Tag Archives: easy

Oregano Mushrooms in Melted Fontina

Let it be known: for the first time since this blog’s inception, I have posted a recipe every single day of this week. Normally I like to talk at least somewhat about my life, my feelings, the book that’s sitting on my bedside table, or the quality of the Baileys in my coffee. But this week, it’s been all about cookies, chickens, and olives so far.

So in order not to totally confuse you and make you think that “Jenna’s Everything Blog” is becoming “Jenna’s Cooking Blog,” let me provide a summary of the above themes as they are playing out these days.

1) My life.

a) My man turned 28 last weekend and I managed to avoid baking a cake for the 2nd year in a row. His Mom came through this year with his favorite–lemon cake with chocolate icing. Phew! I need to overcome my cake lethargy at some point . . . maybe next year?

b) I’m gigging with my friend Carrie tomorrow at CityGrounds in Lincoln Park starting at 7pm–details are here. I’ve told Mr. Stage Fright he has no business showing his face at all over the weekend or I’ll fling a pie in it, so it should be a fabulous gig. P.S. If you come, please bring a pie since I forgot to bake one. These days Mr. Stage Fright really enjoys a tart lemon meringue with a nice flaky crust.

c) It is my personal job during the aforesaid gig to make sure Carrie does not under any circumstances whatsoever drink a latte. It’s a killer for the vocal chords, and she is very susceptible to temptation. Please come to assist in this effort.

d) To wrap things up on the “life” front, Erica is making beautiful progress with my Regency Gown for the ball in South Bend that’s going down in a couple weeks. Alex, you can stop laughing now, because dorks have real fun. Cool people are just good at pretending to have fun.

Or at least please let me think that’s how it works–it’s my only solace.

2) My feelings. I love olives. Babies sometimes have the most munchable cheeks; others have grabbable little dimply bottoms. I really love fontina cheese. Babies are interesting. I love mushrooms and I want to eat a cauldron full of them. Pregnancy scares me; not-pregnancy also scares me. Strawberry shortcake is like crack, but less expensive. Oh, and babies are frighteningly needy. What the heck is up with babies.

3) The book that’s sitting on my bedside table. To Kill a Mockingbird. All is Vanity. The next installment in the Hannah Swensen mysteries.

4) The quality of the Baileys in my coffee. Alas, I’m out of Baileys. In fact, I’ve been out for nearly a month. I’ve been supplementing with Amarula, but this farce can’t go on forever. Can anyone spot me a 20? Anyone? For some of the creamy Irish stuff?

Alright! Now that I’ve put the ‘everything’ back in ‘Jenna’s Everything Blog’ I feel that I can rightfully proceed with more cookitty-cookery. It’s high time for that cauldron full of mushrooms.

I’m usually a sucker for 1-pot meals, but every now and then I get the itch to bring a kaleidoscope of side dishes into my life. Especially when they’re as easy as this one! This recipe shouted my name from the pages of Martha Stewart Living magazine (Feb. 2011 issue). I switched up the herb from thyme to oregano, but besides that, I remained pretty faithful to it. And it’s a winner. Rich, gooey, and so quick to toss together. Less doo it (slang for ‘let’s do it’ for any confused people).

Ingredients

(Serves 3)

8 oz mushrooms (baby bella and shiitake)

3 TBS olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper, freshly ground

3/4 c grated fontina cheese

1 TBS finely minced fresh oregano

Look at this simple little assembly of ingredients.

Let’s start by grating the cheese. I kinda feel like it.

Fontina is a very soft cheese, and if you want to avoid a very sticky grater you can spray some oil on it before grating the cheese. That’s what I usually do when grating mozzarella, so it would probably work with fontina, too.

Being a woman of occasional excess, the 3/4 cup of grated cheese somehow morphed into 1 full cup. And I have to say, I wish I had stuck to 3/4 cup. Fontina is very rich, and it was borderline a little too cheesy in the end, believe it or not. So stick to 3/4 cup.

Now let’s grab that fresh oregano and give it the ole mince.

Clean those mushrooms (I just brush them off with a paper towel) and slice them finely. I used equal parts of baby bella:

and shiitake:

But the sky’s the limit. There are so many delicious varities of mushrooms out there.

Put the mushrooms in a pie plate, and add the olive oil:

and salt:

and freshly ground black pepper.

Freshly ground really does make a difference. Just believe.

Toss them about with your hands so that the seasoning and oil is evenly distributed.

Then move them around in the pie plate so that they are as close to being in a single layer as possible. Broil them for 2 minutes. Remove the pie plate and sprinkle the cheese and oregano on top.

Broil for another 1-2 minutes, and serve!

Delicious–I don’t mind if I say so myself.

What a great find. Thanks, team Martha Stewart.

In order to stay true to my nature, I fried up some eggs . . .

. . . and served the eggs and mushrooms over a pile of white rice.

I use the “top it off with some eggs” method more times than I’d like to count.

And it hits the spot every time.

Thanks for keeping me company for one more week, all y’all! And have a great weekend–that’s an order.

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Pôts de Crème

This easy and elegant dessert is my go-to when we have people over for dinner. In fact, chances are if you’ve been over to our house for dinner, this is what I served you.

If I didn’t, please notify me immediately so that I can rectify the situation with an emergency dinner party.

I’ve never met a dessert before that was so delicious and so easy. Really, really easy. I know, everyone and their mother promotes recipes by saying ‘it’s really easy, guys!’ but this one–this one. This one is the real deal. You blend a couple things, and then chill the mixture. And that’s it. It’s one of the Pioneer Woman’s more brilliant recipes, and I bring it to you in step-by-step form today.

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract (or Kahlua, Baileys, Amarula, cognac, etc.)

1 pinch of salt

8 oz strong, hot coffee

First, my friends, let your eggs get to room temperature on the counter. If you forget to take them out ahead of time, run them under some tepid/warm water for a few minutes and they’ll warm right up.

Now grab your trusty blender and put in the chocolate chips and the eggs.

I chose to use a gross dirty old blender from Big Jake’s basement.

I should clarify for my hygiene-conscious friends: the glass receptacle is spanking clean. The gross and dirty part is the base, and that’s only because I don’t want to get close enough to clean it. But it chuggalugs along, and that’s all that I ask of it for now–we’ll talk about blender beauty pageants in future years.

Looks delish, eh?

Add the salt (a “healthy pinch”) . . .

And the flavoring. You can use vanilla extract, but you can also amp it up with a fun liqueur. Kahlua or Baileys are obvious choices.

I chose to use a bottle of Amarula from Aunt Laura. It was out of this world.

And there it all is! One big happy dessert-to-be.

Blend!

After things seem pretty homogeneous, and while it’s blending, pour the coffee into the blender in a slow, steady stream. I reiterate that it must be very, very hot. In fact, bring the coffee to a boil in your microwave just before adding it in–this has great bearing on the final texture of the dessert.

You can prepare a gourmet pot of espresso expressly for this purpose . . . or you can use instant coffee. I used a packet of Starbucks via mixed with some off-brand instant coffee to add strength.

Now say ‘espresso expressly’ ten times fast. If you can do it perfectly, you will receive a cool little prize from me.

The ‘cool little prize’ is my eternal admiration of your agile tongue. And aren’t the intangible prizes the most valuable ones? I mean, ultimately? Doesn’t the promise of my approval make you want to try your best?

What? You could care less about my approval? But I’m an older sister! Everyone must work to please me!

Wow, that tangent is headed for some kind of frenzied crisis, so let’s return to the chocolate that brought us here today. After about a minute of blending, you will have a creamy, chocolaty mess. Blend for an extra minute just to make sure everything has gotten married and become One Flesh. We don’t want granules of chocolate chips floating around trying to be independent.

Pour the mix into serving glasses.

Just leave plenty of room for the whipped cream that you’ll be heaping on them before serving.

It can be fun to use glasses of assorted shapes.

It adds a little whimsy to the whole sordid affair.

Now chill them in the fridge for 3-4 hours.

Right before serving, whip some heavy cream and pile it on. I whipped a little more Amarula into my cream the last time I made these, and it was fantastic.

You can fold in pieces of fruit, and top it off with chocolate shavings or little curls of orange peel if you’re feeling fancy.

I’m feeling fancy. Let’s pile on the chopped up chocolate!

Beautiful, eh?

Let’s take a bite.

So rich . . . so decadent . . . like silk on the tongue.

And just for fun, let’s add some chopped up canned mandarin oranges.

Don’t even get me started on the idea of adding heaps of fresh berries when the summer returns. *swooning* Fruit and chocolate were meant to be together.

I can’t seem to stop photographing these little beauties. And envisioning variations–such as stirring minced cranberries into the chocolate before chilling, to add a note of tartness. Or sprinkling some peanuts and macadamias on top right before serving–along the whipped cream. The whipped cream is one thing I’m not compromising on; it adds a necessary balance to the richness of the chocolate.

Make this dessert for your next dinner party! You can throw it together the night before, and it’s guaranteed to please everyone. Or you can always just make it for yourself. One batch should provide one fortunate individual with a dessert for every single night of the week. Now that’s an idea . . .

Click here for printer-friendly version: Pôts de Crème