Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Bruschetta

Oops...sort of missed "Meatless Monday" this week.  Sorry.  It has been a busy time around here.  I am in the middle of multiple house projects and on top of all of it--not sleeping well at all.  This morning I woke up at 3:55 am (after 6 hours of sleep) and literally laid in bed for 3 hours more with NO more sleep.  I am exhausted beyond description!  But the day goes on, and I'm off to the gym for what I'm sure will be a very sluggish workout...but, oh well.

I thought I would quickly post this little recipe.  It was quite yummy.

Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Bruschetta

3 heads garlic
2 T  (plus 1 tsp.) olive oil
2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 T parsley
12 mushrooms (it called for shiitake, but I used crimini)
4 slices rustic Italian bread

Break off two cloves of garlic from one of your garlic heads.  Chop finely and reserve for later.  Trim the tops off of each garlic head, exposing the tops of cloves.  Place heads on foil, drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil, and season with 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tsp. thyme.  Wrap tightly in foil and roast in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.  (Your house will smell AMAZING!!  I did this on fast sunday and it was KILLING me!)  Squeeze out garlic and discard heads.

Mix the unroasted garlic with the lemon zest, parsley, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Place mushrooms on a baking sheet and toss with 2 T. olive oil, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. thyme.  Roast at 400 for 12 minutes (when I make this again, I am just going to saute them in a skillet--my mushrooms got really dry in the oven).

Sprinkle with garlic/lemon/parsley mixture.
Spread roasted garlic on bread slices, top with mushrooms and broil for 3-5 minutes.

I sprinkled a little grated parmesan on top...I always love parmesan!

I think that mine were dry because I only had one garlic head for all of this bread.  The original recipe (as you can see above) calls for 3 whole heads of roasted garlic to just 4 slices of bread--so you really want to slather the garlic on there.  And I think next time I will cut my bread a little thinner and just barely broil them.

Herb and Butter Breadsticks

I originally got this recipe from my sister-in-law.  It was a favorite family recipe.  And I know why....because it used a cube of butter!!!!  I don't think I have ever made them with the full amount and now I've changed the recipe so that it only needs about 3 T of butter.

First of all, I need to introduce my apprentice bread maker.

On Sundays, I often just tell her which bread I want for the dinner, and she gets right on it.  It is often a joint effort, but there have been many times where she takes it from start to finish.  It is wonderful!!  Get training your daughters, ladies!!  And by the time they are 13 or 14, they can make homemade bread for you!  ; )  It reminds me of this book from my childhood...has anyone else read it??

She has 21 children that she trains to do all the housework and play music and paint pictures, etc.  Not that I want 21 children...but it is nice to have one that is trained in breadmaking!

Breadsticks

1 T yeast in 1 1/2 cup warm water
Add 2 T sugar.  Let sit for 10 minutes.
Until it looks like this:

In a different large bowl, combine

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Stir together, then add yeast mix. 
Stir together and add up to a 1/2 cup more flour to create a SOFT but not sticky dough.  You want to use as little flour as possible, but still be able to work with the dough.
I use 100% whole wheat flour that I grind myself and it makes very light and delicious breadsticks...but only if I am careful to not add too much flour.
Let sit 15 minutes.

When the 15 minutes is almost up:
Melt 3 T. butter on a cookie sheet in a warm oven.  DON'T BURN!!  It only takes a minute or two.  Remove from oven and sprinkle on about 1 tsp. of herb mix (recipe at bottom!) and 2-3 T. of parmesan cheese.

Roll out dough and cut strips...

Take each strip to cookie sheet and lightly coat each side in the melted butter/herbs.  If you want to you can twist them.  If the dough is really soft, sometimes the strips stretch out too long...no worries, just double it up and then twist.  You really can't go wrong with these!

Cover with a towel and let rise on top of oven for 15 minutes.  Bake at 350* for 12-15 minutes.  I love them JUST BARELY cooked through.  You don't want them to be doughy...but I think I used to overcook them and then they would be dry.


Here's the recipe for the Herb Mix.  We use this mix with our italian bread which you will find included with this post.

Italian Herb Mix
2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 T. dried oregano
1 T. dried rosemary
1 T. dried basil
1 T. dried parsley
1 T. garlic powder
1 T. minced garlic
1 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together with the back of a spoon. The minced garlic helps it clump together a little.   Store in ziploc bag in refrigerator.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

{Meatless Monday}

I don't actually have a recipe for this one, but I'll try to tell you what I did.

Boil one bag (12-16 ounces) of large elbow macaroni according to directions...drain.

While the noodles boil, make a basic white sauce...3-4 T of butter/shortening melted, then add 4-5 T of flour.  I make it with more flour so that I can add a little more milk at the end.  One trick I have learned to improve flavor is to REALLY BROWN this stuff.  Don't burn it, but keep stirring until it is all golden to medium brown.

Whisk in milk....I just add milk about 1 cup at a time until it is the consistency that I want.  Probably 

2 1/2 to 3 cups...not really sure!

I added about 2 cups of grated cheeses...I had cheddar, mozzarella, and pepper jack.  I really recommend the pepper jack...it just adds a little kick to the flavor.  I also added some garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper.

Stir sauce into noodles and pour into 9X13 pan.    Top with seasoned bread crumbs and grated cheese. 

Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes.

We had this with our breadsticks.  I am posting them separately.  They are DELICIOUS and so soft...they are always a huge hit.  We actually got on a little kick last week and made them 3 times!  ; 0

Enjoy!!

Cheese and Spinach Tart with Glazed Carrots

{Meatless Monday}

I got these recipes from Parents Magazine.  They were both a hit with my family!

I only got a before shot of the carrots.  They were simple but very tasty.  All my kids love them.  They like carrots in the first place...so who wouldn't love them with a little butter and brown sugar?

  

The recipe calls for frozen carrots, but I found these carrot "chips" in the fresh produce and thought they would be perfect.

Glazed Carrots:

1 12 oz. bag frozen carrots

1 T. butter

3 T. brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Place all ingredients into skillet or small pot and bring to a boil.  Cover.  Reduce heat to medium for 7 minutes.  Uncover and cook another 10-12 minutes until liquid evaporates and carrots are tender.

Cheese and Spinach Tart

1 tsp. olive oil

2 cups diced onion (I used just over 1 cup)

1 9 inch pie shell

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out

Preheat oven to 350.  Heat oil and onions in skillet on medium for 10 minutes to carmelize the onions.  Set aside.  Whisk together milk, eggs, cheese, garlic,  Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  Add onions and spinach.  Pour into pie shell and bake 45-50 minutes or until knife comes out clean.  I recommend putting strips of foil on your pie crust for at least 15 minutes of the baking time, so they don't get too dark.  

Here's how mine looked when it came out of the oven:

I've been using my whole wheat flour for pie crusts and they are so flavorful!  Just use a little less flour so that they don't get too tough.  I've been really pleased with how flaky and tender they still are!  Of course, I still do the cold butter trick, so that probably helps a lot. (Reduce shortening by 2-4 T and add 2-4 T. of sliced cold butter).

**I actually made more filling by using 5 eggs and 1 1/2 cups milk and just adding a little bit more of the seasonings.  I wanted my "tart" to be a little bit thicker.  Depending on the size of your family, you can easily increase the amounts.  Don't worry too much about it, as long as the egg to milk ratio is roughly the same...it will cook up fine!

I've made a lot of quiche in the last few years.  This was REALLY good.  My whole family liked the entire meal.  No complaints, no whines, no exclamations of "Gross!"  It was a beautiful evening!

We were given a bag of GIGANTIC potatoes from our neighbor, so I microwaved one really quick and made hashbrowns to go with our meal.

Wow...I'm hungry right now and that looks really good!  I think I'll go have the last leftover calzone in the fridge.  I love leftovers!

Have a great week!

Valentines Day Cookies

Just wanted to show you why I need to STOP BAKING!

This is what I always make for Valentines Day.  A whole batch only makes 16.  And they take a lot of time, but I LOVE THEM.  And have NEVER tasted a cookie as delicious as these!

 

They are layered sugar cookies with raspberry jam in the middle, frosting on the top, and drizzled chocolate all over!  Oh...so very good.  You have to make them and then let them sit in an airtight container for at least 4 hours.  They become so soft and yummy!

The top cookies have a small heart cut out of the middle so you can see the jam.

These are the softest, yummiest sugar cookie I have ever tasted.  The recipe is just out of my Betty Crocker cookbook.  The dough is the smoothest dough ever because it only has powdered sugar...not granulated.

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 egg

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

Mix powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and egg. Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate at least 2-3 hours.  

Roll out and cut.  Use a small heart cookie cutter on half of your cookies to make the "tops".  Bake for 7-8 minutes at 375*.  Let cool.  Frost the "cut-out" hearts with pink frosting, spread raspberry jam on the whole hearts.  Then layer, drizzle with melted chocolate, and store in an AIRTIGHT container overnight.  These are AMAZING.  The flavors just melt together!

I'm linking this to the CSI Project:

Stir Fry--Super Easy!

{Meatless Monday}

Just a real quick idea today!

I bought this stir fry packet at the store and also some veggies I don't normally buy: snow peas, fresh green beans, zucchini.  I threw them in with onions, mushrooms, carrots, peas, and some broccoli.  You could also use bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

We ate this over rice and it was delicious and most important:  easy and quick!

I am currently trying to switch my family over to brown rice...kids love it, hubby is not so sure!  ; )
But I do a mix of 2/3 brown and 1/3 rice.  (Yes, I cook them separately, then mix!) I really want to go to 100% brown rice, but then my dilemma is this:  what do I do with all the rice I have in food storage???  Isn't it ironic that we can't store the stuff that is actually good for us??

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!  My goal this week is to STOP BAKING!! Valentine's weekend was not good for my eating habits!  Too many delicious sugar cookies and beautiful chocolate-cream cheese and raspberry cupcakes....mmmmm....those were good!  Now back to my new year's resolutions! ; )

Creamy Rice with Peas and Mushrooms

{Meatless Monday}

I got this recipe out of Kraft Food and Family magazine that (sadly) used to be free but now is not!  I am just glad that I have at least a dozen old issues in my possession.  They are great for quick and easy ideas.
This recipe is a wonderful one to use up leftover rice.  The recipe actually calls for Minute Rice, but I have always just used leftover rice.

I was in a great hurry the night I cooked this for my family, so I didn't even pause to take a "before" picture of any ingredients! ; )

This is the recipe out of the magazine.  I will explain how I did it a little differently as I go through it.

Creamy Rice with Peas and Mushrooms:
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 cup Italian dressing (I used sun-dried tomato vinaigrette)
1 pkg (8 oz) mushrooms, sliced
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth  (I really need to find a good vegetable broth!)
1 cup peas (I used almost 2 cups)
2 c. Minute Rice, uncooked (I use leftover rice and use about one cup less broth)
4 oz cream cheese (I use nufchatel--less calories and fat!)
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Cook onion in dressing 4-5 minutes. (I extend the cooking time a little so that the onions are softer.  Nothing incites riot at the dinner table like crunchy onions!)

Add mushrooms.  Cook 3-4 minutes until tender.  Add broth (use only 1/2 cup if rice is already cooked) and peas.  Bring to boil.  Add rice and cream cheese.  Cover.  Remove from heat.  Let stand 8 minutes.  Stir in lemon peel and parmesan before serving.

 

I happen to have peppers coming out my ears, so I sauteed some up and put them over the top.  They were delicious!!  ...at least to me and my hubby!

***I add my rice at the same time as the cream cheese, but I just stir and heat until it is warmed through.  If your rice is already cooked, then you don't have to let it stand so it can absorb all the liquid.  If you happened to use a little too much broth, just keep it on the stove and let it boil off a bit.  This is a really easy recipe that turns out great every time.
Go easy on the lemon peel if you don't love that flavor.  And be warned:  your leftovers will taste more like lemon as time goes by.