Mushroom and Potato Soup

Preview

It really has been a while since I have done a crock pot recipe, and with the weather being so cold, a warm hearty soup is in order. This one, a good one for vegetarians, is made with four types of mushrooms! It takes about an hour to prepare everything, and then 7-8 hours to cook on the low setting. Ready to head off into the kitchen?

Here is the list of what you will need:

1/4 cup of butter
1/2 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1/2 cup each, dried porcini and chanterelle mushrooms
2 TBS flour
2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup fresh shitake mushrooms
1 cup fresh baby bella mushrooms
2 medium red potatoes
2 small carrots
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of Parmesan, shredded

OK, now let’s get to it, shall we? Get out a skillet and add to it the butter. Next chop the onion up finely and add to the skillet. Then wash the celery and chop this into cubes. Add this to the pan.

Gratuitous celery and onion shot

Looks pretty huh?

Next get out a bowl and add the dried mushrooms. Add enough water to cover and set this aside so that the mushrooms will plump up.

Soaking the porcini and chanterelle

While these are soaking, slice up the shitake mushrooms and the baby bellas. Set these aside. Next peel the potatoes and the slice to about 1/2″ in thickness, then cube the potatoes. Set these aside. Now turn on the heat on the butter, onions and celery. You are going to want to cook these until they get translucent. While this is heating up, peel and dice the carrots, and what do you do? You guessed it! Set these aside. Don’t forget to stir the onions and celery! Now check on those soaking mushrooms. They should be ready. Cut them into pieces and mix them up with the other mushrooms.

Mushrooms combined

At this point the onions and celery should be done. Turn off the heat and add the flour, salt and pepper to the pan. Stir this up really well and then scrap the whole thing into your crock pot.

Cooked celery and onion

Then add the 2 cups of water slowly. The flour will explode as it soaks up the water.

Add water

Now add in the potatoes, mushrooms and carrots. Stir this up well.

Add potatoes, mushrooms and carrots

Turn on the crock pot to low, and set the time to 7-8 hours, whichever you prefer.

After 7 1/2 hours of cooking

Once the timer goes off on the crock pot, slowly add in the milk and the Parmesan cheese.

Add milk and cheese

Turn the heat up to high on the crock pot and set the timer for a half hour.

Let’s eat! The aromas from the kitchen have had my stomach growling all day! Serve it up with a hot crusty bread or how about Parmesan Texas toast?

Serve it up!

Thanks for stopping by and if you try this recipe, let me know how you liked it!

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What a Spicy Chicken Soup!

With the cold temperatures, we need hot soup! In my head, I can hear an echo of words from the blog site of Conor Bofin at One Man’s Meat, regarding ingredients and how wonderful it is that you can look on the internet to find something to do with the ingredients you have on hand. Sorry, Conor, but I cannot find the post where you said this, but you said it. So here I am with chicken, hot Italian sausage, and fresh spinach, and it what the heck do I do with this? I looked on the internet and no one has made a soup like the one featured in this post! So, here is a new soup recipe, nothing like anyone has done before! It is not only extremely tasty but easy to make! And you know I like easy! Want a preview? OK, only because you said please…

Preview!

Ingredients
1# Hot Italian sausage
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 shallot, chopped finely
6 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup of white wine
6 14.5 oz cans of low sodium chicken broth
2 cups of cooked chicken, cut into chunks
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cup of chunky cut baby portabella mushrooms
1/4 cup of fresh dill finely chopped
1/4 tsp. celery seed
12 oz. frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted
1 package of pre-washed spinach
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, shredded

I start by cooking up the sausage so that I can cook most of the fat out of it. Stir the sausage to get it nicely browned.

Pre-cooked hot Italian sausage

When the sausage is done, drain on paper towel and dab with another sheet of paper towel to remove surface grease.

While this is cooking get your mirepox veges ready, plus the garlic. A mirepox, in case you might be new to cooking, is a combo of onion, carrots and celery…In a soup pot add the butter and the mirepox veges plus the garlic. The secret to a good mirepox is to leave it alone. Heat over medium high heat and let it brown on one side before you even stir it.

Mirepox set to caramelize

When the mirepox is done, add the wine and enjoy the aromas as they rise up to fill the kitchen! As the wine cooks down, stir,  and then slowly add the chicken broth. Next add the cooked chicken, the white pepper, thyme, peas, baby bellas, dill and celery seed. Bring this up to a boil, and then reduce to a slow simmer. Cook this up for about a 45 minutes, and then add the artichoke hearts.

Add to the artichokes

Bring this back to a boil, and cook another 15 minutes. Then add the spinach leaves, stirring until they are just wilted.

After adding the spinach…

Turn the heat off.

Serve this up in a soup bowl, top with a bit of Parmesan…and enjoy!

Soup’s on!

Joe, are you jealous of the meal P has been served? Just wondering!

This is well worth the effort it takes to make, which is not all that much. It you decide to try this recipe, let me know how it turns out for you!

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Mushroom Agnolotti Alfredo

The flavors of the mushroom/sage olive oil that I picked up at Mia Sorella in brought to mind that I had mushroom agnolotti in the refrigerator and the idea that came to mind turned into a wonderful repast with no leftovers!

Mushroom Agnolotti Afredo preview

So, let’s get to cooking!

Ingredients
3 glugs of mushroom/sage extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted
baby bella mushrooms
1 jar of Alfredo sauce
fresh basil
4 grinds of fresh ground pepper
2 red tomatoes
4 small yellow tomatoes
Parmesan cheese

Get a pot of water going to cook the pasta. Follow the package directions. I used the Buitoni Mushroom Agnolotti.

The pasta

In a skillet, add the olive oil and garlic. Over medium heat cook the garlic until the aromas start to rise. Then add the porcini

Porcini mushrooms

and bella mushrooms. Let these cook for about 5 minutes.

Cooking with the mushroom sage olive oil

Next add the Alfredo sauce and stir to combine in the oil with the sauce.

Add in the Alfredo sauce

You will notice that the porcini adds color to the sauce! When your pasta is done, drain and set aside. Then add the tomatoes and basil to the sauce, and combine and heat through.

Fresh homegrown tomatoes added along with basil and pepper

Then add the pasta to the sauce. Make sure that you get the pasta coated well with the sauce.

Dinner is served!

The mushroom flavors in this dish are totally amazing! Serve this up and top with shredded Parmesan! Don’t forget the garlic bread for dipping in the sauce!

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Steve’s Baked Fish

Looking for something different to do with fish? Here is a recipe from a friend from my much, much younger years! The type of fish is different, but the rest is what he taught me.

Ingredients
6 Tilapia filets
2 yellow wax peppers, seeded and chopped

Yellow wax peppers cut up

8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
8 oz. bean sprouts
White wine
Butter

Take the fish and wash and dry them. Place them in a baking pan. Cover half way with the wine.

Fish soaking in white wine

Let this sit for an hour. Mix the peppers, mushrooms and bean sprouts together.

Mixed up sprouts, mushrooms and peppers

Set aside until the fish has sat in the wine for at least an hour. Then place them over the fish.

Sprout mixture laid over the fish

Top with pats of butter. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with rice. Please do click on this photo below and you will see one heck of an easy fish dish!

Dinner is served!

Now wasn’t that easy? And it tastes really good too!

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All Weather Pizza

We have been having a mixed bag of weather. Rain, sunshine, hail, thunder, lightning, and now snow! What could be better on a cold spring evening than a pizza? Again, this pizza does not use sauce but tomatoes in its place!

Ingredients
Pizza dough
Extra virgin olive oil
4 medium tomatoes, sliced thin
1 1/2 tsp basil leaves
1 1/2 tsp oregano leaves
3 cloves finely chopped fresh garlic
Mozzarella, cheddar and asiago to your liking
Pepperoni
Hard salami
Mushrooms
Chopped tomatoes, from the tops and bottoms of the tomatoes
black olives

Tomatoes sliced for the pizza

These tomatoes are not too bad for this time of year. Summer time tomatoes are best, but these will do!

Lay out your crust then let it rest. Turn the oven on to 425 degrees. When the oven is hot, place the pizza dough in the oven for about 8 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then brush on the olive oil, lay out the sliced tomatoes, and add your herbs and the garlic.

Add the herbs and garlic

Top this with 2/3 of the cheese. Follow this with the pepperoni, salami, tomatoes, mushrooms and olives.

Add the toppings

Follow this with the remainder of the cheese. Then place this in the oven,

Pizza is in the oven

and set the timer for about 10 minutes. Check the crust to see how it is doing. I had to add another five minutes to the timer.

Pizza right out of the oven!

Let the pizza sit for about 5 minutes, then slice it up!

Pizza is served!

Serve this up with a hearty red wine or an ice cold beer!

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Chicken Saute Sec

On our return from Hawai’i, we were to eat at one of my favorite restaurants. However, our plane was late in taking off, and the airline was a bit disorganized with where our bag could be found. Needless to say, my favorite restaurant was closed by the time we got there. So we ended up eating at a place called “Original Joe’s.” I ordered their Chicken Saute Sec, and it was absolutely yummy! So, I had to try making this myself. Here is what I came up with!

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
3/4 cup of flour
4 good shakes of garlic powder
2 good shakes of Hungarian paprika
2 good twists on your salt and pepper mills
1/2 cup butter, divided in half
1 shallot, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup white wine (I used the Lava Cap Chardonnay)
1 cup chicken broth
8 oz. thickly sliced mushrooms
2 good shakes of dried parsley flakes

Ingredients are ready

I started by pounding the chicken breasts to about 1/3 of an inch thick. Then I got my pan ready and added 1/2 of the butter. I put the flour, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper into a bag and then shook it to mix. The I added the chicken breasts. Heat up the pan until the butter has melted and make sure that you coat the pan. When the butter bubbles, add the chicken breasts. Cook until browned on both sides. Remove from the pan.

Browned chicken

Add the remaining butter to the pan along with the shallots and the garlic. Cook until just soft. Then deglaze the pan with the wine. Make sure you get up the bits left by the chicken. Let this cook down until it reduces by half. Then add the chicken broth.

Sauce is cooking

Bring this up to a boil, and then place the chicken back into the pan. Top with the mushrooms and parsley.

Add the mushrooms and parsley

Cover and turn the heat down to low. Let this cook for about 30 minutes.

Serve this with rice and a vegetable.

Dinner is served!

And, don’t forget the wine used in this recipe…pour a glass or two!

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Pork Steaks from the Foothills

I am all for simple in the kitchen on a Friday night! To start off the weekend, and after a tiring work week, what could be better than a meal cooked in one pan on the stove top? Pour yourself a glass of Pinot Noir, take a sip and then let’s get started!

Ingredients
4 pork sirloin steaks
2 russet or Yukon gold potatoes
A generous handful of baby carrots
1 cup fresh mushroom sliced (I forgot to get these and will used canned instead! )
1/3 cup frozen peas
1 package of frozen artichoke hearts (or canned if you cannot get frozen)
3 TBS butter
Thyme
Fresh ground salt and pepper

Take the pork steaks and trim some of the fat from the sides of the steaks.

Trimmed pork steaks

Place the pieces of fat in a deep frying pan. Next peel the potatoes and carrots and cut them into chunks.

Cut up carrots and potatoes

These will need to be par-boiled before we use them. So get a pot of water going with these added and par-boil for 7 minutes. Before draining the water off the potatoes and carrots, place the frozen peas in the bottom of the colander. Rinse in cold water when done. While these are par-boiling let’s get the fat going. Turn the heat up on the pan to medium high. We are going to render this fat for use in our dish. Stir the fat so that all sides become a beautiful golden brown.

Browned pork fat

When this is done, remove the pieces from the pan and set aside on paper towel to drain. Then add the pork steaks and brown on both sides.

Start to brown the pork steaks

Then remove the steaks from the pan. Next, add the potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and peas to the pan and stir to coat the vegetables.

Coat the vegetables in the pork fat

Then move the vegetables to one side of the pan and add in the steaks,

Move the vegetables to the side and add the pork

moving the vegetables around so that the meat ends up on the bottom and are covered by the vegetables. Next, use a couple of really good shakes of dried thyme leaves over all, and then follow this with a couple of grinds of salt and pepper, then dot with the butter.

Top the vege's with salt, pepper, thyme then butter

Cover the dish, turn the heat down to medium low and cook for 30 minutes.

During the cooking process - smells great!

Turn the meat over, and re-cover with the vegetables. Using a baster collect the juices and spread over the top. Cover again and cook for another 25 minutes then serve this up!

Dinner is served!

This is one of those comfort food dinners that is so good on a wet a rainy night like tonight!  Oh, and the rendered pork fat, cut it into small pieces and give this to your dog as treats!  It will add luster to the coat!

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Chicken in Black Bean Sauce

Two of my most favorite Asian ingredients are black bean sauce and sesame oil! The flavors are comforting to me. I perused through the freezer and discovered that I had set aside some cut up chicken thighs, and it came to me to make this dish.

Ingredients
1/2 # boneless chicken thighs, cut up in chunks
3 TBS Sherry
dash of salt
2 tsp cornstarch
2 TBS water
1/3, + 3 TBS cup of low sodium chicken broth
2 TBS soy sauce
3 TBS black bean sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
3 TBS peanut oil
3 slices of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups thickly sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen peas

Take the chicken and in a bowl combine with 1 TBS sherry and the dash of salt.

Chicken, salt and sherry

Set aside. Next combine the cornstarch with the water, then add 1/3 cup of chicken broth, remaining sherry, soy sauce along with the black bean sauce and sesame oil.

Cornstarch mixture

Set aside. Add 2 TBS peanut oil to your wok and heat until hot.

Oil is hot in the wok

Add the chicken

Chicken starts to cook

and stir fry until the chicken is no longer pink.

Chicken is cooked

Remove this from the wok. Add remaining peanut oil and heat until it is hot. While this is heating up, re-stir the cornstarch mixture so that it is ready to use.

Re-stir the cornstarch mixture

When the oil is hot add the ginger and garlic and stir fry for about one minute.

Garlic and ginger being stir fried

Add in the mushrooms and peas and stir fry for about one minute

Add the mushrooms and peas

and then add the remaining chicken broth.

Add the remaining broth

Next add in the cornstarch mixture slowly.

Add the cornstarch mixture

Add back the chicken and heat through.

Let the liquid thicken by cooking

The sauce thickens

Serve this over steaming hot jasmine rice.

Dinner is served!

I hope that you enjoy the subtle, savory flavors of this dish!

Savor the flavors and enjoy!

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Fabulous Fungi

Fungi come in all shapes and sizes and at this time of year they are to be found everywhere! Come with me as I take you around my yard to show you a few of the ones I found! If you click on the photo, you will see things in the photo that you might just miss!

Birds Nest

Inside the Birds Nest

Dance of the Mushroom

Gills Exposed

Up Close and Personal

Puff Ball Emerges

Inside the Puff Ball

Lucidum Ripples

Village of Fungus

Kicking Up the Skirts

I hope that you enjoyed this journey into a world seldom seen up close!

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Walk in the Garden with Me

Today is a wonderful day weather wise. While we need the rain, what we have had and the warmer than normal temperatures have made my garden come to life. Come and take a walk with me. I want to show you some really cool things that are happening today in the garden!

Let’s start out in the fruit orchard.

Almond Joy

Peach Perfection

The Universe in a Nectarine

The Apricot Reaches for You

Now let us wander around by the Daffodil’s.

The Skirt of the Daffidol

A Spider Makes a Home

Dew Drops

Charlotte Before the Web

The native plants are also starting to display.

Steaming Down wiith Manzanita

Cedar Chest Emerging

Now let us take a look at these herbs.

Rosemary in the Rough

The Life of Lavendar

And here are some other things that you might just overlook.

A Web Revealed

The Richness of the Rocks

And finally, under the redwood trees

Mushroom Exposed

Isn’t the emergence of spring wonderful! Let’s take a walk again later on in the season. OK? Hey, and thanks for joining me and letting me share with you some of the things I enjoy in the garden!

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