Wednesday, January 21, 2015

A House Divided: Mushroom Edition

I love mushrooms. I love them raw, sliced into spinach salads. I love making homemade mushroom soup to use in casseroles. I love them on pizza. ManO does not. And that "does not" is more than on his pizza.

Oh no! There is a mushroom on ManO's ham side of the pizza. Much bemoaning occurred!
Now pizza is an easy thing to compromise on. Each person gets their half to do with what they will. But other recipes are far more difficult.

I invited my friend Cathy over to celebrate her birthday and be a part of The Great Dining Room experiment. You know you have a good friend when you make her sit in the middle of a room torn apart. Nope, you can't see the chaos. I'm smart that way. But we haven't used the room in ten years and something had to be done. That's what this experiment got me. More on that next week.
 In ManO's childhood kitchen, the table's almost an antique.
Cathy also loves mushrooms. You might think I could fix something mushroom related no stress but I also planned serving ManO the same dish for dinner. I knew I wanted to fix zucchini lasagna You can find the DIY here.  But I really wanted to hide, I mean, layer the lasagna with mushrooms. But ManO is too smart for that.

That's when it hit me. Steak houses, at least the good ones, serve a sauteed mushroom side dish so customers can spoon the mushrooms over the steak. Why not do the same with lasagna?
Oh my goodness! Delish! Instructions below.
Thanks to Jan Drexler's quick cheesecake dessert , I revisited my gluten free cheesecake recipe  and experimented with both the crust and putting it in custard cups. I used my berry-sauce topped baked cheesecake because of the added protein. But if you want to make it no bake simply use organic confectioners sugar, cream cheese and whipped cream to thin and chill.  I could have easily done the crust with gluten-free chocolate cookies and corn syrup free homemade chocolate sauce and peanuts or pecans as a base with cane sugar caramel sauce.


The bottom line is we had a great lunch and I didn't have to cook ManO an entirely new dinner!

Easy Sauteed Mushrooms

1 pint washed and sliced mushrooms
1 or 2 tablespoons butter
1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil
minced garlic to taste (optional)

Melt butter with olive oil over medium heat.
Add minced garlic and stir. 
Saute until cooked but NOT limp.
Serve over veggies, meat or as a side.

So, what about you? Do you have a love or hate affair with mushrooms? Is there something you've given up because no one else in the house loves a particular food or ingredient?

16 comments:

  1. When I was a youngster I hated mushrooms but my parents wouldn't accommodate me. Mom or Dad would happily take any that I picked out of a dish, and would say, "All the more for me!" It wasn't until I was grown and family friends would bring a pizza over when they came for coffee in the evenings that I learned to hold back the gag reflex and politely eat the darned things. I surprised myself by learning to like them on pizza, and years later -- altho' I don't know how it happened -- I'm enjoying them on anything, cooked or raw.

    In our household of six, only one daughter shared my liking of parsnips, and whenever I made roast beef I'd roast a few parsnips just for us. Once she left home I stopped doing that. My hubby doesn't like them, or squash either and when I'm just cooking for two of us it doesn't make sense to go to the trouble to fix one serving,

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    1. I remember how I didn't eat my grandmother's home canned green beans and now? I'd give anything for them.

      ManO loves beets. I've learned to love beets too over the years but roasted only.

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  2. I had canned mushrooms all my life and I didn't really get the love of those rubber things. Then I discovered REAL mushrooms. Love them raw in salad and sauteed with steak. They don't last long around my house.

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    1. I was in a restaurant last night where they put canned mushrooms on a salad! I was like what's this? Blech. Yep, the real ones are a totally different animal, I mean fungi.

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  3. Shuddering at the thought of canned mushrooms. Blech. Love them fresh though. In salads, to munch on with hummus and sautéed in butter with onions....divine. This Christmas a friend bought me a vegan tourtiere and it had Portobello mushrooms in it. Oh my but it was delish. I usually only buyt the white button ones. So yeah, I'm a mushroom fan. LOL

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    1. The white buttons are definitely the most economical but I've had some crazy mushrooms put on my plate in restaurants. ManO was always like, "you're really going to eat that?" Why yes! And Portobellos are just so marvelous and they aren't even creepy looking.

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  4. I do keep canned mushrooms on hand always for emergency mushroom fix status!!!! But we do a huge pot of sauteed mushrooms on the side whenever we do a steak roast because half the kin love 'em and half hate 'em.

    This way everyone is happy!

    Paul (Mandy's husband and our good buddy for years) always sautes his with sliced, sweet onions. So delicious! But then if you've got more fussy people who don't like one or the other, they get belligerent! We want to avoid annoying people at all costs! :) I love a generous side of mushrooms, and every now and again we get a giant puffball or two growing in the woodchips in the shade.... And a puff ball sliced and grilled like "mushroom steak" is an amazing thing.

    I love 'shrooms!!!

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  5. Wait! Puff balls aren't poisonous or are you hiding a truffle supply?

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  6. Garlic to taste? Are you kidding me, Julie? Bring on the whole bulb! ;)

    Gotta love those mushies.

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    1. I didn't even bring up the fact that ManO likes his garlic on the teensie side. Me? I want the whole bulb.

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  7. Honestly, I could hardly read your post. The smell of mushrooms sauteing nearly makes me sick. I don't know why. I used to eat tiny pieces on pizza, but now I can't even do that. However, I can use a can of the soup in a casserole if I have to, although I usually just use something else. But, my husband and kids love them. The story I tell is that I am allergic...

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    1. Bless you for getting through it, Nikki. I think we all have some food trauma in our past that makes us like that. For my daughter, it's beets. I threatened to take Nickelodeon away from her if she didn't eat a bit of beet. She's never been the same.

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  8. I used to hate mushrooms. I came to love them when I fell in love with DH. So it is possible to be converted! I do these sauteed mushrooms all of the time to add to things...since DS doesn't like them...of course. Canned mushrooms are an abomination. Only fresh (or fresh ones I freeze when they are on sale) will do around here!

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    1. I didn't even realize they could be frozen. Thanks for letting me know. Yes, canned mushrooms are nasty.

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  9. What a great idea! I didn't like mushrooms when I was young, but when I was 11, we moved to Berwyn, Illinois, home of the Houby Parade, with a Houby queen and everything (houby being the Czech term for mushroom). My fate was sealed. Now I love them. I make a casserole for family gatherings with mushrooms, green peppers, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, sauteed and seasoned with thyme, then baked on a thin bed of bread stuffing mix and topped with shredded swiss (I once made a gluten-free version for a visitor). I must try your lasagna solution. It sounds wonderful!

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    1. Wow. I learned something in a different language today. That makes it a good day for sure. And your casserole sounds wonderful! I would have loved to see the Houby queen's crown!

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