Warm and Fuzzy

Tonight was one of those hectic nights, although it didn't start out that way. I came home with plenty of time to prep the meal for tonight, take care of the dogs, go for a run, etc., etc. But of course I sat around and played online looking up cake plates and Halloween decor. Now that I write this, it seems like a weird combination, but the mind wanders when ambling around the internet. You have to agree that it would be worth throwing a Halloween party just to serve apple cider out of this cauldron with some fake spider webbing strewn around! Anyways, the point is that I waited until the last minute and had to shorten my run in half and just as I was defrosting my pork chops, Greg's car pulled in the driveway! One disaster followed another, but at least now I know that Risotto takes A LOT of time and patience and isn't something to whip up while you have 10 other things bubbling over in the kitchen!

Tonight's Menu:

Oven Fried Pork Chops
Risotto
Bistro Mushrooms
Peas

To start off, I was supposed to have a certain kind of rice, but I couldn't find it at the grocery store, so I used Jasmine rice for the Risotto. Are you laughing at me yet?

Now you're laughing. Yes, I used Stove Top stuffing to coat my pork chops, but I didn't have enough time to crush them into tiny pieces and I don't have a food processor because my kitchen is too small and all of the cabinet space is used up! (I have the hand-me-down bread maker from my mom still stored on top of my dryer in the mud room) So, the stuffing barely stuck to the chops. Therefore, I just dumped a load of stuffing on them in the pan.

Food was flying everywhere! Rice was popping like popcorn out of the pot, onions were dropping all over the floor, I was screaming at the dogs "get out of the kitchen," which is my nightly mantra.

Of course I didn't read the instructions before starting the Risotto and I have never made it the "real" way before, so I didn't realize that you brown the rice a little bit first with oil and onions and garlic and then you pour in 28 ounces of chicken broth a 1/2 cup at a time, waiting for the rice to absorb each bit of liquid, while stirring constantly nonetheless! Meanwhile I was making Bistro Mushrooms (also, for the first time) and had to be stirring those the whole time as well. I was a crazy person in the tiny kitchen. Luckily Greg got home when he did!

Flipping the chops.

Stirring the Risotto. The second pot had the boiling chicken broth that I was adding bit by bit.

Again with my mushroom obsession... This is so easy though, and tastes delish! It's just sliced mushrooms (about 3 cups: button, shitake, cremini, etc.) sauteed in a couple tablespoons of olive oil for about 4 minutes. Then add 1/3 cup of dry red wine or sherry, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste, and about 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme and let it simmer for 3 more minutes while sitrring a bit, and there you go! You will have Bistro Mushrooms. I put it over the Risotto.

Finally it absorbed all it could and thickened up.

And the end result.....

Yay Stove Top!

Where would we be without the peas that Greg made? I'll tell you where, sitting at dinner with no veggies!

So, it was a crazy night. I didn't expect dinner to take over an hour to make, but it ended up tasting pretty darn good. The Risotto didn't have the cheese that it was supposed to because we forgot it at the grocery store this week, and the peas were just from a bag of frozen ones that we keep on hand in case of a vegetable crisis, but it all turned out.   Warm and fuzzy?   I     think     so.