Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Risotto

I've wanted to try risotto ever since I started watching Hell's Kitchen, listening to Gordon Ramsey call out the orders for it, watching the contestants cook it, it made my stomach rumble! For the last two seasons practically every Tuesday morning I would tell myself, today is the day you make risotto and sit down to a big bowl of it while you watch. But it didn't happen. To tell you the truth, I was scared. I was scared I would mess it up after watching these professional chefs botching batch after batch. Scared that if I screwed up bad enough Chef Ramsey might turn up at my house and tell me what a donut I was. Scared that it would take forever and that half way through I would get bored and decide it was time to learn to knit instead of cook. I was a total chicken. This leads us all to today, the big day.

Yesterday I picked up a cookbook for a dollar at a garage sale called something to the effect of Grandma's Italian Cooking. Today, with my youngest son perched in my lap I read through this book, paging through multiple risotto recipes. I decided, "Self you can totally rock risotto!" then I looked at my baby Aidan and said "What do you think kid, can mom handle making risotto?" He looked at me, smiled, then promptly farted on my lap. I took this as a grand sign, a neon flashing billboard "Get in the kitchen and just do it chicken!" So I did. It wasn't hard at all (seriously contestants, Chef Ramsey must be real scary!) it did take a good 40 minutes of stirring but that was nothing. The time flew by as my four sons took turns running into the kitchen and telling me about the mummies and baby mummies that were living in our hallway that they were either capturing, eating or running from depending on the child. When you are stuck at the stove stirring something for 40 minutes I highly recommend you rent my children. So for all of you fellow chickens out there, try this and try not to be daunted by the time it takes, it may even go faster for you since it's widely known I'm one of the slowest cooks in the world. If you can stir and use a ladle you can make a delicious and impressive risotto.

Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Risotto

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

5 large cloves of garlic (removed from head but don't peel)

1c. Arborio Rice (or another short grain rice)

5c Chicken Broth or water (I did 4c chicken broth 1c water), hot*

1c Onion, minced

1/4 c Parmesan Cheese (I left this out)

1/2-1 c Mushrooms

1/2 White wine (optional)

1. You want to start out by quickly roasting your garlic cloves in the oven. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, lightly coat cloves in olive oil, lay on a cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes or until soft. When they cool peel them and reserve garlic to add in later.

2. Pour your olive oil in your large pan or pot (I used an enormous skillet), heat over medium heat. When oil is heated add in your minced onion and cook until translucent.

3. Add in your rice at this point along with a cup of your broth/water. Stir until all the liquid is absorbed. Continue to add in your warm/hot liquid a cup at a time until you reach your desired consistency. I ended up probably using 4 cups total to get the creamy texture I wanted. About half way through the liquid I added in the roasted garlic to mine but I suggest waiting until the last 5 minutes like with the mushrooms or you lose the flavor.

5. During the last 5 minutes add in your garlic and mushrooms. When it's all done stir in your cheese and serve immediately.

Since underneath the garlic and mushrooms is a very basic risotto you can absolutely substitute either of these things for different veggies or if you want you can cook meat in another skillet and add that at the end too. Risotto is so versatile and if you keep stirring you can't mess it up. So get in your kitchen and make some risotto, you deserve it!

*You can substitute vegetable stock instead of chicken if you are a vegetarian!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Roasted Garlic Cloves

This is just a super easy recipe that is multi-purpose. You could serve it in yours rustic country dinner or your elegant supper party. We all know how important green vegetables are for our health, but some people just don't like the taste. This gives your brussel sprout a depth of flavor you don't get from cooking it other ways. Yum yum!

You need:

1 lb of brussel sprouts

1 head of garlic

olive oil

salt and pepper

To start you just want to peel off the wilted outer leaves of your sprouts and give them a good rinse. You also want to take this time to break up and peel the cloves in your garlic head.

You then want to cut your sprouts in half. The reason I do is to get that yummy browning on them like you see in the picture. Spread your sprouts and cloves on a baking sheet. Drizzle with your olive oil and mix together to make sure each has a little coating (not much!) and then sprinkle with salt and pepper, (opt: Garlic Powder.)

Pop them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees and you will have a side dish that's great for any occasion and tastes wonderful!

Buffalo Fried Potatoes (That Aren't Fried!)

I tried these first at my parents house a few weeks ago, and I have to tell you they are unbelieveable! For all of you out there that have a love of all things buffalo this is the thing for you. Actually, even if you aren't a big fan these are for you. The way these are cooked give them that crispy deliciousness of something fried without actually being fried. These are the perfect compliment to anything from a plate of chicken wings to steaks on the grill, you just can't go wrong. Give these tators a try!

Buffalo Fried Potatoes

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed.

2T Oil (veggie or peanut)

4 T Frank's Red Hot hot sauce

4 T dry ranch dressing mix.

1. After peeling and cutting your potatoes, RINSE THEM! This is an important step if you want the tators to crisp up.

2. Mix together your ranch mix and hot sauce, then pour over your potatoes and coat well.

3. Drizzle your oil over your potatoes.

Now you want to make sure you line your baking sheet with tin foil and then spray the tinfoil with a cooking oil spray. If you don't by the time it comes to doing the dishes you will find yourself either offering your neighbors good money to scrub your crazy burnt on mess or just throwing the whole thing away.

4. Put into a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes (I cook mine longer but I like them crispy and crunchy, you will just have to peek in and decide when they are perfect for you.)

The original recipe is from the site Recipe Zaar

Title Change

As you may have noticed my fine friends, we here at Cooking Up A Storm (i.e. me sitting on the couch wanting a cup of coffee)have gone through a title change. It's been a real rough thing, in the last 5 minutes it's probably confused thousands! The technician that did the actual changing labored over the er...cyber code gamma chip thing, tinkering and making the words change like magic. She's exhausted, this hard working technician, she needs a raise, and a cup of coffee.

Really though the title was actually quite common and I wanted something that didn't pop up another blog when googled. Hopefully it won't be mistaken for a blog about Diners as in the buildings that feed those of us that are hungry and that have unruly rolling pins and stubborn stoves that need a night off. It's actually diners...like "Oh Hello Mr. Rockafeller, why yes I will take some tea in the sitting room before we excuse ourselves to the DINING room to DINE on some yummy caviar like the DINERS we are." You ah probably didn't need me to explain did you? Hmmm well hopefully it was as good for you anyway as it was for me.

Someday I will actually have an original layout for this blog, but not quite yet. I just wanted to explain to you that you aren't crazy that your links might have changed, and that soon I will actually transfer the entire blog to a new link so my web address matches up.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

So a few of the last entries have basically just been sharing recipes straight up. Well no more! I had originally started this blog simply for that, to share a recipe with friends or even just recipes I had found or made that I wanted to get down with the adjustments that might not be on my recipe cards or for easier access than pull out one of my many cookbooks. Cookbooks...now that is one topic that will be coming up soon, my addiction, one of my true loves. It's sick, you will see, you can't understand unless you are my husband that watches the shelves on our bookshelf slowly warp awkwardly with the weight of these beautiful books of culinary knowledge. But no, even now they are luring my mind away while I should be moving on to a new point.

I've been wanting to make this recipe for a long time. I've said more times than I can count, "Family of mine I'm off to the kitchen to slave away on a few loaves of cinnamon swirl bread that will make your taste buds dance!" Ok...maybe it was different words, but the point was still the same. Then I would frolic (trudge) into the kitchen to work wonders with my hands (look at the canisters of flour and think about the book I'm reading) with dreams of giving my menfolk a delicious treat (dream of a maid to clean the bathtub I know is waiting and fold the three loads of clothes sitting in the living room.) But as I mentioned before the bread did not get made, I have no idea why, it's not like my mind was somewhere else... oh, wait.

For some reason this bread seemed like a lot of work, a daunting task. For a lot of you that haven't made a lot of any homemade bread it can really seem like a task that requires hands on teaching and a lot of time. In all actuality I probably spent 20 minutes doing any work on this project, and it was well worth it. Now if you haven't visited the site Chickens in the Road, do so now. I've made my fair share of white bread and until I found this site my bread was always lacking that delicious flavor one expects when munching away on a slice of bread fresh from the oven. All of her bread recipes spawn from her recipe for Grandmother bread which she transforms with her [magical] powers into a variety of recipes. Cinnamon Swirl Bread is just one of them. I've yet to make something from her site that anyone in our little family has not eaten with the gusto of a starving pregnant elephant, yes she is just that good.

So I went to work with my new bread bowl I got on clearance in November. This is a very important thing to me this bowl. I waited and waited for it to go on sale because it is just the perfect bowl for bread, don't ask my why because it's unexplainable, it just had that "make bread in me" glow. Ok so yeah, I got my special holy bread bowl and got to it, mixing together my water, sugar, salt and yeast. Let it get all nice and bubbly then start adding in the flour and stirring. Then like Suzanne says when it gets too hard to stir you knead in more flour until it's juuuuuust right. Let it rise until doubled, knead again then roll out onto a floured surface into a rectangle about 12inches x 8 inches or honestly whatever you can get it to roll into. I rolled, beat, whined, begged, and bribed my bread into an oval. Yeah my rolling pin and I are not on good terms and I've decided it has nothing to do with my rolling skills and absolutely everything to do with my unruly rolling pin. Actually as I'm typing I can feel it's anger and indignation as being spoken about like this with no chance to tell it's own side of the story, but I assure you it's side would be wholly inaccurate since I would never pass off the blame of my shortcomings on an inanimate object that I give feelings and responsibilities to. Not me, nope, never. Stop looking at me like that.

Ok so since you all have a nice and helpful rolling pin you get your rectangle all rolled out. This is where you brush on your melted butter and sprinkle your cinnamon and sugar mixture. Then roll your rectangle up and seal your seams at the bottom and ends and slip into a greased loaf pan. Don't worry that I'm not giving you the ingredient list, it's coming I promise, and you can also check out the recipe here and at the other links to the recipe throughout the post. I want to stress that I'm not claiming to have made up this recipe just have baked it. Ok that's cleared up, so now you let your bread rise again until nice and big and well...bread sized. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until it's done, it depends on your oven. If you have an oven like my old oven you really might never know when it's done and you might have to camp out on your kitchen floor and watch...not that anyone would ever do that, like to make sure their cookies came out right. That would be the actions of like...a crazy lady or something, maybe a crazy lady with a bajillion cookbooks, and I know none of us know anyone like that or anything.

Anyway... Once your bread comes out try and let it cool down before you cut into this delicious treat, it will look something like this (hopefully better since my sealing wasn't awesome, hey cut me some slack I had two babies hanging off me at the time) and taste mostly like heaven. Enjoy yourselves, don't be scared of bread and get in your kitchen and make me a sandwich! I mean make yourselves some bread.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

by Chickens in the Road

Ingredients

1 1/2 C Warm Water

1 teaspoon Yeast

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 C Sugar

(Mix all the fist ingredients together, let sit 5 minutes, then add flour)

3 1/2 C Flour

(For the inside)

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 C Sugar

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

This is the recipe for a single loaf, I doubled it to make two at a time since they were inhaled so fast. All the instructions are up there if you read through my tales or through any of the Cinnamon Swirl Bread links :)

Bake bread and enjoy life!

Mom's Creamy Wild Rice Soup

This soup is delicious. Filled with wild rice, mushrooms, bacon and creamy goodness. It's very rich but with a bowl of this soup, and a slice of warm bread from the oven, a cold fall night is absolutely perfect!

Mom's Creamy Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients:

2c cooked wild rice(1/2c uncooked)

12 oz bacon or chicken

1 pkg sliced mushrooms

1/2c butter

1c Flour

8 C chicken Broth(not in photo whoops)

1 pint cream or half and half

Salt and Pepper to taste

Prepare wild rice as directed. Saute mushrooms in butter about 3 minutes. In a large saucepan fry your bacon. Sprinkle in flour then stir until mixed, don't let it burn. Slowly add your chicken broth and blend well. Add rice, salt and pepper, and mushrooms, and stir in well. Heat until everything is warm, then stir in cream, heat gently do not boil once cream is in.

**Mom says, this can be made in advance up until the cream stage, then re-heated and finished with the cream. This soup also freezes VERY well so don't worry about making too much to eat. Freeze into individual portions and thaw and heat whenever you crave this bad boy!

Olive Garden's Pasta E Fagioli

This is a recipe I got out of my awesome copycat cookbook, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2, which is a great cookbook for anyone that loves to eat out but also loves to cook. You can make this stuff for a fraction of the cost, not to mention you don't have to drive or find a babysitter! Now I haven't had this at the restaurant and hubby hasn't had it in awhile so I can't say how close it was but I can tell you it was delicious!

Olive Garden's Pasta E Fagioli

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 small onion(1c)

1 julienned carrot(1c.)

3 stalks celery, chopped (1c)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (btw I realized afterwards I forgot to add these, whoops)

1- 15 oz can kidney beans (with liquid)

1- 15oz can great northern beans(with liquid)

1/2 pound ditali pasta

1- 15oz can tomato sauce

1- 12oz can V8

1T. White Vinegar

1 1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

Brown ground beef in a large saucepan over medium heat. Drain off most of te fat. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic, saute for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients except pasta. Simmer 1 hour. 50 minutes in, boil your pasta to al dente, add pasta to soup, simmer 5-10 more minutes and serve.

This is a really easy soup to make and well worth the effort, especially when it's chilly out!