A Big Ole' Bowl of Badass

Otherwise known as delicious f*&%ing Cream of Mushroom soup!

   Have I mentioned before that I like to cook? Well, I do. And on occasion I get some strong hankerin's for specific foods. No, I'm not pregnant, I just crave stuff from time to time. One of my favorite treat dishes is a big bowl of Mushroom Soup from La Madeline's, but that can get pricey sometimes, and I like to put my own spin on stuff. Here's my payoff as seen in the classy square bowl. (YES, SQUARE BOWLS ARE CLASSY!)

So here is what I did:

1lb White Button Mushrooms

2 Large Portobello caps

1/2 large purple onion (or whatever variety you fancy)

2-4 Cloves of garlic (depending on personal tastes)

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 of flour

1 box o' broth (I used chicken - 32 ounces)

1 Tb of Beef Bullion

1c Heavy Cream

1/2c Sherry or sherry substitue (optional)

First thing's first, melt your butter in a big pot (this makes quite a bit of soup). Chop your onion and mushrooms into bite sized bits and throw it in the butter to cook over medium-low heat. Crush your garlic and throw it in too. (No need to finely chop it or anything yet.) About 5-7 minutes or so to cook it all. 

Once cooked through, add your stock, reserving some aside to mix with the flour later. At this point you can add the beef boullion and sherry to the big pot too. Once you have the bulk of your liquids in, you have two choices: stick blender ORRRRRRR food processor. Personally, I find stick blenders far more useful for this. Either way, you want to pulse blend everything up until the mushrooms, garlic, and onions are small bits. It's totally okay to leave big bits too. I like my soup a bit on the chunky side, but it's all personal preference, right??

Now take the reserved broth and whisk with the flour until smooth. (I cheated and used my Magic Bullet. Best. Investment. EVER.) At this point, I like to add my spices too. Thyme is a good one, but I didn't have any that wasn't mixed was marjoram, dill, and something else. It was called Bouquet Garni from my local spice store. Add that flour/broth mixture to the pot, stir, and bring it all to a boil. The flour is really just there to thicken your soup. If you find it isn't thickening enough for your tastes, you can use cornstarch (directions on the package), or a bit more flour/water mixture. It will also thicken more as it cools too, so don't over thicken here, or you get fungus paste later. (Eww.)

Once you reach a boil, remove it from the heat and stir in your heavy cream. Only return it to the heat if you need to heat it through again, but don't bring it to a boil. If not, stick that shit in a bowl and enjoy! 

And those leftovers? They freeze pretty well if you have a decent dish to do it in. I'm cheap, so I use cleaned out big yogurt containers. When ready to use again, let it thaw until you can move it to a more microwave safe dish, or slow heat it in a pot. (Remember it still has the cream, so heating too fast can curdle and burn it.)

I guess for the purpose of the photo I could have garnished it or something...but I wasn't serving it to anyone else so .../shrug  Now if you'll 'scuse me, this soup is begging to be devoured. 

Enjoy :)

Procrastination, my middle name.

So I've been complacent in this whole blogging deal because I couldn't pin myself down to one interest. And why should I? My hobbies are varied, so I've decided this blog will be too.

First thing about me, I have the attention span of a squirrel. Or damned close to it. So expect to see a little of everything on here. My pets and animal care, metalsmithing, cooking, card making, and various other "art" projects. 

Also, I am not the best at photographing things. It just seems like I can never remember that I have a camera...

So tonight's feature: one of my "made up" recipes. I find as I get older I do this more. Almost every night is an ordeal between my husband and I that always starts with "What do you want for dinner?" We are horrible at making these choices and half the time we end up eating out, which I think I hate more. You see, my head is crammed so full of useless knowledge and crap that I can only recall 15-20 recipes at any given time. Over half of which I won't have all the ingredients for at any given moment. So now I pretty much base a dinner on whatever protein we have in the freezer. From there I look at my fridge and pantry and ask myself what sounds like it would taste good together?!?

So last night's dinner was a ghetto shrimp paella and a pineapple upside down cake. It was damned delicious (I promise to grab photos next time I make it). 

Ghettto Shrimp Paella:

1 pound shrimp. 

1 can of diced tomatoes (regular or Italian variety is fine)

1 box of cous cous. 

A GOOD olive oil. I used some fantastic stuff I get locally and a specialty shop for Olive oil and balsamics

Minced Garlic (fresh or dried is fine)

Jalapeno Pepper, diced. 

2 Tbs of Capers

Salt and Pepper to taste

Some notes on the ingredients:

I use the jumbo easy-peel prawns. I get a decent count (20-24 usually) for a really decent price, and it takes about 5 minutes to peel them all. I used the Near East brand, Whole Wheat Cous, Roasted Garlic flavor. Don't skimp on the olive oil. I am pretty spoiled when it comes to EVOO these days, and I rarely buy it from the grocery store. Mine almost exclusively comes from a specialty shop here in Austin. (Con Olio's), and they specialize in EVOO and balsamics. If you have access to an EVOO specialty shop, I used a combination of Garlic and Tuscan Herb EVOO. 

The jalapeno is a touch of spice with mostly flavor. If you like a little more heat in your food, feel free to sub a different kind of pepper! 

To start, I prepared the cous in a small pot according to direction. Peel your shrimp and give them a nice cold water wash, then allow them to dry for a few minutes in a strainer. Or you can use the paper towel method and spread them on a few paper towels patting them dry. Then in a large deep skillet I heated the EVOO (enough to coat the bottom of the pan.)over medium heat. To the oil I added the diced jalapeno and garlic. Let the oil cook out a bit of the flavors of each, but be sure not to over cook the garlic. Burned garlic is a flavor you will never forget. 

Once the garlic has a golden brown color and the peppers are a little softer, add your shrimp and cook it all up until the shrimp is almost cooked (not pink all the way through yet). Once you are at this stage, add your cooked cous, the capers, and your (drained) can of diced tomatoes. At this point, stir everything up and ensure everything is heated all the way through.  Serve that shit and enjoy. 

Now for dessert, Pineapple Upside-down Cake!

You can use just about any recipe, Dole even has one on the underside of the can labels. I'll share my secret to a fabulous variation:

First, use a butter cake. Not pineapple, not yellow, not white. Butter. Duncan Hines has a pretty awesome one. (I never said this was a healthy dessert.) Prep the batter according to the box. 

Now then, Grab your can (or two) of pineapple slices and lay them out in the pan according to generic recipes. Do NOT throw away the juice in the can though! Once you have your pineapple slices laid out and your cake batter ready to go, here is what you do:

In a pot, combine the saved pineapple juice, a stick of butter, and a cup of brown sugar. Double this if you used two cans of pineapple. For the brown sugar, I use half dark and half light, but it really doesn't matter. Heat on medium and stir constantly until the butter is melted and you have a syrup consistency. Making this syrup first WITH the pineapple juice makes all the difference. I can't claim discovery of this pineapple syrup though. That credit goes to my sister, Laura, who put me on to the idea in the first place.

Once you have your syrup, pour it in your pan over the pineapple slices, and then add the cake batter on top. When this bakes, it is going to candy the edges of the cake as it bubbles up. It's pretty fantastic. But hey, don't take my word. ;)

Maybe next time I can get some pictures of this food though, before it gets devoured. 

A Start of Something Somewhere

I'm not sure why I chose now of all times to start a blog. I've been around the webs a while. First on Open Diary, then on the LJ, MySpace, and even Facebook. But why a blog?!?

I am not sure ahat I hope to get out of this, if anything. I think I am just looking for a place to spur me into avid writing once more. I've been out of touch with it a while, and something is certainly missing in my life. At any rate, perhaps I will just make a fool of myself and help someone somewhere cracka  smile at my idiocies. We shall see, I suppose.

So for now, good night and good luck to all.