I absolutely LOVE this dish. If it didn’t take so long to make, with constant supervision, I’d make it much more often. But when you have the time, it is SO worth the effort.
I tend to use baby Bella mushrooms, but you can honestly use most types of mushrooms. I’ve made it with plain white buttons and it tasted fine. While the recipe calls for 1/3 cup of parmesan, I use less because I’m not a fan. Doesn’t effect the taste that much – promise. 🙂
Enjoy!
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Mushroom Risotto
Instructions
In a saucepan, warm the broth over low heat.
Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove mushrooms and their liquid, and set aside.
Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet, and stir in the shallots. Cook 1 minute. Add rice, stirring to coat with oil, about 2 minutes. When the rice has taken on a pale, golden color, pour in wine, stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed. Add 1/2 cup broth to the rice, and stir until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 20-30 minutes.
Remove from heat, and stir in mushrooms with their liquid, butter, chives, and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
This is one of my most oft requested cookie when I go to a group function. Or for a very special friend who absolutely loves them and steals them whenever he can. 🙂
I like the fact that the are simple to make, tasty, and still semi-soft compared to ginger snaps. I’m not a fan of overly hard cookies and as long as I don’t over bake these, they turn out perfect!
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Ginger Cookies
Some of the best you'll ever have!
Instructions
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Cream butter and sugar until smooth.
Beat in egg and molasses.
Add flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
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Roll balls into sugar and place on cookie sheet.
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I like having a variety of ways to cook chicken, as we tend to eat more chicken than any other type of protein source. This turned out pretty good for a quick glaze. I can definitely see doing this again, but perhaps adding a few other ingredients (can you say Sriracha?) and possibly looking at different types of honey to change up the taste. OOOh, and maybe using stone ground mustard.
Hmmm…
Squirrel note: my cousin gave me a recipe for Samoa truffles. Definitely looking to do that sometime soon! 🙂
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Honey Dijon Chicken
Instructions
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Melt butter in saute pan. Toss in garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes
Add honey, mustard, and salt and pepper to your taste. Stir well and let simmer for a few minutes to start to reduce glaze.
Use a 8x8 pan or similar to leave only a little bit of area between the chicken breasts. Too large a dish will cause the glaze to burn.
Place chicken breasts in pan and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.
Pour glaze over breasts and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove and baste the breasts with the glaze and then return to oven for another 15 minutes.
Allow chicken to rest before serving.
And we’re back again to zucchini! 🙂 One of the best wedding presents we were given was a rice cooker. While this recipe can easily be done without one (and I’ve included those instructions below), I find it much easier because, again, I’m lazy. Toss it all in and leave it alone. Plus, it can stay in there on warm for a while. The ratio is two cups of water to one cup of rice.
I used chicken stock with the rice, but you can easily use vegetable stock or even plain water if you like. I also upped the amount of cheese (because CHEESE!) from the original recipe that I found. This turned out pretty good!
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Cheesy Zuchinni Rice
Instructions
Shred the zuchinni - either in a food processor or with a mandolin. Zuchinni contains a lot of water, so to help with this, lay out your shredded zuchinni on some paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for bit and then blot well with paper towels as much as necessary to get rid of the excess water.
Before beginning: decide how you want to cook rice. If you use the rice cooker, do this first, using the stock instead of water. If not, just follow the directions below.
In a large saute pan, melt butter.
Toss in garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes
Stir in rice and broth and bring to boil. Cover and allow to cook for 15- minutes or so, when rice is done.
OR
Toss in already cooked rice.
Toss in zucchini, cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and turn off heat. Cover and let sit for a few minutes to allow cheese to melt.
Recipe Notes
This is pretty simple to do and to change up as your taste desires.
I cook a lot of tilapia. It’s the one fish I really enjoy that doesn’t taste ‘fishy’. I found this particular recipe on Pinterest, tried it, and modified it because a) I don’t like frying food*, b) the sauce did not thicken well, and c) I have a better recipe to coat the fish. 🙂
So below is my modified recipe. The fish will taste just as good with or without the sauce, by the way.
*Fried food is good, don’t get me wrong. But it isn’t generally healthy for you and why deal with all the oil splatter to clean up later? As stated elsewhere, I’m lazy.
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Parmesan Crusted Tilapia w/Tomato Basil Cream Sauce
Instructions
Sauce: heat oil in small skillet on medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
Add cherry tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes or so.
Reduce heat to low and add cream and fresh basil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Thicken by mixing cornstarch with a bit of water to make a slurry. Add this to the sauce and stir thoroughly.
Fish: Preheat oven to 375. Spray baking pan with Pam or equivalent.
In shallow dish, combine melted butter, garlic powder, and lemon juice. In another shallow dish, combine panko and parmesan.
Dip each filet in butter mixutre and then roll well in panko mixutre. Place filets in a single layer onto baking pan.
Press any remaining panko mixture onto the tops of the filets.
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I like pears well enough on their own, but when they are warm like these are, they are even better! For those who don’t like cinnamon (who are you people?!?), you can omit it and just have caramel. Or substitute the cinnamon with something else to flavor. Chili powder, if you like spicy, cardamon, star anise, or just add teaspoon or so of salt for salted caramel!
I made this the other night for the Man and the Girl. She helped with the pears while I did everything else. 🙂 You can use any type of pear you like, I just happened to use Bosc pears.
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Poached Pears w/Caramel Cinnamon Sauce
Instructions
Peel and core pears, leaving stems in tact. Or, peel and cut in half, then core. Your choice.
In a large pan, combine water, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to boil
Add pears to the boiling syrup. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Use this time to make caramel sauce! Put sugar in sauce pan. Use a spatula or wooden spoon, stir sugar over medium high heat until a golden color.
Put butter into sugar and keep stirring!
When butter has completely melted, take off heat and add cream a little bit at a time, still stirring.
Toss in cinnamon, incorporating it complelety. Set sauce aside to cool a bit.
Turn pears and let simmer for another 10 minutes, until they are tender.
Remove pears and pour caramel sauce over and serve!
Recipe Notes
The caramel sauce will thicken as it cools. It shouldn't cool too much in 10 minutes, but enough to be able to pour over the pears. If it has thickened too much, warm it up a bit.
