A polenta newbie recipe

Cooking confessional- I had never cooked with polenta until a few months ago. I know this may seem crazy because I’d eaten it many times in restaurants, but I had never even thought about cooking it myself.

Weird, I know.

I found a recipe for cheesy polenta topped with simple sautéed mushrooms and decided to give it a whirl.

It was a weeknight dinner so I bought the pre-made polenta to make this easy recipe even easier.

Slice the polenta a 1/2 thick. Add a table spoon of butter to the pan and melt over medium heat. Add the polenta disks!

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While your waiting for them to mush and turn golden brown, slice a handful (or a whole package) of baby portebella mushrooms and 2 cloves of garlic.

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Add two more tablespoons of butter to another pan and melt on medium to low heat. Once butter gets melty add your mushrooms and garlic!

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Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper to taste. Cook until mushrooms soften and the garlic is fragrant. You can even put a lid on them and turn the heat off until your polenta is done.

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While the polenta was cooking I kept mushing it and flipping it until it softened into on giant yellow mat.

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Once it appears crispy-ish sprinkle cheddar cheese on the top! And it’s done.

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The cooking time for the polenta probably took 15 minutes total.

When the polenta is done, add a sprinkle of parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice to the mushrooms.

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Then all you do is dish up the polenta and top it with the mushrooms. We had it with fried potatoes and carrots.

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And we also tried “dragon” cheese at dinner.

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Who knew we could be so brave and fearless in one night!

meatless monday — an indian feast

normally when i go to the grocery store i’m a firm believer of sticking to my list, that way i stay on my budget. well the last time i went to the store that theory might have been put aside as i finally decided to purchase some indian food products i’d been eyeing for the last month. purchased… patak’s curry sauce of sweet peppers and coconut milk. the jar suggested adding it to chicken i voted for a giant jar of chickpeas instead, since it is meatless monday.

curry sauce in a jar, yes please

curry sauce in a jar, yes please

also purchased some mango chutney and frozen naan. dinner would be served shortly. (it may sound cheesy but i felt inspired to cook this meal to the darjeeling limited soundtrack)

why purchase anything but garlic naan

why purchase anything but garlic naan

 

yum yum yummy

yum yum yummy

the verdict. pretty yummy and oh so easy. the only thing i was a tad disappointed with was the mango chutney but i used it throughout the week on sandwiches and with the leftovers mixing it into the curried chickpeas and it kind of grew on me. now i feel like i need to go on an indian food crawl, sampling more grocery store products and buffets in town. it’ll be a lot of curry but i think i can handle it!

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lets do dinner!!! VII

“this was a perfect way to spend a january night!”  so said one of my dinner guests at the last meatless monday “lets do dinner!!!” gathering.  on the menu was a Jamaican sheppard’s pie.  what constitutes a sheppard’s pie to be Jamaican, well.  plantains, curry, coconut milk, and topped with sweet potatoes.

lima beans, curry, coconuts, plantains, and sweet pots

lima beans, curry, coconuts, plantains, and sweet pots

the guest were plenty to the point i almost didn’t have enough chairs, but that’s the way i like it.  for a more cozy atmosphere the crew voted to relocate for dessert by the fireplace in the living room.

the crew

the crew

for dessert i must admit i’ve gotten rather badass at making bundt cakes, this one was a vegan lemon-coconut cake.  lets just say the leftovers made for an excellent breakfast!

finger lickin good

finger lickin good

 

 

Celebrating Burns night (sort of) in the Midwest

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John and I happened to be in New Castle on on Robert Burns Night a couple of years ago. We had never heard about the night and the meal to celebrate the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

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We quickly learned about it though because all the restaurants were booked up to feed people haggis!

Burns night happened to be labeled on our 2013 calendar this year and we decided to give it a vegetarian celebration. I know– how? Well, we tried out a few of the rituals and had some good scotch whiskey courtesy of Josh.

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Hold on to your socks- my honey, the teetotaler, had a sip during our toast to the laddies and the ladies.

Can you guess which scotch is John’s?

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We had veggie Cornish pasties and made a to-do as you would for the haggis when we took them out of oven.

If only we had some bagpipe music in the background!

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The whole house smelled like malt vinegar due to our salty pub-style roasted potatoes.

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I’m not a huge scotch drinker so we moved on to ale. This one had hints of maple syrup, rye and bananas.

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Before eating we read a very short poem by Robert Burns and felt like we gave the night a good go of it!

For dessert we had dark chocolate Digestives which tasted amazing with the beer (who knew?)

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To cap off our trip down Northern England memory lane we watched The Trip which is all about the North and food…Cheers.

holy mole pork fajitas

a wonderful christmas present was given to me…….a six pack of mother’s brewery holy mole beer!

holy mole full of grace

holy mole full of grace

i got excited, when i get excited i like to create wonderful things.  thus was born the concept to cook fajita meat using the holy mole brew.   in my slow cooker i cooked a pork tenderloin in the mother’s brew along with some onions and a package of taco seasoning.

i probably could have just eaten the meat off the cutting board but i stuck with my plan.

meat

meat

i used the meat to make up some tacos.  in the tacos was a mix of mexican millet, black beans my holy moly fajita meat all topped with some guacamole.  lets just say it was yummy!

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National Pie Day 2013

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National Pie day rolled around this year and I decided to have pie all day once again. I stretched lunch a little, but I think it still counts!

Breakfast: Apple tart with cheddar cheese.

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I spread a little pie love with a free pie stand at work.

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Lunch: Leftover cold pizza pie

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Dinner: Spaghetti Pie

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Dessert: Chocolate Pecan Pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

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Happy Pie to All!

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meatless monday — everything but the kitchen sink soup

goodness in a bowl

goodness in a bowl

when its 20 degrees out all ya kind of want is warm goodness, fast and preferable in a bowl.  that was monday’s dinner.  i got myself a bear creek soup mix and then turned into a clean out the vegetable draw collection spot.  a handful of carrots, the last of some broccoli, half a jar of beans, and one lonely potato all found their way into my soup.  topped with a little pepperjack cheese mix and some white wine, this the way to end a monday.

Pizza Night with Emily

Our Friday night routine is to make homemade pizza. As a Farris, I love my themed cooking nights! I use to make the crust from scratch, but then I discovered Whole Foods bulk pizza dough and you really can’t beat it.

A couple of Fridays ago our dear friend Emily came over to join us.

Emily had peppers, mushrooms, spinach and olives on her pizza.

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John and his pizza- cheese as always.

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And I had all of the above plus roasted spicy brussel sprouts- you’ve got to try it if you like brussel sprouts.

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She brought us our nifty Union Jack napkins that I will only use for special British occasions to make the last as long as possible!

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Thanks Emily!

god save the king and some pb&b too

decorations are a must

decorations are a must

all hail the king of rock and roll that is!  for years i have wanted to have an elvis birthday bash, i mean what is a better way to have fun on a january night?!  now i have not always been an elvis fan.  my conversion to elvis-ism happened on a family vacation to graceland.  dad declared we were doing the platinum tour because we were never coming back again, little did he realize he was turning mom and i into down right die-hard elvis fans.  we went to mecca and came back crazied!

the king joined us at the table

the king joined us at the table

for the birthday party the king’s favorite sandwich was on the menu a pb&b (peanut butter and banana) but knowing everyone has their own way of making a classic sandwich i took orders of how everyone wanted their sandwiches.

order #1 ingrid —- open-faced on toast with peanut butter, banana and grape jelly

ingrid's version of "the king"

ingrid’s version of “the king”

order #2 mom — a traditionalist her sandwich consisted of peanut butter and banana on oatmeal wheat bread

mom's yummy sandwich

mom’s yummy sandwich

order #3 me — peanut butter and banana with blackberry jam grilled to perfection

mmmmmmm

mmmmmmm

along with sandwiches i made some elvis mac & cheese, although it would probably not be up to elvis’ standard’s because it was vegan mac & cheese but it was still yummy.  but the best part of the meal was a creation of mine……blue suede cupcakes, not only yummy but also entertaining as they turned your mouth blue. its my take on a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting but instead of chocolate and red my cupcakes were white chocolate cupcakes and blue for elvis’ favorite shoes of course!

beware it turns you mouth blue!!

beware it turns you mouth blue!!

i do believe even the king himself would find this meal worthy of graceland!

 

RECIPE:  BLUE SUEDE CUPCAKES

makes a baker’s dozen (15)

CAKE

1 box white cake mix

1 pkg white chocolate instant pudding mix

1 oz blue food coloring

FROSTING

1 TBSP butter – softened

80z cream cheese – softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup cool whip – thawed out

* make cake mix according to package directions.  add in box of instant pudding mix, beat well.  gradually add in blue food coloring.  bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. cool completely before frosting

* for frosting mix together the softened butter and cream cheese and in powdered sugar one cup at a time.  when all three ingredients are well blended fold in cool whip.

*  to frost cupcakes make a hole in the center of each cupcake (about the size of your finger), use a pastry bag filled with the frosting, fill hole with frosting and finish off the top with as much frosting as you like!

 

 

 

 

 

Comfy Saturady

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This winter day just called for being curled up on the couch all day. What do you eat when you chose to do nothing but snuggle in?

A toad in the hole for breakfast of course.

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A bowl of cozy Italian bean vegetable soup for lunch.

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And finally another round dish of baked spaghetti with kale and fresh tomatoes.

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Now if I could only fit inside a bowl, the day would come full circle!