Garlic Mushroom Souffle

Maybe it's the elegance of the word "souffle," but I had thought these would be very difficult to make. I didn't trust the simplicity of the recipe. But you know what? They took about five minutes to prepare and ten minutes to cook--and tasted so good! (And, yes, after realizing how easy souffle is to prepare, I now want to try several different variations!)

Allow me to apologize for not having a picture. I made two souffles, one for me and one for Ty, and laid them out on the table for a picture. Ty was at school all afternoon, though, so I decided not to wait on him and dug into mine. Then I liked it so much that I ate his as well and decided I'd just make more later if his feelings seemed hurt that I didn't share my new recipe. :) But here is a photo from Food.com of a souffle which looks very similar to what I made. The recipe featured on this site is almost exactly the same as what I used--except it lacks the two tablespoons of ground marjoram that made my dish so yummy!

This recipe comes from the Bible of vegetarianism, The Cook's Library Vegetarian--which, if you don't have, you must get now! It is great for advanced chefs to use, but there are also recipes like this which are quite simple, for newer cooks. And it's dirt cheap. You will never get tired of this cookbook.

I had wanted to try this recipe for awhile, but lacked souffle dishes. I searched websites and bakeware aisles of various stores, never finding a great deal of souffle dishes. Then one day, wandering in the clearance section of T.J. Maxx, I found a set of two white souffle dishes for $1.50, and a set of four very cute, modern orange souffle dishes for $4! Be weary if you purchase online, particularly if your souffle dishes are also being referred to as "ramekins." Anything holding less than 10 oz. is not going to hold even a mildly substantial appetizer.

The recipe I used said it made four servings in 5/8 cup dishes. I did not have enough to fill two of my souffle dishes. (Neither of my dish sets' packages indicated how much they hold, but I'm guessing they are 10 oz. cups.) So if you are cooking for a lot of people, definitely multiply your ingredients. I thought 3/4 cup of chopped mushroom caps (I used fresh baby bella caps) seemed rather scarce, but it was definitely the right amount. The only alteration I did was increasing the amount of flour, because after I added the eggs, I knew the mixture was just too damp to bake well. (And that turned out to be a wise decision.) I also added a pinch of black pepper, but next time, I would probably embellish it with some parsley and oregano.

It's a very warm, hearty appetizer, and would be perfect paired with a warm soup or a fresh salad before a meal. And think of how impressed your dinner guests will be if you serve it some attractive dishes. Souffle's on!

Stuffed Celery

"Delicious" is not an adequate enough word for these delectable little snacks. I have made these at home just for a daytime treat and an accompaniment to dinner, and I've even whipped up a batch and taken them to work to give my happy hour customers.

I found the recipe for stuffed celery at AllRecipes. The main change I made was using feta-stuffed green olives instead of pimento-stuffed olives, which I have to recommend any readers do as well. It gives the stuffing a saltier, warmer taste that contrasts well against chilled, crisp, and fresh celery. For the garlic, I used a hearty amount (about two and a half tablespoons) of Spice World Minced Garlic. I increased the seasoning, using black pepper, basil, and parsley. The next time I make stuffed celery, I plan on adorning it with chives.

This is probably the best-tasting and most creative way to eat "boring" celery, so it's great to make for party guests, children, or people who are struggling to eat lighter, healthier meals but find regular salads undesirable. Because the recipe on AllRecipes is so barren, it leaves a great deal of room for you to experiment and adjust this to your taste. Just imagine how tasty it'd be with cilantro stirred into the stuffing.

Newbies' Hummus

Tis the season to party, and continuing with this blog's recent theme of party foods, I'd like to include everyone's favorite dip--hummus.

Anyone who has ever made hummus will tell you the same two things: 1.) It's much easier than you would think, and 2.) There are only about 3,000,000,000 ways to make hummus! Most hummus includes tahini, a ground sesame seed mixture you can find at any grocery store in the world foods aisle, but you can make hummus without that, as demonstrated in these three variations featured on Buzzle, which are similar to the tahini-free hummus I make. Some tasty types of hummus you may want to try are roasted red pepper hummus, cucumber hummus, and jalapeno hummus--or you can just try the easy Buzzle suggestions, which are good starting points for curious first-timers.

Although nearly every hummus recipe you can find on the Internet recommends using canned chickpeas, I actually used a bag of garbanzo beans, which I crushed in the blender. And I used way, way more than the recommended amount of garlic, which was much appreciated by the meat-eating friends who consumed my first batch of hummus. (A general rule of thumb when you're making appetizers: it's nearly impossible to have "too much" garlic.) Hummus is most commonly served with pita bread, but we actually used ours to dip raw veggies in. It's also often served as a scrumptious sandwich spread.

The first time I made this, I served it a small group of friends, who devoured the entire bowl before I had a chance to enjoy my own cooking! And, my boyfriend actually said it was his favorite thing I had made for him. I loved having my friends and boyfriend impressed with my cooking, but, honestly, there was no "cooking" involved. Hummus truly is just made by combining a bunch of ingredients in a blender. But, shhh! Don't tell anybody that. Let them think you're a supreme chef of Middle Eastern food!

Moorish Fava Bean Dip

Skip the human liver, keep the nice Chianti optional, but do enjoy the fava beans!

In the spirit of recent discussions of party food, and the fact that tomorrow is New Year's Eve, a holiday begging for delicious finger foods, I'd like to share a dish from Perfect Spanish: A Collection of Over 100 Esssential Recipes. This is a wonderful little book, and the pages of my copy are well-worn and stained by greasy cook's fingerprints.

This recipe is very low-cost, considering it's just cooked beans and onion processed with a variety of seasonings that you probably already have on your spice rack at home. I actually skipped the chopped mint, and I used both a chopped garlic clove and minced garlic. The paprika and cumin are both such tasty complements to the would-be-bland beans (I just used a frozen package, by the way), so don't be afraid to use a generous amount of spice.

My meat-eating boyfriend loved this dip, and we ate it with raw carrots, cauliflower, and celery. I loved the dip warm, as the recipe intended, but he actually liked it better after it had chilled in the refrigerator. This spicy dip would also be great with small, crusty breadsticks, as the book recommends. It's such a great idea for a party, because, like most Spanish foods, it's so delicious and quite unique, and very easy and cheap to make. Your omnivore friends will love this dip, too, and its saltiness makes it a great companion for beer or wine.

Miniature Pear Salads

I am making up for lost time tonight; the holidays have worn me so thin that my cooking, and certainly my cooking-themed blog, have both suffered.

I mentioned, during recent blogging, that I did quite a bit of food preparation for a friend's Christmas party. One other dish I made was an AllRecipes find that satisfied my need to use three pears going to waste in my kitchen. I can't even remember the dish I'd found online that has asked for the damn pears in the first place--a lesson in the importance of bookmarking.

This dish is called "Pear Salad II," but don't let the name mislead you--it's not a big salad; it's several "mini-salads." As I mentioned, I had whole, fresh pears from the produce section, so I didn't use the canned pear halves the recipe called for. I really can't imagine that they would have been good; if you desire to use those because you think canned pears are juicier, believe me, chopped pears with mayonnaise smeared on top of them are juicy enough. I actually quite enjoyed this dish. My dad has grown pears my whole life, and I have many childhood memories of eating sliced pears in Robards with him, just minutes after we'd picked them. But it's important to note that pears have a very unique, and almost tangy, taste. And, just because someone likes pear jelly, that doesn't mean that they'd want to eat a whole pear--think, is grape jam the same as eating fresh grapes? No.

I thought this salad was very sweet and pleasing, and I bet it'd be very refreshing in the spring or early summer. My boyfriend saw it after it was already prepared and said, "Are those apples?" so I labeled it "PEAR SALAD" for the party. I overheard a few people passing by the party's buffet say, "Pears?" incredulously. Apparently, I might as well have written, "RATTLESNAKES" or "WORM DROPPINGS" on a card and attempted to serve that. Meat-eaters get finicky about the strangest things...since when is a freshly peeled and seasoned pear more gross than a slab of red meat?

Never mind the omnivores, my veggie friends...this dish would make a nice little snack or lunch for yourself sometime!

Tofu-Creamed Spinach

Hello, hello, Herbivores!

We attended a Christmas party last night and brought several vegetarian-friendly dishes which I would like to share.

The first has become a staple of mine for every get-together I attend or host, Tofu Creamed Spinach. This is another recipe I stumbled onto while browsing the website AllRecipes, and it has continuously been a hit with both meat-eaters and my fellow vegetarians.

And just a warning, this is probably one of the best-tasting and most crowd-pleasing dishes I have ever made. I'd stack up my spin dip against any restaurant's!!

I usually use fresh spinach from the produce section; I remove the stems and shred the leaves. It's very time-consuming to do this, but I think the fresh spinach has a superior taste to frozen spinach. Thawed frozen spinach is a worthy substitute when you are pressed for time, and it is much less aggravating than ripping apart two pounds of spinach leaves. Sometimes, I have added in sliced mozzarella cheese, which is extremely delicious and contributes to the "creaminess" of the dish. Most significantly, I have always used chopped artichokes--from bottles of marinated hearts--to the recipe. I alternate the sizes of the choppings, because sometimes a half-inch chunk is actually a very scrumptious surprise when using dip.

I season the recipe differently based on what will accompany it. Lots of salt is always a good idea when it is served with tortilla chips or crackers. Last night, though, I knew it would be used as a vegetable dip for carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower, so I skipped the uber-saltiness and instead added Italian seasoning, oregano, and basil, and I upped the amount of garlic and pepper. This morning, we devoured the leftover dip with slices of garlic bread and spaghetti sauce--it was absolutely delicious.

I often make this work for my dayshift customers at the bar, because it's a great accompaniment for beer or the kinds of fried bar food they like. Meat-eaters frequently ask me for the recipe, and, even after they realize they are eating tofu, they do not mind! This is a very easy dish to make, and it's great for any occasion, from an upscale party to watching football at home with your buds. Herbivores and their meat-eating companions will all dig into this creamed spinach--it's too tasty not to!

Beginners' Fondue

Tonight, Ty and I did something we rarely do: dine out.

Cooking for myself has improved my palette to the point where most restaurant food tastes bland and flavorless, but we wanted to check out a brand-new restaurant in Richmond, Hangers. We'd heard it was upscale and delicious, comparable to one of our favorite spots, Malone's in Lexington. We were definitely not disappointed; I had a savory Mediterranean pasta, which was very well-seasoned and contained a variety of veggies, even artichokes, a personal favorite. And, Richmond-area vegetarians, the tomato bisque is very tasty!

What most excited me about the menu, though, were the fondue options! We love fondue and have an awesome Trudeau fondue set at home, as well as a tiny candle-burning chocolate fondue set for smaller, more casual snacks. Fondue parties are extremely fun and entertaining, and, as far as cooking for a group of guests goes, it's one of the quickest meals to prepare. However, when just two people are dining, fondue cheese can be a little time-consuming to perfect and to upkeep so it doesn't burn. We love The Melting Pot, but the closest one is about a forty-minute drive. So tonight at Hangers, as an appetizer, we were thrilled to have cheese fondue with veggies and bread, and for dessert, an absolutely amazing chocolate fondue with fruits and Rice Krispies slices. So delicious, and we didn't have to put any effort in for just the two of us to enjoy it!

Although we had a romantic, candelit dinner (see top picture) and a very pleasant night out, you don't have to travel to an expensive restaurant to enjoy great fondue--in fact, as we discussed over dinner tonight, we actually like my home-made cheese fondue better than any we've had at a restaurant before. My first cheese fondue was made with this scrumptious plan from Simply Recipes, and it's an excellent starting point. This is definitely an omnivore-friendly dish; I've made it for several meat-eaters and they were all huge fans. This recipe is not as bland as restaurant fondue cheese--it's extremely flavorful. From there you will be able to alter the recipe to your liking; we actually like to add much more than a "pinch" of nutmeg as the recipe calls for. If you're just starting out in the kitchen, making well-seasoned and guest-pleasing fondue cheese is an excellent way to familiarize yourself with the spice rack.

At home chocolate fondue is an extremely simple dish to make and such a tasty treat, especially with a good blush wine! Use either a block of baking chocolate or a bag of chocolate chips, and, depending on how you desire it to taste, add a dash of vanilla, a tablespoon of white sugar, and, if you like, amaretto or a fruit-flavored liqueur like Razzmatazz. One night, Ty and I decided to have an "art date" at home in the living room--we each had an easel and worked beside each other with a steaming pot of fondue chocolate in the middle, along with cool banana slices and strawberries. The clash of hot fondue chocolate and chilled fruit makes it taste even better.

Is it the sharing of a dish or the accidental bump of the dipping forks that makes fondue such a romantic course? If ever there was a perfect date food, I guarantee you it was made in a fondue pot!