Marg's Pomodoro Sauce

This is a thin sauce, but so very flavourful! The balsamic vinegar is the ingredient that adds the flavour. Makes 12+ generous servings; I freeze it in empty yogurt tubs that hold roughly 4 cups each, and I get enough to fill 4 yogurt tubs with about a cup left over for the cook's portion for dinner that night. ;-)

The nutrition facts for this delicious sauce were designed at Calorie Count.

Pomodoro Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

2 onions, chopped

16 cloves garlic, minced

8 cups roma tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

5 cups chicken broth (I just use a box of the broth [eg Campbell's, Knorr] from the supermarket)

2 chicken bouillon cubes (I use McCormick chicken flavoured All-Vegetable bouillon cubes, but that's just me)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, ground (or 1/8 tsp cayenne)

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 tbs dry basil (or 4 tbs fresh)

Directions:

Blanch the tomatoes by placing them in boiling water until you see them start to split. Carefully remove from the water with a scoop and cool a bit. in some cold water The skin will then slip right off.

Pulse tomatoes, about 8 at a time, in food processor to chop roughly.

Pulse garlic in food processor (after washing it out) until finely minced. 

Chop onions.

Heat oil in a stock pot, then add onions and garlic and cook until tender, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoes, vinegar, broth, and bouillon cubes, bring to a boil, turn down heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Stir in red and black peppers to taste and the basil.

Simmer until about an inch of the liquid has evaporated off and sauce is getting thicker, about 45-60 minutes.

Let cool a bit, then puree with an immersion blender.

Serve over pasta and top with grated Parmesan or ladle into tubs and freeze for fresh tomato sauce all winter long!

Crazypotato98's Vegi Soup with Bob's Red Mill Mix

Made with a nice little dry mixture of green split peas, yellow split peas, barley, lentils and vegetable pasta (semolina wheat flour, dehydrated spinach and tomato - no added salt!). Keep a pack of Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix in your pantry and you will be ready to create a new soup using any season's vegetables.

The nutrition facts for this simply delicious soup were designed at Calorie Count.

Vegi Soup with Bob's Red Mill Mix

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix

7 cups water

4 cubes Knorr tomato bouillon

1/2 lb frozen green beans

12 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

5 oz broccoli slaw

Directions:

Dump it all in a pot, simmer an hour, and enjoy!

Sheila’s Seafood Stuffed Portabellas

The nutrition facts for this delicious dish were designed at Calorie Count!

Sheila’s Seafood Stuffed Portabellas

Serves two

Sauce Ingredients:

¼ c low fat mayonnaise

1 T lemon juice

1 T water

1 garlic clove minced

Dash hot pepper sauce

Sauce Directions:

Blend mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic and hot pepper sauce. Cover and refrigerate. This allows time for the flavors to blend

Stuffing for the Portabellas:

227 g imitation crab (or lobster or shrimp)

1 egg

1 T low fat mayonnaise or sour cream

½ t Worcestershire sauce

2 T shallots, diced

2 T parsley, fine chop

¼ cup seasoned bread crumbs

Dashes of hot pepper sauce to taste

Directions for Stuffing:

Finely chop the seafood and in a small bowl mix with egg, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, shallot, parsley, and bread crumbs. Mix in hot pepper sauce if using.

The Mushrooms:

2 portabellas or 4 cremini mushrooms as big as a loonie (a Canadian coin that indicates the mushroom is large enough to hold some stuffing

Prepping and Filling the Mushrooms:

Remove stems from mushrooms and scrape off the brown gills with a spoon. Place rounded side down in shallow baking pan and fill with stuffing, mounding as necessary.

Topping:

2 T Parmesan cheese

Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake:

400°F (200°C) oven for 15 –20 minutes or until heated through out.

Drizzle with aioli sauce and serve.

Slightly modified from this recipe. 

Suchit Approved Mushroom Tom Yum

A delicious Thai soup that Suchit cooked for me on a number of delicious occasions. Lucky me! The nutrition facts were designed at Calorie Count.

Oyster mushroom

Mushroom Tom Yum

2 Servings

Soup Toppings to be added at the table:

2-3 crushed Thai chili peppers (or jalapeno)

5 sprigs chopped cilantro
1 tomato
3 scallions

1 lime

Soup Ingredients:

1 crushed lemongrass

1/2 lb Oyster or Enoki Mushroom (see pics)

2 1/2 cups water

2 kaffir lime leaves*

2 tablespoons fish sauce
Optional: galanda**

* if you cannot find kaffir lime leaves, don't worry. The soup is good without it, but you might want to squish in more lime. You don't eat kaffir lime leaves, they are for the making of the soup stock. Look for it in an Asian supermarket. This is a plant you can grow in a pot. The link tells you how.

** galanga is similar to ginger, but tastes more of pepper (it's from the same family, but tastes different). Use it in the way you would ginger, peel and either crush or slice. Add to the recipe with the lemongrass. An Asian supermarket is your best bet for finding this too. Remember, it is similar in appearance to ginger.

Enoki mushroom

Preparation:

Clean a stalk of lemongrass, removing the outer layers. Use only the bottom 4 inches of the stalk. Crush the lemongrass with the back of your knife or a meat tenderizer – this opens the plant’s cells to flavor the stock. Tie the lemongrass into a knot (this makes it easier to remove).

Wash the mushrooms, pat dry, slice into spoon sized pieces if using oyster mushrooms and if using enoki, let them remain in long threads as if they were noodles, and set them aside.

Remove the leafy part of the kaffir lime leaves and discard the stem.

Crush the chili peppers, chop the cilantro, tomato, scallion, and make wedges with the lime. Place each in a separate serving bowl and set on the table.

Instructions for optional galanga

Cooking the Tom Yum:

Add the water to a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the lemongrass knot, kaffir lime leaves, and galanga (if using) to the water. Boil for a 30 minutes. Remove lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.

Add the cleaned mushrooms and fish sauce.

Simmer for about 15 minutes.

Taste. If everyone eating the soup loves spicy food, you could add the chili paste and let everyone adjust it upward with the sliced chilis at the table. Flavor can be adjusted with fish sauce, lime juice, or chilis.

Serve Tom Yum piping hot with the assorted toppings.

Optional:

During the final 10 minutes of cooking, add fresh shrimp – peeled, deveined, and sliced smaller if necessary so you can spoon them up.

Marie's Crockpot Mushrooms

Stressed with party preparations? This is one appetizer that can handle being left alone.

The nutrition facts were designed at Calorie Count.

Marie’s Crockpot Mushrooms

serves eight

Ingredients:

16 oz fresh mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed but left whole

1 envelope Ranch Dressing Mix

8 T Butter

Directions:

Put everything in a crockpot, stir well and heat on high for one hour.

Super good appetizer!

Kathe's Enhanced Mushroom Chicken

Aromatic and savory with a hint of citrus, this elegant dish pairs beautifully with a simply dressed salad and a glass of white Burgundy. Enjoy.

The nutrition facts were designed at Calorie Count!

Kathe's Enhanced Mushroom Chicken or Poulet de Paris aux Champignons

Ingredients:

Serves 4 with leftovers (if you’re lucky)

1 pound chicken breasts (or 6 to 8 chicken parts of your choice – a mix of legs, thighs and breasts is fine. The calories were set using chicken breasts.)

1 8 oz package fresh white or brown mushrooms or a mix of the two

2 onions (white or red), sliced or cut into chunks

1 clove garlic, minced, or more to taste

1 tbsp. olive oil

½ cup orange juice

1 tbsp apricot jam

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Preparation:

Slice onions. Mince garlic. Slice mushrooms into uniform pieces.

Cooking:

Pour a little olive oil into the bottom of a large frying pan and heat on high setting. Sauté onions for a couple of minutes, then add garlic and keep stirring. Reduce heat to medium. When onions and garlic start to turn brown and smell wonderful, add mushrooms and continue cooking, stirring to make sure they don’t cook too quickly and burn.

Add a little orange juice and keep stirring. After about 5 minutes, move onions/mushrooms to side of pan and place chicken pieces in the middle of the pan, adding thickest pieces first. Sauté until brown. Turn over and brown on other side. You may need to add more orange juice. Blend in apricot jam and mustard and stir well.

Leave everything to simmer together for about 20 minutes or longer until chicken is cooked through (prick with a fork to make sure juices run clear). This will allow flavours to blend. Cover with lid or foil if you’re still working on the rest of the meal.

Serve with rice and vegetables and/or salad.

Note:

For a delicious variation and to make it an all-in-one dish you can throw in hand fulls of spinach about 3 minutes before it's done.

Artisan Treats and Petit Amuse: a Review

There's a new way to taste and buy gourmet deliciousness via the internet!

Petit Amuse explores interesting little shops around the world on a never ending quest to find and eat only the best small batch artisan treats - the kind you won't find at most groceries. You eat right along with them for a low monthly membership fee ($10) when a collection of treats arrives at your home all wrapped up in a little surprise box of deliciousness. Although you are not obligated to buy anything at all, you might find yourself very tempted to do just that.

How can one say no to the request to eat and review good food? My box came in the mail the other day.

This is was what I found inside: a jar of Ice Wine Jelly, one Garukabar, one Cha-Chas, one Salted Rosemary Shortbread, and a bag of Sun Dried Tomato & Parmesan Popcorn made by a company named Oogie's.

I assembled my most experienced Tasting Team (Husband, Son, and Daughter), set up the scientifically precise dessert plates with glasses of cold filtered water for cleansing the palate between tastes, and positioned paper and pencil in anticipation of making learned and quotable comments.

Menu Card

I very much liked the thoughtfully designed menu card.

The reverse side of the card detailed the ingredient list for each item in nice reasonably sized print.

No squinting and peering at tiny little labels required. No reading glasses needed. Nicely done.

Ice Wine Jelly

Yes, jelly made with Eiswein, the dessert wine that is made when a freeze occurs before the grapes are harvested... and before they rot on the vine. Freezing intensifies the grape's naturally sweet flavor and makes for some pretty dratted awesome wine.

If you like sweet spreads (and this was very sweet), this jelly will rock your socks. The jelly clearly tastes of wine and was delicious spread over a piece of bread.

Salted Rosemary Shortbread

This was a major hit with all four of our tasters, even the more dubious member of my staff ("Shortbread and rosemary???!!!"). The savory rosemary and salt were perfectly balanced by the not too sweet shortbread.

Well done, this is one treat we would buy.

Cha-Chas

Oh, how I wanted to add an extra Cha on to the name.

This looked so awesomely dark chocolatey that we could not wait to try it. The flavors were superb. Unfortunately, the texture did not match the standard set by the flavor or the anticipation. It was a little dry and hard, and all tasters agreed that was disappointing.

One nice thing about sampling this cookie via Petit Amuse is that we did not waste money on an entire package purchased at a store.

Garukabar

If nothing else, the names of these treats were great fun.

For this bar, think backpacking in Colorado Rocky Mountain National Park. You've stopped to sit on a large flat rock and enjoy the sights and sounds of rushing white water cascading over a particularly gorgeous collection of fallen boulders. You sip from your Earth friendly refillable water bottle and open a chewy Garukabar. The bar's recyclable brown paper wrapper encloses an amazing amount of hiker health with its natural grains, seeds, dried fruit, honey, and brown rices. Fortunately you also brought along a small handkerchief which you dip into the icy cold river and use to dab off the sticky gooey goodness from your fingers after carefully stowing the wrapper in your backpack so as to leave the view as you found it - unsullied by man.

Oogies, Sun Dried Tomato and Parmesan Popcorn

The was definitely the hit of the day. We finished every little kernel of the perfectly seasoned non-GMO popcorn. What's not to love here?

Would we buy more? Absolutely. Hopefully it is available in very large containers so we can stock up.

Is a monthly membership worth the cost?

Tasting Team members huddled and compared notes, debated and wrote copiously as they analyzed each experimental morsel. We then correlated value with epicurean delight in an abundance of colorful pie charts. Does Petit Amuse have what it takes? Does it deliver what it says - good value and a fun foodie experience? Absolutely. Excellent premise, reasonable price, with fun and deliciousness delivered right to your door.

Hawaiian Hamburgers

The nutrition facts for this tasty burger were designed at Calorie Count.

Hawaiian Hamburgers

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef, extra lean
1 onion, chopped very fine
2 t garlic, chopped fine
1/2 C soy sauce, low sodium
1 t garlic, chopped
1/2 t ground ginger

Directions:

In a large bowl, use your hands and mix beef, onion, and 2 t garlic.

Shape into six patties. Lay flat in a pan (one with a side).

Mix the soy sauce, 1 t garlic, and ginger. Pour over the hamburgers and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes. Turn once to make sure both sides get a good soaking.

Grill or broil until done - approximately 5-7 minutes on each side.

Serve on a bun. For a fun Hawaiian kick, top each burger with a slice of pineapple!

Sort of Spanish Meatballs

The nutrition facts for this vaguely Spanish dish were designed at Calorie Count!

Sort of Spanish Meatballs
four large servings

Ingredients for the meatballs:

1 pound ground beef, extra lean
1/4 C bread crumbs, unseasoned
2/3 C onion, chopped
2/3 C evaporated milk
Optional: pinch of salt

Directions for the meatballs:

Preheat oven to 375 F

In a large bowl, mix everything except the butter. Use your hands and get into the mixing. Shape into 12 meatballs. Spray non-stick spray in a baking pan and bake the meatballs until they are just done, approximately 25 minutes.

Ingredients for sauce:

1 T olive oil
1/4 C green pepper, chopped
1/4 C onion, chopped
28 ounces tomatoes, chopped, canned is fine
1/2 C stuffed olives, sliced
1/4 t black pepper
1 t garlic
1 t paprika
pinch salt
1/8 t crushed red pepper
2/3 C water
1 6 oz can tomato paste

Making the sauce and putting it all together:

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium. Add the green peppers and onion. Saute until they soften but do not brown.

Add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer.

Carefully place the cooked meatballs in the cause.

Cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Serve with cooked rice.

Laura’s Italian Chicken Breast Salad

The nutrition facts for this satisfyingly delicious salad were designed at Calorie Count.

Laura’s Italian Chicken Breast Salad

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

2 small zucchini, sliced thin & cut into half moons

1 cup diced fresh mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

sea salt/cracked black pepper to taste

3 tsp dried oregano

1.5 tsp minced fresh rosemary

1.5 tsp garlic powder (avoid powder that has MSG!)

sea salt/cracked black pepper to taste

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (serving size: 4.5 ounces per person)

4 cups arugula

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Directions:

Combine the tomatoes, zucchini and cheese in a medium container.  Add the oil, vinegar, salt & pepper to taste, and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate until the chicken is ready.

In a small bowl, combine the oregano, rosemary, garlic powder, salt & pepper, and mix well.

Trim the fat off the chicken breasts.  Sprinkle the oregano mixture on both sides of the breasts.  Grill until done, OR:

        a. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat the pan with olive oil spray.

        b. Once the oil is hot, add the breasts, 2 at a time to avoid overcrowding.

        c. Cook each breast 4-6 minutes per side, or until the center is no longer pink.

Once the chicken is done, let it rest for 2 minutes to avoid releasing juices.  Then slice each breast on the diagonal, creating strips of chicken.

Mix arugula and basil with the tomato mixture; arrange on a platter or in 4 individual bowls/plates.

Top with sliced chicken.

Cook's note:

I personally think that an entire chicken breast is too much meat for a serving, especially since chicken breasts seem to be growing bigger and bigger. I cook only two-three breasts, depending on size, and split them between the four servings. If you can find the nice small chicken breasts, so much the better.