Mushroom Risotto, Pork Chops and Brussels Sprouts

Last night’s dinner was pretty good. I was just too tired to write about it. We had pork chops, mushroom risotto, and Brussels sprouts.
I made up the pork chop sauce. I had ¾ of a jar of jalapeño jelly I had made. I warmed this with a very sweet apple and mashed into a sauce for the boneless pork chops that Jim grilled. The chops were simply seasoned with salt and pepper.
The Brussels sprouts were just microwaved. I love Brussels sprouts and always have. Jim does not like them so I got most of them.
Mushroom Risotto recipe came from Viansa Winery. I cut the following in half. This recipe serves 6-8 as a side dish, 4 as a main course.
Ingredients:
1/3 C dried porcini mushrooms
1C hot water
4 T butter
8oz. cremini or shitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
4-5 C chicken broth
1/2 C dry white wine
1T EVOO
¼ C minced onion
1 large garlic, minced
1 ½ C Arborio rice
1/3 C Parmesan cheese
1T chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste
1. Soak dried mushrooms in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes, until soft. Remove from water, finely chop and set aside, reserving liquid. Strain liquid through a coffee filter and set aside.
2. Heat 2 T butter in a large sauté pan and cook fresh mushrooms over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, adding the reconstituted porcini during the last few minutes. Keep mushrooms warm.
3. Combine the strained mushroom liquid, chicken broth and wine in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. (I put it in a glass measuring cup, heated in the microwave and kept it hot with one minute boosts of power)
4. Heat the remaining 2 T butter and the EVOO in a pan and sauté onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Add rice, stir to coat and sauté 2-3 minutes. Add simmering broth a cup at a time and continue cooking over medium-high heat until all the liquid is absorbed and rice is tender but firm, moist, not dry. Add mushroom, Parmesan and parsley and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (I seasoned my rice as I was mixing in the broth)
This was a pretty good combination of flavors. It was good to keep the Brussels sprouts plain as they really stood out. I loved the sweet /hot/sour of the sauce on the pork chops and the chops were grilled to perfection. Not over done. Jim used a temp probe and cooked to beef medium rare. Pork recipes always have it overdone. The risotto added a creamy texture to the table.

French Lentil Rice Soup

Another slow cooking recipe. I got this one from the Costco flyer that was trying to sell a new kind of slow cooker. If you read the fine print you find it comes from another food blogger, Barb Freda. She says she spends her spare time eating, drinking and traveling. Sounds good to me.  I did not buy a new slow cooker even though I think I need one, but I did make this recipe. We liked it a lot and believe it or not, Jim could only eat 2 servings, but he also had 6 crescent rolls.
Ingredients:
6 C chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 C lentils
2 medium carrots, I would probably at least double the carrots. I did not think there were enough.
1 onion chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
3T uncooked white rice
2 t minced garlic
1t herbes de Provence
½ t salt
1/8 t black pepper
Sour cream and chopped parsley to garnish
I did not really follow the directions. I rough chopped everything and threw it all in the slow cooker for 8 hours on low. I stirred it and all had decomposed into a thick stew. Jim had to add more salt. I added a dollop of low fat sour cream and chopped parsley to each serving.
We served a Costco Chardonnay with the meal from Sonoma. It was very good and only $7.99 in VA.
Strick following of the recipe:
If you really are interested in messing up your blender that I think is totally unnecessary at the end of the cooking time, remove 1 ½ C of soup and process till smooth and add back to the soup. They also call for all the vegetables to be minced. They totally break down in the cooking process.  Just chop and go. 

Not!!!!! tomato yuck!

Today was a little lazy and a little crazy.  Jim mowed the lawn and cleaned the furnace filters.  I had to pay bills.  But the good news is Jim really likes the pasta sauce I made last week while he was away.  He is a big hater of tomato sauce on pizza or pasta.  I added carrots, celery and sweet onions along with my home grown basil to the tomatoes to make the sauce, just look back to see the recipe.  I served it with whole wheat angel hair pasta and Aidells chicken meatballs.  Those of you not familiar with Aidell, he is the husband of Nancy Oakes the owner of Boulevard in SF, CA.  He makes lots of healthy sausages and now has branched into meatballs.  Jim cannot lie about liking or disliking food.  If he doesn’t like it his cheeks puff out while eating.  No cheek puffing tonight.  So for this family this recipe that I made up is a keeper.  We had an Alamos Malbec, available at Costco with the dinner.  I have to say that I also liked the sauce.  Go to Expermenting with Tomato Sauce.  This morning I made biscuits and gravy.  I experimented with the gravy.  Jim ate it, I fed mine to Max.  He liked it also.  You win some and you loose some.            

Jim's late birthday dinner

Jim is back so it is time to start cooking again.  We are having grilled Tuna.  I have dry rubbed it in citrus pepper after coating it with EVOO.  With this I am serving roasted new potatoes that I coated in basil EVOO, salt and pepper then roasted at 450 degrees for 40 minutes.  I am going to stir fry patty pan and baby zucchini squash.  I started the pan with EVOO and water in it.  When it came to a boil, I added the squash and let the water cook away.  I then stir fried the veggies in the remaining oil.  This all went quick and they were perfectly done.  We bought dessert at Wegmans.  There were two stars tonight.  The tuna was fabulous.  It was sushi grade so for a 1½” steak we grilled it for only 6 minutes.  It was perfect. Overdone tuna is shoe leather.   Jim always serves red wine with tuna.  We had a 1995 Charles Wetmore Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Wente Vineyards.  Jim purchased a case in 1998 when we lived in CA.  I understand that there are 2 left.  I suggest he might want to hide them if he goes away for a week again.  This wine was divine.          

Expermenting with pasta sauce

Jim’s still away but it was a rainy day so I made more basil pasta sauce. I did not use the recipe I blogged about the last time. I was going to but I read other sauces and decided to do a little experimenting as Jim is always so negative about tomato sauces. Here is what I used and I think it tastes pretty good. Of course I have not tried it with pasta yet. I picked a ton of basil the other day as I was sure we were going to have a frost. It was over 80 today and extremely humid.
Ingredients:
¼ C Basil EVOO
½ white onion, chopped
½ red onion, chopped
2 carrots chopped
5 large garlic cloves, rough chop
5 celery stalks, 3 from the middle with the leaves
4 cans of diced tomatoes
6 cups of loosely packed basil leaves all stems removed
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
1. I heated the EVOO and added all the vegetables to soften but not brown. When they were soft, added the basil leaves and softened them.
2. Next I added the tomatoes and salt and pepper. Probably a t each. I simmered it for 2 hours.
3. Using an immersion blender I emulsified the contents and let it cool. I tasted and added 1 ½ t more salt.
The tomato taste is definitely softened by all the vegetables. I will have to report the results and how I use it after he returns. It is now cooling completely so I can pack it for the freezer.

Chocolate Cheerios

Some of you are going to be totally grossed out by my title.  I have posted special breakfasts and really enjoy them.  But day to day I have tried almost all cereals on earth, even the “healthy” ones and just give up.  Jim has a Wolferman Mufffin almost everyday with his cheerios.  I am also not fond of milk.  Last night we were at Costco to look at something for Jim’s birthday.  While walking through the store I saw Chocolate Cheerios.  They are to die for!  They are only 10 calories more than regular cheerios and I could eat them breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Today I had them with Greek yoghurt and a banana.  Tomorrow I will try milk. I’ve tried other flavored cheerios, health cereals and almost all on the shelf, these are the best.  It is worth 10 calories to get me to eat breakfast.  The only thing better is a great croissant and tea, but this is so easy.  As Jim is leaving for reunions in IL and OR tomorrow, we went to the Iron Bridge Wine Company for dinner to use my birthday dinner coupon.   They were serving local fare tonight and the beets and goat cheese I had were wonderful.  I have a list of their suppliers and will be contacting them.   It may seem early to you, but I will be working on T-day dinner this week while Jim is gone and probably eating out of the freezer or out.  My friend Sally and her family will be here for dinner.   Cortnery, her daughter, is wanting to learn to cook and has volunteered as sous chef.  Keep cooking!       

Lamb Chops

Tonight was an easy dinner. Tasted good and took no time to prepare. We had grilled lamb chops. I sprinkled them with Mignonette pepper from Penzeys. I saw great green beans at the farmer’s market this weekend. I put them in the microwave with Viansa Caprese Pepper & citrus Blend from Viansa and Sciabica’s Lemon EVOO. I cut up French bread and that was it for dinner.
Jim served a 1994 Fenestra Cabernet Sauvignon. Fenestra was our neighbor in Pleasanton, CA. The owner was the winemaker and based on tonight a very unrecognized prince of the industry.
Don’t look for a blog tomorrow. We are having leftover Eggplant Parmesan.