Mushrooms again!

Chris walked into the kitchen, saw me slicing vegetables and immediately started giving me grief about cooking with mushrooms again. What can I say; I needed to use them before they went bad.

Menu
Center Cut Pork Chops in a White Wine and Mushroom Sauce served over egg noodles
Sauteed Zucchini

In a pan (I used Le Creuset French Oven) heat 1 tablespoon olive oil, add 3 large chopped garlic cloves and roughly 1/4 cup chopped sweet onion. Sauté  for approximately 1-2 minutes. Add center cut pork chops that have been seasoned with salt, fresh ground pepper and Olde Thompson Steak & Burger seasoning. (Any steak seasoning would work, Montreal Steak Seasoning is another great option.) Brown the chops on both sides. Add approximately 1/4 cup of dry white wine, I used Chardonnay.  Be careful not to let the wine drip over the side of the pan like I did;  it causes a large flame. Let the alcohol burn off and stir the brown bits off then bottom of the pan. Add 10 oz of sliced Cremini mushrooms, 3 chopped scallions (use green and white parts), 4 sage leaves chopped. Season mushrooms with a little fresh cracked pepper and a couple pinches of White Truffle Salt. Lower the temperature, place the lid on French oven and cook for approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Right before you are ready to serve remove the chops from pan and add 1 teaspoon of sour cream to the mushroom mixture. Make sure to stir well so that the sour cream is incorporated into the sauce.  Add approximately 1 tablespoon of chopped curly leaf parsley and  let cook for a few more minutes.  

Cook about 4.5 handfuls of egg noodles per instructions on the package. Drain noodles.  Add cooked egg noodles to mushroom mixture which should be on low heat, continue to stir to coat noodles. Once the noodles have been combined with the mushrooms you are ready to plate up the meal.

In a separate pan heat a little olive oil and add sliced zucchini, season with salt and pepper, sauté for approximately 10 minutes.

Note: I used pork chops that were bone-in, next time around I think I would use boneless chops.

This meal was rated 3.5 asparagus spears

Friday Night BBQ

Tonight's menu was certainly not fancy. We wanted to grill something and use up some of our fresh veggies so this was the best I could do.

Menu

Cheeseburger with Grilled Mushrooms
Coleslaw

Coleslaw

Slice very thinly one small head of green cabbage
Slice very thinly 3/4 of a green bell pepper
3 scallions, chopped
1/2 cup of grated carrot
Hendrickson's Original Sweet Vinegar & Olive Oil Dressing

I realized after I made my coleslaw that there was actually a recipe on the dressing bottle for coleslaw that was very similar to what I made.  You can find the Hendrickson's Coleslaw Recipe on their website.

Cheeseburger

Add 3 tablespoons of diced red onion and approximately one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce to 1.5 pounds of ground chuck.  Generously season the meat with a steak/burger seasoning. Tonight I used Olde Thompson Steak & Burger Seasoning.

We also grilled some sliced cremini mushrooms for a garnish.  I sliced 5 mushrooms, drizzled them with olive oil and seasoned them with the Olde Thompson Steak & Burger Seasoning.  To cook them I wrapped them in aluminum foil and put them on the grill while the burgers were cooking. The cheese we used was a 6 year aged cheddar.

I also garnished my burger with ketchup, spicy brown mustard, sliced red onion, tomato and red leaf lettuce.  Normally we would use Labriola Pretzel buns but the grocery store was sold out so we ended up with Z Best Hamburger buns.

Greek Chicken and Grilled Vegetables

The inspiration for last night’s meal was a Greek salad; however I knew my husband would want something more substantial for dinner, so the end result was the following menu.

Greek Chicken
Grilled Summer Vegetables
Near East Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil Couscous
Red Leaf Lettuce with a Red Wine Vinaigrette, Feta, Sliced Cucumbers and Kalamata Olives

Greek Chicken

In a shallow baking dish, salt and pepper two boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Drizzle the chicken with Grapeseed oil and the juice of one lemon. Season with ½ tablespoon of chopped fresh Greek oregano leaves and ¼ tablespoon fresh summer savory leaves. Top with slices of lemon.  Bake on 350 degrees. 

Grilled Vegetables

You can really use any vegetables you have on hand. I used 2 mini red, yellow and orange bell peppers, 2 baby eggplants, 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash, a couple of scallions, and several cherry tomatoes.  To prepare the vegetables:

·         Halve and seed the peppers

·         Cut the tops off the eggplant, zucchini and squash and then slice lengthwise

·         Keep scallions and tomatoes whole

·         Drizzle all of the vegetables lightly with olive oil. Salt and pepper.

I cooked my vegetables using a grill pan on the top of the stove.   It’s important to have the stove at a pretty high heat so that you can get the grill marks. Last night I decided to chop the vegetables into cubes however you can also nicely display the vegetables on a platter in the larger pieces that you grilled.

As far as the couscous goes I used the Near East Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil Couscous that cooks in 5 minutes. It’s quick and easy!

The salad is where I fit in the remaining ingredients from Greek Salad that I enjoy so much, Feta Cheese and Kalamata olives.  I made the vinaigrette by mixing 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard with 1-2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar.  As I was whisking together the vinegar and mustard, I added Grapeseed oil until I had the consistency I was looking for.  I seasoned it with a dash of salt, fresh cracked pepper and some thyme.  I don’t like an over abundance of dressing on my salad, unfortunately last night I added too much since I was in a hurry. If time would have allowed I would have preferred to grill the vegetables and the chicken on the charcoal grill to get the additional flavor.

This meal was rated 3 asparagus spears