Epifurious

We’ve been growing some mushrooms from the Back to the Roots Mushroom kit, but went away for the weekend and some of them started to dry out a bit. I decided it was time to pluck a few before they were inedible and decided to do another pantry scraps dinner in the process. I loosely followed Fake Food Free’s recipe for Tomato, Kale and Mushroom Sauce, hoping that a veggie and carb load would tire me out for my flight to New Orleans tonight.

Alterations: I didn’t have any fresh tomatoes so I used a small can of tomato paste plus a few sun dried tomatoes. I also added a can full of water to the pan. I believe my mushrooms were of the oyster variety instead of button. I used dried basil and marjoram instead of oregano and parsley. I paired this sauce with some lemon pepper fettuccine. 

Do-again?: Tasty and fast. I really liked the sweet tang that the balsamic and sun dried tomatoes added to the dish.

Another meal, another inspiration from Pinterest. After I had tapas with a friend at Tinto last week, I had a hankering for Spanish tortilla and decided to try a recently pinned recipe from Fresh365 for Spanish Tortilla with Kale. This was perfect, because I already had eggs, kale and onions on hand, meaning I only had to purchase red potatoes to satisfy this craving.

Alterations: Even though I know Soyrizo is closer to the Mexican version of chorizo than the Spanish version, I thought it would add good flavor so I mixed some in during the egg beating stage of the recipe. I also added an extra egg to make sure it covered all the fillings. 

Do-again?: Another successful meal that makes good leftovers. Next time, I might even add a few more eggs to make it more fritatta-like. Aside from the bowl that I beat the eggs in, this was a one-dish pan. Gotta love meals that don’t take too much work to clean. 

I love twofers - happy hour specials, buy one, get one deals. Twofer recipes are even better - cook once, eat two different meals. Since risotto doesn’t reheat very well, I opted to turn Sunday night’s risotto into Monday night Risotto Cakes using the Chow.com instructions as a guideline. 

Alterations: I followed the directions with the exception of adding extra cheese and served with a green salad.

Do-again?: Great day two dinner with even more leftovers for day 3 lunch.

Last night I went to a girl’s night in dinner party where I didn’t really know the tastes of the party goers. I figured I should go with something that wouldn’t clash with the other unknowns on the table so I made Annie’s Eats version of the Cooking Illustrated Recipe for Herbed Risotto with Chicken and Caramelized Onions. What attracted me to the recipe was that it was basically a “no stir” method - which is a miracle if you’ve ever made risotto the traditional way where you have to keep a close eye and really give yourself an arm workout.

Alterations: As directed however I didn’t have quite a cup of white wine so I substituted the extra with a little bit more water. I also subbed mushroom Better Than Bouillon for the chicken broth.

Do-again?: I had several women ask for the recipe after dinner which must mean its a success! (I have to admit, I thought it was pretty tasty too)

In the lead up to Christmas, I had the most delicious rum cake at my friend Bri’s house. Her mom’s Pistachio Rum Bundt Cake is a family favorite and I’m so glad that I can now count it among my own easy-to-make recipes (pasted below). Since I’m not a big baker, the fact that the basis of this recipe is a boxed cake mix is brilliant (no measuring!). However, I was still challenged when getting this cake out of the bundt pan. It looked like a 3 year old made it. However, it still tasted DELICIOUS. In order to salvage it, I decided to whip up some homemade whipped cream (with a little bit of green dye) and layered in some raspberries to turn this into a trifle. 

Pistachio Rum Bundt Cake
Cake:
1 Pistachio Pudding (instant)
1 yellow cake mix
1/2 cup dark rum 
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup canola oil
4 eggs

Mix all ingredients, beat 2 minutes, pour into greased/floured Bundt pan.
Bake in 325 oven for 1 hour
Start making glaze 15 minutes before cake is done

Glaze:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup water

Mix ingredients, bring to a boil for 3 minutes
Remove cake from oven when done
Pour hot glaze over cake
As soon as glaze is absorbed, turn cake out of pan

Do-again: Yes, this was gobbled up at the Easter table. And I can’t wait to make it again - hopefully next time I can get it out of the bundt pan!

Since I have plans to get burgers for dinner tonight at The Golden State, I decided a healthy lunch was in order. I whipped up 101 Cookbook’s Double Broccoli Quinoa in about 15 minutes!

Alterations: I used broccolini and subbed a little low fat milk plus greek yogurt for the cream. Since I didn’t have quite the recommended amount of parmesan or the fresh lemon juice, I opted to sprinkle some lemon pepper seasoning in as well. I also added some chopped avocado on top at the end as recommended. 

Do-again?: I would try this again following the recipe more closely as I think I lost some of the salty-umami-ness by lowering the parmesan amount. But this was not bad as a quick healthy lunch option with ingredients that are commonly in my kitchen.

Today’s lunch was another adventure in fridge clean out. Who would have thought I could create something so delicious with some leftover pizza dough, part of a block of monterey jack and a single leek? Thankfully, I knew to buy a half rotisserie chicken at the Farmer’s Market yesterday after spotting Food & Wine’s recipe for Roasted Chicken and Leek Pizza. 

Alterations: Many know that I am not very fond of measuring things so I decided to just go with instinct. I chopped up and sauteed my single leek, pulled together about half the amount of chicken, chopped up 5 or so green olives and shredded a little less than a cup of jack cheese. I pulled my pizza dough out to make a personal size pizza and piled the toppings on, baking it on my pizza stone (which I added cornmeal on) for 10 minutes 

Do-again?: This was a great, fast meal that seemed like something you would get at a Farmer’s Market. Reminded me that you can throw anything yummy on top of pizza dough and it becomes yummier. 

Since I’m not the best at rolling burritos and sushi that don’t fall apart, I have long been dubious that I can make a summer roll. I figured I had to give it the good ol college try after spotting this Williams Sonoma recipe for Cucumber and Avocado Summer Rolls with Mustard Soy Sauce. Turns out, it is really simple since the rice paper wraps are a little bit gummy and “glue” themselves together. 

Alterations: I had intended to make these as directed but when I pulled my mint out of the fridge, it was less than fresh so I made them without mint. 

Do-again?: Absolutely. We have a bunch of rice paper rounds left over and my boyfriend suggested this as a great way to clear out any vegetables we have on hand before they go bad. I would also like to try making a peanut sauce since I love dipping shrimp summer rolls in peanut sauce though the marinade here was nice and light too.

Deviled eggs are one of those foods that I forget about but love. In fact, I rarely even think about hard boiling eggs even though I almost always have eggs on hand. As a kid, I feel like we always maxed out on HBEs during Easter week because of my desire to decorate a lot of eggs. This year though, instead of dying egg shells, I decided to dye my HBEs using TheKitchn’s recipe for Beet Pickled Deviled Eggs as inspiration. 

Alterations: Followed to a tee, including using the suggested method of hard boiling. I let the eggs sit in the beet pickling mixture for 12 hours. 

Do-again?: I loved how these looked and tasted. This is a super easy recipe that looks really expensive but isn’t. Gotta love it. Perfect way to fancy up any leftover easter eggs too!

I’m so excited for spring produce! Since I love asparagus cooked any way, I knew I had to try Cooking Light’s Asparagus with Balsamic Tomatoes. It made for a nice fresh dinner for a warm LA evening.

Alterations: Since my grape tomatoes were already bite sized, I opted to only cut about half of them in half. I served the asparagus with a romaine salad.

Do-again?: This was very quick and easy to put together and had good flavor. I can imagine this as a side to grilled fish or chicken. 

For a while last year, my boyfriend and I were cooking out of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking a few times a week but our devotion to Italian has trickled off a bit in the last few months. Thankfully, trying out the Roasted Red and Yellow Pepper Sauce with Garlic and Basil was just like getting back in touch with good friend that you haven’t called in a while - we felt at home and satisfied right away.

Alterations:  I used one red, one yellow and one orange pepper and served the sauce with half the amount of pasta (in this case penne) that Marcella called for as we like our pasta saucier than she generally calls for.

Do-again?: This was delicious and we will totally make it again (even though peeling peppers was kind of annoying and I’m not sure if it was necessary!)

I impulsively bought some mussels and Thai basil at the West Hollywood farmers market yesterday. Since I feel like I’m at the beginning of a cold, I thought a spicy broth for the mussels would push the cold out of me making Jean Georges’s Steamed Mussels with Lemongrass, Thai Basil, Chilies, and Coconut Juice very appealing.

Alterations: I used 5 serrano chiles instead of bird’s eye chiles as neither of my two local grocers carried the thai chiles. I also used one can of coconut juice and one can of light coconut milk. 

Do-again?: This was delicious but WAYYYYY spicy. I would definitely make this again but would halve the number of chiles used. We like spicy food but this was almost inedibley spicy, which was too bad because we could tell the broth would have been incredible if it was just a little less spicy.