Mushroom Soup

This is a recipe that is a great comfort food. I love this. I love soups but this is one of my top 10. Actually my top 5. It's simple to make and delicious.

Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:
8 Oz white mushrooms, diced
4 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Cup Milk
4 TBS All-Purpose Flour
4 TBS Butter, unsalted
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
In large saucepan melt butter and add mushrooms and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes
Add flour and stir to combine.
Slowly add chicken stock, stirring the entire time to incorporate into the mushrooms.
Let it come to a boil.
Add milk and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer until it's to the consistency you like for soup.

Garnish with cheese if you like.

Sandwhich with Roasted Garlic Aioli

There are many ways to make a sandwich. We love to have sandwiches with homemade bread and homemade sauce on them. This one is seriously amazing. I love mayo but this is mayo kicked up a notch.

First I have to explain how to roast garlic because you'll need that for this recipe.

Roasted Garlic
Ingredients:
1 head of Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 Degrees (F)
Carefully remove the outer paper/skin from a head of garlic. Be careful not to remove the skins off the cloves themselves.
Cut off about 1/2" on the non-root end of the garlic head. Take a sheet of aluminum foil and place the garlic head, rood end on the bottom. Season with salt and pepper. Take some olive oil and drizzle over garlic.
Wrap the aluminum foil over the garlic and place in a muffin tin.
Place in oven and cook for 40-50 minutes.
Take out of oven and carefully open the aluminum foil. Let garlic cool enough that you can handle it. When it's cooled off pick up the head and push from the root end towards the non-root end to pop out the cloves. Cover in an airtight container and store in your refrigerator.

Roasted Garlic Aioli Sauce

Ingredients:

2 Cups Mayo

4 Cloves Roasted Garlic, minced

1 TBS Lemon Juice

1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated

1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

1/4 Tsp Freshly Ground black pepper

Several dashes of Worcestershire sauce

2 TBS Fresh Parsley, finely diced

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a container and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Sandwich:

We used homemade Challah bread.

Meat of your choice (we used venison)

Cheese of your choice

Aioli on the top.

Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Herbed Cheese Sauce

I've said this before, breakfast is a rarity for us and when we get to have it, we really enjoy it. We like to try different things. Breakfast can be so much fun. There are so many possibilities. A favorite of ours is scrambled eggs. We topped it with an herb cheese sauce and it was delicious. It made it to our favorite list. Something we will try again soon.

Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Herbed Cheese Sauce

Scrambled Eggs Ingredients:
4 Eggs
2 Oz Cream Cheese, softened

Herb Cheese Sauce Ingredients:
4 TBS Butter, unsalted
3 TBS All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Milk
1/3 Cup Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese, Shredded
1/4 Tsp Dried Basil
1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Chives, freshly diced to taste

Scrambled Eggs Directions:
Soften cream cheese in microwave for about 30 seconds. Using a fork, stir until smooth. Add 1 egg at a time to the cream cheese, blending each egg. Cook in pan with a little butter or cooking spray until done to your liking.
In the meantime,

Herb Cheese Sauce Directions:
In Medium saucepan over med heat, melt butter. Stir in the flour and whisk until fully incorporated.
Take off of heat.
Add milk, slowly, whisking continually.
Return to heat and whisk continually. Bring to a boil.
Stir in cheddar cheese and whisk until melted.
Stir in Parmesan cheese and whisk until melted
Stir in basil and stir until well blended.
turn off heat but leave sauce pan sitting on burner.
Add salt, pepper, cayenne and chives to taste.
Pour over eggs.

Pan Seared Venison with Carrots with Parsley Sauce

There are many in this family that hunt. So, in turn we have a lot of venison and wild game to cook. For the most part I don't eat venison. Never have liked the taste of it. This however, is one of my favorite ways to cook venison roasts and I will eat it when it's cooked this way. We also made carrots with parsley sauce, which was delicious.

Pan Seared Venison

Ingredients:
1-2 LB Venison Roast
Olive Oil
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
1 Tsp Coriander
2 TBS Butter (unsalted)
2 Cloves Garlic, Chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees (F}
Place venison roast on a plate and drizzle with olive oil (enough to cover all sides and make sure there is a bit left on the plate under the roast).
Combine coriander, salt and pepper in a bowl and rub into the roast. Make sure to cover all sides of the roast with the seasoning. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 30-40 minutes.
Heat oven proof pan on med-high heat and add butter and garlic. Sauté garlic until it's fragrant. Add roast and sear on all sides.
Place in oven and cook until temperature reaches about 130 (it will continue to cook after you take it out and let it rest so you only want it to reach medium rare).
When it's out take roast and cover with tin foil and set aside to rest for about 10-15 minutes. The longer you let it rest, the juicier it will be. The tinfoil should help keep it warm. Cut across grain.
Heat remaining oil that is in roasting pan on stove top. Add some extra oil and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. As soon as you're ready to serve your meat, drizzle over the meat to help bring back some heat to the meat.


Parsley Sauce

Ingredients:
4 TBS Butter, unsalted
1-1/2 TBS All Purpose Flour
2/3 Cup Milk
2 Cups Chicken Stock
2-3 TBS Fresh Parsley, chopped
Pinch of Freshly grated Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste
Red Pepper Flakes, to taste

Directions:
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cooking gently for 2-5 minutes, to make a roux.

Pour the milk into the roux, whisking as you add it. whisk in the stock. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking continually as it begins to boil.

Add the parsley and simmer sauce for 15 minutes, stirring often. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and red pepper flakes to taste.

Serve piping hot.

White Chocolate Mousse

This was so delicious that it was gone so quickly. We're making more this weekend. Even the few who don't eat a lot of sweets ate this and said they would like more this weekend as well.

White Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:
4 Oz White Chocolate, chunked
1 Oz Semi Sweet Chocolate
1 TBS Butter, unsalted
1 Egg Yolk
1 Egg White
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract (yes, it's used twice)
1 TBS Granulated Sugar
2 TBS Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Heavy Cream

Put a large metal bowl in the freezer and leave there for about 15 minutes. Take out and add 1 cup heavy cream and  1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 2 TBS granulated sugar. Using a mixer mix together until it turns to whipped cream. Place in the refrigerator to keep cool while you do the rest of the steps.

In a medium bowl add egg yolk and 1 TBS sugar. Whisk until the sugar dissolves and it becomes thick and pale in color. this can take 3-5 minutes. Set aside.

In a double broiler or a large sauce pan with a metal bowl that can sit on the top part of the sauce pan, fill with 1 inch of water and bring to a simmer. Do not bring to a boil. Make sure that the bowl or double broiler top do not touch the water. If they do, pour out some of the water.

While double broiler or bowl is on the top of the bottom double broiler or the sauce pan add the chocolate and butter and stir occasionally. Continue until the chocolate has melted. The chocolate will be thick but melted. Take about 1/2 of the chocolate mixture and put it in the egg/sugar mixture. Stir well to combine. Once it's combine take the chocolate/egg/sugar mixture and pour into the double broiler or bowl with the rest of the chocolate. Stir well to combine. Let it heat up, while stirring continually for a minute. Take off heat and set aside.

Using a bowl, take a hand mixer and mix the egg white until it forms peaks. Fold this into the cooled chocolate.

Take your whipped cream and pour 1/2 of it into the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Do not over stir. You want to just stir enough to combine the mixture.

Place your mousse in serving containers. and chill for a minimum of 5 hours or overnight. (since this mousse is rich, you should use smaller serving dishes or if using larger serving dishes, fill about 1/4 to 1/2  to the way)

When ready to serve top with reaming whipped cream (we did not get a picture with this step because it was gone before we could grab one of the mousse desserts to get a picture)
Take some semi sweet chocolate and using a small grater, grate some on the top of the whipped cream.
You can also serve this with some fruit if you like fruit. We didn't have any but next time we're going to add some because we love fruit.

Creamy Lemon Chicken with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Cheesy Rice with Bacon & Chives

We made a family dinner last night. We had different people make different things. It turned out nice. We made Mousse for dessert but that will be on the next post so there aren't so many recipes on this one.

Creamy Lemon Chicken with Sun Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts (or thighs)
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/4 Cup flour
1 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1-1/2 TBS Butter (Unsalted)
1-1/4 Cups Chicken Broth
3/4 Cups Heavy Cream
3 TBS Lemon Juice
2  TBS Oil from Sun Dried Tomatoes (that are packed in oil), diced
1/4 Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes (that are packed in oil)

Directions:
If your chicken breasts are too thick, cut horizontally in half so they are thinner.
Sprinkle each chicken breast with salt and pepper
Coat with flour, shaking off any excess flour

Place butter and olive oil in large skillet over med-high heat. When butter is melted pick up pan carefully and swirl around until the butter and oil are fairly mixed together.

Add chicken (do not crowd, do in batches if needed) and cook bottom until it's golden. Flip over and continue until it's golden and cooked. Remove and place on a plate. If your oil and butter are diminished when you add more chicken, you can add a little more of both to the pan.

Once your chicken is cooked turn the heat down to medium heat and add 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Bring to a simmer and use a spatula to scrape off the brown bits that are stuck on the bottom of the pan. Stir them to the liquid. Add remaining chicken broth and heavy cream. Simmer for 2 minutes, until slightly thickened. (the sauce thickens more as it cools down)

Add the oil from the sun dried tomatoes jar and stir well. Add the sun dried tomatoes and stir to combine.

Add the lemon juice a little at a time and adjusting it to your tastes. Some add a bit more and some add a bit less. We used the amount listed about and it was delicious. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Return your chicken to the pan. Pour any of the juices that are on the plate into the pan as well. Let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes, or until the chicken has been warmed up again.  This also will help thicken the sauce.

When serving place a chicken on the plate and drizzle a little sauce on it. Put the remaining sauce in a serving container and place on table for others to use if they want more.

Cheesy Rice with Bacon and Chives

Ingredients:
4 Cups Rice, cooked according to package.
1-1/2 Cups Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated
3 TBS Butter, Unsalted
1 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 Cups Heavy cream
1 LB Bacon, Diced, cooked and drained
Chives to taste (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Start the sauce when your bacon and rice have almost finished cooking.
In saucepan add olive oil and butter. When butter has melted add heavy cream and bring to a slight boil. Add cheese and stir continually until cheese has melted. If sauce becomes too thick add a bit more heavy cream and some water. You don't want it too thick, but you don't want it too runny either so be careful when adding more cream or water.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Add in the bacon and chives (if using chives)
Place rice in large bowl and add the sauce. Stir until well combined.
Garnish with some parsley if desired.

Creme Brule (SO easy and SOOOO GOOD!)

This is the best dessert ever. It is so easy to make and is so delicious. I have made it for the last 3 days and want to do it again. No joke. That is how good it is. Usually you'd have to have a kitchen torch to finish but I'll tell you another way if you don't have one.

Crème Brule

Ingredients:
8 Egg Yolks
1/3 Cup Granulated White Sugar
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 TSP Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Raw Sugar (you can use granulated white sugar if you don't have the raw sugar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 Degrees (F)
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved. This takes time so just keep whisking. The mixture will turn a lighter yellow and is fairly thick.
Add cream and vanilla and whisk until well blended. The mixture will become a pale yellow in color.

Strain your mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Discard anything left inside the sieve.
Using a spoon carefully scrape off any bubble film on top of your mixture.

Divide your mixture evenly in your ramekin dishes. The amount of dishes you use will depend on the size of the ramekin dishes. We used 7 oz. dishes so we only got 5 dishes. If you use the 4 oz. you should get 6 dishes.

In a large, deep, oven safe pan (like a cake pan) place the ramekin dishes. Place hot water into the dish coming up about 3/4 of the way. (about 2"). This is the water bath.

Place dish with ramekins in it, in the oven and cook for 50 minutes. Check after the 50 minutes. You want the edges cooked but the middle still a bit jiggly.

When it's done take out of oven and set the pan with the ramekin dishes still in the water bath aside. Let them cool while still in the water bath. After they've cooled take out of the water bath and place the ramekin dishes in the fridge for at least 3 hours. You can even let them sit for a day if you'd like.

When you're ready to eat them, take them out of the fridge and sprinkle generously with the raw sugar.

Using a kitchen torch, melt the sugar. This will create a caramelized crust, which is so delicious.

If you do not have a kitchen torch you can use your broiler and set them under it for a minute to melt the sugar.

You can serve these as they are or add berries and fruits to them.