Vanilla Icing

Pistachio Stuffed Mushrooms

Dear Friends....I just won over a avowed mushroom hater with this recipe.

            Baby Portabella Mushrooms stuffed with Pistachios & Sage

I came to my love of mushrooms late in life and when I say late, I mean it was only about two years ago that I realized what I've been missing out on.  I've been playing catch up ever since to make up for all of the mushrooms I didn't eat.  I've used them on my favorite bread- Carmelized Onion & Mushroom Flatbread, as the star of Mushroom Risotto, numerous stir fries, Arancini, Strata, and I've even gone hunting for them in a top-secret location.

Stuffed mushrooms have a tender place in my heart because it was a crab stuffed mushroom (yum!) that convinced me that my disdain for mushrooms was wrong.  They are easy to make and can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until it's time to put them in the oven which makes them a wonderful appetizer.  The variety of ingredients you can add to the filling make them versatile to accommodate almost anyone who likes mushrooms.  A lot of people think they don't like mushrooms and I've found it's almost universally for the same reason: 

Egg'n'Cheese

On Day 8 of my Vegetarian Challenge, I wasn't feeling very inspired...

but this egg and cheese sandwich was amazing on the rice and onion bread...

Egg'n'cheese sandwich, applesauce, cucumbes & greens with seeds & dried fruits

...even if it was a little large for the bread.  I've decided I won't ever buy four large cucumbers at once.  I'm a little tired of eating them.

Baked potato with toasted tofu, peas, corn, broccoli, onions, peppers & cheddar. Garlic & romano drop biscuit

The baked potatoes I served for dinner were my way of clearing out all of the accumulated odds and ends of produce left in the refrigerator: half of a stalk of broccoli, an ear of corn, third of a pepper, half of a can of peas and a quarter of a large onion.  I'm the only one who piled everything on my potato but even my least adventurous eater put a few peas on hers!

At Sixes & Sevens

                          Grilled quesadilla and tortilla chips and guacamole

The lone avocado resting on the shelf in my refrigerator was demanding attention on Saturday.  I purchased it with the memory of the guacamole I tried in Asheville a couple of weeks ago.  In the past, I have avoided guacamole because I spent many, many years disliking it every time I attempted a taste.  But for some reason, in a small Pan-Latin restaurant in Asheville I scooped up some and gave guacamole the 119th chance.  It was good.  Damn good.  I ate all of it.  No one elese got any.

I peeled and pitted the avocado and chucked it in the food processor with some onions, garlic, salt and a bit of flat leaf parsley.  (A dog that shall not be named crushed my cilantro.)  A quick splash of lime juice to brighten everything up and it was as simple as that.  Guacamole!  It was pretty darn good too.  Since I knew it was best not to repeat the 'eat all the guacamole' binge again, I tossed the leftover bulgar wheat from the night before with some black beans, corn cut off the cob and some salsa.  I sprinkled a bit of cheddar on a tortilla, spooned the mixture on top, sprinkled a bit more cheddar and topped it with another tortilla and slid it on the grill until it was nice and toasty.  Who needs meat?!  

                        Toasted homemade bread with butter and a banana

Dinner found me on my own; my children were staying at a friend's house and Rick had gone to the Steeler game.  I was attending a Mad Men Party that night at my friend's house where there was sure to be plenty of cocktails and snacks and I thought it best to keep dinner light.  It was also a little boring but to be honest, I was happy to have comforting buttered toast.  Afterwards, I set about getting ready for the party and..... I wore my hair in a beehive!  

Grill Everything!

Well, maybe not lunch.  Lunch was for finishing up the leftover Vegetarian Chili.  I baked fresh pita bread using a white whole wheat flour and stuffed one of them with the leftover chili.

Homemade pita stuffed with vegetarian chili, steamed broccoli & green smoothie with                                                                                   strawberries and bananas.

Bulgar wheat with grilled tomatoes, peppers & onions. Grilled zucchini, squash and corn and                                                     sweet grilled pineapple and cherries.

I should have said grill everything for dinner.  Fruits & veggies: onions, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli, greens, strawberries, banana, peppers, zucchini, squash, corn, pineapple, cherries, and an orange that was a snack and not pictured.  Fifteen!  

I noticed a new thing that could have been a coincidence.  After I baked cookies to bring to a friend's party and was plating them up I decided to have one.  It was a rich, melt in your mouth peanut butter cookie studded with chopped up Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups.  It was also really sweet.  I mean really, really sweet.  I was a little concerned I made an error in measurement and passed out samples.  Everyone else seemed to think they were fine.  I wonder if it has anything to do with all of this 'clean food' I've been eating the past five days?  Or is it merely a coincidence?

Peas & Parmesan

Peas & Parmesan Rice and sliced cucumbers and chipotle hummus  Not pictured-the green                                   smoothie with mixed greens, strawberries and blueberries.

Yesterday, I had a friend over for lunch (who won't eat cucumber skins! what?!) and I was determined to stick to eating vegetarian but yet provide a filling meal for my friend who has to sit at a desk in a office job surrounded by many, non-healthy tempting treats that she prefers to resist.  I decided to make Peas & Parmesan which is a mock 'risotto' dappled with peas and melt in your mouth parmesan.

This dish is amazing versatile in a few ways.  It's light and tastes amazing fresh in spring when tender young peas are available but holds its own even when you must resort to frozen or canned (in this case) peas.  The creamy warmth works wonders on the soul on an overcast or cold day.  It's also perfect as a side dish or a main dish.  It's ready in less than thirty minutes and prepared by only a few simple ingredients.    It has, in fact, only six ingredients, unless you want to count salt.  Then, it's seven. Of course, it could also be the perfect rice dish to experiment with add ins in different combinations; roasted carrots, asparagus so fresh it's practically still growing, cripsy pancetta....you get the idea.

Vegetarian Challenge

Last year, I was terribly disappointed in my choice of farms for my CSA; a great deal of the produce arrived bruised and damaged beyond use.  Oftentimes, half of the contents of the box had to immediately be removed and discarded to avoid ruining the rest of the produce.  Please don't think I mean a few cosmetic blemishes or an occasional bruise--what I mean is it looked like someone slammed the produce into the crate as hard as they could or ran the vegetable up and down a fence rail before putting it in the crate to sit in a dark, dank place over night.  Harsh words, but true nonetheless.   I was so disappointed that I didn't join a CSA this summer.

Lunch: Baked potato with caramelized onions, sauteed crimini mushrooms & steamed broccoli

As a result, the vegetable consumption in our household this summer has been shameful.

Crunchy Taco Shells

Tacos are an often requested and often denied dinner item around here.  The thought of soft tacos makes me grumpy and I won't make them for my family.  I'm a crunchy taco sort of girl and yet I rarely have one of those 'taco kits' with the neatly stacked pile of cardboard crunchy shells.   Tristyn asked for tacos yesterday and it was on the tip of my tongue to turn him down because I didn't have any taco shells.  I opened my mouth and Tristyn cut in 'Can't you make taco shells?'  I closed it again with a snap.  Yes, why not?  I set about looking for a how to fueled only by coffee and a sudden but strong desire to have tacos for dinner that night.  I didn't find anything that was suitable; all the recipes were telling me how to make what goes inside store-bought shells.

I decided to wing it.

Simple Split Pea Soup

A thick pea soup with warm French bread is a good warming lunch on a cold winter's day.  This soup is very basic with minimal seasoning so as not to distract from the split pea taste.  Its heartening green flavor, reminiscent of spring is cheering on a snowy, dreary day

 

Simple Split Pea Soup

       by Michelle 

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

3/4 cup finely chopped celery

3/4 cup finely chopped carrot

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 cup split peas, picked over and rinsed

1 quart chicken broth (or broth of your choosing)

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

additional 1/2 cup water if needed

 

1.  Saute the onion, celery and carrot in the olive oil until tender.  Add the peas, broth and bay leaf and simmer until tender, about 30-40 minutes.

2.  Depending on personal taste, mash or puree the soup until you have a thick soup.  You may wish to add a little water if the soup is too thick.  Simmer for a few more minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve hot.

A Handful of Peas

In a perfect world (the one where I don't live abroad that is!) I would live exactly where I live but be surrounded by a couple of acres of land where I could garden to my heart's content, raise a few chickens and even sneak in a couple of sheep and a goat.  And a cow.  IF I was successful at the goat thing.

But, unfortunately, little farms do not exist in the middle of city neighborhoods or at least they really don't in quite the way I long for.  Acres of land aren't suddenly going to spring up around my house--where would be dear neighbors go?--so I've got to get creative.

And creative I've been getting...

This year seemed to be the year of the hanging tomato plant.  Everywhere you looked--on the television, at the store, at roadside stands--people were trying to sell variations of the contraption you can hang and grow tomatoes from.    Hmmmm....I thought.  What else could grow in a hanging pot?  I get plenty of sun on my front porch and I have plenty of room to hang pots.  I thought about tomatoes and how people stake them with wooden stakes or metal trellises for them to grab onto.  It only took a minute to come up with what else likes to 'hold on' to something as it grows.

Beans.

And Peas.

Turns out my idea IS a very good idea.  I didn't need anything fancy.  Just a few inexpensive hanging pots from my local nursery, some potting soil, some twine and some seeds.  That's it.  No fancy things that cost 19.95 plus shipping and handling.  Just plain and simple items found pretty much anywhere plants are sold.

At first, I planted very sparingly and even tucked in another non-vegetable-producing flowering plant to help 'disguise' my veggies.  But as the beans and peas came in they filled the pots decently and I could see that next year there will be no need to tuck in any other sort of plant.  In fact, next year I shall tuck many, many more seeds into each pot.  I was fearful of crowding the plants but turns out the beans just spill over the sides of the pot and the peas happily climb over one another before spilling over the sides. 

This year was to see if I could grown them in the pots.  Next year will be to see how much I can increase my yield.  A handful of peas is all I get at one harvesting right now.  But the harvest does seem to be extending well so long as I continue to faithfully water my peas and beans.

And besides, a handful of peas was all I needed to toss with this pasta.   The lightest hint of an alfredo sauce, fresh cracked black pepper and gently-barely-cooked fresh peas and I had a delicious summer lunch.

Dog Tired

Rick & I had the weekend to ourselves and boy did we ever keep busy!!  

Friday morning my brother and I went to the Strip District and had brunch at Pamela's Restaurant.  I'll discuss that place another time.  We also had coffee at Leaf and Bean which is a cool funky little place. That evening Rick and I had dinner at Palazzo Ristorante in downtown Pittsburgh.  I haven't many positive things to say about this restaurant but the company was perfect and the service was good, so I will leave it at that.   After dinner we had drinks at Olive or Twist just a few doors down.  This bar seems to cater to the theatre crowd and as it was before any of the shows let out it wasn't crowded at all.  Which was nice because it gave us time to talk and we also met Yves Jean who bartends when his band isn't touring.  His music is an eclectic blend of of a few genres but with a heavy world flavor.  Hopefully he'll play soon in Pittsburgh!  At 10 pm, another bar was offering a free salsa dance lesson for 30 minutes before the regular salsa dancing started.  Let's just say Rick and I have some work to do. ;)

This past Tuesday was the first day I've managed to workout since my recent health issues.  I was taking it slow but then on Saturday I decided to tag along with Rick to the park for a run.  Despite my unintentional two week break I managed just fine.  Later that afternoon, I had coffee with a friend and we did some shopping.  I got the supplies for strawberry jam making.   After Friday's semi-failure of a dinner, Rick and I kept it simple and stuck with pizza on the Southside and then headed over to the North Shore.  Both of us really enjoy watching surfing and at the Omnimax Theatre at the Science Center they were playing Ultimate Wave Tahiti featuring Kelly Slater.  It was perfect for the Omnimax with lots of aerial views that made you feel like you were in a helicopter flying around the island.  The film was a good blend of informative documentary, personal accounts, science and culture and of course a liberal sprinkling of travel lust.  Rick and I discussed the film over Rita's Frozen Custard in Squirrel Hill.  

Sunday saw us taking the dogs to the park for another run.  This time we ran longer and faster.  So much for easing back into a workout routine, huh?  For the record, I was and still am very sore!  The rest of the day I dedicated to strawberries.  Twelve pints of strawberry jam, three quarts of fresh churned strawberry ice cream and a deep dish strawberry pie.  I also made some bread--both yeast raised and Chuck raised.  It was very satisfying to spend all afternoon in the kitchen without any distractions.  Rick and I had dinner on the back deck including some of that fresh bread & jam.  Then the kids came home and they and I tackled the most miserable of chores: cleaning the basement.  But we did it for Rick (Happy Father's Day!) because he has been dreading doing it and has wanted it done for some time now as he couldn't use his weight bench properly.  After the three of us de-toxed --hahaha I mean showered-- and Tristyn and Maia went to sleep, Rick and I watched True Blood.  

And after all of that....I was dog-tired and went to sleep!!