Wild Cream of Mushroom Egg Noodle Bake (Hold the Canned Soup)

This is definitely a comfort food for me. It combines my love of egg noodles with creamy filling and a lovely nutty Grueyer topping. It comes compliments of Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats.

Cream of Mushroom Sauce
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 T unsalted butter
12 button mushrooms, chopped
2 T all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock or broth
1 cup whole milk or cream
1/8 t freshly grated nutmeg (ground works)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Casserole
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 portobello mushroom caps, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 lb fresh mixed wild mushrooms
1 T fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped (from 4 sprigs)
1/3 cup dry white whine
1 pound extra-wide egg noodles
1-2 T unsalted butter, softened
3/4 lb Gruyere or Emmentaler cheese, shredded
3 T fresh chives

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil fro the egg noodles.

To make the mushroom sauce, heat a medium sauce pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil and the butter. When the butter melts, add the chopped button mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, until just tender. Sprinkle in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the chicken stock and bring to a bubble, then stir in the whole milk. Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer. Season the sauce with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

To make the casserole, heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the 2 T olive oil then the shallots and mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms for about 8 minutes, or until tender. Season with thyme, salt and pepper and deglaze the pan with the wine. Reduce the heat to medium low and let the liquid cook off.

Preheat the broiler to high.

While the mushrooms cook, drop the egg noodles into the boiling water, salt the water, and cook the noodles al dente. Drain the noodles and return them to the hot pot. Add the creamy sauce to the pot and toss the noodles to coat in the sauce.

Lightly coat a casserole dish with the softened butter, then transfer the cream of mushroom noodles ot the dish and top with the mushroom ragout and shredded cheese. Place the casserole under the vroiler and melt and bubble the cheese until brown at the edges. Garnish with the chives.
As you can see, we were fresh out of chives. Who cares? It was still ooey gooey delicious. :o)
Enjoy!

--Rach

Turkey Soup

Nope, it's not this. :oP

This is my most favorite turkey soup recipe and I didn't have the pleasure of enjoying it until I started dating Brien. This recipe comes to you all courtesy of Nana. (And, YES, I should have posted this BEFORE Thanksgiving, but I only thought about it this evening since it's dinner for the next week. )

Ingredients:
1 turkey carcass
4 quarts water
1 cup butter
1 cup flour
3 onions, chopped
2 large carrots, diced (I just sliced 'em)
2 stalks celery, diced
1 cup long grain rice, uncooked
2 t salt
3/4 t pepper
2 cups half and half

Directions:
Place turkey carcass and water in large dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer one hour. Remove carcass from broth and pick meat from bones (thank you bunches, Bob, for leaving ours so meat heavy!). Set broth and meat aside. Measure broth. Add water if necessary to equal 3 quarts.

Heat butter in a large dutch oven (I simply use the same one). Add flour and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for five minutes (I use a whisk to eliminate lumps)--this makes a roux. Stir carrots, onions, and celery into the roux. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often until they are softened. Add broth, turkey, rice, slat and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Add half and half and cook until thoroughly heated.

Enjoy! :o)

--Rach

Bob's Best Salad

*This is a variation on a Food Network/Emeril's seafood salad recipe. Bob has kept the basics the same but tweaked it here and there and we have never put any meat on it. I love this salad so much that if I had to choose my last meal, this would be part of it.

For a family sized bowl of salad:

Dressing:

1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped and minced. Then add it into a bowl with olive oil and red wine vinegar (2:1 ratio or best estimate). Let it sit while you prepare the veggies.

Salad:

2 heads of hearts of romaine
1 handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
2-3 spring onions, sliced
green olives (to taste, I'd say we use 1/4 cup!)
kalamata olives (also to taste, 1/4 cup for us again)

Once you've chopped all the veggies and tossed them, whisk briskly the dressing and immediately pour over the salad and mix well.

Bananas Soft Serve

I am a weird sort of girl who loves to read about food, loves to peruse cookbooks and food magazines yet I don't really like the mechanics of meal planning and cooking. I just like the idea of good food, I'm rather lazy when it comes to getting it onto my own table. With that said, I follow a few foody blogs, one of which is called Choosing Raw and it is written by a younger woman who lives in NYC and is a raw foodist/vegan. Am I ever going to be a younger woman, living in NYC and choosing to eat a vegan/raw diet? Nope! But her posts are interesting and I find that I am very interested in learning about extreme food lifestyles, whether it is Traditional Foods, Raw Foods, Calorie Restriction or what not. I am impressed that people can choose a diet like that and stick with it over the long term. Raw foodists do seem to be glowing with health, if they manage to squeeze in enough protein and calories (I would imagine you would have to be eating all day long) and I'll admit that I don't feel quite right myself if I don't get at least one serving of greens in a salad every day. Raw food bloggers have also introduced me to green smoothies, something I haven't been brave enough to try but I will, oh I will!

This "recipe" for banana soft serve is so ridiculously easy that it isn't really a recipe at all. You just freeze cut up ripe banana chunks and then whip them into oblivion in a food processor. The result? A little bit of heaven in a bowl. The best replacement for ice cream that I've found - it is the same texture and consistency and surprisingly the banana flavor isn't overpowering considering the entire dish is made out of bananas. I did add a couple tablespoons of milk while processing to make it a bit smoother and Bob thinks adding a bit of chocolate sauce on top would send it over the edge in deliciousness.

You've got to try this!

Urban Farm Magazine

For most of us the dream of homesteading and sustainable living is overshadowed by the practicalities of our daily lives - needing a job to provide income and health insurance coupled with needing to live in a more urban/suburban area to access said job. As a lover of magazines (the library has most for free that you can check out!) on the subjects of sustainability, gardening, crafting, cooking, etc. I think a magazine tailored to the urban homesteader has been long overdue. Most people I know live in suburbs and need to try and navigate HOA's, neighbors, and most importantly to figure out how to use the time they do have for sustainable practices wisely. I've learned that you can't do everything. Sometimes you simply aren't allowed to based on HOA, city or county ordinances or neighbors who are aggravated by anything less than a perfectly groomed jade green lawn. Sometimes after working a job all day long, making dinner and dealing with children, homework, baths, and general household chores there isn't time to do much at all.

I bought the premier issue of Urban Farm magazine with low expectations but it was really packed with all sorts of useful ideas. It is worth a look for anyone interested in making some changes while also adhering to a suburban/urban standard of living. Unlike magazines like Grit and Mother Earth News, every article inside is applicable for us urbanites. Very cool!

Extra Creamy Mac and Cheese

Not a gloppy gluey bite in sight. Nothing but creamy cheese. Mm. :o)

From Cook's Illustrated:

Bread Crumb Topping
6	slices white sandwich bread (good-quality, about 6 ounces), torn into rough pieces
3	tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 6 pieces
Pasta and Cheese
1	pound elbow macaroni
1	tablespoon table salt
5	tablespoons unsalted butter
6	tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2	teaspoons powdered mustard
1/4	teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
5	cups milk (see note)
8	ounces Monterey Jack cheese , shredded (2 cups)
8	ounces sharp cheddar cheese , shredded (2 cups)
1	teaspoon table salt

Instructions

1. 1. For the bread crumbs: Pulse bread and butter in food processor until crumbs are no larger than 1/8 inch, ten to fifteen 1-second pulses. Set aside.
   

2. 2. For the pasta and cheese: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tablespoon salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander.

3. 3. In now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour, mustard, and cayenne (if using) and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). Reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 teaspoon salt until cheeses are fully melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is steaming and heated through, about 6 minutes.
   

4. 4. Transfer mixture to broiler-safe 9-by 13-inch baking dish and sprinkle evenly with bread crumbs. Broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, rotating pan if necessary for even browning. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

I did not make the bread topping and therefore bypassed the heating in the 9"x13" pan. It was still divine.

Enjoy!
--Rach

Simple Stuffed Shells

This is a VERY simple recipe that is pulled together and cooked up in about 30-45 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 box jumbo shells
1 jar marinara
1 large carton ricotta cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella
1 cup shredded Parmesan
1 egg
salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

While shells are cooking, mix together ricotta, egg, salt and pepper, 2 cups mozzarella. Drain shells and cool enough to handle. Fill shells (this recipe will fill about 20 shells) and nestle together in a greased 9"x13" pan. Cover in marinara and sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on top. Top that with the shredded Parmesan. Bake for 25 minutes or until bubbling hot.

--Rachr