French Onion Soup Stuffed Mushrooms- Pioneer Woman

This weekend is Grant's birthday, again :)
It always falls close to the Super Bowl, so I have a little birthday/SB dinner. We were a little bummed the 49ers didn't get into the big game.  What was up with that? We have a thing for Alex Smith, since he played at the U of U a few years back. Met him a few times at games. Great kid. Oh, maybe he's a man now?  Here's a cute pic of him with my boys at the Fiesta Bowl.

Anyway. Superbowl=appetizers. A stuffed mushroom fit for the Super Bowl. Is that two words? or one? My spell check says it's two.
Are you a French Onion Soup lover? I am. Remember when I posted Classic French Onion Soup? It's my favorite soup in the world. When I was a kid, my dad made it for us. And we had these little bowls, special for French Onion Soup, I think it was the only time we used them. Which must have been once a year?  Funny how I remember those bowls.
Ok, the appetizer. Tastes just like French Onion Soup. In a mushroom. I made these and everyone went crazy. A love fest. For the mushrooms. If your people love onions and mushrooms, you have to make these.

Pioneer Woman's French Onion Soup Stuffed Mushrooms

Pioneer Woman Cooking
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2 tablespoons butter
2 whole large onions, halved and sliced thin
1/4 cup beef broth
7 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
splash of red or white wine ( I used cooking wine)
1/2 cup grated Gruyere or Swiss Cheese
Kosher salt
24 whole white Or Crimini mushrooms, washed and stems removed
minced parsley, optional for garnish


In a medium skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add onions and saute for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very soft. Splash in wine, broth, and Worcestershire. Cook for another 5 minutes, or until liquid is cooked down. Set aside.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Throw in mushrooms and toss around for 2 minutes, just to start the cooking process. Sprinkle mushrooms with salt.

Place mushroom caps face down in a baking dish. Heap cavity with sauteed mushrooms, then sprinkle Gruyere over the top. Bake at 10 minutes on 325 degrees. Turn on broiler and broil for a couple of minutes, until the top of the Gruyere starts to bubble and slightly turn brown.

Chicken Pot Pie at South Fork

Yesterday, I taught a "Chicken Pot Pie" class at The Fork . Chicken Pot Pie is one of our family favorites I posted a few years ago.  I updated the photos and tweaked the recipe a bit. Here's the link  to the recipe if you are looking for something to cook up on a cold winter day...

Frieda's Light Wheat Bread

Last week at The Fork, we had an amazing hands-on bread making class taught by Frieda, Queen of Bread Making.   Frieda is a darling woman who really knows her stuff when it comes to bread and roll making. If you haven't already stumbled across her blog, you can find it here. Who doesn't love the smell of bread baking in the oven on a cold and snowy day, which we FINALLY had last week and most of the day today. Yes, our White Christmas, finally came, a month late.
If you have been looking for a good starter-level recipe for light wheat bread, this is perfect for you. It's fairly simple to put together (don't be intimidated by the lengthy recipe), and your family will love it. The texture is so light, it's almost like white (gasp!) bread.  Forget the fragrance candles. Nothing beats the aroma of home made bread, baking in your oven.







Light Wheat Bread
Frieda Loves Bread
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2 1/3 c. room temperature water
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/3 c. honey
3 c. whole wheat flour
1 T. salt
1 T. vital wheat gluten (purchased at health food stores)
2 T. active dry yeast
2-3 1/2 c. all purpose flour

Step by Step Instructions:
Place water, oil and honey in a 5 quart mixing bowl. Stir until dissolved.
Place 3 cups wheat flour on top. DO NOT STIR.
Sprinkle salt, gluten and yeast on top. Stir until flour is not visible. You may have a few lumps visible.
Cover and let mixture sit for 10 min. You will see bubbles begin to form in the dough at this point.

Add 2 cups all purpose (white) flour. Mix thoroughly. Add 1/2 cup all purpose flour at a time, mixing thoroughly each time. Dough should start to cling to the hook and begin to clean the sides. Between each 1/2 cup of flour added, knead for 1 minute. Stop the mixer and check the dough. Dough should start to look "smooth."
Touch the dough lightly. Dough should feel moist, not dry. If dough is sticky (leaving a lot of dough on your fingers), add 1/4 c. flour and knead for 1-2 minutes. Check the dough. Dough should cling to the dough hook and your sides should have a little bit of dough on it.
Remove dough hook, scrape down sides of bowl, oil the top and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm room for 20-30 min. Double Test: Take 2 fingers and "poke" your dough about 1/2". If the "dents" stay, it has risen double in size. If the "dents" try to rise back up, your dough needs more time.
Take dough out of the bowl and put on clean, oiled surface. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. (2 for the larger loaves) Shape each into a round ball and cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough to rest for 5-10 minutes for easier shaping.
Grease loaf pans. Shape each portion into loaves by oiling surface (counter, etc) rolling into a 8x12 rectangle, taking the short end and rolling the dough towards you, sealing by pinching it tightly, pinching the ends of the loaf to fit the pan and putting it sealed side down in the loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap.
Let rise for 20-30 min. Dough should be about 1" above the pan.
Turn oven to 350 and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Turn out loaves immediately onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing in plastic bread bags.

Peanut Butter Scotchies and Happy Bday Stephen!

How to make Mother sad:

Mother sends package to Mexico to son on mission, in November, with Christmas gifts inside. December 25th. No package received.
Mother sends package to son mid-December with home made treats, hoping it will get there close to Christmas/New Year. No package received.
Mother sends package end of December for missionary son's January birthday.
Seven weeks after first package sent. Still, no packages received. Sob. Sob. Sniff, Sniff.

How to make Mother happy:

Mother talks to son on SKYPE (greatest invention, EVER) on Christmas day. Son doesn't care he didn't receive package, he is just beaming and so thrilled to be able to talk and see his family online!
Mother sends email just before son's birthday.
The email starts off with- Questions: PACKAGES????
Son's response in email later that day: "No packages, yet. Don't worry about it. I love you! I miss you a lot." 
Also in Mother's email to son: Do you need anything?
Missionary son: "I just want some homemade cookies or something haha." 

"And maybe some potato salad." 

Well at least HE still has a sense of humor about the packages not being delivered!
I'm grateful to have a son who has lost himself in service, and doesn't think it's a big deal to celebrate Christmas or his birthday without a gift.
Note to me: It's just stuff. 

I tried to send this treat( the recipe I'm posting today) a month before his b-day. I even saved one square, wrapped it up, taped a little note on it and set it next to my computer. The note said "do not eat till December 29th". A few of my friends saw my note taped to the treat, and were really amused by this. Do you think this is funny? Doesn't everyone do this?   I wanted to see/sample for myself how fresh it would taste if he received it two weeks after I sent it. Um. Well, whatever. For the record, it was still decent. Not super fresh, but if you were, say, living in a foreign country, and you hardly ever got home made treats, you would probably think it was wonderful :), even if it was a little less than fresh. That is, if you ever received your mail.   
Ok, enough of my rant about mail, treats and the lack of timely, or any delivery.
**Update 1/23  Letter home from Stephen. He received two packages on his birthday! His Christmas gifts were a little late. Next Christmas, Ill send in September. Yay! 

On to wishing Stephen a happy birthday!

How did you grow up so fast?? 

About 19 years later....Stephen (on the right) with his last companion, Elder Gallan. 

I'm posting these, because last year when Stephen left on his mission (yes, it's been 11 months!)- He requested Peanut Butter Scotchies for his farewell celebration. You can look back here to that day...
I thought his birthday was an appropriate day to post one of his favorite treats!
Happy birthday, Stephen.
love and miss you,
Mum

Peanut Butter Scotchies
aka, Chocolate Scotcheroos
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1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
4 cups Rice Krispies*
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips (or one 11 oz package)**
1 1/2 cups  semi sweet chocolate chips (or one 11-12 oz package)**

Bring sugar and corn syrup to a boil . Add peanut butter and cereal.
Remove from heat, and press into a greased 9x13 pan.
Place the butterscotch and chocolate chips in a glass bowl in microwave for about 1 1/2  minutes, stirring  and place back into microwave for 30 seconds and repeating stirring until all chips are melted. This usually takes about 3-4 minutes total.
Spread the melted chips on tops of the cereal mixture in the pan. let cool and cut into bars.

Tips:
*The original recipe from Kellogg's uses 6 cups of cereal, I have always used 4.
**They also use only one cup each of the butterscotch and chocolate chips. I like to have a really thick layer of topping, so I use more chips.
-Don't over cook the sugar and Karo Syrup mixture, just bring to a boil and remove from heat. If you over boil, the bars will become very hard and difficult to cut.

Vegetarian Minestrone Soup

Soup. I love it because it usually takes 30 minutes or less, prep-to-table and I can throw together some buttermilk biscuits or simple cornbread muffins while the soup is cooking.  This one's a combo of some of my favorite Minestrone recipes. Dinner doesn't get much easier than this. Remember that "New Beginnings: College and Missionary Meals" category? This one qualifies.

Vegetarian Minestrone Soup
A Bountiful Kitchen
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3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (yellow or sweet)
2 cups chopped carrots
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon each salt and fresh ground pepper
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
14 oz can chicken stock (check to make sure it's MSG free)
1 cup water
1 cup "ditalini" pasta or other small pasta shape
2 cups chopped zucchini or fresh spinach (optional)*
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1- 15 oz can Great Northern beans, drained
1 tablespoon basil, dried
additional water, if needed

Using a large, heavy stock pot, saute onion and carrots in olive oil on medium heat about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and continue to cook for another minute.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add fresh tomatoes, fresh zucchini or spinach, chicken stock, and water. Bring to boil. Add pasta and cook for 7-9 minutes until al dente.
Stir in tomato paste, beans and basil.  Cook just until combined.
If needed, add a little more water to the soup.
Serve immediately with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Serves about 4-6.

Tips:
*I add a variety of vegetables to this soup. Adding one to two cups of whatever is in your fridge, such as zucchini, other squash, spinach works well.