Shroom Stroganoff

and .....we're BACK!

Lauren wants breakfast for dinner.  Scrambled eggs. Great food starts with quality ingredients, so off to the store to learn about buying good eggs!

Let's head home, wash up and get ready to cook mama some eggs!

After a few practice rounds, Lauren masters cracking the egg!

...and no matter how careful you are, there is always a shell. After much effort, it was time for Lauren to get some help from her big sis Megan. Meg showed Lauren how to use the side of the egg shell as a magnet to capture the bit o'shell.

Off we go. Scramble scramble. Heat the pan over low-medium to avoid rubber dubber eggs. Drop the butter. Pour the eggs. Fold them softly. Low and slow is my 2-cents for delicious melt in your mouth scrambled eggs!

Tick tock. I am hungry! I feel so spoiled being served up some buttery soft eggs by my beautiful daughter.

She offers up a sliced apple to accompany my dinner.  And sissy swoops in to give Lauren a lesson in knife skills ...or something like that?!

Eggs. Apples. No fires. No burns. Full bellies.
....oh, Lauren, you have to clean up your mess :)

What about ME Mama?

Going through ol'pictures on the computer a few nights ago with Lauren, we came across the pictures from years ago when Megan & I started this cooking blog adventure.  Lauren loved the pictures, especially when she made her debut in some of the later cooking classes.

A few days later I was hit with the question "Mama, when are you going to teach ME how to cook like sissy did in the pictures?" Well, if you know me, I am always up for a challenge & ready to take on more!
Off we go . . ..
My recipe is nothing special, but it's a comforting warm bowl of meatless yummy.  It's a combo of ideas from a few recipes that are inexpensive & pairs perfectly with a drizzle of a good olive oil and a chunk of warm sourdough.
Ingredients:
Bag of green split peas
1 white onion
4 carrots
6 celery stalks
2 tablespoons olive oil
7 cloves of garlic
2 packs of Knorr homestyle chicken stock  - no better!
http://www.knorr.com/product/category/245804/homestyle-stock-?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=knorr_homestyle_stock&utm_campaign=always_on-_branded_product
10 cups of water
1 cup of quick cook barley ( I love the Trader Joes brand - $1.79 a bag)
2 sprigs of thyme
3 sage leaves - I only added the thyme & sage becuz' I had them in the fridge for my herb omelets.  I normally just add poultry seasoning so I can use up the leftover from Thanksgiving.

 Sautee the onion, celery & carrots in the olive oil.  When they are soft add garlic for a minute.  Lauren smelled the garlic & gagged.  Is she really my daughter? 




Rinsed the peas and add to the veggies along with the chicken stock packets, herbs and water.
Bring to a boil and let it simmer with the lid on for 45 minutes on low. 
Pick out the thyme stems & sage leaves.  Puree the soup down to your desired consistency. I use a hand blender so I can puree right in the pot. Mine is similar this this one: http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CSB-75BC-2-Speed-Immersion-Blender/dp/B00ARQVM5O/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1375938963&sr=8-9&keywords=braun+hand+blender
Jim hates cooked carrots, so I puree it thoroughly to hide the evidence.

Then, bring soup back to a boil, add the barley, turn down to medium and let slowly boil for 10-15 minutes with the lid off so the soup thickens. Let it cool & yell DINNER! 
I usually do this in the morning or afternoon then leave covered until it's time to eat.  I feel like it gives time for all the flavors to get yummier ;)
Ate some for dinner and bottled the rest for the week.

Though most of the classes with Megan never made it to the blog, teaching Meg to cook was such an empowering experience for her.  Meg has become pretty much self sufficient in the kitchen.
My goal is to give Lauren that same confidence and encourage her to expand her culinary palette.
Until next time . . . 
BON APPETIT!

Because I have SO much spare time!

We didn't get very far with our Mama & Megan cooking blog...so I have decided to take the blog in another direction.  My dream of attending cooking school has yet to become a reality, so I figure why not bring the cooking school to me?!

On my bachlorette party back in 2006, a group of my bff's all got together and participated in a Cooking Class at Tante Marie's cooking school in San Francisco.  It was the GREATEST night of my life.  Cooking with my friends, sipping wine and wrapping it up with a delicious dinner!  From that moment forward, graduating from Tante Marie's Cooking school was added to my bucket list.  I have been scheming & plotting HOW could I possibly round up $20k and take 8 months off to attend school full-time.  The lotto has yet to pay off. :)  So as those of you who know me would understand, I am not a person who takes kindly to being restricted by time or money....so I will create my own Tante Marie's Cooking School right here in my home!

Inspired by the movie Julie & Julia, I will be cooking my way through the "Tante Marie's Cooking School Cookbook" right here in my kitchen.  This book was a gift to me from my friends on the night of my bachlorette party and autographed by the founder of the school, Mary Risley.  We were so fortunate to have Mary leading us that night.  She made us feel welcome in her kitchen and we were truly blessed with her presence and passion.

Mary has received the Cooking Teacher of the Year award from Bon Appetit magazine as well as "Humanitarian of the Year" award from the James Beard foundation for her work in helping to alleviate hunger.  You can find more info on their website www.tantemarie.com.

And so it begins, with no time limit, I will begin the journey (hoping Megan & Lauren join me along the way) of cooking my way through cooking school at home.  I know Jim will enjoy this journey!

Starting this week with the Introduction: List of Equipment (woo hoo-shopping for cooking supplies!), the history of sauces and studying methods of cooking (including the correction of sauces, textures & taste).

Off I go . . .

Memories of the wonderful night :)

Carbs Schmarbs! ....let's make PASTA!

Mama: Hey Meg, You wanna learn how to make Parpadelle Pasta?

Megan: Parpa-what? What the heck is that?

Mama: Wide Noodles

Megan: No, I want to make American Girl Cupcakes

Mama: No, we are are going to make homemade pasta after school, so hurry home

Megan: : (Big Sigh)...Ok mom

Off we go . . .

Have you ever seen that recipe that throws you into an absolute craving for THAT specific food & you have to have it NOW? Well, looking through Vegetarian Times this month I crossed a Parpadelle Soup recipe. The soup looked ok, but that pasta caught my eye and I had to have that pasta NOW (well, okay...my next day off now!).

I found a recipe from Jamie Oliver for tagliatelle pasta with spinach, mascarpone and Parmesan, (link below)...the sauce looked amazing....but as you know...I was having mine with Parpadelle Pasta! So this is the sauce we used with our pasta....it was DELICIOUS! (http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetarian-recipes/tagliatelle-with-spinach-mascarpone-and)

As far as pasta making ...this how it rolled for us~

I found an awesome new YouTube "dude" that I subscribe too - he does cooking video's and I like his style. He has 3 great video's in his 257 video library on how to make pasta, roll out pasta and how to cut parpadelle pasta. After we gathered our ingredients & suited up...Megan, Lauren & I all watched each video before we started. http://www.youtube.com/user/dannynewnun?feature=watch

We decided to follow Danny's simple recipe:

About 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 3 egg yolks, pinch of salt & a drizzle of olive oil.

Easy Cheesey.

Side note: I had bought Semolina flour & we started by trying that, because I figured buy the most expensive flour & get the best results right? WRONG ...uh...I need more time with that stuff to figure it out. I would love suggestions from you home made pasta maker pros! ....Meg said it felt like sand & the dough got tough very fast. We tried mixing half all-purpose flour with half semolina...still tough. Then...we used the good ol' tried & true all purpose white flour, like the recipe said!!...ahhhh.....now that's pasta dough! Soft, gooey & stretchy :) Got a thumbs up from Megan.

Using the method from the video, we plopped our eggs in the middle of our flour "well" (we used 2 whole eggs in stead of just the 3 yolks as he recommends...cuz I didn't wanna waste those expensive Barnstar eggs!) and drizzled in about a tblspn. of olive oil along with a pinch of sea salt. Used a fork, whipped it up, gradually incorporated the eggs into flour until it was firm and then kneaded it as in came together.

Danny's video was truly a perfect tutorial for the first time pasta maker. ....after kneading for 5 minutes, drizzled a lil' oil on the dough, slipped it into a piece of a plastic & put into the fridge for 30 minutes. Just enough time to clean up Laurens dough mess!

Now...rolling out the pasta was a whole 'nother experience. Maybe it was my home hand cranking pasta machine...but there were definitely some tricks to this process.

Here is what we learned:

1. For the recipe this size - cut the dough ball in half before attempting to roll out in a manual roller! When we tried to roll out the entire ball - Megan had to turn the crank while I held down the machine...haha! The dough was a MESS ...At this point 99 cent pasta at Trader Joe's seemed like a better choice :)

2. Bringing the dough all the way down to the 1 setting makes the BEST parpadelle!! It was thin & silky.

3. Buy or borrow an electric pasta machine :)

After rolled out the sheets to a super soft & thin sheet...we used a pizza cutter to cut long strip of pasta & laid across a wood cutting board to dry while we rolled more.

I know the recipes say to fold the dough over & then trim into thick strips to make parpadelle...but that all seemed weird. I just just figured run over the dough with a pizza cutter & call it a day~

Into a pot of boiling salted water for a few minutes, then into the silky creamy cheese spinach sauce and finally into our bellies! Full, bloated & happy.

There is something so satisfying and yummy about a bowl of good ol' pasta :)

It's Tomato Time . . .Brew-sketta! :)

Thanks to Darcy's Garden...we had an abundance of tomatoes to create a yummy light dinner! When this late summer heat rolls in, a big dinner is not happening at the Carlson Casa~so hence, Bruschetta!! (pronounced brew-skeeta)

No one was quite sure what I had in mind except Megan, who asked "Is that the tomato stuff we buy from Trader Joe's in the green tub?" ....darn it that kid is smart! We added a special addition of roasted garlic spread because I have a garlic addiction that needed to be fed!!

So off we go . . .with no recipe in hand.

Darcy's Garden Fresh Tomatoes ~about 4 lbs
Fresh Baked Ciabatta Loaf
4 heads of Garlic

Bunch of Organic Basil
Italian Extra-Virgin Olive Oil - about a 1/2 cup

Fresh picked Oregano from the backyard.
Fresh ground Sea Salt & Pepper

We sliced the tops off the 3 of the heads of garlic & threw some fresh picked Oregano and olive oil in an oven proof 8 inch skillet & threw it in the oven at 475 for about an hour until nice and soft.

Meanwhile, Lauren picked the basil leafs off the stems.

Then Meg seeded the tomatoes while Lauren took an ice cream break. Meg was too tired to chop the tomatoes TOO ...ya' know she is in fifth grade now & in Student Counsel AND running for President :) So...she is a too busy making posters for her campaign tonight! ...Mama diced the seeded tomatoes.

I snipped up about half of the bunch of basil with my kitchen shears and added to the bowl of minced tomatoes along with about a 1/4 cup of olive oil, a good pinch of Sea Salt (sssh...don't tell Jim! he thinks it tastes like the Ocean) and about 7 grinds of black pepper & 3 cloves of VERY mined raw garlic.

On my Soap Box: This recipe is cheap...don't pinch pennies on the olive oil - you will be sorry in my opinion. Trader Joes carries an amazing selection of Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oils for around 6-10$. K, done with my rant.

The roasted garlic is finally ready to mash ! Into my mini chopper for a quick blend with the Oregano & then into a mini bowl to serve as our Roasted Garlic Spread. Some recipes call for rubbing raw garlic onto your bread ...but I am a huge fan of the healing capabilities of Garlic. So in my opinion...we can never eat enough garlic! Yep, we are the stinkin' family over on Plymouth Court!

Lauren & Megan "painted" the sliced fresh Ciabatta bread wit a bit of Olive Oil & we popped it into a 400 degree oven for about 5-6 minutes. We like it still a bit soft in the middle.

And then it was ...DINNER! A slice of warm toasted bread, a smear of garlic spread & a heaping spoonful of Brushetta. YUM-O! Nothing like home grown tomatoes & warm bread. Carbs-smarbs...you protein only people don't know what you are missing! Megan added a few slices of fresh Mozzarella to her bread.

Turned out to be a small portion of yummy & fresh dinner that everyone enjoyed. Megan packed up some left over Brushetta for her lunch box :) ...that's how I know it was good!

It's Official!

Mama & Megan Eat from the Farm cookbook is underway!

Mama & Megan are writing a cookbook this year while we shop, savour AND EAT fresh each season from the local farms!

Of course...Meg will illustrate & cook the entire book :) Mama will be the best bossy-butt, over-advice giving author she knows how to be!!

We will keep you posted as we continue to blog this year!