Dinner 10/17

Ian showed me how to make baked brie, and it is super easy and delicious. We got a cracker assortment to go with the cheese and followed it with pasta and roasted red pepper alfredo sauce (from a jar, because I'm kinda lazy). Anyhow, making baked brie is tres facile and only takes about half an hour (maybe an hour and a half taking pastry thaw-time into account).

-Get a wedge or wheel of brie, some frozen puff pastry dough, and find some jam, jelly or preserves that are sweet but tart (we used my grandma's homemade currant jelly, but we also considered cloudberry jam)

-Preheat oven to temperature listed on pastry package

-Thaw a sheet of puff pastry until it's flexible enough to bend without breaking

-Spread a decent layer of fruit stuff on top of the brie, and wrap in the pastry dough.

-Bake according to the pastry dough instructions (the kind we used called for 400 degrees for 15 minutes, but I ended up baking it for about 8 minutes longer so the dough got nice and browned)

-Let cool for a few minutes so you aren't scalded with hot cheese; cut with a sharp knife and eat on crackers

Our baked brie looked like this:

My pictures are crap, but you get the idea. It is definitely delicious, but also very, very rich--so be ready to feel naughty.

Dinner 10/15

Mushroom barley stew! I followed this recipe, but doubled it. I also used regular russet potatos and cut them pretty chunky. I highly recommend it if you like mushrooms. Best vegetarian stew I've ever had, if I might say so myself. Could have used more potatos, though--I love potatos.

Dried porcini mushrooms.

Simmer!

The finished product--took about an hour and a quarter to prep and cook, and it was well worth it. Even a meat-eater loved it!

Dinner 9/16

I've decided to start documenting the stuff I cook when I get ambitious (and the proper ingredients). Here's the first entry in the Dinner series.

I got done with work early yesterday and swung through the produce department of the local grocery on my way home. I spent the afternoon sauteeing and brushing up on my French with an audio course I picked up at the library. It was a lovely afternoon, and produced lovely results:

Pasta with asparagus, red pepper, tomato, broccoli, zucchini, mushroom, red onion, fresh basil and garlic sauteed in olive oil (plus salt, black pepper, mozzarella and parmasan cheeses and toasted French bread). It was the perfect early fall meal. The red pepper was wonderfully sweet (best pepper ever?), and the basil and olive oil really complimented the asparagus. The cheese and black pepper paired nicely with the sweet onion and zucchini. It was basically yummy, but next time--more garlic. It was a little bland, and garlic's incredibly good for you anyways.