Many moons ago my uncle made a mushroom extravaganza for Christmas dinner. There was mushroom soup, mushroom loaf, and a mushroom risotto. At the time, mushrooms were something I couldn’t stand to eat, yet I didn’t want to hurt his feelings since he had made such a wonderful meal. So I ate the soup. I ate some of the loaf. And I ate the risotto. I’m not certain if by the time I got to the risotto I was just so inundated by the mushrooms that I didn’t notice them as much, but I really liked the risotto. I remember somewhat picking at the mushrooms, looking at them in wonderment by this portion of the meal, thinking, “Well, this isn’t too bad!”

Shiitakes ended up being my gateway mushroom. Fast forward many years later, and I enjoy most types of mushrooms (still not a fan of the white button, however). This past week my CSA had quite a few varieties of mushrooms available, so I decided I would try my hand at recreating the risotto that was the first way I ever enjoyed mushrooms. (more…)

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Dinner, Gluten free, Italian, Lunch by Courtney

One of my favorite quick go-to pastas has been a beef and arugula pasta with a dijon vinaigrette dressing that I posted a few years back. The first time I made this pasta, I remember my husband saying, “This would be really good with portobellos!”. I was so sure it would that, at the time, I wrote the recipe up with that suggestion for vegetarian-izing (and, incidentally, veganizing) the recipe. A week ago, I had some leftover arugula, so I decided to give this version a go, and what do you know, it was a hit! Still as quick and easy as the original, and still as flavorful. (more…)

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Dairy free, Dinner, Lunch, Quick and Easy, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney

Yesterday morning I’m laying in bed, checking my email and reading the news, when I get an IM from my husband:

“http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2010/apr/07/how-to-make-shooters-sandwich … this looks soooo goood”

Nevermind the fact that we’re only 10 feet away from each other and he IM’d this to me; he was right. This did look good. So out of bed I hopped, deciding to get ready and head to the farmer’s market to procure some tasty ribeyes from Prather Ranch. After a quick check of the other ingredients (yes, I do have Dijon; no, I don’t have horseradish), we were off on this rainy day to gather our food. (more…)

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Dinner, Lunch, Sandwiches by Courtney

A few years back I bought the book French Women Don’t Get Fat. I’ll admit it, I was intrigued to see what this book would have to say, whether it would reveal some magical secret that allowed me to eat croissants and drink red wine all day long. Or at the least, it would tell me the magical secret was to drink red wine all day long!

What I hadn’t anticipated about this book were all the yummy recipes. One of them, Chicken au Champagne, I’ve had my eye on quite a while, but it’s taken me 5 years to get around to making it. This week, when I received a shipment of new Champagne glasses, I decided it was time. (more…)

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Dinner, French, Gluten free, Gourmet, Wine pairings by Courtney

This weekend it didn’t take me too long to figure out what to do with all of the zucchini that came in. “Stuffed zucchini!” I declared and went off to the store to procure the ingredients I would need.

I forget how I happened upon this original recipe from Giada de Laurentiis for stuffed zucchini and bell peppers, but I’m glad I did because it introduced me to the world of stuffing vegetables besides peppers.

I’ve made both her version (slightly adapted*) and a vegetarian, mushroom-stuffed version because I had some left over portobello mushrooms. I loved both, so they’re both in my repertoire now. Get the recipe for my mushroom-stuffed version below. (more…)

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Dinner, In the Garden, Italian, Prep for Later Use, Vegetarian by Courtney