Stuffed Mushrooms

For the past few months, John and I have been trying to eat healthier by cutting out carbs, junk food, and fast food.  We've been semi-successful, but every now and then we do slip in a burger or two.  I mean, I am a french fry addict!  Originally, I thought it would be difficult to make dinner because I rely so heavily on pasta and rice as they both cook really fast and you can generally make a lot of whatever it is you're making, which you can pack for lunch the next day.  However, after cutting out bread, pasta, and rice, I find that cooking dinner is not as difficult as I feared.  That is how I came across this super delicious stuffed mushroom recipe.  We both absolutely love mushrooms, and I knew this meal would be a big hit with John.  

What you'll need:

12 fresh, large mushrooms 

1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, soften

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 

minced garlic

1/4 tsp black pepper 

1/4 tsp onion powder 

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

garlic and herb breadcrumbs

olive oil

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 

Clean each mushroom thoroughly by using a damp paper towel, remove the stems

Finely chop up the mushroom stems into tiny pieces, set aside

In a small saucepan, heat up about 1 tbs of olive oil, saute the garlic and the mushroom stems, careful, not let your garlic burn

Set aside the garlic mixture to cool

Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature, and once your garlic mixture has cooled down, add the cream cheese, Parmesan cheese cayenne pepper, onion powder, and black pepper to the mix.  Texture should be thick

Spoon a generous amount of the cream cheese mixture into each mushroom, and arrange each mushroom cap on a prepared cookie sheet.

Sprinkle a generous amount of breadcrumbs onto each mushroom cap

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the mushrooms are hot and liquid forms underneath each mushroom

Serve immediately! 

I paired the stuffed mushrooms with baked pork chops, and a side of steamed veggies.  Super healthy, and super yummy! 

Natasha's Suggestions: Next time, add crab meat to your cream cheese mixture and bake as directed above.   

Cilantro, Black Bean and Corn Salsa Dip

Summer 2011 is quickly coming to an end and my favorite season will soon arrive, fall!  While any kind of salsa dip can be enjoyed year round, this particular dip is definitely a summer crowd favorite.  It's refreshing to eat and easy to enjoy on those long summer travels, bbqs, picnics or just tubing down the Shenandoah River! 

What you'll need: 

black beans

frozen corn

red onion

red bell pepper

chopped cilantro 

lemon juice

minced garlic

cumin

oil olive

salt/pepper

Directions:

drain and rinse the black beans.  Add the frozen corn to a pot, fill with about 1/4 cup of water.  Cook on medium heat.  Drain the corn out and mix with the black beans in a large mixing bowl.  Chop the red onion and the red bell pepper into tiny pieces, add to the mixing bowl (or in my case a large container).  Chop the cilantro and mix in with the beans, corn, onions and bell pepper pieces.   

 

Add about a handful of cumin, minced garlic, salt, and pepper to the mixture.  Pour about 1/2 cup of lemon juice and 2/3 cup olive oil.  Mix well and serve with some tostitos chips.

Natasha's Suggestions: I find that using the scoop tostitos work best for this dip! Don't be afraid to add lots of lemon juice and olive oil.  

Vietnamese Tomato and Cabbage Soup (Canh Bab Cai)

When I was young, my mother used to make this soup often.  We would eat it with rice and a meat stew on the side.  It's so simple and easy to make.  What I love about this soup, also called, "canh bap cai" in Vietnamese is the nutritional aspect.  The broth is full of nutrients from the cooked tomatoes and cabbage.  Add some boiled egg seasoned in fish sauce and spices and you'll have a healthy and quick dinner!    

What you'll need:

tomatoes 

cabbage

eggs

Asian fish sauce

Vietnamese chili sauce

lemons

salt/pepper

Directions:

In a separate small pot, boil a couple eggs.  While the eggs are cooking, in a medium pot, slice the tomatoes into big chunks and boil in some salted water.

 

After about 10 minutes, check to see if the eggs are done, remove from boiling water and let cool.  Once the tomatoes are cooked and have soften, add chopped cabbage little by little and cook until the cabbage is soft. Remove from heat and add pepper and lemon juice.  Peel the eggs and mash into a bowl.  Add the fish sauce and chili sauce until desired amount.  Serve with rice.

Natasha's Suggestions: I love adding a LOT of lemon into the soup.  It brings out the flavor of the tomatoes and cabbage and pairs well with the mashed egg and fish sauce.  

Simple fettuccine alfredo with shrimp and asparagus

  

I'll admit, I am a huge fan of alfredo sauce!  It's heavy, creamy and just plain delicious!  One of my favorite recipes is fettuccine with shrimp (or chicken) with a vegetable.  My father used to make this in our wok (typical Asian family with our woks!) on nights when my parents couldn't decide what they wanted to do for dinner.  It's fast to make, super easy and can feed a family of five with just one box of pasta.  

What you'll need:

1 box of fettuccine noodles

1 jar of alfredo sauce

1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and cleaned

asparagus, chopped

heavy cream

olive oil

butter

salt/pepper

paprika

minced garlic

chili powder

grated parmesan cheese 

Directions:

In a large pot, boil water, add the olive oil.  Add the noodles and cook until Al dente.  While the water is boiling, de-shell the shrimp and clean.  Season with the salt/pepper, chili powder and paprika.  Set aside.  Once the noodles are done cooking, strain and run cold water over the noodles.  Leave to drain.  In the same pot as the noodles, add some butter, some water and the minced garlic.  Cook the asparagus thoroughly.  Once the asparagus looks done, add the seasoned shrimp to cook.  Set the cooked vegetables and shrimp aside.  In the same pan, add a little more butter and toss half the noodles and half the shrimp and vegetable mix.  Add half the jar of alfredo sauce.  Complete the steps again using the rest of the noodles and shrimp/asparagus mixture.  Pour some heavy whipping cream into the alfredo jar, with the lid tightly shut, shake until the sauce and cream are mixed together, pour the rest of the sauce into your pan.  Add desired amount of freshly grated parmesan cheese.  Serve with fresh french bread and a nice salad.

Natasha's Suggestions:  I really have no suggestions for this meal.  However, if you prefer, you can substitute the shrimp for chicken and the asparagus for bell peppers or broccoli.  Don't overdo it with the butter, just a little bit is fine.  Add tons of parmesan cheese though! 

    

DC Living!

As many of you know, I've lived in DC for over 3 years.  Many people, especially my friends from Florida ask all the time, "so what's it like living in DC?"  A friend recently found this article that sums up living here correctly.  While I know this particular topic strays away from cooking or politics, I couldn't pass up a chance to share with y'all!

How To Live In Washington DC

MAY. 18, 2011 By CLARISSA RAMON  

http://bit.ly/iUURSj

Get accepted into a “competitive” fellowship or internship or entry level lobbying position, whatever. Think this is it: it’s only a matter of time before you are saving the world (or securing a “real” job). Look on Craigslist for an apartment…see the price of a one bedroom condo by the Capitol is $2700.00. Silently squeal to yourself. Look farther way. Google Shaw-Howard. Look closer. Spend 2 weeks scouring craigslist, emailing friends and distant cousins. Find a bedroom in a house in Maryland, or a couch with a friend in Columbia Heights. It doesn’t matter, you’re moving to DC.

Spend the first few nights getting to know your fellow fellows or classmates, or co-workers. Ride the metro for the first time in your life. Go the wrong direction. Have people from NYC scoff at you for being confused. Go to Adams Morgan and be surrounded by the exact same crowd as college. Take too many shots, eat at McDonalds with a security guard and cab it back to safety. Look at your bank account and realize you’ve spent $200 that week on tennis shoes, a plastic drawer set, pad thai, metro fares, cabs, alcohol, brunch, an umbrella, Tylenol, toothpaste and a new suit. Silently kick yourself.

Learn to take the bus. Put yourself on a budget. Visit Safeway and realize that you can’t stuff your trunk with a month’s worth of Ramen noodles and Capri suns. Buy a goofy cart, fill it with groceries, try to include something healthy. Realize you’ve lost 10 lbs from walking so much. It’s the end of summer and your shirt is sticking to your back, your feet are swollen and think how you would do terrible things to get access to a rooftop pool.

Visit the Holocaust Museum. Cry.

Make friends fast. Everyone is friendly. Everyone is from somewhere else. They are away from home for the first time like you, or coming from a 6 year grad/law school program where they helped with AIDS research. Whoa, people are smart in DC. Clutch your B.A. in Political Science, or Government, or History or Women’s Studies for dear life. Drink with Republicans. Make out with Liberals. See more diversity than you ever have in your entire life living back home.

Have your first day on the “Hill.” Realize that people come here for very different reasons. There is someone on the other side, from the other “party” who exists solely to combat everything you believe in. Spend half your time answering phones, meeting people for coffee, getting recommendations from other people about how you just have to talk to so and so. Email them for coffee. Realize you probably have an addiction. File paperwork, run errands, respond to letters, work late. Think how recess is the best thing ever. Give a tour. Bullshit your way through. Realize that your 8th grade history needs to be refreshed. Who put people like you in charge? Realize that the people “in charge” are in the committee room next to you. Walk past John Boehner. Realize you have absolutely nothing to say to John Boehner.

Go to a “networking” event. Drink too much wine and eat too many hors d’oeuvres. Listen to the person speaking incessantly about themselves and what they do. Want to punch them. Want to jump out the window. Leave feeling defeated, after meeting 100 new contacts and handing out dozens of cards realize you have not had a substantial conversation in what feels like days. (Later after your 37th reception, you have perfected it to a science. Drink 1 and half glasses of wine, skip the food, collect 5 cards, leave early and go to bar.)

Have nights where you have absolutely nothing to do. Feel lonely. Call home, Skype with a friend. Wonder what the hell you ever came to DC for.

Pass by a homeless person on the way to the metro. Realize that for being the capitol of the country, there is a lot of disparity. Read about the poor education system. Notice how most of the Senate staffers are white. All of the service workers are not. Feel disconnected to the reason you came here. Get frustrated with D.C. traffic, slow metros, bad neighborhoods, expensive cost of living and overall insanity. Wonder if going through a metal detector everyday is healthy for you? Feel guilty and powerless. You are not saving the world. You have not found a job.

Realize that you are among your peers. Even though you are surrounding by people of privilege, you still feel like you’re in the right place. Have your party lose the house and have you’re world flipped upside down. Life here is cyclical. Parties switch. Power shifts. Become jaded with politics. Wonder if you even matter, if anyone’s work even makes a difference. Read a bill that you helped draft. Think you just helped save a tiny piece of the world.

Work with different types of people. Feel pressured to get more education. Realize that people here are just the same as the ones back home, just better at hiding it. They creep slowly into debt, live in places like Rossyln or Silver Spring and try to live off $30 K a year whilst paying for $30 brunches. Meet lots of douchey law students or worse: pre-law students. Go to a rooftop party. Visit an apartment that costs more than your parents house. Go to the W, sneak onto the rooftop. Drink $20 jack and cokes. Hate yourself. Party with people from Chicago, LA and Texas. Meet people who intern at the Whitehouse. Become annoyed with people who intern at the Whitehouse. Your 8 months here have made you more judgmental. Become less trusting.

Gain back the 10 lbs you lost and then some over winter. See snow for the first time or the 25th time. Get a winter boo. Lose the winter boo. Go on dates, meet people, hook-up. End your pseudo relationship back home. See couples on street and stare at them like zoo animals. Everyone is too young for that here. Not really, just more self involved. Question your life path. Consider letting pseudo girlfriend/boyfriend visit. Discuss relationships and sex with your new girlfriends/guyfriends over Ben’s Chili Bowl at 3:00 am after a night of debauchery. Stop questioning your life path.

Get invited to a gala or staff your boss at an event. See people you only see on Huffington Post, New York times or CNN up close. Realize you are in the center of it all. Hear the President speak. See the crowd move. Shake his hand. Stare at hand. Call your parents.

Pause on a beautiful spring day. Smell the cherry blossoms. Think : Damn, I live in D.C.

Chicken and Gravy Sammies

This is a recipe I found from Rachel Ray.  I absolutely adore RR.  I tend to use her recipes as a base, but I always add my own special touch to it.  Sometimes that's easier than starting from square one.  Especially, if you don't have too much time to make dinner.  This is another recipe my boyfriend loves.  It's probably because gravy is one of his favorite things ever! Serve with a mix salad or sweet potato fries.

What you'll need:
2 to 3 lemons, juiced (enough to yield 1/4 cup)
honey
3 to 4 small cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 pieces boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock
Dijon mustard
1 loaf crusty French bread
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat the oven to low heat, like 200 or 250

Marinade: in a large bowl, add the lemon juice, sugar or honey, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. Stir to combine. Season the chicken with coarse salt and pepper and add to the dressing, turn to coat and let marinate for 15-20 minutes.

While the chicken marinades, add the butter to a sauce pot over medium heat. When the butter melts, stir in the flour, cook 1 minute, then whisk in the stock. Cook until thickened to a light gravy, about 5 to 6 minutes. Season with black pepper, turn heat to low and stir in the Dijon.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Shake off excess marinade and cook the chicken. Remove to a cutting board, let rest for a few minutes and slice at an angle.

While the chicken cooks, crisp the bread in the warm oven.

Cut the bread into 4 portions and split or halve. Use tongs to dip the sliced chicken in the gravy and fill the rolls. Arrange on a serving platter and serve.

Natasha's Suggestion: add extra gravy on top of the sandwich or add sliced peppers for an extra crunch.  Measure out your Dijon mustard according to taste, be aware that too much Dijon will overpower the gravy.  Slice the chicken into thin cuts.  It will fit into your bread better.   Yummy!

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Obama adopts the Bush doctrine

I love finding great articles on www.washingtonpost.com to blog about.  In particular, today's opinion writer Charles Krauthammer, discusses how President Obama has adopted the Bush doctrine of spreading democracy, the key U.S. objective in the Middle East.


Those who know me well, know that I am a big admirer of President Bush.  His delivery may not have always been flawless, but, this is a man, a President, that understood foreign policy well.  


I'm glad that our current President is finally listening to the former President and upholding his policy doctrines.  Do I agree we need to continue to involve ourselves in the Middle East?  That's the million dollar question.  I feel we need to finish what was started and help the Middle East achieve a democratic government.  However, I also understand that the Middle East is plagued by years and years of internal conflict.  That conflict, is all these people know and understand well.  It would be crazy to believe that one day, everyone could live in a Utopian society.  I believe America is a great country!  We are living proof that democracy is a great idea, a true and patriotic idea.  


“It will be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.” - President Obama, May 19, 2011

"For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations." - President Bush, Speech to UN GA, Sept. 21, 2004

For more on the story, please go to: http://wapo.st/ma5dZW

 

image taken from: http://bit.ly/mMCjid