As usual this recipe doesn’t come with exact measurement but just general guidelines and recommendations – add to it as you see fit and I doubt it’ll do it much harm. Enjoy this little taste of summer amidst the cold today.

Quinoa Tabouli

Cooked Quinoa*
Chopped Parsley (roughly as much parsley as you have quinoa – in volume, not weight)
Grated Carrot (I used one large one)
Chopped bell pepper (I used a yellow one)
Baby Tomatoes, quartered (I used roughly a handful or so)
Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Juice of a Lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil and a splash of lemon juice and add salt and pepper to taste. That’s it! Enjoy!

*For cooking quinoa. I recommend that you rinse it first (it has a slightly bitter/acidic coating on it) and then soak it over night before cooking. To cook put it in a pan with enough water to just cover and cook until all the water reduces out and the quinoa is soft. For this recipe allow it to cool and then fluff it with a fork before using it in the salad.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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Ok, I know you’re suppose to post pumpkin pie recipes BEFORE Thanksgiving, but I feel like breaking the rules and posting these now. Besides, I like this pumpkin pie so much I think it should be enjoyed throughout the fall and winter and not just at Thanksgiving.

The trick to this pumpkin pie is to use a fresh pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin puree. It’s really not as hard as it sounds. All you have to do is slice the pumpkin in half, take out the seeds and pulp and place it cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 F until the meat inside is tender and soft. Scrap out the meat and put it in a food processor or blender and blend until you have a smooth puree. That’s it. Now that you have your puree you can use it in any recipe that calls for canned pumpkin puree with the result being a much fresher pumpkin flavor.

So, here’s my pumpkin pie recipe…

Pumpkin Pie Made With FRESH Pumpkin

• 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
• ¾ cup Unrefined sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla (I recently used maple extract instead because I didn’t have vanilla and that worked well too, although the vanilla is much better)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk (or cream or a combination of milk and cream)
• 3 eggs
• 1 pie crust (if possible make your own – it tastes so much better and it’s not nearly as hard as it seems. If you have kids let them mix the butter in with the flour and roll it out – they will love it and you save yourself the hard work.  I’ve been using this recipe but without the sugar and we like it)

Mix it all together and pour it into the pie crust. Bake at about 350 degrees Fahrenheit until it is not really wiggly anymore. You want it to jiggle just a little though because it will solidify more once you take it out of the oven.

Eat it warm or cold, however you like. It’s great topped with a little whipping cream made from scratch by beating a bit of cream until it thickens (you can add a little sugar and or vanilla or maple syrup to the whipped cream to sweeten it if you desire).

ENJOY!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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That’s why I was so excited to learn about Bohemiae Rosa. This local Czech farm has blown me away with all that they offer – grassfed beef, lamb, and goat meat, pastured chicken (which means that the chickens are TRULY free range and spend most of their time outside), eggs from pastured chickens, homemade pate, homemade bacon, homemade pickles, organically grown produce, unpasteurized honey, and so much more. They are not officially certified organic yet (the process takes 2 years), but they follow organic principles. Even better they also implement sustainable practices and think about what is best for the animal, the environment, and our own health as well.

They speak WONDERFUL English and deliver right to your door in Prague (as well as having a few distribution sites throughout the city). I’ve gotten three orders from them so far and I’ve been so happy with each of them. We’ve gotten delicious vegetables, fresh fish, tons of eggs, tasty bacon, and even some beautiful liver. I have been so excited about this farm that I decided to interview the farmer so that we all could learn more about this sustainable farm right in our backyard.

So, without further ado, here is my interview with Ingmar:

You call yourself a “sustainable farmer” what exactly does that mean to you?

Sustainable means that production methods need to include the nature of the animals, the surrounding nature and general welfare of our planet and all that live. It takes organic much further. Organic means no artificial fertilizer, no pesticides, fungicides or herbicides.

It is perhaps best to give some examples:

If you feed a cow organic feed, you can call the beef organic (it it spends a certain amount of time outside). However, the nature of the cow is that it is a ruminant: it does not naturally eat grain! Grain actually increases the acidity of the stomach, causing the cow to get ill. This can be so severe that in the US cows are slaughtered at 14-16 months, they cannot keep them alive any longer. Sustainable practices then ensure that the cows only eat grass and straw (or in winter).

Flying your lettuce or other vegetables around the world in a airplane is obviously not good for the environment, sustainable in this case means buying local (officially with 160 km of the farm).

Chickens raised in a barn with 60,000 together, on organic feed and access topasture is called organic. The nature of the chickens (bred to sit and eat all day), is that few will actually go outside the barn. Anyway, just imagine the logistics, a day has 86,400 seconds, will each chickens go out and in the barn, they would have only 14.4 seconds each to do so (7.2 seconds to get out and the same to get in). This is not something that actually happens, so the chickens rarely go outside.

Sustainable means that the chickens are raised outside in small groups of max 250 each on sufficient land and grass. They do have a chicken house where they can sleep and shelter from the rain, but they spent most of their day outside eating grubs and insects that increase the omega-3 in the eggs tremendously.

How did you become a sustainable farmer? Did you grow up wanting to be a farmer or did something happen in your life that led you to that path?

When our children were born my wife and I started looking at the labels of store bought food, and what we read scared us! We became avid readers of books and reports on how food was converted from something that was essential and healthy to something that kept long well and looked good, but did not contain anything of value. Instead we realized that much of the food available in stores was actually dangerous to eat because of the toxins etc. Along the way we also learned that the production and processing methods applied were not friendly to either human or nature in the long and short term. It was then that we decided that enough was enough and if big business could not feed us properly, we would do so ourselves. One thing led to another though and it is easy to produce too much for one family, so we decided to share our food with those people who would appreciate it.

How long have you personally been farming? How long ago was Bohemia Rosa started?

In 2003 we started looking for a farm in the Czech republic, and in 2004 we found the Statek in Otradovice. It took 2 years to finalise the purchase and another 4,5 years to renovate it and start production in earnest. So we have been farming for almost 3 years now, building up the herds and learning along the way.

What does an average day on the farm look like?

At the moment I start the day at 7 am, but in the summer much earlier than that, and finish in the evening when I lock up the hens. This is in summer at about 10 pm but in winter around 7 pm.

During the day I still spent too much time on sales and marketing, as we are still busy building our customer base. The rest of the day I organise the farm work and the food production.

How many people work at Bohemia Rosa?

We have a group of 10 very good employees that work with us permanently, and depending on need to employ a further 20-25 people, especially in summer.

What are you most proud of at Bohemiae Rosa?

That our customers love our food!

You produce your food “without using pesticides, fungicides, herbicides or artificial fertilizers.” So, I’m curious how do you control pests and produce a good yield? What types of natural fertilizers do you use and what advice would you have for home gardeners who want to grow organic produce?

Yield is a problem when you do not use chemicals. On average the yield is about 50% at the moment, but with special planting techniques, a lot of hoeing, companion planting and selection of pest resistant plants we aim to increase the yields. What we discover is that after a few years the yields actually go up because we do not use chemicals, the plants seem to develop their own resistance in absence of chemicals.

We use our own farm manure and use horse manure from a neighboring horse farm  as fertilizer. This we compost in a sustainable way for 1 year (with a minimum of heavy machinery and labor).

We actually produce sufficient volumes now that next year we will start selling our compost to the public.

You also do not use antibiotics or growth hormones on your animals and all your animals are given good living conditions. Your live stock is grassfed and your poultry is pastured. I think this is truly wonderful, but I’d be curious to hear why you personally decided to raise your animals this way?

It is a personal choice as well as concern for our health and environment and animal welfare. It is bad enough that we need meat, so we might as well make the life of our animals the best we can.

Do you ever supplement with grain for your live stock and under what circumstances?

Our sheep, goats and cows are only grass-fed, but our pigs and poultry get grain as part of their diet. We never deviate from that rule as it is bad for the ruminants but also bad for us. Grain has a deleterious effect on CLA in ruminants (this is a good fatty acid, that keeps the animal lean), and thus on us. In effect, feeding grain makes the animal obese by removing the level of CLA, great if you want to produce meat fast and are not concerned about health, but a no-no if you want the best for yourself and others.

What do you do when one of your animals gets sick?

We usually separate them from the herd or group so they have more rest and are able to feed at their leisure (but always in view of the other animals). A common problem with pigs is that they misstep and strain their ankles. In this case the vet sometimes gives them a shot of codeine to alleviate the pain. This goes out of their system within 6 hours by the way). When they get a cold the vet gives them a cocktail of vitamins, which is harmless but makes the animal feel much better.

Sometimes in summer poultry or rabbits get affected by coccidiosus, to which they will build up a natural resistance. It the worst case we will feed them medication and when better, process them into dog food.

What goals do you have for Bohemia Rosa and how would you like to see it grow in the future?

What really surprised us is that many of our customers want fruit, vegetables and dairy, all organic of course, next to their meat. So we have already expanded our gardens with an extra 1,5 ha for next year and will plant even more fruit trees in spring. Many customers have also expressed concern about the slaughterhouse we use. We know it to be a good one, but still have decided on building our own so we will be able to get organic status on the slaughterhouse as well. An additional benefit is that we can slaughter more often in smaller batches, so we can sell most of our meat fresh instead of frozen. Hopefully the slaughterhouse will be ready in spring. Having a slaughterhouse on the farm also does away with live animal transport, which is stressful to the animals. We will be one of the very few organic slaughterhouses in the Czech Republic.

I know that at this time you don’t offer dairy, is this something you might offer in the future? Do you know of any good grassfed dairy farmers who sell raw (unpasteurized) milk?

I just had a talk with the health and veterinary inspection last week about this, and they told me that we can sell raw milk, as long as we make it clear that the risk is with the customer. Having calculated the cost per liter I hope that the customers are willing to spend 50-60 kc per liter however, and this will leave only a few crowns for ourselves. Anyway we have decided that we will test the market, as soon as we have purchased the milk cows.

Cheese production requires large investments in facilities and if the milk sales come through in sufficient volumes than it is something that we consider as well.

And last, a more specific question that I’ve personally been wondering, Is your honey pasteurized? Or raw? Do you offer Royal Jelly, Bee Propolis or Bee Pollen at all?

Honey is one of the fastest selling products we have, and all the Royal Jelly etc are now used in expanding the number of bee hives. Out honey is not treated in any way, we take it out of the hives, remove the honey from the frames by centrifugal force and put it straight into the jars. The additional benefit for hay fever sufferers is that this way they build up some resistance to pollen (as these are now naturally in the honey).

Is there anything else that you would like me and my readers to know about Bohemiae Rosa?

We work hard at making good food for our customers and obviously sometimes still make mistakes when selling it. We have had issues with wrong labels, no labels, wrong prices and quantities etc. Please forgive us if we do. We offer a 100% guarantee when you complain, so please let us know when something is wrong up that we can correct it.

Our farm is open to inspection by the public and we also have a small hotel, so please visit us at least once to see for yourselves how we do things for you J

I loved doing this interview and learning more about Ingmar and Bohemiae Rosa and I hope you enjoyed it too. After my husband read Ingmar’s response all he could say was “We need to be friends with them.”

Well, Ingmar, we love your philosophy about food and we’ve loved all of the food we’ve tried from Bohemiae Rosa! Thank you again for taking the time to share with us about Bohemiae Rosa. I hope that my husband and I can make it out to Bohemiae Rosa soon, to meet you in person, and see your beautiful farm for ourselves.

Personally, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

PS – I was not paid or compensated for doing this review/interview, this is just my honest opinion and I genuinely am completely excited about this beautiful farm.

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This risotto was inspired by a trip to a local farm where they grow LOTS of pumpkins and squashes. We had a great time exploring the different types of pumpkins, checking out their chickens and petting their rabbits. It was a perfect fall outing and I came home wanting to make an equally perfect warm and hearty fall meal. As soon as I saw the package of risotto which had been sitting in my cupboard for who knows how long, I knew it was just the thing to satisfy my autumn craving. And so Autumn Beer Risotto was born.

Autumn Beer Risotto (or Czech Risotto)

• 1 package (500g) Risotto
• 1 Butternut squash
• 3-4 Carrots (depending on the size)
• 2-5 small (to medium) Onion (how many will depend on how big they are and your taste preferences)
• 1 small parsnip
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 1 inch piece Ginger
• Butter (for sautéing)
• 1 cup Beer (I used Czech Kozel, which is a sweeter dark beer)
• 3 cups homemade Chicken stock
• ½ cup Edem cheese (or any other run of the mill white cheese – Jack would work I think)
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper to taste

First, peel the butternut squash and carrot and cut them into bit size pieces. Place both in a roasting dish and roast in the oven at about 350 degrees F until they are soft.

While the squash and carrots are roasting, chop the onion, parsnip, garlic and ginger. Place all of those things in a pot with a bit of butter and sauté until soft and slightly caramelized. Add the risotto to the pan.

Stirring constantly add the beer about ¼ a cup at a time. Next add the chicken stock about a ¼ cup at a time. Continue stirring the risotto all along. Then add the squash and carrot, still stirring all the time. Next add the Edem cheese, still stirring all the time. Are you catching a theme here? The theme is STIRRING. Risotto should be an arm work out.

Add a pinch of nutmeg and plenty of salt and pepper to taste, and continue stirring until the risotto is softened but still al dente. You don’t want your risotto to be mushy, but you do want it to be cooked.

That’s it. We personally really liked how this turned out. It was a great autumn risotto that was definitely warm and filling.

NOTE: We tried something different with the leftovers this time that I also wanted to recommend. I shaped the cold risotto into patties and fried it in a frying pan with a little butter. We then served it on a bed of kale with a squeeze of lemon – yummy.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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This soup is GREAT for when you are sick or for when you want to avoid getting sick! Here’s why…

Homemade bone broth:

We all know that chicken soup is wonderful for a cold, but did you know the main reason is because of the broth? Bone broth/stock contains tons of essential minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. Not only is it loaded with these and lots of other minerals, these minerals are also in a form that the body can easily absorb. Broth/stock also contains gelatin, which has been found to be helpful in the treatment of various diseases. It also aids in digestion, which means that instead of spending energy on digesting difficult things, your body can spend energy fighting whatever little illness you are struggling with.

PS – Here’s a little trick for you: add a little vinegar to the water when you make bone broths/stocks to help extract the calcium and improve the nutritional value of your stock.

Onion:

Onions have been used for their healing powers for centuries all over the world. According to this site “Early American settlers used wild onions to treat colds, coughs, and asthma, and to repel insects. In Chinese medicine, onions have been used to treat angina, coughs, bacterial infections and breathing problems.” Onions are rich in a number of minerals and vitamins – Shallots and Green onions, in particular, contain high amounts of vitamin A and antioxidants. All onions have antibacterial and antifungal properties, which makes them truly perfect for when you are sick. Onions can help break up mucus and aide the immune system.

Garlic:

In our household we consider garlic the king of the spice cupboard AND the king of the medicine cabinet as well. This popular food is incredibly beneficial for health and overall well being. The benefits of garlic truly deserve a blog post all their own, but for now let me just give you the short story. Garlic contains substances which are potent anti-viral, anti-fungal and antibiotic agents. They stimulate the immune system and aide in fighting off a variety of diseases. Garlic has even been found to be effective in treating antibiotic resistant diseases.

PS – A little tip, if you leave the garlic at room temperature for about 15 minutes after you crush/chop it you will trigger a chemical reaction in the garlic that maximizes the health benefits.

Simple Onion and Garlic Soup:

3-4 quarts of homemade bone broth
6 (or more) onions (use a variety of different kinds to maximize the flavor and health benefits)
3 (or more) cloves of garlic, sliced
2 (or more) cloves of garlic, crushed
1 additional clove of garlic for each person you are serving the soup to
Cut the onions however you want. I like to mix it up, by chopping some, slicing some and quartering some. I think this gives the soup more texture which I like. But, if you want to just chop them all that will work great too.

In a large pot sauté the onions until they are soft and just a bit translucent. Then add the sliced garlic and sauté for another few minutes until the garlic is just softened. Next add in the bone broth and crush 2 (or more) cloves of garlic into your soup. Allow this to cook for a bit (especially if your broth was cold).

Just before serving add one crushed clove of raw garlic to each bowl, and then pour the hot soup into the bowl. Serve with sliced green onions to garnish and homemade bread to dip.

This is a very simple soup, there’s not a lot of substance to it, but served with some warm bread it can make a wonderfully warming meal for a cold winter day or for whenever anyone in your family is sick or wants to avoid getting sick. In fact I think I will make up another batch this weekend.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

I’m entering this post in the following Blog Carnivals:
Fight Back Friday
Food on Friday
Click on the links to enjoy lots of other great posts. Enjoy!

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Pancakes might not seem like the ultimate comfort food to you, but for me they are pretty close – or at least they are when they are served with peanut butter, applesauce and pure maple syrup. That’s how my family used to always eat pancakes so whenever I have them like that it reminds me of my family and takes me right back to my childhood.

I knew as soon as I woke up that it was going to be a pancake day.

But, I felt like experimenting so I also knew this wouldn’t just be any old pancakes that I would be making. I wanted to try my hand at gluten free pancakes so that I could freely share them with my baby. I gave him his first taste of wheat over the weekend, but wanted to take it slow with this grain so I decided I wouldn’t be giving him any more wheat for a day or two.

I had amaranth and buckwheat in the cupboard and I have been enjoying playing around with both. I knew these would be my base, and then I just had to experiment and see what happened. The result was really very good! I was actually a little surprised. They were light and fluffy, and if I hadn’t known better I would have never guessed that they were gluten free.

My baby and I both thoroughly enjoyed these and they were the perfect start for what promised to be a long and difficult day.

Gluten Free Pancakes (with Amaranth, Buckwheat and coconut flours)

¼ cup amaranth flour
¼ cup buckwheat flour
2 Tablespoons coconut flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 eggs
¼ cup yogurt
¼ cup milk (I used goat milk)
2-3 Tablespoons applesauce or some sort of fruit jam or jelly

Mix it all together. Get a frying pan nice and hot (add coconut oil if desired) and then pour some of the batter onto the pan. Cook on one side until bubbles start to form and then flip the pancake and cook on the other side until just golden brown.

Serve my family’s special way – with peanut butter, applesauce and pure maple syrup. Or serve however your family likes their pancakes. Enjoy!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

EDIT: Ok, so I made these pancakes again and this time left out the applesauce as I didn’t think it would effect the outcome that much – well, it did! The pancakes without applesauce were too dry and didn’t have the same nice taste and texture. I don’t recommend leaving out the applesauce!

I’m submitting this post to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Hearth and Soul (formerly Two for Tuesdays). Click on the links to find lots of other great recipe and food related posts.

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While we were there, we had the privilege of meeting Andrew Jones, aka Tall Skinny Kiwi. He and his family are traveling through Prague visiting some good friends of theirs (and ours) before they head to the states for a while.  I was sad that his wife and kids were in the city visiting with friends and I didn’t get to meet them. I’ve heard such wonderful things about his wife and I would just love to meet her sometime.

In many ways meeting Andrew was a little strange for me. He has inadvertently and completely unknowingly had a profound influence on my faith journey as well as my blogging journey. I have to admit I was a little star struck. In many ways I felt a little intimidated and awkward meeting him and didn’t know really what to say or talk about.

In other ways, though, it was also very, well… normal to meet Andrew. He’s a very nice, very normal guy. A guy who has a dog and makes crepes for his family every Sunday. Sure, he’s a guy who has chosen a very counter-cultural life style, and a very untraditional way of doing ministry, but he’s still just a very normal, chill, easy to be around guy. He’s not some disconnected theologian, or some affected overly connected pastor. He’s just a guy who loves, laughs, and clearly enjoys hanging out with people.

Anyway, it was really great to meet him and I hope to have the chance to meet his lovely wife sometime in the future. We had a great time checking out their amazing truck (where their whole family has been living for some time now), watching our friend Mathias try to ride Andrew’s 1960’s motorcycle, seeing the new ceiling and wall that has been put up in “the restaurant”, exploring the property, and enjoying a little picnic of bread, cheese, meat, wine, tea, and of course cake.

I made a plum and peach cake that was so good I even let Thaddeus have some. It was the first time I’ve ever let him have any wheat or sugar. Here’s a picture documenting his first bit of cake:

We also did some foraging while we were there. What did we forage? Well, it’s September so APPLES, of course! There’s some big over-grown apple trees on the property so we picked a whole bag full and I’m excited to make some apple pie and other apple goodies. We also picked some elderberries (I’m going to make this syrup with them today) and some rose hips for tea.

Overall it was a really nice day and I just had to share it with you. I also had to share it with the little baby tick I got because of the outing, but that’s another story and one I don’t really care to relive…

Here’s the recipe for the Plum and Peach Cake. I really loved how this turned out. Soft and very moist, buttery and not too sweet. It was perfect. Sorry no picture – In the joy of eating this yummy cake I completely forgot to take one.

Plum and Peach Cake

4 (or 5) plums (pitted and sliced)
1 large peach (pitted and sliced)
¼ cup amaranth flour
¼ cup oats
¼ cup buckwheat
½ cup wheat flour (white or whole wheat)
3 eggs
½ cup butter (softened)
½ cup unrefined cane sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the slices of fruit in the bottom of a shallow cake pan (I used a pie pan and it worked perfectly). Mix the rest of the ingredients together and pour over the top of the fruit. Bake at about 350 degrees F until it’s golden brown and looks done. Enjoy!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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Two days ago I made this peach crisp from 101 Cookbooks. I was actually really excited to tell my husband that I actually followed the recipe for once… well, I followed the recipe but left out the plums and used all peaches, and left out the cinnamon (because I’m allergic to it) and used vanilla instead, oh and I left out the arrowroot because I didn’t have any at the time. He laughed at me because clearly I didn’t follow the recipe at all, but for me that was the closest I’ve come in a long time to following a recipe.

Tonight I set out to make these vinegar cookies and I had every intention of following the recipe. The only substitution I planned on making was using organic unrefined cane sugar instead of white sugar. But, somehow when I got in the kitchen things just started happening and before I knew it I had a completely different cookie from what I had intended. Different, but oh so yummy. I really liked how these turned out so I decided I’d share the recipe I ended up with.

½ cup butter (softened)
½ cup organic unrefined coconut oil
½ cup organic unrefined cane sugar
½ cup white sugar (I didn’t have enough unrefined sugar after all, so I used some white sugar that I still had in the back of the cupboard)
¾ cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup white flour (I didn’t have enough whole wheat to do the whole thing whole wheat)
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon baking soda
4 Tablespoons yogurt
2 heaping Tablespoons ground flaxseed

Mix everything together. Roll into balls (I use a melon baller to get even cookies – it’s a trick my mother-in-law taught me and it works GREAT) and place on a cookie sheet (greased or lined with wax paper). Bake at about 375 degrees F until they are light golden brown on top.

Obviously, with so much flour and sugar, these aren’t healthy, but I did make myself feel better by adding the flaxseed. Hehe – oh, the little rationalizations that go on in my brain.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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One of the things I love about Bethany’s blog lately is the discussion of food and recipes. I love food. My husband actually makes fun of me about it and says it never fails that if you put food in front of me that I am about to eat I will have a huge smile on my face… and he’s pretty much right.

So I enjoy watching Food Network tv and learning cooking tips and trying new recipes. Sometimes I really get in the mood to cook and CREATE something, almost like an artistic endeavor. So sometimes I search www.foodnetwork.com or other websites or magazines for interesting recipes and for something new to try. A lot of the recipes take a little more work than your usual week night dinner. Some of them have been big flops. I remember I tried one homemade roasted tomato soup recipe. About 3 hours and two whole sink full of dishes later I had a bowl of soup that basically tasted like Campbell’s canned tomato soup. So disappointing after all that work! But I’ve picked out two recipes today that while they do take a little effort, are well worth it, at least in my opinion.

Chicken Tetrazzini by Giada

Ingredients

• 9 tablespoons butter

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

• 2 1/4 teaspoons salt

• 1 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• 1 pound white mushrooms, sliced

• 1 large onion, finely chopped

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

• 1/2 cup dry white wine

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 4 cups whole milk, room temperature

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature

• 1 cup chicken broth

• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 12 ounces linguine or spaghetti noodles

• 3/4 cup frozen peas

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

• 1 cup grated Parmesan

• 1/4 cup dried Italian-style breadcrumbs

  Click here to get the directions for the recipe.

My little tweaks/recommendations

• Like I said this does take a while to prep, so I cooked the chicken ahead of time.

• I did ½ pound of white button mushrooms and ½ pound of crimini mushrooms, just because I love the meaty smoky flavor of the crimini

• Definitely try and use the fresh thyme if you can, the fresh herbs just make all the difference

• I don’t normally buy whole milk so I just used a little less milk than the recipes called for (2% is what I used) and a little more heavy cream than was called for in the sauce and it turned out super creamy and delicious!

This second recipe is a special occasion dessert I found from the local newspaper around Christmas time. It too takes several steps but I really enjoyed it. It really lives up to its name. Obviously if you’re allergic to egg whites or don’t like meringue better skip this one.

Cherry Berry on a Cloud

For meringue

• 6 egg white, room temperature

• ½ tsp cream of tartar

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 ¾ cup of granulated sugar

For middle layer

• 6 oz cream cheese, softened

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 cups heavy cream, whipped

For topping

• 1 can (16 oz) cherry pie filling

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 2 (15 –ounce) packages of frozen strawberries in sweetened syrup, thawed

To make meringue shell, preheat oven to 275 degrees. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until frothy. Continue beating gradually adding sugar and continuing to beat until stiff and glossy, about 10 minutes. Spread into greased 13×9 inch glass baking dish. Bake 60 minutes. Meringue should about double in size and be a golden color. When done, turn off oven but leave in oven to cool completely. (Now me being the impatient cook that I am didn’t allow it to “completely cook” and the meringue kinda collapsed and cracked in places, but even with that it was still good! Next time I’ll try to find my inner patience and allow to “cool completely” )

When shell is cool, blend cream cheese with sugar and vanilla. Fold in whipped cream. Spread this mixture over meringue shell and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.

When ready to serve, mix topping ingredients and spoon over cream-cheese mixture. If you want to go the no preservative more natural type of route I would try skipping the packaged cherry pie filling and frozen sweetened strawberries and just mashing up some fresh strawberries mixed with sugar for the topping. I’m sure that would be just as delicious.

This recipe has just the right amount of creaminess with the middle cream cheese but doesn’t get to heavy because the meringue is so light and fluffy. It really is like biting into a delicious heavenly cloud!

Tips for whipping cream: If you haven’t whipped cream before I let you in on the trick that my husband had to teach me. Everything needs to be cold. The cream, the bowl you are going to use to whip it, and even the beaters. So put the bowl (glass or metal) and beaters in the freezer for about 30 minutes before you whip the cream. I always use an electric stand mixer. If you can do it my hand you get the elbow grease award!

I’m a Christian, wife, medical professional, and soon to be mother from Phoenix, Arizona. I am fascinated with the physiology of our bodies, love almost all things food, and love to travel when I get the opportunity. I often find myself trying to find a balance between two very different ideas i.e. the science of western medicine and the methodologies of Eastern and naturopathic medicine, having a “family bed” vs “Ferberizing” my baby, fighting between champagne taste and a beer budget, etc. I feel like there is a ying and yang to everything and and my journey right now is about trying to find that balance… that and doing all the other everyday chores that need to be done.

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A Moderate Life
Girlichef
Health Food Lover
A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Frugality and Crunchiness with Christy
Rendering Lard

Hope you all enjoy this weeks blog hop!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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