Lots of cooking this weekend! I made banana bread, strawberry rhubarb pie, and mushroom stroganoff. The banana bread is a recipe from cooking light -
classic banana bread. Pretty much the recipe I use every time. Why mess with what works? The only changes I make are to use 1/2 to 2/3 cups whole wheat flour, less sugar (1/2 to 2/3 cup instead of 1 cup) and I add pecans or walnuts. This time, I only had vanilla yogurt so I used less sugar.
I made the pie for a friend's birthday. I didn't mess with the sugar, since it was for someone else :). The crust is the
pate brisse from Martha Stewart that I first tried on thanksgiving. It is not that difficult, but yields such a crisp, flakey, and buttery crust. The filling is the Rhubarb-Stawberry-Rose pie sans roses from
The Great American Bake Sale, compiled by Michael J. Rosen. The whole pie turned out tasty and pretty, if I do say so myself!
I love creamy mushroom stroganoff. It can be a bit rich, so I decided to make a deconstructed version so that each portion (mushrooms, noodles, and sour cram) stands out. Of course, this neccessitates a very flavorful mushroom ragout. Here is my vegetarian version. I served with broccoli sauteed with garlic, lemon zest, and olive oil and finished with lemon juice.
Deconstructed Mushroom Stroganoff
For the mushroom ragout:2 tbs. butter
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic
10 oz. mushrooms (I used cremini)
1/2 package dried mushrooms soaked in 1 c. water
bay leaf
1 tsp. herbs de Provence
1/3 c. brandy
1 Tbs. soy sauce + 2 Tbs. brewers yeast + 1 c. water (or use 1 c. vegetable broth)
For the sour cream sauce:1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 bunch parsely
1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese
lemon
For the noodles:1/2 package whole wheat egg noodles
1 Tbs. butter
paprika, for garnish
In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and butter.
Finely dice onion, carrots, and celery. Mince garlic. Saute onions over medium heat, until starting to color. Add carrots, celery, garlic, herbs de Provence, bay leaf, and pepper. Cook for a few minutes. Slice mushrooms. Remove soaked mushrooms from water (reserving for later) and chop finely. Add to pan, and cook until everything colors nicely. There should be browned bits on the pan. This is good (see picture). Add brandy and turn up heat. De-glaze pan (i.e. scrape all those brown bits up).
Once all the bits are scraped up and the brandy has evaporated, add the reserved mushroom soaking water, and 1 cup water + 2 Tbs. brewers yeast + 1 Tbs soy sauce, and salt to taste. Bring to a simmer, and partially cover pan. Some of the liquid should evaporate, but there should still be enough to be saucy. Keeping the pan partially covered allows you to control this.
Meanwhile, s
et a large pot of water boiling for the noodles and prepare the sour cream sauce. Finely mince the parsely. Mix the sour cream, minced parsely, and parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add lemon juice to brighten the flavor, to taste. Set aside. When the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook until al dente. Drain, and melt butter in same pot. Add noodles and stir to coat with butter.
Assemble dish: Put noodles on a plate. Top with mushroom ragout, be sure to get some of the sauce. Add a few dollops of the sour cream sauce, and garnish with paprika.
BB and me under the cherry trees:
Don't we look so happy? Here are our shadows:
The monument and the sky through the trees:
Some blossom shots:
Home made foccacia (a recipe from The Greens cookbook). I used part whole wheat. The 0lives are for BB - I only put it on part, because I don't like green olives. This is the most successful foccacia I have ever made! I made a dipping oil to go with it (lemon pepper, oregano, dried basil, garlic powder, chile flakes topped with good olive oil):
All of this was eaten with pickled vegetables that BB made a week or so ago (carrots, cauliflower, celery, and broccoli) in the backyard, which looked beautiful after all the yard work that I did today!
And, of course, I did not forget the dessert - chocolate banana cream pie! Well, we had some milk that was going bad, and what better way to use a lot of milk than to make pudding? I made a graham cracker crumb crust, sliced two bananas, and topped with chocolate pudding (flavored with a splash of rum):
Hydrangea
Parsley (survived the groundhog and 3 snowstorms with 2 ft each!)
Lemon Vebena (coming back, cleared the dead branches from last year)
Catmint (also coming back, haven't cleared yet, but you can still see it!)
Collard Greens and Mustard Greens (Hearty indeed!)
Today, I tidied up the yard and planted some seeds. Some are old, so I'm not sure if they will actually grow. But here is what I have:
Lettuce (two kinds, in round pots) and Green Onions (in oval pot on right)
When boiling, add orzo and cook until slightly undercooked. Drain (reserving 1/2 c. of cooking water), and set aside. Meanwhile, heat olive oil (approximately 3 Tbsp.) in saucepan on medium heat. Add minced garlic. Saute for a minute or two. It should not brown.
Add zest of one lemon. Saute until starting to brown nicely. Add orzo. Saute for a few minutes. Add pasta water (approximately 1/3 c. - add more later if neccessary), juice from lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring, until water is absorbed. Stir in cheese, and serve.
I made the pie for a friend's birthday. I didn't mess with the sugar, since it was for someone else :). The crust is the pate brisse from Martha Stewart that I first tried on thanksgiving. It is not that difficult, but yields such a crisp, flakey, and buttery crust. The filling is the Rhubarb-Stawberry-Rose pie sans roses from The Great American Bake Sale, compiled by Michael J. Rosen. The whole pie turned out tasty and pretty, if I do say so myself!
Finely dice onion, carrots, and celery. Mince garlic. Saute onions over medium heat, until starting to color. Add carrots, celery, garlic, herbs de Provence, bay leaf, and pepper. Cook for a few minutes. Slice mushrooms. Remove soaked mushrooms from water (reserving for later) and chop finely. Add to pan, and cook until everything colors nicely. There should be browned bits on the pan. This is good (see picture). Add brandy and turn up heat. De-glaze pan (i.e. scrape all those brown bits up). 
Once all the bits are scraped up and the brandy has evaporated, add the reserved mushroom soaking water, and 1 cup water + 2 Tbs. brewers yeast + 1 Tbs soy sauce, and salt to taste. Bring to a simmer, and partially cover pan. Some of the liquid should evaporate, but there should still be enough to be saucy. Keeping the pan partially covered allows you to control this.
et a large pot of water boiling for the noodles and prepare the sour cream sauce. Finely mince the parsely. Mix the sour cream, minced parsely, and parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add lemon juice to brighten the flavor, to taste. Set aside. When the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook until al dente. Drain, and melt butter in same pot. Add noodles and stir to coat with butter.
But this time, I made a savory pie! I altered a recipe for chestnut pie with stilton and ale. Basically, cook carrots, onions, and potatoes (which I used instead of chestnuts), mix with guiness, then add stilton and put in an herbed whole whe
at crust. It was good, but very rich! BB is a huge fan. I would like to perfect the recipe, for instance, substitute a good sharp cheddar for the stilton. It was just too much blue cheese for me. I used a cassarole dish, as it was supposed to be a deep dish pie and I don't have a big enough pie dish. It overflowed a bit. However, the pie turned out beautiful and made for a good hearty winter meal.
