We've had kitchen success!!!
AND KITCHEN FAIL!!!!!
All in the ongoing quest for good food!!!!
If you've read The Lawman's Holiday Wish you've seen this recipe that we featured here in April:
Rainey McKinney's Tres Leches Cake
Huge thanks to Virginia for guiding me on the basics of Tres Leches Cakes! I discovered that tres leches are like Italian Cannoli cakes: Each area has their own little quirks, twists and versions, so in the book I had Rainey develop a traditional recipe, a coconut pineapple recipe and an apple-and-eggnog recipe. Now a local Inn/Lodge wants her to develop one specifically for them, exclusive!!! :) I love how I can engineer things in fiction... and then transfer some of them to real life! My family considers this a mega-win!
And I'm working on a pecan/sweet potato pie recipe for next Christmas's book.... and yes, we're experimenting (Loving Piper Huguley's post on sweet potato pie!!!! ) with some fun variations to delight the family... and readers.... because it's so much fun to bring folks right into the kitchen!
Last year I did a stuffed mushroom recipe that you can find here: Ruthy's Stuffed Mushrooms 1
Now those are real good, but this year I refined the recipe a bit. The basics are the same... and a grinder is your best friend for consistency, but check this out!
2 lbs. White Mushroom (Ours were kind of small once cooked, although Dave was sure they were BIG ENOUGH when he bought them. :) )
1 lb. country breakfast sausage
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon dried onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon parsley flakes.
Wash mushrooms, remove stems.
Cook sausage and mushroom stems until sausage is cooked through. Add a little olive oil or water if needed. Grind sausage, mushroom stems through grinder. (hand or electric)
Mix in bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, onion, parsley and garlic. If dry, add some of the drippings from sausage pan....
Saute mushrooms lightly in olive oil in frying pan on stovetop. don't cook through, just soften a smidge....
Remove from heat. Drain and stuff with sausage filling. Heat under broiler.... or if you're like us, you just zap 'em in the microwave and feed the teeming masses!!!
OH MY STARS, DELICIOUS!!!!
And fairly easy!!!! Right???? Normal, in the kitchen ingredients except for the fresh mushrooms and the Bob Evans sausage.... WONDERFUL FOR PARTIES!!!!
So that's our normal life.... Oh, wait, WRONG.... This is our normal life:
 |
| Headdress design time! |
 |
| Little White Dove and Pearlie Morning, hard at work! |
 |
| Princess Megan of the Iroquois Nation!!! |
 |
| The Indian on the left looks a little worried about that feast thing!!! |
 |
| First storm!!!! But then it died and we ended up with 4 inches. Pfft. |
 |
| Xavier makes licking the bowl an art form!!!! And it's the end of shotgun season for whitetail deer: |
The guys "drove" the woods.... and they ended up with a few bits of venison for the freezers.... Whereas my freezer has beef and chicken. And a few turkeys. :)
Although venison is always welcome here!
And colorful!!!! Sing, o ye Cherubim!!!!
LOL -- love those angels -- the flesh and bone kind and the paper kind! I want to come and play at your house, Ruthy!
ReplyDeleteWe had a huge dumping of snow last week and it was winterwonderland but today it's going up to 8 with a little freezing rain before the real rain starts. :-( Now all the silvery white stuff is gloomy gray. Blech!
I think I'm as relieved as the deer that their shotgun season is coming to an end. :-)
Oh, Kav, I have a neighbor (the same one that hated my rooster a few years back) who used to go outside and shoo deer away... on my land. And scold hunters.
Delete:( This being a carnivore is different, I know. But the deer population here is crazy high. They have no natural predators other than man, although we do have black bears moving into the area....(watch the little children!!! )
I'm loving the angels, too! So sweet and the rainbow effect???? :) LOVE IT!!!!
We've got gray drudge too. Sodden, gray trees, drives, mud..... and dirty snow in crevices.
I'd much, much, much rather have snow!!!
Sign me: Crazy in NY!
I love that grinder! And the cute kids! Bet they are driving you nuts asking when Christmas will be!
ReplyDeleteI'll be glad to give the grinder a workout on this recipe, maybe for Christmas Eve snacks. It will have to be turkey sausage since DH doesn't eat pork...but thanks for posting the recipe, Ruthy!
Turkey sausage works great, Piper! And we love turkey pepperoni up here, it's delicious and not as greasy.... Love the texture!
DeleteI ♥♥♥ my grinder. I got it for Christmas years ago and it's so fun... I've taught kids how to make many a fun recipe with that grinder! I have a big one that clamps onto the table, but it leaves marks (kind of like Virginia's cast iron pot) and we only use it when we're grinding stuff to do "old school" lessons.... I keep it to show the kids the difference and if anything ever happens to the electricity SHOCKER!!!!! we've got a great grinder!
We had an old school grinder like that, but something happened to it and my mother got this one for the mixer. Much improved!
DeleteI want to come to your house, too, Ruthy! I'll bring the snow :)
ReplyDeleteWe have a huge deer population around here, too, but tons of hunters. So they do a lottery for deer licenses. Can you imagine that back east? But we have natural predators around here - mountain lions and such. An occasional wolf.
And I'd much rather have the deer die by a clean shot from a hunter and fill someone's freezer than have them die of disease or starve to death - the other alternative with a high deer population.
But on to the stuffed mushrooms! I could eat those things by the handfuls!
And I love the sweet angels. Those children in your care are getting the best, Ruthy :) Christmas spirit to the eyeballs. They'll remember these days for the rest of their lives. {{{sigh}}}
hmm looks like a lot of work stuffing those things! and I don't have a grinder so guess I'm off the hook! :-)
ReplyDeleteSusanna
oh - kindle finally gave me your new book but I haven't had time unless I read 10 min here and there but I know that ain't gonna happen and I get really cranky when I'm interrupted in a good book.
DeleteSusanna
Loved the photos! So much fun in the Ruthy household! I, too, noticed the concern on the face. LOL
ReplyDeleteLove this recipe! Looks like you cleaned out the gills of the mushrooms. Does that take long?? Or did they just come out with the stems? I've never made stuffed mushrooms! This will be new to me. :)
Sounds like a perfect recipe for upcoming holiday entertaining! And I love all the pics, although the ones of the youngsters make me a bit envious. We won't be making our usual Christmas trek this year, so will miss the joy of all the little ones. Fortunately there will be one wee gal and her much older brother coming here for Christmas dinner but it isn't like being surrounded for two full weeks.
ReplyDeleteThere's a bit of snow in next week's forecast, but for now it's just cold and windy here... the kind of weather that makes me want to stay inside. It's -5C with a windchill of -15 and -20. Takes one's breath away!