Mushroom Rice

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     Rice is such a versatile ingredient because it tastes great with just some butter or it can be flavored with whatever you are cooking it with. Mushrooms are another one of my favorite ingredients to use because there a so many kinds of them which allows them to be used in a variety of different dishes. So naturally the two of them work well together. This recipe would be a great side dish but I decided to make this a one pan meal and added some beef strips that had been seasoned with salt and pepper.

     Instead of using butter I used olive oil to saute the green onion, garlic and mushrooms. I took some of the other user suggestions and added more mushrooms. Wegmans has 8oz packages of pre-sliced mushrooms so I just used the whole package. I sauteed these until they were soft and added the beef strips until they were browned on the outside. Next I added the broth and a cup of uncooked rice. Instead of chicken broth I used beef broth because it compliments the meaty flavor of the mushrooms. As for the rice, I have stopped using regular white rice because it isn't as flavorful as some of the specialty rices out there. I have been using jasmine rice as of late and we really enjoy it. I let this simmer for about 20 minutes and garnished with parsley and parmesan cheese.

     Christine thought that the mushroom flavor was too overpowering and I could see where she was coming from but I thought the rice didn't have enough flavor overall. The rice even though it was cooked in beef broth with the mushrooms and other ingredients was kind of bland in my opinion.

Rating: Fair - I'd like to make this again but it will need some improvements

Baked Potato Soup

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     Let me begin by saying, this recipe is a true brothy soup and not the thick verison like you would get in a restaurant. I made this recipe this past Sunday night when I was having my brother and father over for dinner. Because the recipe only makes 4 servings and a serving isn't filling enough to be a meal, I doubled the recipe and made cheddar garlic biscuits to go with it.

     In a pan I cooked a half of a pound of diced bacon until it became crispy. I reserved the bacon drippings and put the cooked bacon in a bowl and set that aside. Now because I double the recipe, I needed to use a pot instead of just making it in the pan that the bacon cooked in like the instructions call for. I pretty much followed the recipe as stated but made one change in an effort to thicken the soup since it seemed to liquidy to me. I stirred in just under two cups of shredded cheddar cheese right before I served it. This thickened the soup up just enough so it wasn't too watery. I let everyone garnish their soup with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and bacon to their liking.

Rating: Yummy -  Even though this soup was a little on the watery side, everyone really enjoyed it.

Fluffy French Toast

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     I have made this recipe quite a few times but I keep finding ways to make it better so I have decided to share. First off, the most important ingredient in this recipe is the bread. You can use sandwich bread but it will not be as good as it can be. I have found that using a soft Italian bread with a golden crust has turned out the best results. Do not use a bread with a floury crust because it will absorb too much of the liquid you dip it in. I suggest buying a loaf that is not pre-sliced and cutting it yourself at home so you can cut the slices thick.

     When preparing the mixture follow the recipe exactly as stated. The first step is very important. You must whisk the flour and milk first until well mixed. If you just put all the ingredients in the bowl, the flour will not mix in correctly. The only changes I made to the recipe are for personal preference. I add one additional egg yolk because I like the toast to look a bit more yellow. Also, I add about a quarter to a half a teaspoon more cinnamon for taste.

     I use a large 13" skillet so I can make four slices at a time. That way you aren't waiting for the other slices to cook while the ones you have already made get cold.

Rating: Delectable - This is the only french toast recipe I will use.

Spaghetti Pie

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     When a recipe gets over 253 reviews equating to a 4 and 1/2 star rating on Allrecipes.com it is usually a pretty safe bet that it is going to come out well. I've had some recipes in the past with even more reviews and a higher rating come out poorly though. This recipe however fell in between the two. Christine and Matt thought it was good and that is as high as I would consider rating this recipe. After reading a good amount of the reviews, I made a few changes to tryand make this dish better.

     I only used 3/4 of a pound of spaghetti since there were only three of us eating and I thought a pound would be too much. While the pasta cooked I sauted a chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic in a tablespoon of butter. Once the onions cooked to a nice golden brown I added the ground beef, added the salt and pepper but omitted the garlic powder since I used fresh garlic. We don't really care for green pepper so we decided to skip that as well. Once the beef was cooked through I added a 24oz jar of Wegmans Select sundried tomato pasta sauce and let that simmer for about 20 minutes. While that simmered and the pasta was near completion I started on the most intriguing part of the dish. A white creamy sauce made up of sour cream, cream cheese, and green onions was to be spread over the pasta and underneath the meat and sauce. I had a taste of the white creamy mixture and thought it would be a great base for a dip. I tossed the pasta with some butter and parmesan cheese to keep it from drying out in the oven. The pasta then went in a pan that had been sprayed with olive oil non-stick spray. The white creamy mix was spread over the pasta and the meat sauce was poured on top of that. Finally, I sprinkled a good amount of mozzarella instead of the cheedar cheese that the recipe called for only because of personal preference. Baked the whole thing in an oven at 350 uncovered until the cheese had melted.

     When I pulled this out and started portioning it onto our plates I was really looking forward to eating it. As a finishing touch I sprinkled some parsley on for presentation. I'm not going to say this was a bad recipe because I had seconds but it tasted like spaghetti with sour cream on it. It wasn't a bad taste but it wasn't anything special either. When I got a second helping I decided to mix the layers all together and that for some reason gave it a better taste. I think this was because I wasn't able to get a taste of just the sour cream, cream cheese, and green onion mixture. Even though Christine and Matt liked it, I may or may not make this again.

Rating: Fair - This recipe needed some help to be good and it'll need more help to be great

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

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     A co-worker brought in this soup from Steak & Sundae in Syracuse for me to try and I really enjoyed it. So I decided to see if I could find a recipe for it so I could try it at home. Avegolemono is the greek name for this soup. If you type that into any search engine you'll find a slew of recipes to try. Allrecipes had a few and this one had a favorable amount of reviews.

     I started out by sauteing the onion with two cloves of garlic on a low heat until the onions were soft. Next I added the lemon juice, celery, white pepper, and 48oz of broth, which is only 6 cups of broth opposed to the 8 cups the recipe called for. This made for a thicker consistency almost like a chowder. If you like your soup to have more of a liquid broth just add the extra two cups. I ommited the carrots and used two chicken boullion cubes instead of the soup base because that's what I had on hand. Instead of using precooked chicken, I cut up two chicken breasts into thin slices and added them to the pot so the juices from the chicken would blend into the soup. I brought this all to a boil all while stirring occasionally. Once it began to boil I decided to add 1 cup of uncooked jasmine rice per other users suggestions. I allowed this to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes before adding the roux(butter and flour). Once I added the roux the soup really started to thicken up, so this is another time where you could make the soup thinner by using less. Again I let it simmer but only for about 10 minutes this time. While the soup simmered and its aroma began to fill the kitchen, I started on the egg yolks. Once I whisked the yolks, I slowly stirred them into the pot a little at a time. I gave them time to cook through and spooned a quick taste or two just to make sure the rice had cooked. I was impressed but what would Christine's reaction be? This is how the conversation went:

Christine: "Is this the lemon soup you were going to make?"

Me: "Yeah, why?"

Christine: "Oh because it looked like it was going to be bland since there isn't much color to it but the lemon gives it that zing and it goes well with the celery. Is it my favorite soup in the world? No, but..."

Me: "You'd eat it if I made it again."

Christine: "Right."

Rating: Yummy - I'll definately be making this again.

Chicken Enchiladas

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     On the weekend I like to make dishes that require a lot of time for preperation. I don't want to come home during the week after working all day and spend 30 minutes to an hour cutting vegetables or making three different sauces and then wait another 30 minutes to an hour until it's done cooking. 

     This recipe for enchiladas calls for cooked chicken but the time it takes to cook the chicken isn't included in the overall time. You could use a precooked chicken whether it be canned or a store bought rotisserie chicken. I decided to cut up a few chicken breast and season them with taco seasoning. I sauteed the chicken in some olive oil until cooked through and turned off the heat. While making the sauce I omitted the green chiles for the sake of our stomachs. We like our food spicy but our stomachs don't unfortunately. When it came time to add the cheese I decided to use mexican cheese blend instead of the cheddar called for in the recipe. Since I had the chicken in a pan already, I just poured 1/4 of the sauce into the pan with the chicken in it and mixed that together. Before putting the chicken and sauce mixture on the tortillas I decided to spread some refried bean on the torilla to make them hold together easier. I found this will be a step I will continue to use from now on, both because of the taste and the helpfulness. I spooned in the chicken mixture and rolled them up. I was generous with the amount of chicken I used in each enchilada so we ended up with five full ones instead of six. Christine poured the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and topped it with mexican cheese. As one last step I had bought some enchilada sauce so I poured about a half a can over the layer of cheese and sprinkled some cheese on top of the sauce before putting it in the oven.

     As you can see from the picture, they certainly looked great. But how did they taste? In one word: great. With some chopped tomato and a dollop of sour cream these were very tasty. We appreciated that they weren't spicy and they filled us up. I even had leftovers for lunch the next day.

Rating: Yummy - These are a nice change from having tacos.

White Cheese Chicken Lasagna with Spinach

     ***My first recipe review is from All Recipes as will most of the recipes that I will review. Some will come from cookbooks but for the most part I stick to that website since there are so many to pick from and the layout is great. You can create a profile for free and have a recipe box to save the recipes that you like.***

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     I was having my brother over for dinner a few Sundays ago and when I have guests over I like to make a casserole or a baked pasta so I'm not huddled over the stove making a mess everywhere instead of talking with my guests. I've never made lasagna before but I know from others that it's a pain in the butt because of both the layering and sauce making process. Since I wasn't making a big vat of red sauce it made this recipe a bit easier to make. The white sauce was easy to make in a large skillet but it must be atleast 13 inches in diameter otherwise I would suggest using a medium size pot. I followed the recipe for the sauce exactly as printed but when it came to the layering process I ran into a problem. I had forgotten to buy ricotta cheese and it is a staple in most lasagna recipes. I'm not a huge ricotta fan and was certainly not going to go back out to buy it. I needed something to keep the noodles moist so I remembered from a previous recipe that sour cream will work just as well. I followed the directions and began to layer the noodles and sauce while substituting sour cream where the ricotta would normally go. With fingers crossed, I put the lasagna into the oven hoping that all would turn out well. The result couldn't have been better, the noodles were nice and moist and it turned out so creamy. A side salad would have been a nice start to the meal but we decided to forgo that and just had the lasagna which was very filling. One thing I forgot to mention was that I used no boil lasagna noodles which probably made the layering process easier because they are rigid unlike regular noodles which are "floppy" once boiled.
Rating: Yummy - I almost prefered this to a traditional lasagna with red sauce.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! This is where you will find different recipes that I try whether it be dinner, breakfast, dessert, or even the occasional drink. I'll post pictures of the completed dish and rate it depending on if I'll make it again or not. If I alter a recipe or make a mistake along the way I'll make sure to include that in my critique. I hope you enjoy what is to come and encourage you to try some of the recipes in your kitchen. Happy eating!