Mushroom Alfredo sauce

I am still loving the pasta roller. I made some fresh fettucini and whipped up some amazing mushroom alfredo.  Don't like mushrooms? Slap your mouth! You can omit the mushrooms and you have plain old alfredo.  I remember along time ago following a recipe for alfredo and the recipe was basically butter, cream and salt and pepper. I am talking 50 percent butter, 50 percent cream. It was hard for me to eat alfredo after that knowing it was straight fat, and I am not even health or weight conscious! Now this recipe has butter and cream, but it is not 50/50 and it tastes better than the 50/50 varieties.

Mushroom Alfredo

1/2 cup fine diced onion (like half and medium onion)

1-2 cloves of minced garlic

handful of thin sliced mushrooms of any variety you think sounds good.

half a stick of butter

salt and pepper

1/4 c flour

splash of cream

milk (I didn't measure, dang! let's say . . . .2 cups?)

handful of shredded Parmesan cheese.

Saute the onions, garlic and mushroom in the butter until soft and cooked down. Cook on medium as to not burn the butter. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with flour and stir until everything is coated with the flour. Add the milk and splash of cream (you can decide how "lo cal" you want to go). Simmer on medium and continually stir until sauce begins to thicken. Add Parmesan cheese. Don't do the salt taste test till after the parm cheese because it will add more salt to the sauce. Serve with your favorite pasta!

buttermilk syrup

If you are making buttermilk syrup, you are behind the times my friend.  Of course you might be better off NOT making it, because it is NOT good for you. However, it sure tastes good! I had read lots of variations of how to make buttermilk syrup, but I just do it the simplest way possible. Once you start doing this, it is going to be hard to go back to Mrs. Butterworths.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 stick butter

1/2 c butter milk

1 c sugar

1 t vanilla

2 t baking soda

Combine the first three ingredients in a sauce pan (use a fairly big one because it will boil high when you add the baking soda) and bring to a boil while stirring. Let boil for about 1 minute (you let it boil longer if you want a more amber, carmel taste, but I like it light). Turn off the heat then add the vanilla and baking soda. Stir and serve. And for heaven sakes, don't butter your french toast first, you have plenty of butter in your syrup!

You can play with it by using different flavors, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond extract, orange, lemon, rum . . . .the list is infinite!

San Marzano tomatoes

I love to read gourmet cooking magazines, when we are at the airport, my husband buys two mags, "Rock and Ice" (a climbing mag) and "The Economist", if my mother were in the airport she would buy something trashy like, "US Weekly" or the trashy mag in sheep's clothing "People". I buy "Bon Appetit" and "Gourmet"  with the occasional, "Taste of Home" Rarely do I rip out a recipe and actually use the recipe. I just like to get ideas and see what these "experts" constitute as good food.  

Often with reading these magazines I feel a bit of culinary guilt, or maybe it is envy.  The reason for this is that these gourmet magazine are always calling for ingredients that I rarely use, things like fresh herbs. It's not that I don't believe in fresh herbs, its just that they are expensive, and they don't keep well and you have prepare them, and chop them. I want to use fresh herbs, I really do, but I'm just not there yet. At least I use fresh garlic, my mother never used fresh garlic ( see, now I am rationalizing my guilt).

One ingredient in these magazines that cause me shame is San Marzano tomatoes. I always just use regular old hunts tomatoes in a can.  When shopping in Wall Mart, I noticed they carried this fancy pants San Marzano tomatoes.  It was time. It was time to face my shame and try these glory tomatoes.  To start with, they cost 4 times more than hunts brand. I bought them anyway.

So I used them in my tomato cream sauce to make some baked ziti. My expectations were high, four times higher in fact. They looked pretty out of the jar indeed.  I made my sauce like I always do. Boiled my pasta al dente. Combined the pasta with the sauce and some italian cheeses and off to the oven it went. 

After eating my baked ziti with my San Marzano tomatoes, I could taste no difference what so ever.  Now I can have peace knowing that I don't need to be spending 4 times as much for tomatoes. I just couldn't tell the difference, sorry Italy. I might however try them again for my pizza sauce, and who knows, I might be eating my words!

creamy tomato sauce for pasta

So this is a base sauce that I use for a lot of different pasta dishes.  Tonight I served it over spinach and cheese ravioli that I bought from costco (the fresh ones, not the frozen).  It is my dream to start making homemade pasta. If I ever had a whole day all alone, I would go to williams and sonoma, buy a pasta roller (and some other stuff, you can't walk out of there with just one thing!) and I would learn to make fresh pasta! Now I just need to figure out how to get a whole day all alone . . . .  I digress.

As I was saying, this is a one of my base sauces, often times I will add things like artichokes and mushrooms, or zucchini or any other vegetable. 

Ingredient list:

1 28 oz can petite diced tomatoes

2 T tomato paste

1 fined diced onion

3 minced garlic cloves

1/2 t to 1 t red pepper flakes (depends on how much spice you want)

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 c cream

2 T extra virgin oil

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add onions and garlic, give them a little salt and pepper. Saute until they are translucent and fragrant.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, and a little more salt and pepper. Cover and let simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now here is where you taste it, you should taste the spice, if you don't you need to add more red pepper flake,  when you add the cream it is going to mellow out the spice. You are also tasting to make sure it has enough salt and pepper. If it doesn't taste good, and all you 're getting is the after kick of the red pepper, it means you need salt! Once it is seasoned good, add the cream and stir.  Let it stay on low heat until the cream is well incorporated, and it warms up,  you don't want it to boil. Now what I didn't do tonight, was pull out the flat leaf parsley that was just sitting in my fridge, begging to make this dish look beautiful. So do what I couldn't manage to do. Sprinkle your dish with some fresh chopped parsley.

Use with your favorite pasta! 

When I knew I didn't need no stinking recipe

So today I made four 15 pound lasagnas. Two to feed thirty people at a dinner party I threw for all the primary, a cub scout workers in the ward, and two to feed 30 people at our ski trip in Telluride. That is the beauty of the lasagna it can feed some people!
My mother made lasagna growing up and it was always good. When I met my sweet fairb, as you know, he was a vegetarian. While we were dating I decided to experiment upon my mothers lasagna recipe ( a recipe I think she got out of a newspaper or something) and replace the ground beef with some vegetables. I started with onions, mushrooms and eggplant. Low and behold, the lasagna turned out great, and it was even better than the original! This was the beginning of the end of recipes for me. I love love love reading recipes, but I almost never follow a recipe to the letter, I always make a change. I go with my gut! and so should you! So when you read this recipe and you think "cottage cheese? that does not sound right!" Go with ricotta. "She didn't weep the eggplant?" Weep it if that is you instinct. "I wonder if I could use fresh basil?" by golly start chopping those basil leaves. That is the fun part of cooking, making every dish your own!
Now today I made a lot of lasagna, but this recipe is for 1 lasagna that would fit into a regular deep casserole dish. With cottage cheese and tons of veggies, I consider this a healthy lasagna.


Vegetable Lasagna


Ingredient list
1/2 c diced eggplant (peeled)
1/2 c diced onion
1/2 c diced artichokes (out of can)
1/2 c mushrooms
1/2 fine diced carrots
1 c chopped fresh spinach
2 garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 t salt
1 T dried basil
1 T sugar
olive oil
1 big can (I think its the 28 oz?) diced tomatoes
1 small can (14 oz?) diced tomatoes
2 small cans or 1 big can tomato paste
extra water if needed

Saute the veggies in olive oil starting with the carrots (cut the carrots first and begin cooking them while you keep dicing) go to onions next, eggplant, mushrooms, spinach, artichokes, garlic.

Continue sauteing until veggies are cooked down. Add tomato products, and spices. Stir well and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile . . . . Boil a box of lasagna noodles (al dente) in lots of salted water ( don't forget the salt, you will regret it.)

Meanwhile . . . Combine . . 2 eggs

1 c Parmesan cheese

1 tub cottage cheese ( sorry guys I don't know my sizes, not the small one, not the regular one, the next size up but not the huge one)

2 T dried parsley

2 t salt

1 t ground pepper

Now your sauce should be well simmered turn it off let cool noodles are al dente and rinsed just waiting in the sink, and your cheese filling is all combined. Time to assemble. Oh by the way you need a huge bag grated mozzarella cheese. So it goes, noodles, cottage cheese filling, sauce, mozzarella. Do it three times.

Cottage cheese filling layer

sauce layer
Bake in the oven for about 45 minute at 350 degrees, best to let it sit for about 10 minutes to let it set so it is prettier to serve!

Jump on the gravy train: Day 9

There are all kinds of ways to make gravy, there are tedious "french" ways and there just plain wrong ways. I do it the easiest, tasting good way. Now the foundation to a good gravy is the drippings to which your meat cooked in, and if you well seasoned your meat, your gravy will also be seasoned well.
Let it be known, my blog has become a family affair. I have a director and producer now, and I didn't even hire them. My husband, whom I call "coach" because he is always "coaching" me on everything, even when he doesn't know crap, has made himself the director. My friend Don, who is video producer by profession (see here) suggested I post a video on my blog, so he pulled out some serious gear at Sunday dinner last week. The director really wanted to do a second take, he had some serious issues with the impromptu script, but the food was done, it was time to eat. I have my priorities. So here is our youtube debut.






So your turkey might not have enough liquid in the drippings, and since you used a roaster, you will need to pour everything into a sauce pan, try to scrape as much of the brown bits and possible. Add potato water if you need more liquid, you could also add a little butter or cream. Make sure you taste it!

Pizza for Porter

Yesterday was my son's birthday. So for his birthday, I made pizza to take to his class for lunch (don't have a heart attack, he only has 8 kids in his class). But first I must tell the story of the pizza. So I have tried pizza before many times. Each time the pizza came out just ok. To me it was sub par and I was better off calling the pizza guy, and the only reason I ever did it was to do something fun with the kids. I had searched recipes and tried different varieties and techniques, but nothing was impressing me. Then I saw the light . . . .

I was down in Popeville (the neighborhood where all my siblings live) and my brother's family was making their usual weekend pizza. I decided to go see how my sister-in-law does her pizza. I tasted it . . . . best stinking pizza in the valley. Seriously.
Being the lover of all things created in the kitchen, I had to know exactly how it is done, and this is how . . .

First, you must know there are things you have to purchase, and its the only way. You have to get a thick baking stone (the pampered chef ones are just ok . . ), and you have to get high gluten flour (not just bread flour). I bought mine online here.

My sister-in-law told me you could get the flour at lehi roller mills, but I ordered my flour online here.

The flour needs to have at least 14 percent protein content.

You can also get pizza screens here. But the second time I did pizza I just used a wood peel which you can also get at the same site.

I am not saying this is going to be easy folks, but you will make the best pizza you have ever had and it is going to cheaper than going to Brick oven.

The dough (this is a doubled recipe 4 12 inch pizzas)

1 c warm water

1 t yeast

2 t sugar

1 1/2 c cold water

2 t olive oil

2 1/2 t salt

6 to 7 c high gluten flour

( in a stand mixer) dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water. Mix salt in 2 c of the flour. Add proofed yeast mixture, cold water and oil and mix (should be like pancake batter). Switch to dough hook and start adding more flour. Add enough flour till you have a stiff dough. Knead for about 5 min, till dough is elastic. When you roll in into a ball and pinch the middle between your fingers, it should only relax a little when you let go, if it goes right back to form, keep kneading. Now here is where you must have patience. Cut the dough into two pieces, roll them into a ball and put them into pam sprayed ziplock and put them into the fridge for TWO DAYS MINIMUM! They have to raise in the fridge for two days! The dough should get to about double is size.

So you have waited, your pizza day has come. Hopefully you have already gone to costco and got their perfect pizza cheese blend, is mozz, provolone, and cheddar. Sauce time:

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

3 t salt

2 t sugar

1-2 t pepper (your preference on spice)

1/4-1/2 t cayenne pepper

2 garlic cloves minced

2 t basil leaves

1/2 -1 t oregano

Mix that all together in a sauce pan and heat to mix all the flavors together, what you don't use you can save for next week.

Your pizza stone should be on the bottom rack of the oven. Turn you oven to its highest setting, mine is 500. You need to heat the oven for a least 30, so the stone is nice and hot.

Time to shape the pizzas, best to use you hands. Hard to describe really, but know that it isn't easy, and you pizzas probably won't be too pretty. If you use the pizza screens, they are helpful in stretching out the dough. My sister-in-law only uses the individual screens because the dough is difficult to stretch. The warmer the dough, the easier it is to shape, so pull the dough out of the fridge about an hour before shaping.

add sauce
add cheese

add toppings

If you are using a screen, set right on the stone and after about 7 minutes remove the screen and let the pizza sit on the stone. If you shaped you pizza on the pizza peel, (make sure you use corn meal) then shake the pizza right onto the stone. They take about 10-12 minutes to cook. Check them to see when the crust is browned.

It is good, I don't know if I will ever buy a pizza again. My sister makes dough every week and always has dough in her fridge ready to go for when her family craves pizza. I know this post was way to long, any questions, just post them on the comment board and I will answer them.