Orzo Pasta and Mushroom "Pork"

Orzo is probably my new favorite pasta.  It's small, kinda like rice, but has the texture of pasta.  It's really great for mixing with some chopped veggies and parmesan.

***  Doesn't it look great ***

Here's my favorite (at the moment) way to cook orzo

Ingredients:

• 1 cup orzo
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1-2 cups broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces 
• olive oil
• a few cloves of minced/mashed garlic
• splash of white wine
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Bring pot of water to boil and add in orzo - to add flavor and prevent an overflowing pot, add in some salt and a pat of butter
• After pasta has been boiling for a couple of minutes, add in the carrots.
• When pasta is almost done, add in the broccoli (keeps it from getting overcooked and mushy), strain the pasta, and reserve about a cup of the pasta water, set aside pasta and water until needed
• Start on the sauce, in a separate pan, after the carrots have been cooking for a couple of minutes
• Heat the olive oil - when hot, add in the garlic and if desired, some minced onion and saute until lightly browned and fragrant
• Add the white wine (substitute it with chicken broth if you don't have any) and simmer until slightly reduced
• Add about half of the pasta water and bring to a boil
• Stir pasta/veggie mix into the sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan and gently stir; keep sprinkling with Parmesan and stirring until it has enough for your taste
• To make it look pretty - stir in some fresh chopped parsley at the end and/or top it with a sprig of parsley

***  Don't worry, most of my dishes don't look this pretty  ***

And now for the Mushroom "Pork"

I found a recipe, looked yummy, called for pork, didn't have any, used chicken instead because that's what was in the freezer.  But it was really tasty, nice and moist, and the only things I'd change would be to leave out the salt, and add a bit of milk to the cream soup to make it creamier

Ingredients:

• 2 pork chops or chicken breasts
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• handful of mushrooms, finely chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (I used the healthy choice, reduced fat kind)
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• In a medium sized skillet (that has a lid), saute the onion in oil until translucent.  Add the mushrooms and garlic and saute some more until the mushrooms have released their liquid.  Remove the onion-mushroom mixture from the pan and set aside.
• Add some more oil to the pan and brown the meat on both sides, seasoning with salt, pepper, and other herbs if desired - Go easy on the salt, the cream soup has quite a bit and you'll end up with a slightly salty dish if you're not careful 
• Mix the cream soup, milk, and onion-mushroom mixture together and pour over the meat.
• Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 20-30 minutes until meat is done
• Serve with your choice of pasta, rice, or potatoes

***  Goes well with asparagus too ***

Got Spinach?

We do.  My husband got a new job working at Nicholas Food Co.  They're a food distributor for restaurants and specialty food stores.  One of Sam's crazy and new coworkers loves spinach and ordered 3 cases of the stuff.  Needless to say he felt a bit overwhelmed was eager to pawn some off on us, thus we ended up with a 2 pound bag.  Have you ever seen a 2 pound bag of spinach???  IT'S HUGE!!!

Thankfully I found this super tasty recipe online that is just like the zupa (well, mostly) from Gabor Brothers (http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/leek_potato_spinach_stew.html).  Gabor Brothers is on Main Street in Layton.  If you've never ate there, you need to.  The bread sticks are to die for good (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=gabor+brothers&hl=en&cid=10116407575971411667)

I made some minor modifications to the recipe to reflect what I had on hand so here's my version of this recipe.
Ingredients:

• 2 links hot Italian turkey sausage, casings removed (or a 1/2 pound of the good stuff and some extra fat & calories)
• 1 onion, chopped (I love my food processor for getting it finely chopped)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 pound baby red potatoes, sliced
• 2 cans chicken broth, reduced sodium kind
• 8 ounces spinach, stemmed and chopped (you'll start off with lots more than you think you need)
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained (next time I'd use white, cannellini, or great northern beans)
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped herbs (optional)
• freshly shredded parmesan (optional)

Directions:

• In a hot dutch oven, heat the sausage and onions, stirring and breaking up the sausage, until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 secs - 1 min
• Add the wine, bring to a boil over high heat.  Cook until the wine is almost evaporated, about 5 more minutes
• Add potatoes and broth; cover and bring to a boil.  Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 5-10 minutes depending on how thinly you sliced them.
• Add the spinach and cook a couple minutes more
• Add the beans and remove from heat
• Top with fresh herbs and parmesan if desired and serve with crusty bread from your local bakery

*Delish, this was my second bowl*

Anybody have ideas on how to use up the rest of my spinach??? Feel free to take some off my hands to if you're going to be in my area within the next few days.

Fauxtisserie Chicken

So I got this kinda cool 3-in-1 slow cooker for Christmas from my mother.  Between the new cooker and my husband, I ended up with this crazy idea that I should make dinner and a dessert using all three pots.  I decided on fauxtisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, and Asian-style tapioca pudding.  Make sure you save the leftover chicken, it'll make a fast and easy meal the next day.

The chicken is super easy...

• Take 4 tablespoons butter and mix with your choice of herbs like rosemary, thyme, parsley, and garlic.  
• Rub the butter on the outside of your bird (once you clean it in cold water and pat it dry) and then stuffed the bird with a few cloves of garlic and one small onion, quartered.  
• This next step was kinda tricky, you're supposed to wad up tin foil pieces into balls, 3 balls, and place them in the bottom of your cooker to keep the bird from stewing in it's juices.  He he, yeah.... my bird was a bit too big to fit in the slow cooker with the tin foil so I didn't use the foil.  
• Cook on low heat for 6-7 hours OR until a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees F.
• The bird turns out delish, even if you did it the wrong/my way.   
• If pressed for time, you could easily cook in the oven at 350 or so for an hour-ish and the skin will turn out really crispy while the inside is moist and flavorful, especially if you put some lemon slices in the cavity and rosemary sprigs under the skin.
• Be sure to cook it uncovered.  Yes, that's right, uncovered if you want crispy skin.
• Remove from slow cooker or oven pan, cover with tin foil, and let sit for 10-15 minutes.

If you want gravy...

• Strain the liquid to get out an floaties and if possible, skim the fat off
• Bring to a simmer and reduce to about 1/2 it's original volume
• Mix some water, milk, or cream (your choice) with a spoonful or two of cornstarch - Make sure it's smooth and not lumpy and add it to the simmering broth
• Stir and taste frequently adding more salt and pepper as needed... Since I didn't use any salt on the bird it definitely needed some, just don't tell Heather I said that

 *Poor, squished chicken*

*Sam cleaning the carcass*

The potatoes should have been super easy... peel or scrub your potatoes, cut into chunks, throw them in the pot with some chicken both, garlic cloves, and ground pepper.  Cook till soft and smash with lots of butter and enough milk to reach your desired consistency.  Well... after 4 hours on high my potatoes were still not very cooked.  Apparently my new cooker doesn't like cooking things quickly, hopefully it just needs to be broken in a few time.  We had noodles instead.

Asian-style Tapioca Pudding

• Soak 2/3 cup large tapioca pearls in water until they swell (45 min-1hr)
• Combine 2 cups water and a generous 1/2 cup sugar (according to the recipe, it could have used more sugar so consider adding 3/4 cup instead) in the slow cooker and cook on high until sugar disolves (about 30 min)
• Drain tapioca pearls and add to slow cooker with 1 cup coconut milk and a touch or two of vanilla or coconut flavoring.
• Cover and cook for an hour-ish (may need an extra 15-30 min)
• Garnish with liced tropical fruits, lime peel shavings, coconut, etc..
• Mmmmm...

*Mostly eaten, white bowl doesn't provide much contrast but it was good*

Disaster: Ala Tuna Casserole

So growing up my mom would always make tuna casserole.  It has to be one of the worst creations ever.  I loathe it so much that I'd probably eat beef instead (FYI- I stopped eating beef in high school) if it were an option.

Anyways, I made this Pesto Chicken Florentine dish that I found on the All-Recipes website (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pesto-Chicken-Florentine/Detail.aspx). I didn't have spinach so I sauteed some mushrooms with minced garlic, threw in some peas, added left over fauxtesserie chicken from last night (recipe to follow in upcoming blogs once I have more time and can load pictures).  Sounds pretty good, right?  Then you mix it with an alfredo sauce that has a couple spoonfuls of pesto in it and stir it all up.

GROSS!!! It was almost exactly like tuna casserole.  The texture was wrong, the peas were gross, it was some kind of a glutenous glob with chunks of dry meat and tough peas.  Kinda sad, the chicken from last night was quite tasty, moist, flavorful, delicious, never will buy a real rotisserie chicken unless I pressed for time, etc...

The recipe might have been okay if I'd followed it exactly (he he he) but there are so many other recipes that are lots better.  Don't waste your time with this one.  However, if you do... let me know?

I like to cook...

And my husband, Sam, likes to eat.  We are a perfect match.  We both love to try new foods, I'm always looking at new recipes, and my husband is always my guinea pig.  As for the food, sometimes it turns out and sometimes it doesn't.

*Sam trying some Jamaica (ha-my-ka)*

My best friend, Heather, and I taught ourselves how to cook.  You can ask us and our families for the horror stories, like that one time, we ruined my mother's nicest pot - a heavy duty stock pot; or that other time with the not-so-perfect cinnamon rolls that looked and smelled perfect.  We're both in shock that my mother let us back into the kitchen.  However, most of our stuff started to turn out after a period of experimentation.  One of these days my daddy will even forgive us for the food dye experiments (fyi, orange juice and green dye do not turn out well).

Since Heather and I are adults and have to be adult-ish (marriage, school, kids for Heather), we haven't been able to cook together as often.  So over the last year or two I've started to give cooking lessons to a couple of my nieces and it's been pretty fun.  We've made rosemary-parmesan bread sticks, pancakes, fruit syrup, pizza, a few different types of soup, and all sort of other good stuff.  Since I'm past the scary experimenting stage, I'm able to safely guide my nieces through theirs.

*One of my nieces*

With this blog, I'll pass along my "wisdom" and recipes as they turn out.  I have a short attention span (something my husband calls ADOS???) so I'll be sharing disasters too so that I don't tell you the same story over and over and, wait... what was that?  Oh, shiny!!!