Terrific Topper for Grilled Steaks – Tasty Tuesday

Welcome back for another edition of Tasty Tuesday! With BBQ season in full swing here I thought that we would revisit a very tasty dish that is fabuloso on grilled steaks. It is so easy to make and so flavorful. Today’s recipe is Sauteed Mushrooms. Ready to head into the kitchen?

Ingredients
1/2# crimini mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic
2 TBS butter
fresh ground black pepper

A short list. Let’s get this together. First take the mushrooms, rinse them in water and then towel dry removing any lingering soil from the mushroom. Make thick slices, and take a few to chop up.

Crimini Mushrooms

Next, chop up the garlic. Take out a saute pan and add the butter and the garlic.

4 cloves of garlic with 2 TBS butter

Turn the heat on to medium heat. When you can just smell the aroma of the garlic, add in the mushrooms and a few twists of fresh cracked pepper. Stir. Let the mushrooms sweat. Here is a photo of them mid-way through.

Midway through cooking

The fragrance is amazing isn’t it? Here is what they look like when they are done.

Serve these puppies up!

Total cooking time is between 10-15 minutes. Spoon equal portions over your grilled steaks.

Sauteed Mushrooms

Feel free to use these too over chicken or some juicy pork chops done on the grill!

Well thanks for stopping by today and stay tuned for another excellent recipe coming to your kitchen next week! Be well… ^..^

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Pork Loin with Mushroom Gravy – Tasty Tuesday

Time for another edition of Tasty Tuesday! I devote Tuesday’s to posting easy to make recipes. Today is no exception as we head into the kitchen to prepare a pork loin dish that is sure to please those at your table. Are you ready to head into the kitchen? Let’s go!

Ingredients
2 1/2# pork loin (there should be two in the package)
4 TBS extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped, set 2 aside from the 8 for later use
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped
10 sage leaves, chopped
1 cup Pinot Grigio or other dry white wine
Fresh ground salt and pepper
9 crimini mushroom, sliced
1/2 cup milk

Ingredients

One hour before cooking this dish, remove the pork from the refrigerator so that it warms up a bit. After the hour, take the olive oil and add it to a cast iron dutch oven. Turn the heat on to medium, and when it feels hot, check by holding your hand over the oil, add in 6 cloves of chopped garlic, the rosemary and the sage. Saute for two minutes.

Saute the garlic, rosemary, and sage

Carefully add in the pork loin. You want to brown these on all sides.

Add in the pork loin

Brown on all sides

Remove the pork to a dish and set aside. Slowly add the white wine to the pan, scraping the bottom to lift any of the browned bits at the bottom.

The wine is added

Add back the pork and season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Add back the pork loin

Cover the pot partially. Cook this for an hour, turning the meat every 15 minutes. If the juices at the bottom appears to be too low, add a bit of the water.

Midway through cooking

After an hour, remove the pork from the pot.

Now let’s turn to the mushrooms. Add in the mushroom to the pot and saute for about 5 minutes.

Mushrooms added to the juices in the pot

Turn off the heat and let the liquid cool. It needs to be cool so that when you add the milk it will not curdle. Let the meat sit and the gravy cool for about 15 – 20 minutes.

When the gravy is cool, add in the milk.

Milk is added to the gravy

Then turn the heat up to medium low. Heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is hot.

While the sauce is doing its thing, slice the pork loin into one inch slices. When the gravy is hot, pour a bit over the sliced pork loin.

Sliced pork with gravy

Put the rest into a gravy boat, and serve with the sliced pork.

Dinner is served!

Now doesn’t that look good? I served the pork with 3 cheese potato wedges and steamed peas.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope that you enjoyed this edition of Tasty Tuesday. Stay tuned for next week’s recipe. We will be preparing those amazing looking 3 cheese potato wedges. Be well… ^..^

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Simple Beef Stroganoff – Tasty Tuesday

It is another edition of Tasty Tuesday! Today we will be preparing a simple yet elegant beef stroganoff that is sure to please you and your family! It is the addition of whole grain mustard that really “beefs” up this recipe! Ready to head into the kitchen?

Ingredients
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1/2# of shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 TBS butter
1# steak, cut into 1/4″ slices
1/3 cup of brandy
1/2 cup beef broth
1 bay leaf
1 tsp whole grain mustard
1 cup of sour cream
egg noodles, buttered with parsley

Ingredients

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and onion and cook until gently browned.

Brown the mushrooms and onion

When these are done, remove from the skillet and set aside. Now we turn to the beef. Add this to the skillet and brown the meat.

Brown the beef

Once the beef is browned, slowly add in the brandy.

Gratuitous pouring shot of the brandy

Cook for a couple of minutes and then add the broth, bay leaf and whole grain mustard. Now tell me, doesn’t that mustard look amazing?

Bay and whole grain mustard are added

With everything now incorporated, add back the mushroom and onion mixture.

Mushrooms and onion are added back

Cook for another couple of minutes. Turn the heat down to low, and add in the sour cream.

Add the sour cream

Stir continuously until steam begins to rise from the pan.

Heat through

The dish is now ready to serve! I like serving this over buttered egg noodles that have a bit of parsley added. Here is what the dish looks like before you gobble it up!

Serve over buttered noodles with parsley!

There you have it! With preparation and cooking time, expect to spend an hour in the kitchen. This dish will serve four.

Thanks for stepping into the kitchen with me, and I hope to see you back next week! Be well… ^..^

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Slow Cooked Beef with Mushrooms – Tasty Tuesday

Good day and welcome to Tasty Tuesday! For today, I wanted to share with you an easy beef recipe that takes about a half hour to prepare and then 8 hours of cooking time in the crock pot. The flavors are amazing, and the aromas that will fill your home while this is cooking will make others believe that you have been slaving in the kitchen! Here is a preview of this dish…

Preview

Looks good, doesn’t it? Let’s head into the kitchen…

Ingredients
6 tri-tip strips or 6 medium hanger steaks (I used a combo of these because of limited availability in the store)
1# cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 onion sliced and separated
1 TBS fresh thyme, leaves stripped from stems and minced
1 tsp of Spanish paprika
3/4 cup of chicken stock
1/4 cup sherry
1/4 cup of flour
4 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 TBS dried parsley
1/2 cup of heavy cream

Ingredients

The first thing that I do is get all of the ingredients prepped and ready to use. This cuts down the prep time of this dish, or any other.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 TBS of olive oil. Add the mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms begin to brown.

Brown the mushrooms

Move them to the crock pot. Then add another TBS of oil to the skillet and heat. Add in the meat and brown on both sides. Remove the meat to a plate.

Browned beef

Add the remaining oil to the pan, heat and then add the onion, thyme and paprika.

Cook up the onions, paprika and thyme

Cook until the onions become translucent. Then add in the flour. Stir to coat.

Flour is incorporated in to the onions

Add in the chicken broth and sherry. This will be a bit thick. Add it to the crockpot.

The mushrooms and onions provide a bed for the beef

To the crock pot, add in the meat and any juices that have accumulated on the plate.

Beef is added

Cover and cook for 8 hours.

After the timer goes off on the crock pot, remove the meat to a plate and cover with foil. The meat will be very tender. To the liquid remaining in the pot, add in the cream and cook on high for about 15 minutes.

Sauce

Add the meat back to the crock pot and stir to coat the meat. I served this dish with green beans and baked potatoes! Check it out!

Dinner is served!

Thanks for joining me in the kitchen on this Tasty Tuesday! Enjoy your day, and be well…

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Mushroom Hunt – Friday Fictioneers

Each week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields hosts a writing challenge called Friday Fictioneers! This writing challenge asks for a story using 100 words or less that goes with the photo prompt. Here is my tale with today’s photo provided by Erin Leary.

Boobie Mushrooms – Photo by Erin Leary

“Now class, let’s see what each of you came up with on your mushroom hunt,” said the teacher. “Betsy, let’s see what you found.”

Betsy came forward holding a plastic bag. The class, eager to learn about mushrooms, gathered around.

“Ah,” said the teacher. “These are Liberty Caps, also known as Psilocybe semilanceata. This mushroom is hallucinogenic. These are mature when the cap is flat. In the early stages of formation, the cap is bell shaped with a nipple, or umbo, on top. Some refer to these as Boobies. Betsy, where did you find these?”

Betsy replied, “In the boobie hatch.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Thank you to Rochelle for hosting this challenge and to Erin for the photo that inspired this story! And to you dear reader, thank you for taking the time to stop by today for a quickie read! Have a terrific Thursday and be well! ^..^

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Sausage Artichoke Soup! Tasty Tuesday

With cloudy skies and cool temperatures, for today’s Tasty Tuesday, I thought this is a perfect day for soup! So, today, I am featuring a soup from the past that is perfect comfort food for a cold day! It is an easy to prepare soup that uses sausage, artichokes, mushrooms and chard! Ready to head into the kitchen?

Ingredients:
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1# hot Italian pork sausage, bulk
1 49 oz. can of chicken broth
2 cups of water
2 packages of frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
1 bunch of Swiss chard
3/4# crimini mushrooms, washed and sliced
Asiago cheese, grated

Let’s begin by adding the olive oil to your soup pot, and turn up the heat to medium high. When hot, add in the pork sausage.

Crumbled sausage is browning

As the sausage cooks, use a spoon to crumble it to small pieces. While this is browning, let’s get our chard ready. Wash the chard and then remove the center portion of the stem as shown in the photo below.

Removing the center of the chard

Next, cut up the chard into good size pieces. Set aside when done.

By the time this is done, your sausage should be nicely browned. Drain off half the fat from the pot.

Browned sausage

Next, add in your broth to the soup pot, along with the water, artichokes and mushrooms and bring this to a boil.

Bring to a boil

Once it boils, turn the heat down to medium low and then add your chard.

Add the chard and stir

Cover and cook for about 5 more minutes so that the chard gets cooked. Then dish it up into soup bowls and top it with a bit of Asiago cheese.

Soup’s on!

Doesn’t that look yummy? 🙂

Well, thank you for joining me in the kitchen today! I hope that you have one heck of an amazing Tuesday! Be well! ^..^

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Wonton Soup – Tasty Tuesday!

There is nothing like a really tasty wonton soup! It is a soup that I have enjoyed since I was very, very young. For today, I am sharing with you an old family recipe. The broth is tasty, and so are the wontons!

Preview

Ready to head into the kitchen?

Wonton Ingredients
1 package of wonton wrappers
1/2# of lean ground pork
3 cloves of minced garlic
2 green onions, chopped fine
1 TBS oyster flavored sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 TBS ginger, chopped fine
1/4 tsp black pepper

Wonton ingredients

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, except for the wrappers.

Ready to combine

Using your hands mix this together until well blended.

Filling is ready

Put about 1/4 cup of water in a bowl. Lay out a wonton wrapper, and using a regular spoon, add some mixture to the middle.

A spoonful of filling placed on the wrapper

Moisten two sides with water and folds over and seal.

Fold and seal

Next moisten the two corners and pinch together.

Pinch the corners

As you make these, place them on a sheet of parchment paper.

Wontons ready to cook

Cover with a damp paper towel to keep the dough from drying out.

Now let’s get to the broth!

Broth Ingredients
48 oz. of low sodium chicken broth
1 TBS sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
5 slices of peeled fresh ginger
1/4# fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed, sliced
2 baby bok choy, washed well
3 green onions, sliced

Broth Ingredients

I like to get the ingredients together that go into the pot together. So, I have a bowl with the garlic and ginger.

Garlic and ginger

The mushrooms go in with the broth, so I have a bowl of just mushrooms, that I have sliced.

Shiitakes sliced and ready

And the bok choy and green onions will be added together, so I have a bowl ready of these two ingredients.

Bok choy and green onions will go into the soup together

Now let’s get to cooking! Heat the sesame oil in your soup pot. When hot add the garlic and ginger and cook until the fragrance hits your nose. Then add your broth and the mushrooms.

Broth and mushrooms added

Bring this to a boil then reduce the heat and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the bok choy and green onions. Cook for two minutes so that the bok choy wilts but still remains that vibrant green. Then add your wontons, dropping them gently into the soup.

Green onions, bok choy and wontons added

Cook for another two minutes. This is sufficient time for the pork filling to cook.

Turn the heat off and the soup is ready to serve!

Soups on!

When I make this recipe I use pork, but you can substitute the pork with shrimp, or do a combination of pork and shrimp. It using shrimp, chop it up well. The other thing you can do is fry up these wontons in peanut oil as an appetizer and forget the soup! Whatever you do, you will really enjoy the wontons for this soup!

Thanks for dropping by for Tasty Tuesday! Have a great day! Be well! ^..^

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Spaghetti con Funghi – Tasty Tuesday

Hello, and welcome to Tasty Tuesday, coming to you from Life in the Foothills! The dish I am featuring today takes about one half hour to prepare! I like easy! I call this dish “Spaghetti con Funghi!” How about a preview of the finished dish, then let’s head into the kitchen, shall we?

Preview – Spaghetti con Funghi

The ingredients:
1/2# of fresh shiitake mushroom
1/2# of fresh crimini mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
4 TBS extra virgin olive oil
3 TBS butter, divided
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper, divided into 1/2 and 1/4 tsps
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup of low sodium chicken broth
3/4# uncooked spaghetti
2/3 cup finely shredded parmesan, + extra to top the dish with
2 TBS fresh parsley, or 2 tsp dried parsley flakes (it’s a three to one ratio when using fresh as opposed to dry)

Ingredients

Not a huge list of ingredients and they come together very nicely. Ready to start cooking? First, wash the mushrooms and dry them with a paper towel making sure to remove all of the growing medium that tends to stick. For the shiitake mushrooms, trim off the entire stem. For the crimini, just shave off the bottom portion of the mushroom. Then, slice the mushrooms, and set aside.

Have fun guy while you slice!

Aren’t they lovely?

Next, remove the skins from the garlic, trim the bottom, and then mince. Set aside. Then, let’s get the water heating for the spaghetti. While this is heating up, place 2 TBS of the olive oil and 2 TBS butter in a skillet. When the butter has melted and combined with the olive oil, add in your mushrooms, the 1/2 tsp of fresh pepper, and the salt. The mushrooms will soak in the liquid, but don’t worry, because as they cook these fluids, plus the lovely tasting juice from the mushroom will leach out. We want these to get nicely browned. To achieve this you want to let them cook in the pan and only stir a bit here and there. Here are the mushrooms starting to cook and then the mushrooms that have browned.

Cooking up the shrooms!

Get them nice and brown

As the mushrooms cook, your water for the spaghetti should start boiling. Break the spaghetti in half. Now, there is a trick I learned years ago to making the perfect pasta. With the water boiling, add the pasta and stir the water for 3 minutes. When the timer goes off, remove the pasta pot from the heat, cover and let this sit undisturbed for 10 minutes.

Now, back to the mushrooms. When they have browned add the garlic and stir until the aroma from the garlic taps your nose. Then add chicken broth and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.

Broth has been added

With the cooked pasta done, and this will be just a short bit before the mushroom sauce is done, drain the pasta. Then add the cheese, remaining pepper, butter and olive oil. Stir to get a good coating over the pasta.

Cooked spaghetti with cheese and pepper added

By now the juices in the mushroom pan should be reduced. Turn off the heat and add this to your pasta.

Add the mushrooms and sauce to the pasta

Now add the parsley to the pot and then stir it up really good so that the mushrooms are evenly mixed into the pasta! Serve this up and top with a bit of shredded cheese! Enjoy the flavors!

Serve with a bit of grated cheese to top it off!

As a side note: You can change up this recipe by using portobello, or porcini mushrooms. If you want to add some herbs, feel free to add in basil, or chives, tarragon or thyme. Add the herbs when you add the cheese to the pasta.

I hope that you enjoyed today’s Tasty Tuesday! Please let me know if you try this recipe! I would love for you to share your comments! Have a wonderful Tuesday and be well! Thanks for dropping by and joining me in the kitchen!

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Introducing Tasty Tuesday!

What is tasty Tuesday? Well…I came to the decision, after realizing that I have been posting recipes sporadically, and cooking is one of my passions, that I would devote every Tuesday this year to posting recipes…As I write this, my belly is full, the smell of mushrooms and garlic permeates my home! Dinner was fantastic tonight! And, yes, that is a tease for a post tomorrow! Recipes on Tasty Tuesday is my own personal challenge which I will share with you….

If you want to check out recipes that I have posted so far, click on that button on the right that says “Category” and then scroll down and click on “The Recipe Box.” Feel free to check it out! There are some good ones, and quite a few are featured first on Google search! 🙂

I do love reading food blogs too, and highly recommend that you stop by and check out Conor’s One Man’s Meat. Conor’s posts are full of humor, great kitchen tips, and some of the best recipes! I have tried a number of them and he has not steered me wrong with any of them! Thank you Conor!

I also recommend Lesley’s blog Lola Rugula for fresh, tasty and easy to prepare recipes! I have gotten some great information from Lesley’s site, and the dog loves the PB biscuits!

And from down under, my friend Gaz does some amazing breakfasts and dinners! He is reviewing places to eat in Canberra, Australia, and should you decide to visit, check some of these places out before you go! His website is: Yummy Lummy!

So, stay tuned for the beginning of Tasty Tuesday! Tomorrow, the recipe features mushrooms and garlic! It is easy to cook and full of amazing flavors!

Be well! ^..^

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Mushroom Gills

By now you might know that I love lines and patterns. The other day, again walking through the backyard, with camera in hand and fitted with my extension tube, I took some close ups of all the amazing mushrooms that littered the yard. I was focused on the gills of the mushrooms. The colors and lines are amazing! Today I share these with you!

Is this the skirt of a ballerina or is it just upside down?

Upside down

Rather than being upside down, this one is all curled up!

Curled up

Check out the varying lengths on the gills on this mushroom!

Varying lengths

I do love lines! Check the lines out on this mushroom!

Lovely lines

I certainly am a fan! So is this one!

A fan

The gently upward lifted cap on this mushroom exposes its underside!

Exposed!

Looking at all these mushrooms is uplifting!

Uplifted

One final shot, and this one I found jammed in between two logs…

Jammed in

I hope that you enjoyed this adventure into mushroom gills! Have a spectacular Saturday and remember, be well! ^..^

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