Mushrooms and Fennel

After cleaning the fennel I use only the base of the leaves.  The tops can be saved as garnish for salads.

After sauteing the mushrooms in a mixture of olive oil and butter add the chopped fennel.  Next add enough white wine or chicken stock to slightly cover the mixture.  Simmer until liquid is almost gone.

The optional step is adding cream and simmering until it has thickened.

Sometimes I use it as a  side dish.  This time I topped spaghetti with the mixtures and added Parmesan cheese.

When planting the Burpee Orion Hybrid below I was very careful to space them so they wouldn’t crowd.

And another gorgeous view, one of the last this year that will set in my mountain view.

The first sage I tried to grow was a pretty variegated variety.   It was in a potted herb garden which worked well.  When I put it into the garden it started sending runners everywhere and taking over, so I dug it up.  While visiting Mary Alice’s garden I saw her huge sage plant.  She generously let me dig part of it.  The transplanted sage is now growing well in my garden, but could not keep up with my new obsession.  Again Mary Alice was kind enough to let me pick some when I needed it.  This spring I will look for another to supplement the one I have.

The recipe below for sweet potatoes is so easy, especially if you have the recipe for garlic, olive oil and lime from Rick Bayless.  I use it for the gnocchi, as well as many other times when I want  to use garlic and olive oil.

Sweet potatoes with Fried Sage

Gnocchi with Fried Sage Butter

When using prepared gnocchi the ingredients are simple.   If you have Rick’s recipe on hand it can replace the olive oil and garlic, as well as save a step.

The gnocchi is ready when it floats to the top in just a few minutes.  Then the sage is quickly fried in the olive oil and garlic mixture.  Or you can use the processor to mix the garlic and oil in the original recipe.

This dish is quick and delicious!

trimmed and sliced okra

one 14.5 oz can tomatoes with the juice

one sliced carrot

two garlic cloves, chopped

one chopped red onion

one 15.5 can black beans with liquid

1/2 cup brown rice

2 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup frozen corn

fresh chopped parsley

1 T olive oil

1/2 loaf of lavash, toasted

After chopping the carrots, onions and garlic I sauteed them, then added to rice until it was translucent.

I added two cups of chicken stock.  After cooking for twenty minutes I added the tomatoes.  Then I cooked it until the rice was tender, 15 more minutes, and added the okra.  When it was just tender, I cooked the corn until it was heated.  (More corn would have been even better, but that was all I had.)  When I put it in the bowl I topped it with a generous sprinkling of parsley.

It was a substantial soup served with toasted lavash that hit the spot on a chilly evening.  The flavors blended overnight.  The soup was even better the next day.

Flatbread pizzas from Health magazine

Since then I’ve experiment with many variations, all tasty but some better than others.  The one below included zucchini, peppers, onions and parsley from the garden.

Adding mushrooms made it even better.   It is hard to beat fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden.

For one I used left-over stewed okra and tomatoes.  Whatever I’ve had from the garden, and used has been an appetizing meal.  The possibilities seem endless!

I watched America’s Test Kitchens one Sunday in the middle of blueberry season.  They made the best looking blueberry muffins, so I had to try the recipe.

America’s Test Kitchens best blueberry muffins

The site has a video, plus step-by-step photos, so I won’t duplicate them with my experience.  All they require for this recipe is your email address.  Then you receive a weekly update with many interesting recipes and product testing results.

As usual, I used less than half the sugar.  And I don’t start preheating my oven until pouring the batter into the muffin tins.  For my tastes, just grating the lemon zest over the muffins after the blueberry jam is stirred into the tops worked better.  It didn’t have the crusty top that all the sugar added, but then it didn’t have all that sugar.

While I was making the blueberry jam I decided to make lots of extras to freeze.

This is just one of the packets I froze.  They were originally frozen in 1/4 cup containers, then popped out and put into bags.  The process made lots of blueberries fit into smaller spaces.  The muffins also freeze very well.  I agree that they are certainly the best muffins I’ve ever tasted.

The two garden ingredients were washed and ready.  I used the four color pepper corns instead of just black.

The seeds began popping quickly, and the wine vinegar was ready with the sugar, salt and turmeric mixed in.   I used half the sugar and salt to make it a little healthier.

I made half the recipe, and hope to use them in a week or two.

With no four-wheel drive I wasn’t going anywhere, so I decided to put a new twist on a easy recipe.   Crustless Ricotta Pie is the original recipe.  When I’ve tried it before I’ve put in different ingredients, but today I needed to use baby bella mushrooms, along with a few grape tomatoes.  Here are most of the ingredients I used:

After sauteing the mushrooms in olive oil and a bit of butter, I added balsamic vinegar to enhance their flavor.   Next I spread the mushrooms in the bottom of a ten inch pie plate.  I moved them around enough to oil the plate.  Then cubed mozzarella cheese seemed like a good addition.

After baking I sprinkled some fresh parsley on top.  I thought it was much better than the original recipe I tried, or any other variations so far.

It is a beautiful snow that coats every twig, but I’ll be happier when there is no snow in sight.

I used a combination of Waltham and Butterbush squash.

Above are the rest of the ingredients, except for the chicken stock and cream.

This soup has a simply delicious taste and texture.  I thought last year I was growing plenty of Butternut squash, but with all the soup trials, they went quickly.  This is my favorite, but the Spicy Butternut Squash Soup is a very close second.

The Pumpkin Tureen

Since it called for horseradish, I decided to finally dig some from my patch.  After grating it, my sinuses were cleared out.  It did impart some strong flavor to this soup.

This time I sauteed the onions and horseradish.  I also added about a tablespoon of fresh thyme and three garlic cloves, and lots more bread.

After mixing the dry ingredients, I added chicken stock and milk.  The pumpkin was so large that I cut off some of the top and cubed it.  That’s what’s floating in the milk and stock.

I had to cut off even more to get it to fit into my convection oven.  With the help of the foil, the top did go back on.  Mia wonders what this strange object is that smells like milk.

After three hours of baking, the pumpkin was very tender, but the inside soup was barely warm.  I ended up taking it out and cooking it separately.  I added more thyme and lots of curry powder.  After blending, and reducing the liquid, it was a decent soup.  This is the last time I will try the pumpkin tureen!

Thanksgiving is over.  Now, what would be a different way to use the pumpkin and squash?

This idea appealed to me.  It sounds simple but elegant.

The Pumpkin Tureen

My pumpkin wasn’t quite eight inches in diameter, so I added the winter squashes to the recipe.

After cutting into the pumpkin,  I found a tiny brown spot on the outside that was evidence of rotting on the inside.  So that one had to be put in the compost.  The little squashes absorbed all the liquid, and really were not that tasty.  After checking with the local produce stand, I could find no other pumpkins to try.  Seems I will have to wait until next fall to give this recipe a try with a pumpkin.  However, it depends upon finding a “serious” pumpkin.  Does that mean I have to find Linus’s pumpkin patch?