed. So brilliant. I never would have thought to do this. I never would have thought to add all these flavors together. I love that Dwight came up with something that used EVERYTHING in the box that I received.
Thank you so much, Dwight!!!!!!!
So . . . even if you don’t receive a box with all of these items in it . . . I will tell you it is worth it to get to the store and actually purchase these ingredients and make this dish for yourself. It is like a party for dinner.
Well, what do you think?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: Burke's Grill, Dwight Burke, grapefruit, ground turkey, http://www.burkesgrill.wordpress.com, marjoram, party in your mouth meal, pippin apples, radishes, rainbow chard, Salsa, spring onions, yummy dinner | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 5, 2014
As you may know, I have some things on my mind. The longer it goes on the more difficult it is to function normally. We still receive a small box of organic produce every other week. Here is what we received in our box this week. I looked at it and thought, “Oh nice.” But not my normal “Ooooooo, what can I do with this and that? I can do this . . . . . I can do that . . . . ” So I was thinking that perhaps you can help me. I know many of you are good cooks so I was thinking you could give me some ideas on what to with all these lovely fruits and veggies.
Rainbow chard
radishes
grapefruit
carrots
kiwis
white spring onions
apples
There is some rainbow chard. What do you do with that? I usually saute it with a little olive oil, garlic, and onions. More like than not I add it to some ground turkey and then we eat it like that or it can be put on top of rice or put inside a tortilla. Can chard be roasted/baked like kale? Making chard chips?
What about radishes? Are there anything to do with them, but put them in salads? That is what I do with them, put them in salads.
What about grapefruit? Doesn’t seem like my husband or I like them? What do you do with it?
The asparagus is gone. I roasted it. It was really thick so I peeled the bottom. I was actually cooking four other things in the oven so I had to use a smaller pan than normal to cook the asparagus so I cut it in half. The bottom portion I also sliced in half. It was yummy. I love asparagus. I am certain I will receive more, so maybe I should get your ideas on how to cook that now.
What about carrots? Again I put them in salads, raw. What about you? I don’t like them candied, so that is a recipe I can skip.
How about kiwis? Do you just eat them? My husband just eat them. They are another thing I would put on salads. Do you have others ideas on how to use them?
Ooooooo and the new-to-me white spring onions. Should they be cooked whole and eaten that way or used as I would a regular onion?
What about apples? Seems as if we get them in every box? Sometimes they just stack up. I like really CRISP sweet apples and some times the apples we get are not crisp – they are the mushy kind – so I don’t like to just eat them. Last night I used one I had from the last box to make my hubby a “Porky-Pork Chop”. What do you do with hem? I guess I could just bake ’em, huh?
I also know that I can use the carrot greens in a smoothie but I have never done that. Can the radish greens be used too?
So help me out. Think for me because with this whole process dragging on I am starting to get a little worn out and the everyday things are not so everyday.
Posted in Food | Tagged: apples, carrots, cooking ideas, help with cooking, kiwis, radishes grapefruit, rainbow chard, small box of organic produce, white spring onions | 11 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 6, 2014
You might know from my various posts that I don’t really like beans. Beans, the legume, the protein-fiber-rich nutrient. Not my favorite thing. I like green beans. And I am ok with garbanzo beans. I will eat kidney beans but only in two things, the two bean salad (click here for recipe) or my Sausage, Beans, and Rice adaptation (click here for recipe). But otherwise I don’t eat beans. You may also know that I bought some dried garbanzo beans in bulk once. Since I didn’t know what to do with them I turned to the internet for some education. 
The internet said there were two ways to get the beans ready for a recipe: one was a “quick soak” idea, it requires cooking and doesn’t seem quick to me at all. The other was a soak-over-night way. I tried them both. I didn’t really feel there was a different outcome to the two methods, but obviously the methods themselves were different. I preferred the overnight soak because it doesn’t require any real time that I have to be in the kitchen. Rinse the beans, fill the bowl with water, let them soak, changing the water a few times as they soak. Since I haven’t taught a Nia class in the area of San Jose where I bought the last dried beans, I decided to buy some organic dried garbanzo beans online. To get them ready for cooking I opted for the let-it-set method. I didn’t time the soak because I had done it before and I know that overnight is good enough. I know I let them set from one morning, until the next afternoon. Then I rinsed them and put them on the pan to roast. Apparently not all beans can just be soaked for about 30 hours. Apparently some HAVE to be cooked — as in boiled. These beans did not come out well just soaking. I didn’t know that until I was already roasting them.
I had a huge bowl soaking so when I did the roasting I had only used about half. So I figured that if I let the remaining beans soak longer they would be fine. So I left them soaking until the next day. Throughout this soaking period I had drained the water and refilled. I even took them all out of the bowl, rinsed them, then put them back in the bowl with fresh water. So — again, I figured they had soaked enough they would be fine. Again, part way through cooking when I had a taste they were NOT good. I hadn’t tasted before I added all of my other ingredients so dinner was almost going to be REALLY gross. But I just added water and let them cook and dinner was salvaged.
But now I know. Apparently these beans HAVE to be cooked in order for them to be edible. When not cooked they are really HARD and they taste like a green seed. No good. Not the creamy mush you expect from a garbanzo bean. Also . . . these beans, while they have not popped as the other ones I soaked did, they are letting off a very large and stinky amount of gas! Whew! Again my kitchen smells of bean gas. They are gassy beans! I have yet to cook the rest.
So . . . here I am again, just sharing things I learn. Maybe I can save someone’s dinner if they are like me and think that all dried beans can just be soaked without the cooking. I was fortunate in that what I was cooking was ok with me just adding water and letting it all cook a bit longer than I had planned. But somethings you can’t do that to. So if you are like me and you like the soaking method, try it on a small batch first to see if that will be sufficient.
Please understand I am not saying there is anything wrong with these beans or the brand. I am just saying that I learned not all garbanzo beans can JUST be soaked. Apparently some need to be cooked too!
Do you have a recipe that you use garbanzo beans in? Care to share?
Posted in Food | Tagged: and Rice, bean recipe, bean salad, beans, fiber rich, Garbanzo beans, green beans, internet education, kidney beans, legume protein rich, Nia, Nia class, Nia San Jose, quick soak beans, Red Beans and Rice, roasted beans, San Jose Nia, Sausage, soaking beans | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 18, 2014
I really thought I had posted about these before. I probably decided against it because it is not the healthiest of desserts and certainly will be frowned upon by many. But . . . this is also not one of the unhealthiest desserts – as far as desserts go. It IS one of the yummiest desserts and sooooo easy. This one has a lot more calories, fat, and processed ingredients than the blended bananas, but it is pretty much just as easy. Since it is just my husband and I that are usually eating them my recipe is for two, but it is so easy to adjust you can make it for one, three, ten, or more it is up to you. I first saw this recipe in a magazine, I think it was Taste of Home. What they called them I don’t remember because my husband quickly named them Banana Boats.
.
.
Recipe for two:
____________________________________
Banana Boats
Two less than ripe bananas*
Aluminum foil
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup mini-marshmallows
Put your oven rack on the lowest position. Turn oven to 450° F. While the oven is heating up slice the banana down the inside-of-the-curve middle. Do not cut all the way through the skin on the outside-of-the-curve, but do cut all the way through the banana. Situate the banana in a “boat” made of aluminum foil, with the slice facing up. Use a spoon or something to open the banana a little bit so you have room to fill it. Then put half of the chocolate chips in the slice. Top the chips with half of the marshmallows. Repeat with the other banana.
Put the banana on the lowest oven rack (the one you remembered to lower BEFORE you turned the oven on) and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Check the banana. With the rack at the lowest possible point the chocolate should be melted and the banana warm. The marshmallows might be browning. You decide how brown you like your marshmallows. The banana skin will turn black and look rather not-pretty. But your banana will be fine. When the marshmallows are browned to your liking, take the bananas out of the oven. I like mine around 7 minutes.
How you serve them is up to you. We usually just put the banana on a plate and use a spoon to scoop out the chocolatey-marshmallowey-banana goodness.
____________________________________
.
Usually my husband grills them. He grills them at a kinda low to medium temp. Then he watches them until they have black skin and melted/browned marshmallows. Of course every grill is different so the low to medium might not work on your grill. Basically just keep an eye on them.
*Regarding the ripeness of the bananas. We have found that ripe bananas do not work as well. I honestly can’t remember why. I just remember it was not as yummy. So they do work and it will still be a great dessert, but not as yummy as when the bananas are on the hard – less-than ripe side.
All of the pictures are courtesy of my hubby! Thanks, Hubby!
What do you think?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: 10 minute dessert, Banana Boats, Chocolate, dessert, easy dessert, fruit deassert, grilled banana, oven baked banana, Taste of Home | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 4, 2014
For many food might not be something you want to talk about right now. I know many of us might have had many large and delicious meals over the Holidays. I know many that are thinking of cutting back on their food intake since they might have had more over the Holidays than they normally would have had. Well, no matter what your present relationship is with food, I am confident that you will be eating. So what is it you are eating? I am looking to get some ideas here. I am not asking for any particular TYPE of recipe, as in, I don’t need it to be gluten free, dairy free, meat free, or fat free. I am just wondering what you are eating. Not everyone that reads this blog is looking for any of that so ANY recipe you want to share would be welcome. What can happen is that people can make adjustments as necessary. Just give us your ideas and/or recipes as to what to eat!
It can be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even a snack recipe. I am often looking for dinner recipes. You know my normal fare; roasted veggie, ground turkey, something in a tortilla (although I have been avoiding the flours ones because of the transfat/partially hydrogenated oils). My friend just pointed me to a Martha Stewart recipe that I am sure you will be hearing about soon. I am kind of interested in Polenta. What about you? Do you have any Polenta recipes? I have been making a lot of Sausage, Beans, and Rice. It is so flavorful and so easy, when I don’t have time to think of something else, I make that.
I am still enjoying my organic box of produce. I love when we get fennel. I love that Fennel Turkey Recipe I came up with. I just made it the other day. We haven’t really gotten anything new in the box lately, except cranberries and I have not idea what to do with them same as last year when I receive them. What do you do with fresh cranberries? My sister in-law put some in the stuffing over Christmas. What about you?
Maybe you had a yummy dish over the Holidays you want to share. That would be great too! Just tell me what you are making and eating. Give me some ideas. You know most of mine ideas. You know I have a stove, an oven, and a crock pot. I am not versed in how to use the grill, but I might venture out to do so, if I can get at it before my hubby gets home. He claims that as his — well, it is.
Ok so this is a call out for ideas and recipes. Any and all is fine, I reserve the right to pick and choose because somethings I don’t eat, but you can still post the recipe because there are other who eat things I don’t eat.
C’mon, help me out. What have you got?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: crockpot, dairy free, dinner ideas, fat free, food ideas, gluten free, grill, Holiday meals, Martha Stewart recipe, meat free, Partially Hydrogenated Oils, recipes, transfat | 12 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 28, 2013
Oh my! You might have read my post about me getting to teach a Nia class in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz, for those of you that might not be familiar, is a beach town in California. It is not very far from me, but I still don’t get over there often. The place where Nia is held over there is lovely. My student and I usually make a day of it when we go over the hill. The last time we went we stopped and had breakfast at a place serving daily toast. That started my fascination with what I call “Fancy Toast” – click here for the post on Fancy Toast. I have tried it with pears and I like it much better with persimmons, which is funny because that was a substitution on the part of the restaurant owner. But the persimmons have to be REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ripe. At the point where they are almost mushy and a little slippery to cut up. Since I eat the Fancy Toast all the time — because I just happened to have had a few persimmons — I thought I would look into the nutritional value of persimmons.
The ones that I have been using are the flat-ish kind. I hear they are the Asian persimmons. According to a document from the California Department of Public Health a medium (168g) persimmon has 118 calories, only 3 of which are from fat. With the following percentages of the government daily values:
Total Fat: 0g 0%
Saturated Fat: 0g 0%
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg 0%
Sodium: 2mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate: 31g 10%
Dietary Fiber: 6g 24%
Sugars: 21g
Protein: 1g
Vitamin A 55% / Vitamin C 21% / Calcium 1% / Iron 1%
Persimmons have a lot of sugar and relatively no protein. But a nice amount of fiber and a good amount of Vitamin C, but even better amount of Vitamin A.
Remember, also, that colorful fruit has carotenoids which provide the orange color in the fruits. And the carotenoids act as antioxidants in your body, meaning they attack harmful free radicals that damage tissues throughout your body.
Most of the recipes I saw called for persimmon puree which is a combination of cooking and blending. So I like the idea of putting them on my toast, I cut up the raw fruit and pile it on top, making it “fancy” or putting them raw into a salad. I actually have not tried them in a salad because I have used them all on my toast!
There are two varieties, the Hachiya and the Fuyu. The Hachiya is the taller of the two, with the Fuyu being more flat. The Hachiya is used more for baking whereas the Fuyu is the one that people eat raw. The document I mentioned states “The Fuyu was developed by breeding out the tannic acid from the Hachiya, making it more appealing to taste and easier to eat whole and raw.”
Have you tried making and eating the Fancy Toast? What else do people do with persimmons? Do you have a persimmon recipe?
Posted in Food, Fruit | Tagged: California beaches, California Department of Public Health, Fancy toast, fiber in fruit, Fuyu, Hachiya, Nia, Nia class, Nia in a beach town, Nia in Santa Cruz, Nia student, Nia Teacher, persimmons, Santa Cruz Nia, Santa Cruz restaurant, tannic acid, teach Nia | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 24, 2013
For many it is Christmas Eve. Some might not celebrate Christmas or it is past the day, but here, where I am, it is Christmas Eve. It is Tuesday so normally I would have had a Nia class in the morning, but the Park and Recreation Department of San Jose took the day off so there was no Nia this morning. They also have instituted a very abbreviated Group Ex schedule so my Nia classes with the City of San Jose are done for the year. We will be back Thursday, January 2, 2014. (WHOA! 2014!) I have one more Nia class in Willow Glen this year and one more class this year that I am subbing for the YMCA. Then onto the next year! So today I had a very relaxing Christmas Eve Day. Probably thee most relaxing Christmas Eve Day I have had in a LONG time. It was nice. One thing I had to do today was make spinach dip. In my world this is a common party treat. I have been making it for as long as I can remember. Although I had not made it in a long time. I think I first heard about spinach dip when I worked at my first mortgage job in the mid ’80s. So that is a long time. Spinach dip seems pretty common and timeless.
One thing I notice over Thanksgiving when I made a quadruple batch was that the recipe calls for a 10 ounce package of frozen spinach. Well our big green friend now makes his frozen spinach in 9 ounces sizes. I thought that was funny. Then today as I happened to be READING the recipe I noticed something that had me saying, “WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!” The directions actually say to COOK the spinach. I have never heard of such a thing. I have NEVER cooked the spinach. And as I mentioned I have been making spinach dip for YEARS. Cook the spinach? Really?
I prefer the Knorr Vegetable soup mix. But one year I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE and I ended up with the SPRING Vegetable mix and that was awesome because it had mushrooms in it. Now I can’t find that. I have also used other soup mix and have not been as happy as when I use Knorr. But this “cooked” really made me laugh out loud. Here is the recipe I am sure many of you are familiar with:
___________________________
Knorr Spinach Dip
Ingredients
1 box (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, cooled and squeezed dry
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 package Knorr® Vegetable recipe mix
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional)
3 green onions, chopped (optional)
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients and chill about 2 hours. Serve with your favorite dippers to your favorite people.
___________________________
Also, for me, the water chestnuts are NOT optional! They are a requirement. In fact, to me, the are the best part. If you watch me getting some spinach dip you will probably see me pushing my cracker/bread/veggie through the dish just trying to get at that chunk of chestnut.
In addition to the change in weight of the spinach they also now package it in a plastic, which helped when squeezing the water out. After I squeeze the spinach it is all clumped together so I use forks to pull it a part.
So I have two main questions for you:
1) Do you COOK your spinach?
2) How do you squeeze all the water out of the frozen spinach? To me that is the worst part.
Let me know because I am soooooo curious.
And to all I say:
Merry Christmas!
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, Christmas, Christmas celebration, Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve Day, City of San Jose, Diane Bacho - 1948 to March 11, 2014, frozen spinach, Group Ex, January 2, Knorr Vegetable soup, Merry Christmas, mortgage job, Nia, Nia class, Nia class in Willow Glen, Park and Recreation Department of San Jose, spinach dip, Thanksgiving, Thursday, water chestnuts, YMCA | 12 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 10, 2013
I read a blog written by a man in France. He writes his posts in French and English. He owns and runs a Bed and Breakfast in France. He takes fabulous pictures and posts a lot of yummy and interesting recipes. One recipe he posted I couldn’t wait to try, but I had to. When I read the post it was the week of Thanksgiving and I was going out of town so I couldn’t make the recipe. When I got back I had forgotten about it, but he replied to my comment which notifies me so I was reminded. I went to the store the next day to get the ingredients. There are only two or three in his recipe (I added a couple more)! It is so easy. It is one of those dishes that tastes rich and fancy but it super simple. The link to his post is here. Do go to his blog and check it out. As I was making this I realized his recipes are like mine or mine are like his — a guide. Here is how I made his mushroom soup recipe.
I only bought two pounds of mushrooms because 1) I thought that would be enough for my husband and I and 2) Mushrooms are $4.49 a pound and I didn’t want to spend $20.00 on mushrooms. 🙂 I also only purchased two shallots. I thought I had one in my refrigerator but I didn’t so I only ended up using two. Which was fine. I also didn’t use any cream. With his recipe he put a drizzle of cream on top or instructed how to blend it in. I didn’t bother with the cream. I am so glad I didn’t because the mushrooms and shallots are rich enough. It was so yummy. I am going to make it again this week.
I wash my mushrooms. I know many chefs say to just dust them off, but . . . . I prefer to wash mine.
________________________________________
Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
(makes 4 servings)
2 large shallots, roughly chopped
3 tbsp butter
2 lbs mushrooms, quartered
1-2 cups white wine
1-2 cups water
2 tbsp chopped onion
2-4 tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese
Heat a tablespoon of butter. Once melted add the chopped shallots and a tablespoon of butter. Cook the shallots, when they start to become translucent add the mushroom and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Cook/brown the mushrooms. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add enough white wine and water in combination (whatever combination YOU desire) to cover the mushrooms. Bring to a boil. Lower the temperature to a simmer. Simmer for 30 – 40 minutes.
Blend in a blender or with a stick blender.
Once blended, spoon/pour into bowls. Top each bowl with chopped onions and Parmesan cheese.
________________________________________
Be certain that you blend the soup according to your blenders specifications — most instructions on blenders say to cool before blending. I barely let mine cool because I wanted hot soup. I have a Blendtec which heats the soup up while it blends. So, blend and heat as is necessary according to your blender. Stéphane’s recipe recommends garnishing the soup with mushrooms. I know that presentation is a big part of serving dinner and he is really good at that. For me, I am just happy to get a meal on the table and I rarely think of presentation. You may be better at that than me so please — have at it. I am convinced that the presentation — no matter what it is will be long forgotten once they taste this soup. It is so yummy, they won’t care how it is served!
I am grateful to Stephane for posting such a simple recipe that is so yummy! My husband really loved this so we will be eating it often.
Do you like mushrooms? Can you believe how simple this soup is? What are you going to add to this recipe to make it perfect for you?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: Bed and Breakfast in France, blender soup, Blendtec, butter, easy dinner, France, gluten free, Mushroom Soup, My French Heaven, shallots, super easy recipe, white wine | 8 Comments »
Terre Pruitt's Blog 