Mushroom Cups (in Chicken Feet)

Tonight, Bean desired to make soup. And so I set about using up items in the fridge. These tiny cups had:

broccoli

mushroom

thai spice mix

salt & pepper

onion

scallion (redundant?)

and then some tiny, adorable cucumber slices thrown on top before they went into the oven. I'm sorry, people, but you must bake these until you deem them appropriate. There's simply no other way!

The finished cups did not accept as much filling as I desired; the filling makes as scrumptious a bite as the intended recipient...

Chicken Eggs

Some adorable baking cups given to me by Ma'am for my birthday. I also got two silicone egg-poachers, which will be interesting to try out.

Given my penchant for cup-like dinner treats, these shall probably get a lot of use, despite their utter ridiculousness!

:D

Dani's Birthday Cake

So much chocolate.

Needed after a morning of think-think-thinking with the Professor!

Must-Use-Up Wontons.

Steam up some:

chopped mushrooms

chopped cabbage

fresh coriander

thai spice mix

salt

and fill wonton wrappers with them. And then bake until crispy brown!

Strangely satisfying.

Fried Egg on Couscous

A fried egg, perfectly crafted by Bean, atop a bed of couscous and steamed cabbage, green beans, and spinach. Some Thai spice for a delicious flavor.

So quick!

(More) Mushroom Pizza

Mushroom Wonton Crisps (?)

What to do for dinner? In a tiny (tiny!) saucepan, I sauteed:

olive oil

mushrooms

thai curry spice mix

fresh cilantro

chopped onion

and then I added some water and a freakin' ton of chopped mushrooms. These simmered while I cleaned the entire kitchen and sang along to the radio to my heart's content. Bean, meanwhile, was simultaneously brewing up some arancini for the household.

And then I divvied them up between some giant wonton wrappers we had in the fridge. One of my troubles is that I have a strange desire to use up whatever happens to be in the refrigerator. A bowl of olives? gone! A string of slightly-gone asparagus? GONE!

And so it was with these wontons. I was really in the mood for tomatoes tonight, but my brain urged me to do otherwise.

Spoon mixture onto triangled wonton wrappers (large), and fold and fold; and bake at varying temperatures (sprayed with olive oil) until they appear delightfully crispy and brown. Then forget about them for eons while you socialize and blabber, and they will have crisped up on their own!

I was surprisingly pleased.

St. Patrick's Day

Bean brought home his leftover corned beef for meeeee!

St. Patty's Eve

I don't know why I love St. Patty's so; perhaps it's the idea of music and revelry enjoyed by even the stingiest of misers.....but -- it's nearly upon us!

I enjoyed a St. Patty's Eve cocktail of:

2 oz Irish cream

1 oz vanilla vodka

on ice. A wondrous companion for poking about the kitchen (if I do say).

Being in a festive mood, I made some Irish Cream cookies to bring into work.

Cream:

1/2 c. butter

3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 c. Irish cream liquor

1 egg

Add:

2 c. flour

sprinkle salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

And let this refrigerate for at least two hours, while you run to the store and dye your hair and whatnot.

To wile away the time while this chilled, and to satisfy my forever longing, I made up this recipe:

IRISH SODA BREAD:

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp powder

1 sprinkle salt

1 sprinkle baking powder

1/3 c. buttermilk (1/3 c. + dash lemon juice or vinegar)

Spoonful melted butter

1/4 c. raisins?

I know that I did not follow the recipe precisely; and so it is that I do not know if I will enjoy the concoction I conjured up for tomorrow's meal...will it be as I remembered? Will it give me a sense of good will and home?

Nevertheless, here is lunch for tomorrow:

The frosting for the cookies is as follows:

- mound confectioner's sugar

- dash Irish cream

- dash milk

and then add one or the other until it's a frosting consistency. I regret my lack of ability to be more specific, but you see.....you have to play baking by ear. It's the only way to do it!

Chocolate Toys

You see, when I was a small child, we rarely had anything particularly scrumptious for dessert. Occasionally, however, our German friend would bring us Kinder eggs, which were stuffed full of an assortment of parts that when assembled would produce a tiny mechanical toy.

Bean and I stopped by a local farmstand today, and I thought I found the equivalent -- but I got a one piece figurine that required no assemblage, and was therefore thoroughly unsatisfying. I think it's time to mail-order from Germany!

My dinner, in an attempt to use up old grocery items, was:

mushroom

white wine

coriandor

olive oil

thai curry spice

tomato slice

mozzarella cheese

Baked to beautiful in wonton.

Mushroooooooms

Tonight, after acquiring a snuffle-ridden and phlegm-bidden sickness and missing two days of work, I made an actual food dinner.

The cutest of button mushrooms, first sauteed in:

olive oil

onion

thai style curry blend

and then left to simmer in some cheap Pinot Grigio.

Afterward I baked these in wonton wrappers with spinach and lots of cheese, but that's not important: the star, here, is the mushrooms. Delicious alone. Why did I not think to offer any to Ma'am?!

Mushroom & Kale Wonton Cups

If there's been a repetition of ingredients over the past few days, it's because Ma'am is gone to Maine and I've been succumbing to my "use it up" tendencies.

So: shape some wonton wrappers in greased muffin cups, and bake them for 5 minutes.

Take 'em out, and add whatever filling you want, and bake for 10-15 more.

Mine was:

Mushroom

Kale

Red wine

Thai curry spice mix

Chopped onion

Feta cheese

A flavorful beast!

Sourdough & Asparagus

Simes got up when I left for work to prepare a batch of delectable sourdough. This he split into two parts; one for a loaf of bread, and one for a mound of pizza dough. Do you know what this means?

Dinner and lunch!

A (presumably) delicious sandwich for work tomorrow:

Spinach

Asparagus

Assorted mushrooms

Provolone cheese

And a pizza for dinner with the same ingredients; substitute Parmesan for the provolone. There's something inexplicably delectable about a hint of Parmesan cheese; so strong but often a bystander to the main event.

Both sound simple, but the bread is so sour they will undoubtedly be scrumptious.

Kale & Eggs

Kale was not the focus here; Bean had bought some to use in his soup and I threw in a leaf or two. But it was the only ingredient I haven't tasted before! I let stew some:

olive oil

basil

parsley

onion

garlic

lil' red wine

many chopped mushrooms

asparagus

(kale)

and then when it was a'simmering, I cracked an egg in it. Was yum. We also tried a new wine.

Drip, drip, drip.