Spaghetti w/ mushroom cream sauce

Over the past couple of months I've become somewhat obsessed with mushrooms. I've never really been that in to them, I would eat them with the occasional take-out chinese if they were in the meal I ordered, or I would pick around them depending on my mood. Then all of a sudden I couldn't get enough mushrooms, it seemed I always had some on hand, so I would include them in most everything I cooked. Usually they were sliced portabellas, button mushrooms or standard white mushrooms. I've never really ventured into the more exotic varieties, but I saw a package at the grocery the other day of crimini, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms. I couldn't resist buying it. Then I had to figure out what to do with them, I didn't want to just incorporate them into a meal, I wanted to make a meal that featured them. So I decided on a mushroom cream sauce. It was great, very flavorful and a meal that might seem like it would take a while to prepare, but is actually probably the easiest recipe I have. Next time your in the mushroom kind of mood definitely give this recipe a try, it's so simple and doesn't take much time at all to prepare and most importantly, it tastes great.

Spaghetti with Mushroom Cream Sauce

serves 2

1 pound of spaghetti

About 1/2 pound mushrooms (I can't exactly remember how much I had)

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup beef stock

1/4 cup dry red wine

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 shallot; sliced thin

3 garlic cloves; minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

cayenne pepper to taste

salt and pepper

Bring the olive oil up to medium heat in a frying pan, then saute the mushrooms for 7-10 minutes, tossing every couple minutes being sure they do not burn.

As the mushrooms cook bring a pot of water to a boil.

After the mushrooms saute for about 7 minutes add the shallots, when the shallots turn translucent, a minute or two, add the garlic and let fry until fragrant, about another minute.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine, and allow to reduce until it is almost all the way evaporated. Then add the heavy cream, beef stock and soy sauce. Bring it up to a simmer and let it go for about 5-7 minutes to reduce a little bit and thicken up.

As the sauce is simmering, drop the spaghetti into the boiling water and cook to al dente. Just before the spaghetti is done cooking add the parmesan to the sauce and stir to incorporate it. Then drain the spaghetti and place it in the pan with the sauce.

Toss the spaghetti in the sauce to evenly distribute it, and serve.

Eat well, Live well

Tournament Time

It's been a while since my last update, and the picture above has nothing to do with the following story (the recipe is below), I've been busy studying for my first cardiology test that I took Friday. It is definitely nice to have it out of the way, now I can focus on March Madness. This is one of my favorite, if not my favorite time in the sports year. There is something about the tournament that I just love. I think it's the nostalgia of it for me, plus filling out a bracket and gambling doesn't hurt either(I think my brother, sister and I were all raised to be gamblers). When I was in middle school and high school my parents didn't ever really let me miss school. I only missed one day in middle school, and it was my 8th grade year and I kind of faked being sick just to see what it would be like to miss a day of school. Then in high school, my brother got perfect attendance, so my parents basically made me get it. Senior skip day, I was there, bomb threat, I was there, if I was sick, get through half the day so it counts as a full day. Yeah it was kind of ridiculous. Anyway, every year since my brother got his license (so he could pick me up), I think my 8th grade year, on the first Thursday of the tournament my mom would write us each a note for a made up doctor's appointment so we could get out of school to watch the entire days worth of basketball. It always came with a feast of pizza, wings, pepperoni rolls and all kinds of good other tasty treats. So now, every time the tournament comes around I think back on those days, on how great it was to tell my friends I was getting out of class to watch the games, I might of been jealous of all the days of school they missed, but they were certainly jealous on that first day of the tournament when I got to leave. I'm still going strong, since my 8th grade year I haven't missed any of the opening tournament Thursday games. This year was the hardest being that I had a cardiology test the next day, but I held strong. As for my bracket, at the time of this writing it's already going to hell, I made some pretty ridiculous picks, but I think if my final two teams (Maryland and West Virginia) hold up I will have a pretty good shot at winning it. As for my meal this Thursday it was a chicken parm sandwich with sautéed spinach and garlic on with, with a side of fries and mezze penne. Sorry, no pictures, but it sure was amazing.

Before I end this post I will leave you with a recipe that really has nothing to do with the tournament or brackets, but I made it about a week ago and it came out pretty good. It was orzo with spinach, onions chicken and bacon. It wasn't perfect, I wanted it to be more garlicky and not so lemony, so next time I make it with a little more garlic and not so much lemon juice, and for you non meat eaters it would be just as good without the chicken and bacon and maybe adding some mushrooms and eggplant. Anyway here is the recipe as I made it, oh yeah and go Maryland and West Virginia!

Orzo Fresca

serves 1

1 chicken breast

3 slices of thick cut bacon

1 sweet onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, diced

2-3 handfuls of fresh baby spinach, or a package of frozen spinach

2-3 tbs olive oil

juice of 1/2 of a lemon

1/4 c starchy cooking liquid from the orzo

a pinch of red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F, and place the bacon and chicken on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. Be sure to season the chicken with salt and pepper and also place it in a position so the bacon grease will run under it and cook with it.

Heat the oil in a frying pan to medium heat. Add the onion and cook until starting to brown and carmelize.

As the onions are caramelizing, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the orzo to just before al dente. Be sure to set aside the 1/4 cup of starchy water from the boiling orzo.

When the orzo is done, drain and add to the onions.

Next add the spinach, garlic and red pepper flakes, and saute so the spinach cooks and the garlic becomes fragrant, a couple of minutes.

Chop the bacon and chicken into bite size pieces and add to the frying pan.

Finally add the lemon juice, and water mix everything together and check to see if the seasoning is right.

Eat well, Live well

Baker I am Not

What better way to spend my day of, I thought, than baking all kinds of delicious treats. I had my final for our renal module in school and the day off Thursday so I deciding I was going to try and make these cookies, these brownies and my standard blondies but with white chocolate chips. My baking adventure started of with me miscounting how many eggs I needed, thinking I only needed 6 when I apparently needed 7, so I had to scratch the blondies off the list. After baking the cookies and the brownies though, I wasn't too disappointed I couldn't make the blondies because baking is way to much work. It's messy, things need to be precise and an electric mixer is not a replacement for a stand mixer!

I read about these cookies from Momfuku Milk Bar in New York City and wished so bad that I could try them. I mean a cookie with chocolate, rice krispy's, chips and pretzels, it sounded like a dream. Since I don't ever bake anything, of course the recipe didn't seem too hard. The recipe did call for creaming the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer, and again, me with my very limited baking knowledge just figured that I could use an electric mixer on a low speed and it would be like the same thing. Haha well the joke was on me because it was not even close. The butter and sugar definitely didn't cream and I had sugary butter particles flying all over my kitchen. I knew it from the second I turned the mixer on that it wasn't going to work, or be the same but I trekked on through the rest of the recipe and came out with a pretty tasty cookie, but certainly not what I expected or what is in the picture of the recipe.

The brownies actually were much easier and tasted really good. If I make them again I would probably add more chocolate to the recipe, and throw some chocolate chips into them or some peanut butter swirls, or both! They have a great, thick texture, not too cakey. I like my brownies thick as brick and heavy and that is just how these brownies turned out, which made me happy.

All in all the results weren't quite what I expected and it was a lot of work and I probably spent as much time cleaning as baking, but it all tasted great, so i guess that's all that matters. It will however be a while until I do baking like this again, I think I'll stick to cooking for the time being.

Who doesn't like a pile of cookies

Fried Goodness

What do I know about Texas Independence Day? Not a damn thing, but it is definitely a good excuse to try chicken fried steak for the first time. According to The Homesick Texan (a pretty good blog about all foods Texas), March 2 is Texas independence day, and the unofficial state food of Texas is chicken fried steak. Now I've never been to Texas or tried chicken fried steak before, and have only seen it on restaurant menu's like Denny's and Cracker Barrel. I would look at on the menu and think it had to be good, since steak is awesome and anything fried is awesome, so how couldn't chicken fried steak be awesome.

mmmmm........

However I was never brave enough to try it, probably because I remembered I was at Denny's or Cracker Barrel. In my own kitchen though I had to give it a try, and it was unbelievable! What better way to turn a cheap piece of steak into an amazing meal, than beating it with a tenderizing hammer, coating it with flour, frying it then covering it in gravy?

That's not chicken inside of that fried shell of tastiness

The answer is there isn't one, because chicken fried steak is amazing, I wish I have been to Texas so I could have know how great it really is, and while it might not be something I will eat all the time (it is fried steak, I'm only fat at heart), I will certainly be looking forward to the next time I do. If you haven't celebrated Texas Independence Day yet (why would you have unless you're from Texas?!), do so with this recipe, courtesy of The Homesick Texan, and you will not be disappointed.