Dinner last night, aka portobello mushrooom cups

This is a great little meal for one in a hurry, although you can easily make it for two or three or ten.

1 Portobello mushroom chopped to about 1 inch pieces
Spreadable garlic and herb cheese (I use Alouette)
Sun flower seeds
Green leaf lettuce
Shredded Parmesan cheese
Olive oil

Chop up mushrooms into bite size pieces

Throw in frying pan with some olive oil and pepper and saute until brown

This is the spreadable cheese I use, garlic and herb

Spread a layer on your green leaf lettuce cups

Top with some sun flower seeds

Once mushrooms are brown you can add the salt, if you add it to soon it will dry them out.

Top lettuce with mushrooms

Then add the Parmesan cheese to top it all off. I roll them slightly like a taco and it makes a terrific little snack or a whole dinner.

Hey you, that new bride over there...before I can help you, there are some things you need to learn

This is important. There is a little known secret about men. THEY WILL NORMALY EAT ANYTHING YOU PUT IN FRONT OF THEM JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE HUNGRY! This Means no matter how much they hate broccoli and chicken breast they will eat it. This also means that even if the loooove onions and you never use them, they will never tell you.

Things you need to ask your husband, along with asking them to give you an honest fucking answer!

1. Do you prefer white or dark meat? This is actually important. The two meats are cooked a lot different. Dark meat can be cooked longer, and it tends to be juicier and work much better in crock pots or braised dishes. Chicken breasts tend to be better for stuffed chicken, although a thigh can be used, it takes a little more expertise to do so! This is also important because if you are serving the meat they like but you screw up the dish they will be more inclined to over look that since you at least got the meat right. I mean if they like dark meat and you served them a screwed up dish along with dry chicken breast, well now your just fucked.
2. What vegetables do you actually like? If they don't like any FINE you can still cook them for yourself, you just need to make sure to make them their own side dish, ie a potato because all men like those right.
3. How do you like your potatoes? My husband will ONLY eat mashed potatoes or fried potatoes (think french fries or breakfast potatoes) however he will only eat his fried potatoes crispy. This means that time I served him some yummy soft breakfast potatoes and he hated them, he still ate them but wasn't satisfied with the meal. Now I simply pull mine out first, turn up the heat and crisp the hell out of his.
4. What foods do you really love? My husband loves loves loves tomatoes. I think he likes them as much as he likes sex. This first of all means, that I should know that every single sandwich I ever make him needs to have at least a whole entire tomato. Same goes with mayo. He loves garlic. This means that he will laugh at my chicken if I put two measly cloves of garlic in it. I may as well just throw in the whole fucking head and call it a day. Even if it is something you hate, you need to find a way to equate it into the meal. I hate shrimp, so when I make pasta I cook the whole dish, saute the shrimp in a second pan and then put his serving of pasta in the pan with the shrimp, toss it around getting it good and fishy and we are both happy!
5. Are there things he cooks that he loves? My husband makes steak. It is his steak. EVERYOTHERSTEAK taste like shit to him. Every marinade I make will not be the same. If this is the case, STOP! DON'T TRY ANY MORE! Make it so one or two nights a week he cooks up his steak, pasta, dish whatever it is, and feels all manly and proud and you cook the sides. Then its a group effort, your doing something together and he gets to walk around strutting his stuff like a peacock because he made you the best damn steak ever!
   
6. Find out what kind of cheese he likes. My husband only eats white cheese and nothing with mold and no feta and for the love of gosh ricotta makes him ill. This means on Mexican food I can only use mozzarella, that if I try and stuff his chicken with Feta I will find the stuffing hidden in his napkin and oh gosh if I serve him pasta with ricotta I had better just run. But now I know, I keep the stuff he likes in the house and I'm like hes personal kitchen champion!
   
7. Find out how he likes his meat cooked. My husband prefers his chicken a little pink. It is good to know this because I prefer it cooked until it hardly resembles chicken. This works nicely so I know that whatever I make, at least I cooked the damn chicken right.
8. Find a few go to quick meal items. My husband is addicted to this sandwich and this quesidilla. They are both quick meals and they are both easy meals to keep the ingredients on hand. I always always always have chicken, onion, tortillas, garlic and green sauce on hand ALWAYS. That means if I wake up and think shit I have no food, I know I can at least make those and he will think he is getting a treat. Same with the sammies. I always have that stuff on hand.
   
9. Keep a journal. I went to target and bought a little notepad about 5-7 and I keep it on my counter. Each time I make him something new I jot down the recipe and his response to it. That means that if I'm ever sitting there stumped one night I can pull out that note pad flip a few pages and find something he likes
10. Be open to criticism. Talk to him right now and tell him, Look I want to make an effort to start cooking for oyu, but you have to promise to be honest with me. At the end of the meal ask him how he liked it. Tell him to be truthful. Was there something he didn't like or something he would like more of? For instance I made some chipotle chicken on night for my husband, the recipe called for carrots and celery. That night when I asked him he said the meal was terrific but he would rather if I left out the carrots next time. So I walked over to my notepad, scratched off the carrots and called it a day. This means you have to learn to take criticism but making him happy is worth a few hurt feelings.
11. Find out about seasoning. My husband loves salt. He also loves garlic salt. He also believes the more pepper the better. In the beginning I seasoned things for my taste and then I realized he found them bland. It was easier for me to adjust to a little more pepper or salt then for him to eat a bland meal or sit there dousing it in pepper at the table crushing my heart as he did that.
12. Get creative. There is nothing wrong with breakfast for dinner, as long as you know how he likes his eggs and if he likes crisp bacon or wiggly bacon. Sometimes changing it up like that is fun.
13. Finally learn to cheat. You can make a lot of really simple meals taste extra good by adding to them. Buying jarred pasta sauce is fine. I always cut up two or three tomatoes and stir those in towards the end of cooking and I always stir in some mushrooms too. If I add beef I make sure to saute the beef with lots of onions, garlic and pepper before I stir it into the sauce. That makes a really simple store bought meal have more of a home cooked feel to it.
    
14. Let him have some input. In the beginning I would sit down with my husband and say here are the things I'm thinking of trying. What do you think? And he would answer me honestly. This is helpful.
    
15. Finally, remember that practice makes perfect. You are going to mess up, but he will appreciate it a thousand times more that you tried to cook and messed up.
    

The last thing you need to remember to do is come here and check out our recipes. While some of them may seem scary we really really try and only post things that are easy to make for people who are just learning. You can even bring him to the site, show him some of the recipes and see what he thinks. Lastly you can ask him all of this, get his responses and come back and tell us and we will help you create meals he will love! Remember marriage is all about communication, even if your just communicating about food!

Egg salad toasties

8 eggs
Mayo
Dijon mustard
salt
pepper
Shredded Parmesan
White bread
Small lettuce cups

Boil eggs covered for 7 minutes. Turn off heat and leave covered for additional 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and allow eggs to cool in ice water bath or fridge.

1. In large bowl add peeled and chopped eggs
2. Add 3 Tbsp mayo (more if to dry)
3. Mix in 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste
5. Toast bread and cut off crust, cut diagonal to form triangles
6. Top toast triangles with egg salad
7. Fill lettuce cups with egg salad
8. Top both with Parmesan cheese

For cute seasonal toasts you can cut bread into shapes with cookie cutters. Allowing you to have hearts, leaves, or ghosts. Whatever your mind desires! After posting this my friend Shawna made it and asked me what I thought to serve with it. The first thing that came to mind was roasted rosemary potatoes (I will put recipe up today). The next thing I thought was for your friends who weren't vegetarian this dish would be delish with crumbled crispy bacon on the top! She tried it and said it was a hit. So there you have it. For the meat eaters in your life I vote toss some bacon on top !

Lettuce bites

5-6 smaller inside leaves of romain lettuce (usually the lighter color leaves)
Spreadable garlic and herb cheese (I prefer alouette)
Fresh shredded Parmesan
Sunflower seeds (roasted and shelled)
Diced olives
Any other veggie topper you want

1. Spread layer of cheese inside your lettuce cups
2. Add seeds, olives and Parmesan
3. Serve!

For parties another great thing I love to serve is egg salad on toasted bread. For the gluten free version I serve some of the egg salad in my little lettuce cups so that no one is left out!

Labels

I've added two new labels to the label list. One is Vegetarian alternative and one is Gluten free available.

Vegetarian alternative will be added to recipes that can easily be made vegetarian, and I will offer the variation at the end of the recipe.

Gluten Free available will be added to dishes that can easily be converted to a gluten free recipe or are entirely gluten free. I will also add the variation for these at the end of the recipes.

Since I have been both gluten free and vegetarian I can give tons of advice on this! Hope this helps some of you out there.

Definition of the day: ROUX

Dummy terms: Over high heat QUICKLY whisk together butter and flour till mixture turns light gold, add liquid to mixture and whisk until dissolved and bubbling, reduce heat and allow to thicken.

FANCY PANTS TERMS:

Roux (pronounced like the English word "rue") is a mixture of wheat flour and fat. It is the basis of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: Sauce béchamel, Sauce velouté, and Sauce Espagnole. Butter, vegetable oils, or lard are common fats used. It is used as a base for gravy, other sauces, soufflés, soups and stews.

The mixture is cooked by stirring over heat in a pot or pan. The fat is heated first, in the process melting it if necessary, then the flour is added, the mixture is stirred until the flour is incorporated and then cooked until at least the point where a raw flour taste is no longer apparent. The end result is a thickening and flavoring agent. The final results can range from the nearly white to the nearly black, depending on the length of time it is over the heat, and its intended use.

Roux is most often made with butter as the fat base. However, it may be made with any edible fat. In the case of meat gravies, they are often made with rendered fat from the meat. In traditional American cookery, bacon is sometimes fried to produce fat to use in the roux.

Cooks can cheat by adding a mixture of water and wheat flour to a dish which needs thickening since the heat of boiling water will still release the starch, however this temperature is not high enough to eliminate the floury taste. A mixture of water and flour used in this way is colloquially known as cowboy roux.

Dummy terms: Over high heat QUICKLY whisk together butter and flour till mixture turns light gold, add liquid to mixture and whisk until dissolved and bubbling, reduce heat and allow to thicken.

VARIATION: If you are gluten intolerant you can simply mix cornstarch with cold liquid, water, or broth and then heat to boiling. You will achieve the same thickness of a roux with out the added rich flavor of the butter and flour.

Pasta with chicken and a garlic cream sauce

Serving size: 4 with a little bit of left overs
1 pack vermicelli noodles (the small spaghetti noodles like angel hair)
5 cloves garlic rough chopped (at least this many, depends on how much you like garlic, personally I use more)
4 chicken breasts (Think one per person you are serving)
1 cup milk or heavy cream
2-3 cups chicken broth
1- package mushrooms, washed and sliced
1/2 large white onion preferably vidalia
1 large jar marinated artichoke hearts drained
2-3 Tbsp butter
2-3 Tbsp flour
Salt
Pepper
olive oil
Fresh Parmesan cheese

1. Boil pasta in large pot.
   
2. While pasta boiling preheat large deep skillet to medium low.
3. Cube chicken to bite size pieces
4. Coat pan with olive oil and add chicken, salt and pepper
   
5. Cook until chicken is almost done
   
6. Dice onions, mushrooms and garlic and add in with chicken (you don't add it at the beginning or you will burn your garlic.)
7. Move chicken to the outside of the pan and add butter and flour to center of pan, whisk until butter/flour mixture turns the color of toasted bread or a light golden color, this creates a roux (pronounced roo)
   
8. Mix chicken into your roux and add in the first cup of chicken stock raising heat to medium high, stir until thickens. Sauce will be very thick
9. Whisk in second cup of stock, up to three until desired consistency.
10. Taste sauce at this point and add in more salt and pepper to taste. Heavy pepper is good in this dish.
    
11. Add in artichoke hearts, reduce heat to low and allow sauce to continue cooking and thickening.
12. At the very end add in your milk or cream starting with a half a cup first.
13. Drain pasta and add to sauce, coating pasta with chicken and cream sauce.
14. Top with Parmesan cheese and enjoy.

If sauce gets to thick it is better to add more stock then milk, as milk or cream will make the dish to rich and take away from the flavor of mushrooms, and artichokes. If your sauce is not thick enough turn up the heat and quickly whisk in more flour.

**If you have a gluten or wheat intolerance, you can make this same dish by mixing about 2 Tbsp of cornstarch in with 1/2 cup cold chicken stock and adding that in place of flour and butter. This will also cause your sauce to thicken just as well. Like the roux, if it isn't thick enough simply dissolve more cornstarch in chicken sauce and add in. Both of these need heat to activate.

** You can make this same recipe vegetarian, by eliminating the chicken and using vegetable broth. I use thick chunked portobello mushrooms in place of chicken for my recipe.