Sauteed Mushrooms in White Wine

Sorry for taking so long to get this post out.  I finally got a real job (I know, sad) and I'm taking a course, so things got a little crazy. 

But anyway, these mushrooms are super yum delish.  I made them for thanksgiving dinner and they were a big hit. Then Guy and I made them another night for dinner and not only were they just as good, they were also really quick and easy to throw together.  Yay for foods that can be an easy addition to a weeknight meal, but also work for a special holiday dinner!

Plus, don't they just look so scrumptious? mmmmm

As with most things I post, this can be modified for your personal tastes.  Change up the herbs if there is something else you like better, leave out the butter if you want it to be a little lighter, use chicken broth in place of wine if you don't want alcohol.  Maybe try it once according to the recipe and then mix it up for your own tastes. And as always, have fun!

Nelly's Vegetable Soup

I wasn't home much while Guy's parents were visiting.  But I still wanted to take advantage of having Guy's mom (Nelly) around to make at least one of her yummy soups.  She claims that she likes making soups because she's lazy and they are so easy to make; throw everything in a pot, boil, and eat.  So when we were finally in Davis for about a day we decided to make one of our favorites, vegetable soup.

This is not the kind of vegetable soup most of us are familiar with.  First off there are NO tomatoes, which I love about this soup, because most of today's veggie soups just taste like some version of V8. Gross.  And second, she uses some veggies you probably never even considered using in a soup when browsing in the produce isle.

Like most soups this is really just an "everything but the kitchen sink" situation.  Whatever you like or have on hand is fine.  We couldn't find pumpkin this time, so we just used sweet potato. No big deal.  Just try to get a nice variety of yummy veggies and you will be sure to have a terrific soup.  Same goes with the measurements.  It doesn't really matter if you use three carrots or five, a small celery root or a big one, it's all about what works for you.  I give some amounts just to keep people from having a nervous breakdown, but really, this is very forgiving... go crazy!

Read on for more pictures and the "recipe"

Pups and Such

Over the past three weeks, while you were all being treated to new recipes, I was traveling all around northern California with Guy and his parents.  We had a lot of fun, saw many beautiful places, and ate a ton of delicious food. During our travels we also came across a multitude of adorable pups and other fluffy things! The best part was seeing the different outfits people dressed their pups in for winter.  Here are some of the pastry and fluffy highlights of the trip:

The first pastry stop on our trip, Cafe Madeleine in San Francisco

A quick stop at Kara's Cupcakes in Ghirardelli Square was a must (I've tried about 4 other cupcake shops and this is my favorite so far)

And I stocked up on goodies from Bouchon Bakery in Napa... I had to try as much as I could!



Now... on to the fluffle puffs:

Creamy Pasta Carbonara

You can't really call this a "traditional" carbonara, but if it's good enough for Giada, it's good enough for me.  And boy, is it good!  I adapted her recipe quite a bit to appeal to my own tastes, and because I simply could not justify putting 6 egg yolks into this one dish (but 2 cups of cheese, that's fine).  Any way you make this, you really can't go wrong. With tons of cheese, cream, and smoky, salty bacon and pancetta, this is pasta heaven.  Just be very careful not to boil the cream mixture once you've added it to the pasta, or you will end up with a curdled, separated, disgusting mess (trust me, I know).

I first had pasta carbonara at Three Tomatoes Trattoria in Burlington, VT and I was immediately hooked! How can you not be? And the addition of veggies in their version really lightened the dish and made it absolutely perfect.  I've thought about adding some white wine to the recipe, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  Feel free to play around and tell me how it goes!

Oh and the best part about this dish, it keeps great in the fridge and reheats wonderfully. Yay leftovers you actually WANT to eat!