After years of watching the Food Network, I began to develop an awe of risotto. It was presented as a difficult dish, something that surely only professional chefs could pull off. After all, how else could they charge so much for it in restaurants?  It must have expensive ingredients, and I knew it had many steps. Certainly not something I, a home cook, could pull off.

My confidence was boosted when my culinarily fearless brother Michael made risotto during our annual sibling weekend this year. Not long after that, I produced my first risotto and was moderately impressed myself with the results. Maybe this risotto stuff wasn’t as hard as I had thought. However, the preparation is not toddler-friendly. The process takes my full attention for almost half an hour with constant stirring, so I can only make it on the weekends when Brett can keep an eye on Hannah while I cook.

Tonight on the menu – crimini mushroom risotto. There are lots of risotto recipes out there, and any of them contain the basic steps of the process. This evening, I first sauteed some sliced crimini mushrooms. These are baby portobello mushrooms, and we really enjoy their texture and flavor. I bought them from the bulk mushrooms and saved almost $1 over the pre-packaged ones. After I toasted the rice (with some garlic), I added a half cup of dry white wine before starting the chicken stock additions. Then it was the normal basic process; at the end I added the mushrooms back in along with about half  a cup of parmesan and some chopped parsley.

So I started with two objections to trying risotto at home:  difficulty of process and cost of ingredients. In reality, the process is not as much difficult as it is time-consuming, though that is really not bad. You just need some good instructions and some patience. When it comes to cost of ingredients, risotto is as expensive as you want it to be. The basic ingredients are arborio rice and chicken stock, everything else can be added based on creativity and budget. My mushroom risotto tonight was actually less expensive than the delicious olive bread from the farmers’ market that you see pictured.

Filling and tasty, and makes us feel elegant. What did you have for dinner tonight?

Brett has been a little under the weather lately, and he found out today he probably has a kidney stone.  In an attempt to help him feel better, I changed dinner plans to include the classic comfort food of chicken noodle soup.  With an Asian twist.

I subscribe to several recipe email lists, and one that’s a little different is from Eat Better America.  They take “normal” recipes and tweak them with healthy alternatives.  A recipe from them that grabbed my eye one day was the Ginger Chicken Noodle Soup, and we enjoyed trying it last winter.  As I was contemplating chicken soup for this evening, I immediately thought of this recipe.  But no last-minute trips to the store for me – with some changes I was able to use things I already had on hand.  As called for in the recipe, I already had chicken stock, carrots, fresh ginger, soy sauce (tamari, actually), vinegar, peas, and buckwheat noodles.  I did not have any chicken because I used up my frozen supply making another batch of chicken nuggets with Meghan yesterday.  Luckily, I had more buckwheat noodles than the recipe called for, so I tripled the noodles to compensate for the missing chicken (though honestly we didn’t miss it).  I also added some celery, garlic, and onions I had lying around.

Brett said that just smelling it made him feel better.  Someone else was enticed by the smell.

She also tried to steal my carrots.  I made a bowl for her without broth so that she could eat it herself with less mess.  She ate the carrots first, then the celery and noodles, leaving most of the peas.

I was going for comfort food, and Brett declared it a success.  Ginger is often recommended for upset stomachs, and this article even promotes buckwheat as a good for kidneys.  And the way I made it, this recipe is also “safe” for those following a gluten-free diet:  substituting tamari for soy sauce and using gluten-free buckwheat soba noodles, just check if your chicken stock is gluten-free.  And it’s all healthful and tasty – score!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

A few months ago, a strip mall near us had quite a bit of turnover, and we were interested to see what new stores would open up.  One was Man Pasand Grocery, an Indian food store.  I got a tip that they have a small produce section with good prices, so this morning I went to check it out.  According to a sign, they receive fresh produce on Tuesdays and Fridays, though since we got there right as it opened, they hadn’t received all their shipments for today.  The prices were indeed lower than HEB – I picked up some onions for 49 cents/lb compared to HEB’s 78 cents/lb.

Many of their produce offerings were either things that HEB doesn’t carry – such as ichiban eggplants – or things I didn’t even recognize (and deserve their own blog post).  Definitely a niche market, and it’s the only South Asian supermarket in Southwest Austin.

The highlight of my trip started as I neared the cash register.  There was a foil-covered pan emitting enticing smells.  Homemade samosas for $1 each, couldn’t resist.  I have to admit, one was immediately eaten when I got back in the car, but I was able to exercise self-control and save the other until lunch.

The outside was perfectly crispy, flaky and chewy.  On the inside was a spicy vegetarian filling of potatoes, peas, curry, and herbs.  The flavors matched perfectly with the sweet, tangy dipping sauce that was included.

Deliciousness.

An unexpected prize from what was supposed to be a produce expedition – expect more to come.

A fun favorite childhood food – “beanie wienies” – canned baked beans mixed with sliced hot dogs.  Our favorite grown-up version – Slow Cooker Barbecued Beans and Sausage.  It’s quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive – about $1.35 a serving.  I’m usually a recipe rogue – I tweak and replace this or that – but I stick to the page on this one.  My one must-have for this is Stubb’s Original BBQ sauce.  Though this is a local Austin product, I have seen it in grocery stores in other states, so check for it!  Peppery, tangy, thick, yum!

To make it easier to eat, I cut up the sausage when it is done cooking and then mix it in with the beans, so everything is covered in tasty sauce (just like beanie wienies). And high in fiber, iron and protein.  Hannah loved it, but Brett finished his bowl first.  I finished last, but that’s probably because I was talking the whole time.

I took a picture, but it did just didn’t do the meal justice, so look at the picture on the recipe link and let your mouth water.  And I’ll keep practicing my food photography.