Step-by-Step Recipe: Mushroom Risotto

I'll be honest and admit that I actually prepared this recipe a few weeks ago and just never got around to posting it.  So the mushrooms I used in the recipe may not be easily available, but no matter--any fresh (or maybe even dried) mushroom will do!  I used a mix of your standard white grocery store mushrooms, and some pioppini mushrooms bought at a local farmers' market.  Morels would be a great, though pricey, addition.  Use whatever mushroom is available and suits your budget, so long as it doesn't come from a can or a jar. 

As soon as I saw them, I just new I'd be putting them into a risotto.  I love making risotto--almost as much as I like eating it!  All the stirring is downright therapeutic.  I like it so much that I've even quasi-published my own recipe on the TastyKitchen website for a lemon herb risotto.  The basics are the same for this risotto recipe, but the flavor is much earthier, and it satisfies a totally different craving.

Recipe and pictures below the cut!

The Best Thing I Ever Ate: San Francisco/Napa Valley Edition

Well, unfortunately, there wasn't just one.  But I'll try to narrow it down to the top few.

First of all, my apologies for the long absence.  I just did not have the energy to blog when we first got back from California.  I've been cooking at home, but mostly just throwing things together, and not really following recipes.  I have a few recipes in my stash that I plan to post next week, probably.  And with the farmers' markets back in full swing with the late spring/early summer produce, I'm sure there will be plenty to blog about!

Back to the task at hand.  We ate like crazy on our vacation.  San Francisco is known for good food, certainly, and with good reason.  The Napa Valley is also known for great food--lots of delicious locally grown produce, artisan cheeses, organic meat, and of course--fantastic wine.  I almost wish I could say we'd been more mindful of the calories we consumed.  But we weren't.

Highlights of San Francisco:

• Tiny Swedish pancakes at Sears Fine Food, which was, conveniently, right next to our hotel.  It was so nice to start out a day of sightseeing with a filling breakfast.  I also loved the sourdough French toast (my husband less so), but overall, it was just a great experience.  The one more we diverged and went somewhere else, it was tasty, but we wished we'd gone to Sears!
• Amazing Parisian macarons and other tasty treats from Miette Patisserie at the Ferry Building.  I tried the chocolate-lavender macaron, and I've got to be honest...it was better than any of the macarons I had in Paris.  It was amazing. I ate it in teeny-tiny bites to try to make it last and refused to give my husband a bite (uncharacteristic). Now that I see they do a mail-order business, I am sorely tempted to have a box shipped to my house immediately.  We also picked up some peanut butter cookies that served as our bedtime treat the rest of the week (on the occasion we were able to resist dessert with dinner, that is).

• My entire meal at Fleur de Lys.  My chef crush on Hubert Keller knows no bounds.  My husband and I had dined at the Las Vegas location in 2009 (now known simply as "Fleur"), and at the time, it was one of the best meals of our lives.  We booked our reservation for our last night of our trip, thinking it would be a last hurrah of sorts. But as that Friday night reservation approached, we were so satiated with good food from our time in Napa (more on that in a bit) that we actually considered canceling.  But wow, am I glad we didn't.  We were smart this time and only did a three-course tasting menu with wine pairings, instead of the four we did in Vegas, because we recalled that there would also be an amuse-bouche and petits fours that came with the check. (In Vegas, the very sight of the petits fours had made me queasy; in San Francisco, I managed to make some room for them and enjoyed every last crumb.)  I don't remember everything that we ate, but I vividly remember my appetizer course, which involved a little baeckeoffe (Alsatian casserole) of vegetables and foie gras in veal stock, topped with a delicious crust and slices of black truffles.  On the side was a tiny little foie gras and duck sausage "burger."  The dish was, as you might expect, divine.  My other most vivid memory of our meal there was our dessert.  We both opted for the souffle--I had the chocolate, and my husband tried the Grand Marnier.  If you ever have the opportunity to dine at Fleur de Lys--and I hope that you do--I suggest, no, I urge, that you have the souffle.  It is well worth all 1,383,394 calories.  Promise. (Pictured: the souffle I had in Vegas in 2009.  It looked pretty much the same this time, except the ice cream was a cherry-kirsch flavor instead of mocha.)

Highlights of Napa Valley (with pictures!) below the cut!

Recipe Snapshot: French Chicken

This recipe is known in our home simply as "French chicken."  I think it has a real name, but being that I found the recipe in French (with its French name), I find it's simpler to stick with "French chicken."  I love this recipe.  It's easy, delicious, and impressive.  I've made it for guests, including a special birthday dinner for a friend this past fall.  I also made it last night on an ordinary Tuesday, because I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, and I felt like it.  What else makes it great?  It tastes, somehow, French, without being fussy or complicated (unlike the traditional boeuf bourguignon that I made that took nearly 7 hours to complete).

I often serve this chicken with haricot verts (fancy-sounding French words for skinny green beans) and some kind of potato.  Last night I served it with a green salad and some spaghetti squash.  I love that it has come out perfectly every time I make it.  And like I said above, it just tastes "French."  I think it's the Dijon (must use real Dijon, not plain yellow mustard or the grainy stuff) and the herbs.  If my guess is right, this is actually pretty healthy, as well.  Think about it--the only real fat is the Parmesan and the pine nuts.

Recipe is below the cut.

Step-by-Step Recipe: Homemade Basil Pesto, with Pasta

In honor of the official end of summer (which is September 23 this year), yesterday I made a double batch of homemade basil pesto.  Is there anything better?  (Don't answer that.)  My basil plants will probably keep producing until our first frost, but they are definitely slowing down because of the shortening days (and lower heat).  Aside: Oddly enough, in July when it was about 1,000 degrees outside and 200% humidity (don't tell me I don't have a flare for hyperbole!), my basil grew and grew and grew.  The basil growth thing is pretty much the only good thing I think came out of that ridiculous heat wave.

Anyway, everyone should make homemade basil pesto.  There's no reason not to do so--unless you'reallergic to basil, can't have Par mesan cheese, or just hate yummy things.  Because basil pesto is certainly yummy.  And nearly embarrassingly easy to make.  Unless you don't like garlic, in which case...well, maybe this blog isn't for you, because I am not shy about garlic.

Step-by-Step Recipe: Turkey Sausage Lasagna

Also known as Julie's Favorite Lasagna Ever.

Don't you want a piece right now?  Mmm...I know I do.  And this is why I'm happy we have leftovers.

Sunday night I made Turkey Sausage Lasagna, a recipe from Ina Garten (aka The Barefoot Contessa).  I don't actually own any of her cookbooks (though I probably should, as she's one of my Food Network favorites), but a friend made this recipe for my husband and I a few years ago, and after declaring it the best lasagna I've ever had, I asked for the recipe.  And she very kindly gave it to me.  I have since made this recipe for my parents, my in-laws, my husband (repeatedly), and even for Christmas Eve.  It's that good.  (Note: if you hate goat cheese, fresh herbs, and delicious food, do not make this recipe.  You will not like it.  And we can't be friends.)

Conveniently, the recipe is available on the Food Network website.  Click here to see Ina's original Turkey Sausage Lasagna.  I made slight alterations based on preferences (I prefer the hot Italian turkey sausage) and what I had on hand (lots of fresh oregano).

My Favorite _____: Ice Cream

So I had a headache last night and ended up not cooking.  Since no one would care to see pictures of the take-out Chinese food I ate (though delicious), and I didn't bother to take any, I had to think of something else to post.

I may try to do a "My Favorite" series, depending on inspiration.  As summer is drawing to a close (or at least I hope it is) here in the DC area, I thought starting with ice cream was apropos! 

I actually have several favorite ice creams.  In no particular order: Baskin Robbins Pink Bubblegum flavor (ahhh...childhood), Ben & Jerry's discontinued Festivus flavor, and good old fashioned chocolate custard (when dipped in chocolate and consumed at the beach, of course).  And let's not forget any flavor of ice cream ever made by my Grandpa Skeen.  His peach is quite good, but the year he made black raspberry is fondly remembered by all Skeen offspring!

All of those ice creams aside...the BEST I ever had was in France this past May.  For anyone who has been to France, ice cream (or glace as they call it) is sort of a tradition.  You get one to eat while walking through the park.  You get one to eat while walking along the beach.  Perhaps it's because the servings are so much smaller (in general) that the French can get away with eating so much ice cream?  Or is it that everyone else in line was American like us?  Ha! 

We had tasty ice cream in Paris on our honeymoon in 2009.  We had yummy ice cream in the small village of Gigondas (known for their red wine) in the Cotes du Rhone area of Provence (salted caramel and real coffee flavor--mmmmm!).  But the BEST?  Had to be at the famed Fenocchio in Old Nice.  It was so good we ate there three times during our 4 days in Nice.

It was busy, even at 11 o'clock at night.