Pork Posole

I have three things I like to cook these days:

1. Things to keep my family alive (the basics) 

2. Things that make me happy (already tested) 

3. Things that don't take a lot of time or money (no big investment) 

Today this Pork Posole soup was in category number three. I felt like cooking, but Christmas is just days away. Which means family is visiting, laundry needs to be done, and gifts need to be wrapped. And oh yeah, there's that new job I just started three months ago. So I need low investment, high returns.

I turned to my favorite go to magazine, Cooking Light. (I really look through my other cookbooks, but what the f@&% is cream of tartar?) 

Here's the Pork Posole recipe I found today. Totally easy, and delicious! Took about 40 minutes of prep time (between opening beers) and then it simmered for another hour. 

Only two things went awry. First, the pork did not give off a lot of fat. I think that's because I like to over trim my meat. So when I added the onions, there were no "drippings" left. I added a tiny bit of olive oil to make up for it. Because of the lack of fat drippings, the bottom of the pan browned quickly. So I stirred the onions a little more than usual so they wouldn't stick and burn. As for the browning, it was all good once the beer hit the pan and the pan deglazed. 

Second, I didn't have cayenne pepper (crushed red pepper), so I just used some chili powder instead. Worse things could happen. 

Again soup was good. Really good. Better yet, the kids liked it. And, better still, it was cheap. So while it started in category three, it's probably going to jump to category two. Once I figure out how to make it in the microwave it will join category number one.

The Minion Cake

As promised, I made a little Despicable Me cake for my son's second birthday. Yes, it's not professional and I won't be posting it on Pinterest, but I think it's still pretty cool.

Want to know how I did it? Here's is my extensive recipe list:

Lemon cake mix
Buttercream frosting with blue food coloring
Twinkies
Candy eyeballs
Black gel frosting

It's also good to have some artistic skills and an internet connection so you can see what a minion looks like.

My favorite part? The minion who looks scared to death.

My son's favorite part? The candles I dug out of a junk drawer. Go figure.

Pinterest Bitches

http://bitchinsisters.wordpress.com/

A few hours after I wrote my "I'm out of time" post, a friend of mine sent me this link from Bitchin Sisters.

It's about moms who have the time to make cute little gifts for their kids's first day at school.

My kids aren't even in school yet and I already know what they're getting for the first day. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a brown bag. Okay, that's not true. I will go buy them some cool lunch box, but you get the point.

The Bitchin Sisters blog is awesome if you want to check it out.

PS: The boy's birthday is in a few days and I will be attempting to make a cake with dumb Twinkie Minions. It will not look like this:

http://cakecentral.com/

It's Official, I'm Out of Time

When I first started this blog, I needed a distraction. I love to write and I love to cook, so there you go. But now I have too many distractions. They're called my 4-year-old and my 2-year-old.

Let's face it, the days of being able to flip though a cooking magazine and then spend an hour at the market finding some ridiculous ingredients are over. Instead I spend 10 minutes at the park trying to get the two kids to look at the camera at the same time.

Yep, photo fail.

Cooking is beginning to fail for me too. I still love it, I just don't have the time. Yes, I still have saffron in my spice cabinet. But I also have Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the pantry. Guess which gets used more often.

Not that any of this is a bad thing. Lives change, priorities changes, people change. I still love to cook, and I still subscribe to those cooking magazines. But cooking those special dishes will be reserved for birthdays and holidays. Not every days.

As for this blog, I want to... What? Your brother did what? He put it where?

Never mind, I'm out of time.

The First Fresh Peas

This blog is a lot about firsts. First pesto. First grilled pizza. First fresh peas.

Sure I've had fresh peas in restaurants. Probably in some fancy shmancy place. But I've never bought fresh, still in a pod, peas. 

I didn't even mean to buy them this time. I was at the farmers market this morning and thought I was buying sugar snap peas (yes, seriously). I didn't realize my mistake until I got home and tried to "snap" into one. A few minutes later I found myself shelling peas on the kitchen counter. 

Now, before you think I'm out of touch, remember I grew up in the southwest. Peas came in two varieties, canned or frozen. 

So here I am with my shelled peas, and I figure this should be pretty easy. So of course I consult Google. The first website used canned peas. Gross. The second, third an fourth site explained how to turn fresh peas into a tart, sauce and some other dish fit for brunch at the Palace of Versailles. 

Finally, I found what I was looking for: Toss peas in boiling water for 1 minute and toss with salt and butter. 

Perfection. And another first is finished. 

Seattle: Year Three

The view of Seattle from the West Seattle Bridge

Today I was talking to a friend about my contract and realized we would be in Seattle until at least 2016. That seems so strange. We arrived two years ago with one kid. Now we have two. By 2016 both will be in school. One will be in second grade.

Not that being in Seattle in 2016 will be a bad thing. It's just strange. Strange to grow roots in a city we never imagined living in. Strange to see Orcas in the water near our house when I grew up in the desert chasing lizards. Strange that this may be the place my kids call home.

As we begin our third year in Seattle we can't wait to ride ferries, go to Friday Harbor, visit Leavenworth for the first time, sit on rooftop decks, cheer on the Mariners, and be the 12th man.

Do we feel like locals? Not quite.

Will we by 2016? Definitely.

So strange.

Peeling a Pomegranate

When I was a kid I ruined more than one white t-shirt by sitting out in the backyard and eating pomegranates like corn on the cob. By the time it was over, I looked like I had just slaughtered a small goat.

Years later, when pink stained fingers weren't cool anymore, I gave up on pomegranates. They weren't worth the time or effort. Luckily for all of us Al Gore invented the world wide web, and I learned that getting to those little pomegranate seeds wasn't hard at all - You just need a bowl of water:

First cut open your pomegranate. Don't worry about not cutting a few seeds. There are hundreds of them.
I like to cut my pomegranates into quarters. 

Next, put the pomegranate pieces into a large bowl of water and start pulling the seeds off the white stuff. Yes it's pith.  I had to look it up. The seeds will fall to the bottom and the "pith" will float to the top.

When your finished use a slotted spoon to scoop off the white stuff. I mean pith. 

Then dump your pomegranate seeds into a strainer and rinse the rest of the pith off. I don't have a picture of this because my sink is full of dirty dishes.

And there you have it. A wonderful bowl of non-messy pomegranate seeds to enjoy while wearing a white t-shirt. 

Impressive Italian Bread Salad

Pretty impressive for a beach BBQ

I like impressing people with salad. Why waste time on a fancy dessert or spend money on an expensive cut of meat, when a salad will do? Think about it. Who usually brings a kick ass salad to a dinner party? This gal (and yes, I have two thumbs pointed at myself right now).

A couple of weekends ago, we were invited to a BBQ on Alki Beach in West Seattle. They bring the burgers, we bring the salad. Perfect! I wanted to make an Italian Bread Salad because 1. I've never made one before and 2. It kinda seems like something you'd bring to a BBQ. 

But, here's the problem with bread salad - You're supposed to use stale Italian or French bread. If you've ever been to our house, you know bread doesn't last very long. Either I'm slathering butter on it, or we're frantically trying to make enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to keep the kids from mutiny. 

I finally found a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that worked. Instead of waiting for your bread to get stale, you just cut it up and toast it. I know what you're thinking - Those folks at Cook's Illustrated are geniuses. Okay, maybe that last line was a little sarcastic, but they are pretty damn good at what they do. 

As I suspected the salad was a hit, although I think kids were more impressed with the watermelon. Still, I'm a fan and would make it again. Especially if I'm trying to impress someone. 

The recipe goes something like this: 

First off - Don't ever, ever try and make this in advance. The bread will just get soft and you won't be impressing anyone. You can get all the ingredients ready and toss together at the last minute. 

- Cut up 2/3rds of a loaf of Italian bread into bite size squares. About six cups. 

- Toss bread in olive oil and kosher salt and toast in a 400 degree oven until bread is golden brown. Let cool. 

- Core, seed, chop and drain* about 5 medium sized tomatoes. If you're using Roma tomatoes (don't) then you'll need about 8. 

- Peel, seed and slice one cucumber.

- Thinly slice one shallot, from the bottom up so it creates ringlets.

- Chop about 7 basil leaves. 

- Mix together the following and toss with bread squares

        - 6 Tbs olive oil

        - 3 Tbs red wine vinegar

        - Pepper and Salt

- Add tomatoes, cucumbers, shallots and basil and serve immediately

*The Cook's Illustrated recipe tells you to salt the tomatoes and then let them sit and drain, and then use the leftover juices as part of the dressing, but I didn't get very much juice out of them and it just seemed like a waste of time and dishware. 

Pesto, The Right Way

Doesn't the iPhone take nice pictures?

Five ingredients shouldn't be hard to screw up, but I've done it. The first time I made pesto, I left the shells on the nuts. Yes, somewhere they sell pine nuts with the shells on, like you're gonna want to de-shell each nut by hand.

Three years later, I'm at it again. Same five ingredients, sans the shells. And while it wasn't perfect (I didn't measure the ingredients) it was pretty damn close. Here's my recipe:

- 15-20 leaves off my basil plant
- A handful of pine nuts (shell free)
- Two garlic cloves, chopped

Put in a food processor, and pulse while adding olive oil. Continue to add olive oil (about a 1/2 cup) until smooth.

When finished, mix in a handful of grated parmesan.

Toss with warm pasta, or whatever you like.

P.S. This does not count as a recipe. I still need to make something this weekend. Tomorrow, we head to the store!

What The What?

There's nothing like a little boredom to help dust off the "favorites" page. Hmm, what's this? Pinterest? I forgot I had an account. Hall of Fame FFL? Oh yeah, that old fantasy football league I didn't join this year. Seattle Dish? I haven't posted there since February.

Wait, February? What the What?!?

The little one with a mouth full

I used to love to write little nuggets of news and share my recipes. What happened this year? Oh that's right, I now have two kids. In February my youngest one was five months old. He was so cute, taking mid-morning naps or playing quietly on his blanket. Now he's one, and he a crawling, smashing, eating machine. Yes, that's a picture of him eating a rock. 

Not that having a healthy baby boy is a bad thing. 

What is a bad thing is not finding time to do what I love. Which is cook and write. The last meal I made came from a Trader Joe's bag. The last recipe I followed was probably on the back of a bisquick box. The sandwich place across the street from work has become my best friend. 

Yep, it's time to get back into the swing of things. I owe it to my thighs.

So starting this weekend, I'm going to start cooking again. Not reheating, or microwaving, or baking for 10-12 minutes at 375. Actual recipes, that require raw ingredients, measuring spoons and a grocery list. I can't wait to get started, but first I have to find a recipe.

Hey look, there's Pinterest....

  

Roasted Tomato and Asparagus Penne Salad

This is going to be a short post, because I don't much to say about this salad except it's delicious.

It's another Cooking Light special, with doesn't mean it's light at all - It just means in the general scheme of things, it's pretty healthy.

I love this salad because...

- It's easy to make
- It seems fancy
- It's delicious
- And the pasta makes it hearty, so you can have it for lunch or serve it as a side dish.

I made this once for a fancy schmancy barbecue and it was a big hit. This time around, I didn't let the pasta completely cool, so the goat cheese melted and became kind of a creamy sauce. It was still delicious.

Here is the recipe - Enjoy!

Browned Butter and Sage Chicken

I've been thinking about a friend of mine who is trying to eat better but gets bored with chicken. I realized I don't have that problem because I avoid chicken. Because it's boring.

So I'm on a mission to find good chicken recipes. Recipes that don't call for chicken to be soaked in Campbell's Soup or covered in BBQ sauce and cheese. Here's my first find and I have to admit it's pretty good. Not boring at all. Oh, and did I mention, easy to make - Now who can complain about that?

The original recipe comes from Cooking Light. But here's my version. I just made one serving and since the ingredients are so simple, I really didn't worry about measurements.

Take a chicken breast, wrap in plastic wrap and pound until it's 1/4 inch thick. That's 1/4 inch, not a half, not a third. Take your frustrations out and pound that chicken!

After the chicken is nice and thin, sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Put some flour on a plate and coat chicken in flour. Place chicken in medium hot pan that's covered in cooking spray.

Cook 4 minutes on each side. The chicken will be done on the inside if it's thin enough. See previous paragraphs.

Take chicken out of pan and place on plate. Add about 2 tablespoons of butter to the same pan and let brown. It only takes about 45 seconds. The butter will be brown when all the white bubbles go away and the gold liquid gets a brown hue.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of chopped shallots. Cook for another 45 seconds. Add a splash of lemon juice and cook for another 30 seconds. 

Pour sauce over chicken, and serve. Sprinkle with chopped fresh sage if you're trying to be fancy or are taking pictures for a food blog. Enjoy!

Not So Fast Peanut Butter & Chocolate Fudge

I miss the baking season - When it's okay to cook lots of fattening food and swallow it down with jugs of alcohol. But with the addition of our baby boy in September (awww) I haven't had a lot of time to bake, and even less time to drink.

So when I saw a recipe that only took nine minutes to make, I couldn't pass it up. Maybe I could make some fudge and even enjoy a glass a wine before the baby wakes up!

I said maybe, didn't I?

I've been cooking long enough to know that recipes take a lot longer at home, where toddlers scream for chocolate chips and you forget to preheat the oven.

I still had to give this fudge recipe a chance. To make things fair, I got all my ingredients together before starting the clock. When it was all over, my toddler was covered in chocolate and 21 minutes had gone by. Not nine. Not even close.

Granted I took some pictures as I went along, and my toddler was chasing me around asking for more chocolate - Conditions that I'm sure were not present in the Cooking Light test kitchen. Even so, the fudge was easy to make, and I'm sure my co-workers will appreciate it when I bring it into work on Monday.

Working mom of two kids finds enough time to make fudge for her co-workers? I'll be a hero! I guess that's worth 21 minutes of my time.





Recipe from Cooking Light: Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Fudge
- If you don't care about the dark chocolate, regular cocoa will work fine
- I'd cut the amount of vanilla in half
- For extra peanutiness, try using all natural peanut butter. I used Jiff, and it didn't really pack a punch
- Make sure you pour the chocolates when they're hot. Once they cool down, it's a lot harder to spread
- Finally, make sure you have wax paper so you don't have to ask the significant other to stop at the store on the way home from work

Nine minutes? I think not

But it was easy - Throw it in a bowl and microwave

First layer of dark chocolate

Evil child demanding more chocolate

Second layer of peanut butter

Chill and serve

Screwing Up Roasted Tomatoes - Yes It's Possible

Roasted tomatoes are the easiest thing in the world to make - Probably as easy as toasting bread. So leave it to me to screw them up. This post should make anyone who has failed miserably in the kitchen feel a lot better about themselves.

Of course, I was able to redeem myself by making some wonderful roasted tomatoes the next day. More on that later.

First my lousy roasted tomatoes. To make roasted tomatoes, all you need to do is cut up some tomatoes, toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper and bake them at a low temperature for several hours. So where did I go wrong? Well after the tomatoes were in the oven for about 2 1/2 hours I decided to pull them out. Sure they were still a little juicy and red, but I thought they would be just fine.

I was wrong. Instead of tasting like a rich, concentrated sun dried tomatoes, they tasted like... well, cooked tomatoes that had been tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper.

That could have been the end of it. But, nooooo, I had to serve up my crappy cooked tomatoes. I bought some garlic toasts (another mistake) and topped them with cream cheese (and yet another mistake) and the tomatoes.

What I ended up with was a crunchy garlic toast with a super juicy warm tomato slice and some flavorless cream cheese. Not my best moment.

I knew I could do better. Hell, anyone could do better.

So the next day the oven was back on and the tomatoes were being tossed again. This time I added plenty of salt, pepper and some diced fresh oregano. I also left the tomatoes in the oven until they were shriveled and dried. I almost left them in too long because many became singed around the edges.

Instead of the crunchy garlic toast, I sliced up a fresh bagette, toasted the slices in the oven, and topped the bread with goat cheese and the diced roasted tomatoes.

This time, I hit the jackpot. They were so good we ate every last one. It's definitely something I'd serve up at a dinner party (as if I still have time to host dinner parties).

So lessons learned: If it looks like crap, don't fool yourself, it probably will taste that way too - Just throw it out and start over (or get takeout). And if you screw up, don't worry, even people who write dumb food blogs make mistakes every once in a while.

Not enough time in the oven

Just right

Homemade Marshmallows: Easy, Cheap, and Sticky

Don't ask why I wanted to make marshmallows. Probably just to say I've done it. So on this Fourth of July weekend I made a big, beautiful batch of homemade marshmallows that will hopefully be consumed by my coworkers on Monday.

I have three ways to describe making marshmallows. Easy. Cheap. And Sticky. And yes, if you have a dirty mind you're probably giggling to yourself right now.

There are really only seven ingredients and that's if you include water. I had everything in my pantry, except for the gelatin. You'll need a stand mixer, or at the very least a hand mixer and a very patient husband/child/neighbor who will be willing to mix marshmallow creme for 10 minutes.

The recipes I saw also called for a candy thermometer, but I just winged it, cooking the sugars for about eight minutes until they turned from a cloudy white to a clear syrup. If you have a candy thermometer, then I doubt you need my advice on making homemade marshmallows.

I used a recipe from Alton Brown, and just a note, it does take about 4 hours for the marshmallows to set.

Now to the sticky part. If a recipe says to lightly oil a spatula, do it. Don't assume that drop of water on the counter is water - It's probably corn syrup. And if you've every used super glue, you know what happens when you try to use one hand to clean off the other. Same thing goes for marshmallow goo.

It's a good to have a wet paper towel on hand to quickly clean up sticky fingers, countertops, handles, etc. It took me a good 20 minutes to find the sticky spot in the floor that I kept stepping in.

After I made the marshmallows, I melted down some dark chocolate. I wanted to dip the marshmallows in the chocolate, but that quickly became too messy, so I decided to drizzle it on top. The chocolate made this desert. My husband, daughter and I ate about 10 before finally putting them away.

If you're looking to make something fun, or want to entertain the kids or impress the co-workers, homemade marshmallows are the way to go. You can add food coloring, or drizzle them with different types of chocolate. And if they come out looking like crap, then there's always the fire pit (I'm talking about Smores folks).

And maybe one day, just one day, you too will be able to tell people you've made homemade marshmallows.

Thank goodness for my trusty stand mixer. 

Marshmallows in the pan. Now we wait. 

I used a knife and a pizza cutter to slice them into squares. It's just like making bread, but instead of flour you're using powdered sugar and cornstarch. 

The kid has caught on by this point. She's not short, she's just trying to be sneaky. 

Yum. 

Beef and Bean Burritos

Lately, I've been craving beef and refried bean burritos, but surprisingly they're very hard to find. Been to Chipotle or Qdoba lately? The new trend is to have whole beans and rice in your burritos. I didn't want any of that - Just nice, mashed up, comforting, refried beans.

After endless complaining at work, a coworker finally tried to shut me up by sending me a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's Beef and Bean Burritos. Believe me this recipe is so easy, there's really no recipe to follow.

First, chop up a half an onion and cook it with a pound of ground beef.

When the meat is browned, pour off most of the fat and add some spices (I added 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp oregano, 2 tsp of chili powder).  Add about a 1/3 cup of red enchilada sauce. I just bought the kind at the store that looked most authentic. Look, part of the label is in Spanish! You want the beef to be covered in sauce, but not drowning in it.

Allow the beef simmer on low. While the beef is simmering heat up a can of refried beans and add about a 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. I used a colby-jack because that's what I had in my fridge. Mix the cheese in and let it melt as the beans heat up. Now, I've eaten a lot of refried beans, and why I never thought to mix in the cheese, I'll never know. Best idea ever.

To make your burrito, warm up your flour tortillas and add a layer of beans and a layer of beef. At this point you can leave it, or add more stuff. I added some sour cream and chopped green onion. Again, stuff I just had in my fridge. Fold in the sides, roll up the burrito and put it on a plate. Once you have two burritos made, spoon some more enchilada sauce on the top, and add some more shredded cheese. Nuke for 30+ seconds until the cheese melts and sprinkle some cilantro on top. This made 7 burritos. I guarantee these are super easy and really good.

For those of you who are addicted to lists:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1 can of red enchilada sauce (some will be used to mix with beef, some will be spooned on top of burrito)
1 can refried beans
Shredded cheese (about 1 1/2 cups depending on how many burritos you're making)
Flour tortillas
Cilantro

Garden murderer - I swear it wasn't me!

My backyard is a mess right now - Dead plants, weeds, random gardening tools. And let's not even get started on the dog crap that's everywhere.

But I swear, it's not my fault! This winter has been terrible. I don't think people realize how hard it is to find plants that can handle 110 degrees in the summer, while also surviving freezing temperatures in the winter. For me, gardening in Las Vegas is like trying to get my toddler potty trained - Frustrating.

Right now I'm in crisis mode. I paid $3 for a six-pack of cherry tomato seedlings and planted them last week when it was 60 degrees out. This weekend it's supposed to be in the low 30's with a chance of snow. Are you kidding me?

Two of the tomato plants have already whithered away, killed by the cold wind and chilly nighttime temperatures. Of course they may have just committed suicide after seeing all the other dead plants in my backyard.

So to try and salvage my $3 tomato plant purchase, I went and bought $12 in plastic to cover my garden boxes. I like to call it a makeshift greenhouse, but it's really just some plastic sheets held down by rocks. Of course it's windy, so the thing is on the verge of collapsing at any moment. I'm guessing at least one of my poor little plants will be crushed by a rock before succumbing to the cold.

I could always just go buy some more tomato plants, but that's not the point. I want to brag about how I saved my little plants by using plastic sheets and random rocks. So, if even one of these little plants survives, I will consider it a victory. Wish me luck!

Back in the Saddle Again

It's been a while since I've touched my blog, which is a shame because I really love writing about what's going on in my life. But the past few months have been a little crazy. Here's why:

My husband had a heart attack. Don't worry, he's fine - The doctor even said it was probably a fluke (if heart attacks can be called flukes). So our diet suddenly changed to "healthy" which was completely uninspiring. You try making things without cheese.

My daughter turned two. Not like that's a surprise, but all of a sudden she's getting smart and curious, and I felt guilty spending time on the computer when she wanted to play. She also learned that if she whines enough, I'll also get off the computer. So guilt and whining equaled my blog's demise.

It was winter. And winter sucks. The end.

But now my hibernation is coming to an end. Spring is almost here and it's time to put away those grey sweat pants and fuzzy slippers. My blog has been redesigned with bright, happy colors (which I'll probably be sick of in a month) and I'm starting to enjoy cooking again.

So stay tuned for more stories from my kitchen, along with some other stuff about my crazy kid and wonderful husband. I may even do some crafts - Oh the humanity!!

Pumpkin Creme Pies

So I've been off the radar for a while. Call it a late summer slump - The spring and summer produce is dwindling, but it's too early to start making winter stews and baking pies.

But I have the cooking bug again thanks to these yummy Pumpkin Creme Pies. A co-worker found them online and as soon as I saw them I knew I'd be back in the kitchen. I mean how can you resist! Yummy frosting sandwiched between sweet pumpkin cakes. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

First things first, these were really easy. I had nearly all the ingredients on hand was able to make four dozen pumpkin cream pies in a couple of hours.  That said, unless you're doing a bake sale you may want to cut the recipe in half. I mean, how many Pumpkin Creme Pies do you really need?

The original recipe called for cutting parchment paper up into squares. I skipped that step, but my had was sore by the time I was finished. I'm not sure if that was because I didn't cut up the paper or the fact that I made four dozen creme pies.

Everyone also wanted to know how I made the little swirly marks in the cake. As you'll see in the recipe, it just happens when you make the cake rounds with the frosting piping bag (or the Ziploc bag for all you non-foodies).

These pies were definitely a hit at home and at the office. If you refrigerate them, let them sit on the counter for a bit before eating. It's unbelievable how much better they are at room temperatures. Check out the link for the recipe below. Enjoy!

Recipe: Pumpkin Creme Pies, by The Deutsch Girl

Asian Lettuce Cups

I just tried making lettuce cups at home for the first time and they were so delicious and easy, I had to pass on the recipe. It's called Asian Lettuce Cups and I found it in the August 2010 edition of Cooking light, in case you have the magazine at home.

The recipe called for 3 cups of coarsely chopped shiitake mushrooms. I only had about one cup because, #1 I didn't read the recipe correctly, and #2 I'm cheap and didn't feel like spending $9 on mushrooms.

It still came out delicious and next time I'll probably try it with just regular mushrooms. A definite must make if you're having friends over or if you're tired of the same old dinner.