fontina | Jenna's Everything Blog

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.