Roasted Shiitake Mushrooms with Garlic

(Originally posted on Saturday, January 31, 2004 by Tim)

We are way behind on getting new recipes up here. I blame Sam. He spent most of yesterday typing in his Haiku. I don't think it took him that long to compose, but the keys are a little small for him to hit individually with his paws.

Last night we had our friends Natalie and Bruce over for dinner and made three very good courses which have yet to make it here. We started off with the shiitake mushroom appetizer mentioned in the title. This one comes from "Passionate Vegetarian" as most of our new recipes have. We have made this appetizer three times now and it's a very simple, very delicious recipe.

Roasted Shiitake Mushrooms with Garlic
1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms (washed and stems removed)
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs crushed garlic
1/2 tsp salt (medium gain sea salt is nice, but not critical)
Pam

1. Spray a baking sheet with Pam. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

2. Mix garlic, oil and salt. Toss mushrooms in mixture until they are well coated.

3. Place the mushrooms on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for roughly 10 minutes. Flip mushrooms and bake another 10 minutes. Time isn't really important here. Bake the mushrooms until they start looking a bit crispy and golden on the undersides.

Serve these hot or cold. When picking out the mushrooms, try to get smaller ones. These tend to get a bit crispier in the oven which adds to the flavor.

1/2 lb is about 16 mushroom caps. Scale this recipe up if you have a big party or if you just want to eat a bunch of mushrooms.

A Haiku

(Originally posted on Friday, January 30, 2004 by Sam)

sounding the alarm
through squeaks, wines, and by loud barks
cats taunt in my yard

Gin and Tonic

(Originally posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 by Tim)

Ok, I know this is a pretty lame recipe. We have made three new meals this week, but we've been real busy applying me for jobs and setting up my class web site, http://www.timistry.net.

We made an interesting kale, onions, raisins and olive dish tonight. I might post it at some point. It's not an amazing recipe, but I enjoyed it. Here's an oldie but goodie.

Gin and Tonic
Bombay Sapphire Gin (thanks Mom and Dad) or Tanqueray Ten Gin
Tonic water
Lime Juice
4 ice cubes

Add ice cubes to 8 ounce glass. Fill glass 1/4 high with gin. Fill glass the rest of the way with tonic water. Add a squirt of lime juice (about 1/2 tsp). Mix and enjoy.

For me, the the most important thing in a Gin and Tonic is the lime juice. I don't like to use organic limes because the quality is variable. My favorite type of lime is the plastic kind that you squeeze and the lime juice just squirts right out. I've had some very expensive Gin and Tonics in restaurants that were ruined by bad limes.

In my opinion, the quality of the gin in these is not critical. Just plain old Tanqueray makes a good G&T as long as you have decent lime juice to back it up. As for the rest, any old ice cubes or tonic water will do. I actually use the cheapest tonic water I can find in the supermarket.

Dinner: goldfish, apricots, and a trip to the airport

(Originally posted on Sunday, January 25, 2004 by Cathy)

Picking up my ticket for Jessica's wedding and getting a must-have postmark. Whee.

(edit: That's gold fish crackers. Ewww to those of you who thought we'd stooped that low in eating.)

Anal Retentive Pancakes

(Originally posted on Saturday, January 24, 2004 by Tim)

We've gone out for Mexican and for American food over the last few days so we haven't tried anything new at home. This recipe comes from a wonderful little hand printed book that Cathy's Mom made for her for Christmas a few years back. I suppose I should clarify that the basic recipe comes from Cat's Mom, all the anal retentive adaptations are a creation of my psyche. If you have stayed at our house, and we have made pancakes, this is it.

Pancakes
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbs canola oil
1/2 tsp salt
frozen fruit (we use wild blackberries that we pick here in the summer)

Turn on griddle or heat skillet over medium heat. I love our griddle. It takes up the space of two burners which we sorely need. Still, it's just trying to be the best griddle it can so I forgive it.

Mix dry ingredients. Beat the heck out of the egg in measuring cup you used for the flour. Add egg to dry ingredients. Measure out milk in same measuring cup (3 ingredients and only one dirty cup produced!). Add oil and milk and mix well with wisk or fork (you can use the same fork you used for the egg here for bonus points!).

Use a paper towel to wipe some oil over the griddle. Place 1/8 to 1/4 cup batter on griddle for each pancake. After you have a full griddle of pancakes, individually place 4 to 5 pieces of frozen fruit in each pancake. I'm sure you rolled your eyes there, but thats how I apply the fruit. Otherwise, I get half the pancakes with double fruit and half with no fruit. Plus, how can you get a perfectly even distribution of fruit on each pancake if you don't place each one? If you don't really care about fruit distribution, feel free to put the fruit in the batter. I won't care. Really, I won't!

Cook pancakes until tops look solid. Flip with spatula. Bottoms should be golden brown to brown depending on your taste. Cook a minute or so on other side until a golden brown color is achieved.

We serve these warm with pure, Vermont, maple syrup that my Grandmother sends us every year (thanks Grandma). The syrup is also very good in maple nut ice cream, but that's a different recipe.

Nothing to do with food - CBS censorship

(Originally posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 by Cathy)

CBS is refusing to play MoveOn.org's anti-Bush advertisement during the Super Bowl. Always nice to see the big networks playing fair and impartial, isn't it.

I think I'll retaliate by not watching the Super Bowl. Oh, wait...

Really fast pasta #1

(Originally posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 by Cathy)

Some days in the grocery store, I think we're freaks. The people in front of us have cases of soda and frozen dinners and chips. The people behind us have cases of beer, frozen dinners, and chips. We've got the cashier trying desperately to identify Swiss chard, which is accompanied on the conveyer belt by bag after bag of other produce, a gallon of organic milk, two packs of tofu, and a couple other things she thought no one actually bought.

On that note, here's tonight's (very easy) dinner:

8 oz pasta
1 bunch chard, sliced, with tough stems removed
1 T olive oil
1 can cannellini beans
3 gloves garlic, pressed
salt and pepper
lemon juice

Start cooking the noodles.

Saute the chard in the oil for 2-3 minutes, then cover and let steam a few more minutes.

Combine beans, garlic, salt and pepper (to taste) in a bowl. Stir in the cooked noodles and chard. Squeeze on lemon juice. Spend more time taking the photo of dinner than cooking dinner.