Enough to keep you – Warm

February has had some pockets of breaks. Time where I can actually cook and maybe rest a little. When I’m not reviewing dance for the Herald. Or getting push back from people for my review. Mostly from the company themselves.

I had my first dinner party! With people over who weren’t my parents. I had some ladies over for Valentine’s day and made Jamie’s Pasta Peperonata and it went very well. I don’t have photos, because it was all about just having people over and enjoying the time.

I did manage to make this dish from Smitten Kitchen that I’ve been meaning to make for a while. I love stroganoff and bourguignon , but I’m not into all the meat. My family cut beef out of our diets a while ago and even know I live on my own, I find it hard to eat it myself (unless someone else is cooking it for me). My buddy Kris makes Julia Child’s recipe and it’s quite good. So I saw this mushroom bourguignon on Smitten, and made it on a Wednesday night. My roommate told me this is weekend food because it takes so long. Yes, but since when do I have time on the weekends?

The recipe calls for two pounds of portobello mushrooms. I used three mushrooms, but I have no idea how many mushrooms is two pounds.

I didn’t really know if the wine I chose was really full bodied, but it’s a wine I really like. So that probably made the whole process of making the meal better, because there was drinking involved.

I used a vegetable broth instead of a beef, mostly because it was the one with far less sodium in it. And I’ve never ever bought pearl onions before. But I found them right next to regular onions. I certainly didn’t use a full cup (actually I really fudged a lot of quantities in this recipe, except for the wine part) I didn’t use a full cup of pearl onions because I like onions, but not that much and pearl onion are a real pain to peel. Apparently they come peeled and frozen, but I couldn’t find that anywhere. I also didn’t look very hard.
Also! Julie’s trick about a wooden spoon on a pot of boiling pasta never boils over is tested and true. Why? Why does that work? I don’t get it, but it’s an awesome little trick.

This was awesome. Totally worth the effort. Fit for dinner guests. Lots of work, but if you ever want someone to warm up during the winter, definitely try it.

Next on my list is Smitten’s Lentil Soup. And these portobello burgers. Here is the challenge, what is Farmer’s cheese? Where do I get it? Why is finding this stuff so hard for me? Seriously, it took me forever to find Pecorino Romano cheese at the grocery store.

After that though, March is looking like a bit of frenzy with theatre. So I probably won’t be cooking again until April.