Monday, January 16, 2012

Good Friends and Good Food

Today's kitchen adventure was quite the experience, not only because I made a couple of new recipes, but also because I was in a kitchen that was not my own.  For the past week, I have been visiting friends in Utah.  I've been staying with my friend Angie and her roommate Sarah.  During my chaotic departure from Oregon, I forgot to grab a little something small as a thank you to them for allowing me to crash at their house for a whole week.  I figured making dinner for them would be a nice way to say thank you and give me a chance to try out some new recipes.  Our dinner tonight consisted of my current favorite meat, pork tenderloin with a cherry sauce, my first attempt at risotto with spinach, mushrooms, and peas and a previously attempted crumble recipe, but with a twist.


I've had risotto a few times and I really enjoy it, but I've always been a little apprehensive to make it.  I watch a lot of cooking shows and cooking competitions and it always appears that risotto causes many of the PROFESSIONAL chefs participating in these competitions many problems.  I decided it was time to toss my fears and apprehensions aside and give it a shot.  I food a really easy recipe from the foodnetwork.com.  I did quite a bit of tweaking to the recipe, but it turned out marvelously.  I started out sautéing some chopped onions and fresh mushrooms in olive oil.  If I had had some fresh garlic, I would have also added that to the mushrooms and onions.  Then I added the arborio rice and then slowly started adding hot chicken broth to the mixture, remembering to continually stir until the liquid was completely absorbed.  Once the consistency of the rice begins to appear creamy and the rice is tender, I added frozen peas and baby spinach.  I continued to stir until the spinach was slightly wilted.  I seasoned throughout the process with salt, pepper and garlic powder and added in some fresh grated parmesan cheese.  The result was a deliciously, cheesy, and creamy risotto.







The pork tenderloin was simply seasoned with thyme, salt, and pepper.  The cherry sauce had cherry jam, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, some cinnamon and allspice.  The vinegar was very present, but overall it was a great accompaniment to the pork.




Dessert was a twist on the pear cranberry gingersnap crumble that I made for my non traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  I looked for fresh cranberries, but they must something that is only sold seasonally, like in October/November/December.  I was trying to think of a good replacement fruit that would still bring the tartness of the cranberry and taste ok with the gingersnaps.  I decided on raspberries.  I loved this recipe with the cranberries, but I think I enjoyed almost as much, if not more, with the raspberries.  The lemon zest and lemon juice that are in it complement the raspberries so nicely.






Stay tuned for more fun experiments in the kitchen.  Happy Cooking! 

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