Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Soup

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Soup

I love French onion soup and I love mushrooms.  Why not join the two together?  There is no reason not to do so.  The outcome has to be good.

I caramelized a bunch of assorted onions:  red, white,  yellow, and even pearl.  To that add some minced garlic and assorted sliced mushrooms - I used baby bella and shiitake.

After the mushrooms were nice and tender, I started with the liquids.  First, I added some Kolsch beer we had on tap and let it cook for a while and reduce.  Next came beef stock and water.  When that came to a boil, I added the seasoning:  bay leaves, salt, pepper, and white pepper.  While everything was simmering, I sliced and broiled a sourdough baguette until golden.

When the soup was done I played a little game of find the bay leaves.  I won 2 and bay leaves won 1.  The Guinea Pig had to get involved to find the last drowning bay leaf, which he did.

I served it up just like French onion soup:  ladle the soup into a bowl, top with a sourdough slice, sprinkle some shredded Gruyere cheese, and broil until cheese is melted and bubbling.

By itself, the soup was a bit on the spicy side.  Together with the bread and cheese, the flavor was perfect!  Watermelon we planned to have for dessert was the only thing that prevented The Guinea Pig from going in for seconds.

Mushroom Sauce

Mushroom Sauce

Not knowing how moist the quinoa patties would turn out and totally expecting them to be dry, I wanted to make a sauce to go with them.  I came up with a spin on a family favorite:  sauteed mushrooms.  I figured that by slicing the mushrooms into smaller pieces, they would lend themselves to a sauce more than a full fledged side dish.

Off to the store I went in search of a suitable fungus.  A nice looking portabella mushroom ended up calling my name and so it went into the pan.  In addition to the portabella mushroom, I used pearl onions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and sesame seed oil.

The flavor combination was fantastic!  This might have been only the second time I ever used ginger and this time I did it right.  I won't be shying away from that ingredient in the future.  Next time I'm going to try and have patience and chop up the mushrooms into smaller pieces.

Mission quinoa patty accompaniment was accomplished as well.  The two together were a perfect match.

Quinoa Patties

Quinoa Patties

I came across this recipe a few months ago and have been trying to make it for a while now.  The biggest obstacle was being too lazy to make fresh quinoa.  This time I had leftovers and I knew I had to give this one a shot.  One of those now or never things.

Of course, I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I substituted in some grated Parmesan cheese and Italian bread crumbs for their counterparts, left out the salt and mint, and used 2 thinly chopped stalks of green onions.

Even though there were 2 eggs in the mixture, the patties were difficult to form.  The outcome was better than I expected.  Not dry at all like I thought they would come out.  Next time I think I'm going to add a bit more greens to it.

Bacon Avocado Egg Salad

Bacon Avocado Egg Salad

Over the weekend it struck me that I haven't eaten egg salad in a long time.  Rather than look up a recipe online, I decided to raid the fridge.  I came out with too many ingredients to make one cohesive dish.

After brainstorming for a bit, I decided to go with the less is more way and went with bare essentials.  I cut it down to just bacon, avocado, eggs and salt and pepper to taste.

I chopped the bacon up into thin strips.  While I mashed the avocado, The Guinea Pig cooked the bacon until it was crispy.  Then I shredded the hard-boiled eggs and mixed everything together.  I thought that maybe bacon would provide enough salt, but it didn't.

The dish was quick to make.  The outcome was a smooth and rich egg salad.  I served it on potato rolls that we had laying around.

Braised Pork Top Loin Stew

Braised Pork Top Loin Stew

A few weeks, or maybe even months now, I made a braised brisket from recipe that turned out unbelievably delicious.  This time around I wanted to apply the same principal to pork.  We got a nice piece of pork that we got in Costco.  In fact, we only used half of the piece we had.  I know that The Guinea Pig will be wanting me to make the other half.

I made the rub/marinade using a whole head of garlic as well as some salt, pepper, and soy sauce.  For the stew part of it I used potatoes with chopped onions, carrots, and some leftover asparagus we had for a pop of green.  Total cook time was approximately 8 hours.

The result was perhaps even more delicious than the brisket, but then again I am partial to pork.  Pork tends to come out dry, but not this time.  The Guinea Pig even had 3 helpings of it during his first seating.  He slowed down a bit after that in hopes of making the delicious food last a bit longer.

Cubed Salad

Cubed Salad

Summer time seems to be the perfect time to crave a salad. I've been seeing lots of cubed salads as well as using watermelon for something other than dessert. I decided to try my hand at a cubed salad with watermelon.

Drawing inspiration from what I've been seeing and what looked good at the supermarket, I went with a 4 ingredient [baby watermelon, tomato, avocado, and queso fresco] salad plus some green onions for a bit of flavor.

Through trial and error I discovered that this salad needed neither dressing nor added salt. The juices from tomatoes and watermelon were enough to keep it moist and the queso fresco provided all the saltiness that I required. Acidity of the tomatoes went great with the sweetness of the watermelon and the saltiness of the queso fresco. The avocado provided a rich creamy texture while the watermelon added a much needed crunch factor.

The salad turned out a bit unusual for my taste buds, but in no way did it taste bad. I should have expected as much from using one of my favorite summer time desserts in a salad.

Beet Salad

Beet Salad

I've been craving beets lately.  Something about the sweetness of them that has had me thinking of them non stop.  So I decided to create my take on a beet salad.

The local market had beautiful gold beets along side red ones.  Having only had gold beets once, as part of a very expensive meal, I was curious about them.  I wanted to compare them side by side with their red counterparts.

I ended up making putting the following ingredients into my beet salad:  gold and red beets, hard boiled egg, cucumber, and queso fresco.  I used parsley and some roasted sunflower seed oil to tie it together.  I originally had a few more ingredients that I wanted to add, but decided they would take away from the simplicity of the salad.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the outcome.  The salad turned out a cohesive and well balanced as well as tasty.  The sweetness of the beets was balanced with the saltiness of the queso fresco.  The overall mushiness of the other ingredients was offset by the crunchiness of the cucumber.  As for the comparison, gold beets are very similar in taste to red ones, maybe just a bit less sweet.