Tag Archives: butter

Alfredo-esque Mushroom Appetizers

Perfect for an appetizer or a side dish, these “Alfredo-esque” Garlic Parmesan Mushrooms are a breeze to make and delightful to eat!

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoon olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 lb whole baby bella mushrooms
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz Neufchâtel cheese, softened
⅓ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese (more or less according to your tastes)
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¾ teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste

Rinse and clean the mushrooms and pat dry. Melt butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium heat then add mushrooms and cook until browned, around 10-12 minutes. Add garlic, cream, Neufchâtel cheese, parmesan, onion powder, and oregano and cook for 5 – 10 minutes, until sauce is thick and creamy. Salt and pepper to taste.

The sauce makes an excellent dipping sauce for spanakopita, or other appetizers.

Loading

Cranberry Wild Rice Soup (Lighter Version)

This recipe has been ‘lightened up’ slightly and is a wonderful soup that, while meat-free, is able to satisfy the carnivores in your life!

Cranberry Wild Rice Soup (Lighter Version)

3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, sliced no larger than 1/4″ pieces
1/2 cup onion, minced
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 cups organic vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup skim milk or fat free half and half
2 tbsp dry sherry
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Melt butter in stock pot over medium heat; sauté the carrot, celery and onion, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender (about 8 minutes). Add the flour and stir until smooth. Gradually stir in the vegetable stock, whisking as you go to avoid lumps from forming. Increase the heat to medium-high and stir until soup is thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and cranberries. Reduce the heat to barely a simmer, cover, and stir occasionally, until the cranberries are plump and soft (about 15 minutes). Add remaining ingredients. Stir occasionally until heated through. Season to taste and ladle into bowls. Top with a teaspoon of grated Parmesan cheese as a garnish. If desired, serve with toasted baguette rounds.

Loading

Custard Pie

You can use a store-bought pie shell for this, or you can create your own. Either way, it’s a wonderful finish to any meal!

Filling:
3 large eggs
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon if desired)

1 9″ pie shell (deep dish)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Butter one side of a sheet of aluminum foil large enough to cover the inside of the pie shell, pressing into place. Weigh the foil down with pie weights or enough dried beans/legumes to cover the bottom of the pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, removing foil and whatever was used to weigh it down. (Please note, if you used dried beans or legumes, save them for the next time you wish to “blind bake” a pie crust. They won’t be edible after being used as pie weights.)

In a large bowl, mix the filling ingredients, trying not to froth the mixture.
Pour custard mixture into pie crust. Sprinkle with nutmeg (and cinnamon if using).

Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Serves 8.

Loading

Holiday Prime Rib

Sorry for the lateness of this recipe — we celebrated the Christmas Holiday with it, along with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry congeal, and of course, horseradish.

(Must remember to NOT use the small plates when dishing this up, next time!!!)

5 pounds prime rib roast (see note)
1/4 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
4 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
kosher salt

Place rib roast on a plate and allow to come to room temperature, approximately 4-4.5 hours.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
Combine butter, pepper, garlic, and Italian seasoning in a small bowl. Spread butter mixture evenly over entire roast (top, bottom, and both sides). Season roast generously with kosher salt. It shouldn’t have a salt crust, but it should have enough for flavour. (As a variation, you can slice your garlic cloves into thin slices and, using the sharp point of a knife, insert them randomly over your roast’s top side — then using the butter, pepper, and Italian seasoning (omitting the minced garlic) to coat the roast.) Place roast in a roasting pan and cover with the lid.
Place the covered roasting pan in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Turn the oven off. Leave the roast in the pan, in the oven with the door closed, let the roast sit in the oven for 2 hours. Remove roast from the oven, slice, and serve.

To calculate the roast’s cooking time, multiply the exact weight of the roast by 5, and then round the resulting number to the nearest whole number.  Roast the prime rib at 500 degrees F for that precise amount of time (i.e., 6.5 pounds would be 6.5×5=32.5, so you’d roast for 33 minutes).  Remember to not open the oven door during the two hour cool down of the oven. In the event you have a convection oven that has a fan to automatically cool down the oven after you turn it off, you’ll either need to disable that function, or unplug your oven so that the cool down occurs naturally, unassisted by the fan.

One further note: Because of the fat content of the roast, and the additional fat provided by the butter coating, it is very important to have proper ventilation in your kitchen. Otherwise, your smoke detectors WILL go off, and you may be visited by your local Fire Department.

Loading

Hot Virginia Dip

Hot Virginia Dip (Courtesy of the Virginia Hospitality Cookbook and the Junior League of Hampton Roads)

Original recipe:

1 cup pecans, chopped
2 tbsp butter (Unsalted)
16 oz cream cheese, softened
4 tbsp milk
5 oz dried beef, minced
1 tbsp garlic salt
1 cup sour cream
4 tbsp onion, minced

Recipe as created above:

4 eight-ounce blocks of cream cheese, softened
16 oz cream cheese
10 oz dried beef, diced
4 tbsp milk
2 medium onions, diced
2 tbsp garlic salt
3 cups of pecan halves
1 stick unsalted butter

Either way you make the dish, the process is the same – I just needed to make it in much larger quantities.

In a large mixing bowl, add cream cheese, sour cream, diced dried beef, garlic salt, diced onion, and milk and using a stand (or hand) mixer, beat to combine thoroughly (this is most easily done if your mixer has a paddle type attachment.

Melt butter in a large saute pan. Add pecans and toss to coat. Continue to cook until just scorched (the original recipe just says to saute). This does not add a burnt flavour or taste, but does add a je ne sais quoi flavour to the topping.

The original recipe makes enough for a 1 1/2 qt baking dish; the larger recipe makes enough for a 3 qt baking dish.

Turn out the cream cheese mixture into the appropriately sized baking dish; cover with sauteed pecans. Place in a 350 oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with bread sticks, crackers, Wheat Thins or Triscuits.

(N.B. – This dip does reheat well, but is one of the very few things The Wannabe Gourmet has found that does not have a pleasing taste if served cold. A chafing dish (solid fuel, alcohol based, or even electric) works wonders, and for smaller amounts (1 1/2 quart), I’ve found that even the chafing dishes that are heated by votive candles alone will keep the dip at a sufficiently heated temperature for all to enjoy — it goes QUICKLY.)

Loading