risotto = love

I decided that if you make risotto, you must really love cooking. You have to lovingly make it little by little.

I found a great recipe in "Cooking Light" that I want to share. Yes... risotto = love, but don't' let me turn you off from this recipe because I'm making it sound like a lot of work. I didn't slave in the kitchen - I promise. I just had to be available in the kitchen to add the broth. You'll see...

The recipe is for Shiitake and Sweet Pea Risotto - but I used portabello and white button mushrooms. I couldn't find fresh shiitake mushrooms at Market Basket - only dried... and I'm sad to report that the package smelled like stinky feet. I went for a mushroom that didn't stink. (I'll be open minded... maybe the fresh ones aren't gross, but the dried ones WERE!)

4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 and 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic, divided
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, divided
3/4 cup frozen green peas
6 tablespoons grated parm. cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Bring broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan - keep warm over low heat. (This is the secret - this is the first time I've successfully made risotto and I think this was part of the reason... heating the broth first!)

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add rice and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly.

Add wine - cook for 2 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently.

Stir in 1/2 cup broth. Cook for 2 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently. Add remaining both - 1/2 cup at a time - stirring frequently. Do this for each portion, making sure it is fully absorbed before adding the next. (About 20 minutes).

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms to pan and saute 5 minutes or until tender. Add remaining 1/2 teaspoon garlic and 1 teaspoon thyme. Saute for 1 minute and set aside.

Stir mushrooms, remaining teaspoon thyme, peas, 1/4 cup cheese, and pepper into risotto. Cook for 3 minutes. Sprinkle each serving with 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cheese.

While the broth was simmering I chopped the onion, garlic and thyme (oh - I actually grate my garlic into the mixture because I don't like chunks of garlic in the risotto, and because it is easier!) and sliced the mushrooms. While the risotto cooks, I sauteed the mushrooms.

I served this with a side salad. Here are the nutrition stats...

Yield - 4 servings, 1 and 1/4 cups each. Calories: 324 Fat: 10g Protein: 11.7g Fiber 4.5g

food for thought

Have you seen that new TV show "Food Revolution"? We watched the first episode on Hulu and decided to set up the TiVo for a season pass. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about... it's hosted by Jamie Oliver - a British chef on a quest to promote healthy eating in our children through education. It really got me thinking about the food I make - yes, I know most of it DOES feature fresh veggies meat, whole grains, fruit, etc, but some of it doesn't. You wouldn't know it because I don't blog about my trip through the Wendy's drive thru. I planned a nice week of good eats this week.

Breakfast: Kashi instant oatmeal - I make it during my first period planning time.

Lunch: Greek yogurt, cheerios (dry), fruit (oranges).

Dinner: 2 days of Blue Cheese-Stuffed Chicken with Buffalo Sauce, 2 days of Shiitake and Sweet Pea Risotto, and a freebie day (tonight - Thai from our favorite place in N. Andover).

It's hard to avoid those trips through the drive thru, or those pizza nights... and I'm not really a TV person - but this show really got to me. I don't have kids yet :) but I pledge to make sure they know what veggies are - and not be eating crap processed food for dinner every night.

Oh - you're looking for recipes? Well you're going to have to be patient. They're coming your way.

bacon and butternut pasta

We had a great meal from "Cooking Light" a couple of weeks ago - I took pictures and everything... and forgot to post it! So, better late than never!

This is a nice, inexpensive meal, using some things you probably have in your kitchen already, and a few low price items - BAM you have a great meal!

1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon salt
8 oz. uncooked fettuccine
2 bacon slices
2 tablespoons butter
3 cups cubed peeled butternut squash (I used a half squash that has already been peeled and packaged)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup (2 oz.) crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup sliced green onions

Bring water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil in a large saucepan. Add pasta and cook for 8 minutes (pasta should still be a little firm). Drain in a colander over a bowl, and reserve 1/3 cup cooking liquid.

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan. Crumble bacon and set aside.

Add butter to drippings in pan and cook for 30 seconds or until butter melts. Increase heat to medium-high. Add squash and saute for 7 minutes or until almost tender. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, pasta, reserved cooking liquid, and cheese. Cook for 2 minutes or until pasta is al dente, stirring frequently.

Sprinkle with bacon and onions.

Yield: 4 (1 cup) servings. Calories: 385 Fat: 14.1g Fiber: 4.7g

Note - This could be made healthier by using whole wheat pasta!

I paired this with a spinach salad with sliced apple on top. I made a dressing - also from "Cooking Light".

Dressing:
Combine 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons honey, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Whisk.

Toss with 4-5 cups fresh spinach and top with a cored apple (I used a granny smith), cored and thinly sliced.

French Onion Soup - more filling than you'd think!

We've made french onion soup twice lately, and I have to share the recipe because it's easy and delicious. Also, it's more filling than you'd think! The first time I told Dennis we were having soup for dinner with nothing else, he was a little skeptical. But this soup is a real meal. Trust me.

By the way - this is yet another standby recipe I got from my "Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook" by Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford. You need this book. Everything in it is a perfect 10.

12 french baguette slices cut on the diagonal (each 1 inch thick)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups sliced yellow onion (about 1 large)
1/8 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup cream sherry, such as Harvey's Bristol Cream
3 cans (10.5 oz. each) prepared french onion soup
2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups (4 oz.) grated gruyere or other swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Place the baguette slices on a baking sheet and bake, turning once, until lightly toasted on both sides, 10-12 minutes. Set aside. Turn the oven to broil.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and salt and season with pepper to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is very soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the sherry and continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 3-5 minutes. Add the canned french onion soup, water, and thyme and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Ladle 1 1/2 cups of soup into each of four 2-cup ovenproof bowls. Top each with 3 pieces of toasted bread (or less, depending on the size of the baguette) and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted and bubbling, 3-4 minutes.

I love this recipe.

a little change... and dining room pics!

The tidy cave blog has been neglected as of late. So sorry about that!

So I've decided to change the blog slightly. I'm not going to number the days anymore. I'm spending too much time trying to figure out the timeline. I want to focus more on the things we're doing around the cave. Also, I want to focus on more than just the day to day cleaning - like home improvement projects and cooking!



So you may be asking... what have you been doing around the cave, exactly?

Well. As promised - here are the dining room pics. The wood trim is called "ultra pure white" and the paint is called "campground", which is basically the color of spicy brown mustard. I like it a lot! We've been having dinner in there quite a bit, and I have to tell you, it's so nice having dinner in an actual dining room again!

Dennis really got the job done - he painted the walls mostly, and hung and wired the chandelier. After it was hung up, I was able to move things around and decorate. I went through the floor and cleaned up all the little places where paint splattered.

What's left in the dining room / kitchen area you ask? Well...

Duane is going to come over and frame in the hole around the breakfast bar with painted white trim. It's going to look great! He's also going to help us put up the baseboards and heater we took off while building the new half wall. We also removed the baseboard in one other place, and that will have to be put back on. No big deal.

My Mom is going to make curtains for us! We're doing a valance on the window over the kitchen sink, kitchen door, and the little bay window in the kitchen. We're doing longer drapes in the dining room with rod iron curtain rods. Also, the light over the sink has not worked for quite some time, so I'm getting a new one that matches the chandelier. Oh, bar stools would be nice too - but we can use the old ones for the time being.

Below...

The chandelier being assembled, then Tommy trying to help us with the wiring. He was not much help.

Days 51-57 dining room fun

Now that the kitchen is in working order, it was time to tackle the dining room.

Oh - and I'm sorry for being so "off the grid" these past few weeks. Life is beyond crazy and adding a house under construction has been making it waaaaay worse! Another busy week awaits... but first. Back to the fun stuff - the dining room!

I was able to finish the white paint on the doors in the bathroom and basement, replaced the hinges and door knobs, and hung them back up. It feels good to have a bathroom door again! (As you can imagine!)

Thursday night we had some crazy winds up here in NH, so due to power outages, school was canceled for me on Friday. I love a day off! I had already gotten up, showered, had breakfast, brewed my coffee, and dressed - I had one foot literally out the door when I found out. A bonus day off! I put on my sweats and enjoyed my coffee with my laptop chatting with my friend Kristin. After Dennis left for work I really got myself going.

I taped the edges of the windows, and baseboards and used oil based primer to prime them. Once again, oil based paint smells horrible. On Saturday and Sunday, Dennis and I worked to complete the room as much as possible. I'm not feeling so hot, so I have to admit, he did most of the work. As of Sunday night we had two coats of white paint on all of the wood trim, and two coats of a paint called "campground" (like a spicy mustard color) on the walls. The room is looking mighty good!

What's left? A few touch ups on the trim bordering the ceiling, hang the chandelier, replace the outlets and light switch with white, reattach the baseboards on two walls. In addition to these last few "construction" touches, we are going to be putting the table, hutch, etc. back to where it belongs - maybe get a few things to hang on the walls!

What's next on the agenda?

We're basically trying to get all the painting done in one swoop. We'll be moving on to the hallway/living room to do the wood trim. I plan on taping the edges this week and Friday night!

Days 45-50 a sunny kitchen

This was my February vacation. It didn't feel much like a vacation - but it feels good to be sitting in an almost completed kitchen! YAY!

This is what's been happening since day 44...

Sunday: We grocery shopped and did our usual. We made a trip to Home Depot and picked up primer, 3 cans of paint (different colors), brush cleaner, door knobs, hinges. I had a rehearsal, and it was Den's homework to remove the basement door, bathroom door, and bathroom closet door from their hinges.

Monday: I woke bright and early and ready to tackle the kitchen. First on the agenda was to use oil based primer on our wood trim. I used that blue painters tape to tape my edges. This took a little longer than I expected. Next, I came to the realization that after I painted, I wouldn't be able to sand the wall anymore - because the dust would fall onto the wet paint. So I went through and patched any last spots on the wall. There were quite a few. At this point I picked up Grammy. She was my helper this week!

I know what you're thinking. "You made an 88 year old woman paint your kitchen?" Well. Not exactly. First, let me tell you that she loves painting. She told me that "Nothing is better than having a paintbrush in your hand." That's an actual quote. So I told her we could lay the doors flat between two old chairs and she could keep me company and paint those. We also discovered that she could sit at the table and paint the cross things I took off of my windows.

So anyway. I picked up Grammy. After a much needed trip to Dunkin' Donuts (Gram wanted a little "zing". Another quote!), I sanded the walls. This also took longer than expected, but I know that the sanding is one of the most important things about prepping a wall. I think I did a good job. Of course, there are places where you see imperfections under the paint, but as my father-in-law told me on the phone, you'll never get it 100% perfect. I'm fairly close though! Gram painted, I sanded.

Have you ever used oil based paint? Because it smells worse than anything I've dealt with during this renovation process. We tried opening windows, but of course it IS February in New Hampshire, so it was for short amounts of time. I went to bed with a rockin' headache. Another fun fact about oil based paint - it does not come off of your body. Latex paint is easy to clean. Oil? Not so much. I was covered - hands, legs, hair, parts of my face - and it was there until Wednesday when I finally scrubbed it until my skin felt like it was coming off.

After sanding, I used a damp sponge to get the dust off the walls, and then went to priming my wood trim with the stinky paint. This took - you guessed it - longer than expected. Especially since I had to remove our ugly blinds (those screws were not wanting to come out) and the hinges/doorknobs from the doors. It was a productive day - we got a lot done. I brought Gram home and called Dennis and said - you'd better pick up a pizza or something. (Part of me was afraid of lighting the stove to cook... all those fumes may cause the house to burst into flames!!) I had my pizza and finished the trim, showered, and fell into bed exhausted!

At the end of the day, things pretty much looked like this. Primer on, the walls all patchy looking and everything's a total mess. The refrigerator was literally in the middle of the room, with a door suspended between two old chairs. All my appliances were stacked on the breakfast bar and table in the dining room. Newspaper everywhere. Drop cloths everywhere. Also - did I mention that the space around my kitchen window is so small I had to use a watercolor paintbrush to get in the space?

Tuesday: This was the day of our snowstorm. I decided that Grammy needed a break - and I did not want to have to drive in the snow. So I was flying solo for much of the day. I used painters tape to outline the walls, and then primed the walls. After that was finished - about halfway through the day - I took my white latex paint I'm using to paint the wood trim and gave the wood trim a first coat. Dennis came home early because of the snow! He did a first coat on the doors while I finished the trim. Things were still all disoriented in the kitchen, but it was beginning to look like something - we were excited. We worked together to make a batch of fiesta rice and steamed some tamales MJ from Den's work sent home for us. We played XBox. It was a nice reward!


Wednesday: This day was the longest, yet the most rewarding.

I grabbed Gram - who continued to work on the doors and those cross things for the windows. I put a second coat of white on the trim. It looked great! Then, I took my little paintbrush and used our wall color "Quiet Veranda" (a pale, buttery yellow) to edge around the windows. Yes, in an ideal world I would have waited until the next day so I could tape the trim, but I had time restrictions here - and I needed the kitchen DONE. Plus, I have very steady hands and was very precise. Dennis got another call and I asked him to bring home subs or something because there was to be no cooking break. After I brought Gram home I used the roller to fill in the spaces around my edging. I was up until 10:30 painting, but it looked like a real kitchen. I was so excited! By the way - under the bar I didn't paint all the way to the floor because our heater will be attached there, as well as baseboard - which is currently in the basement!

Thursday: I had some private lessons to do in the morning. After that, you guessed it, I picked up Gram. She did a second coat on 1 door, and then relaxed and kept me company. We listened to the "Frank Sinatra station" on pandora. I used a roller to apply a second coat. I cleaned the counters and bar. I put things back where they belong! I love the color of the kitchen - it's bright and sunny! After I brought Grammy home, I made some dinner. (A great recipe for chicken piccata - I will share it later this weekend!) We had a relaxing night! Here's the finished product below.

So, like I said, we're almost done. What's left to do? The light over the kitchen sink needs to be replaced (it doesn't work!). I need to get white outlets and outlet covers and put them on. The lights on the ceiling are low on the priority list, but they need to be replaced too. They work, they're just ugly. I need to clean and seal the grout on the floor, and around the inside of the bar we're putting up white wood along the edges.

Next room you ask? The bathroom is my vote because the doors are not on yet! We'll take it a piece at a time - with me going back to work (tear...) I won't have the time to bang it out quickly.

Oh - PS. Day 50 (Friday) was spent in Boston with some fabulous ladies!

Weekend agenda time. Clean and grocery shop.