"Southwestern" Hash

This really shouldn't be called a recipe, but I make it (or some variant of it) often enough it's worth mentioning.

1/2 pound sliced mushrooms

1/4 medium onion, sliced

1 bag of Simply Potatoes "Southwestern" hash browns (You could certainly improvise another shredded potato product. I've never used frozen potatoes, but you could probably make it work. You could also, if you're that sort of person, shred your own potatoes, in which case you'd need 4.5 C, plus some chopped peppers.)

about 4 oz cheese (I like swiss), shredded

5-6 slices soy bacon, cooked and crumbled (Or real bacon, if you prefer pork products.)

4 eggs

2 T spicy brown mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Butter and olive oil for cooking

Heat about 1 T of butter and 1 T of olive oil in a big skillet. Add the sliced mushrooms and onions, and cook until the mushrooms start to brown. Then, add a bit more oil and dump in the potatoes. Stir it all together, then let it rest a minute or so before stirring again. (Do this repeatedly - you don't want actual hashbrowns, so you want to stir, but you don't want to stir too often or things don't brown well.)

While the potatoes cook, combine the eggs, mustard, shredded cheese and bacon in a bowl. Whisk everything together until well combined and slightly foamy (like you're making an omelete).

When the potato shreds are done (meaning they no longer have the taste/texture of raw potato), pour the egg mixture into the skillet and stir, stir, stir! The egg and melted cheese binds everything together. It's ready when you no longer see raw egg. Serve as you see fit - sour cream, salsa, extra cheese, etc.

Mushroom Stew

This recipe is actually titled "Mushroom Bourguignon", and it comes from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favourite blogs. You should head over there first - it's her recipe (I changed very, very little), and she has amazing pictures of it.

When I first saw it, I drooled, but just about moved on - bourguignon = complicated and full of meat, in my mind. The pictures got stuck in my head, though - meaty 'shrooms in dark, rich broth...yeah, I had to try it. I'm very glad I went back for this one. It tastes like you spent hours on it, but it's really quite easy. I was sad, sad, sad when the leftovers were gone.

2 T olive oil

3 T butter

2 pounds mushrooms, sliced about 1/4" thick (I use one pound of portobellos and one pound of cremini.)

2 carrots, diced

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 cloves minced garlic

1 C red wine (I use Yellow Tail Merlot)

2 C vegetable broth

2 T tomato paste

1/2 t dried thyme

1 1/2 T flour

1 C pearl onions, peeled

salt and pepper

egg noodles and sour cream, for serving

In your biggest sauce pan (I use my 6 quart for this), heat 1 T of the oil and 1 T of the butter on high. Add the mushrooms and cook until they start to sear, but before they get juicy (I set a timer for four minutes, and stir them a lot). Remove them from the pan, and, if possible, put them somewhere where people won't pick at them like I always do. (Also: put them in a bowl. A plate may get messy. And for love of all that's holy, DON'T PUT THEM ON PAPER TOWELS. This will cause major facepalming on my part.)

Turn the heat down and add 1 T of oil and 1 T of butter. Dump in the carrots, onions, thyme, and a several pinches of salt and pepper. Let these cook for about 10 minutes, until the onions are started to brown a bit. (Or, if you're me, get distracted and burn the onions. I do it EVERY TIME. Don't worry, still tastes great.) Add the minced garlic and cook for the time it takes you to wrestle open the bottle of wine. (A minute or two, that's all.)

Add your C of wine to the pan, and be sure to scrape all the yummy bits off the bottom. Crank the heat up until it boils, then turn it back down to medium. Pour in the broth and add the tomato paste. Dump that bowl of mushrooms (plus any juices they've left behind) back into the pot. Get everything up to a boil again, then reduce again, and let the whole thing simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add your pearl onions, and simmer for 10 more minutes. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and remaining 1 T of butter. Add that to the stew, and cook for 5-10 more minutes, or until the sauce is the right consistency. Mine's usually ready pretty quickly. Partly because I'm hungry.

Serve it over egg noodles, with lots of sour cream.

Chicken with wine-mushroom sauce

Posted by Pat

It's been a long time since I have gone through my "old fashion" recipe box and when I did I pulled out a couple of wonderful chicken recipes I had forgotten about, hope you give them a try!

• 1 T. butter 2 T. olive oil, divide use
• 8 oz. slice mushrooms 1 T. minced fresh basil or parsley
• 4 bone in chicken breasts w/skin salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 C. dry white wine 1/4 C. chicken broth
• 1/4 C. heavy whiping cream

Melt butter in large deep non-stick skillet. Add 2 tsp. of the olive oil. When oil and butter are hot add mushrooms. Saute on med.high heat until mushrooms are lightly browned and softened and all liquid has evaporated. Remove mushrooms and set aside. Season mushrooms with salt, pepper and the parlsey or basil.

Return skillet to med-high heat. Add remaining olive oil. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Add chicken in a single layer skin side down and cook until well browned, about 5 min. on each side. Lower heat to medium, cover and cood until cooked trhug, about 8 to 14 min.

Transfer chicken to large plate and cover. Pour off fat from skillet, add wine and boil on high until reduced by half, about 2-3 minutes. Add broth and boil until reduced by half, about 1 minute.

Add cream and boil 1 minute, stir in mushrooms. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. Spoon sauce over chicken and enjoy!

Note: We always prepare more sauce so I increase the amounts, we like it over rice or noodles so extra sauce is great.