Farmer Maggot pizza...

Anybody as big of a Lord of the Rings fan as me? That's my favorite novel, in the whole wide world, and, like the High elves who live halfway in the Undying Lands while they walk about in Middle-Earth, for many years, I was halfway walking around in a LOTR dream most of the time. I really love that book.

What does that have to do with cooking? Well - I think of LOTR every time I make these low carb versions of pizza - because of the mushrooms used as the crusts. Remember when Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin were walking through the dark to try to get to Buckleberry Ferry, to cross into Buckland? The Black Riders weren't far behind, and they took refuge for a few hours and for supper at Farmer Maggot's homestead...Farmer Maggot, who grew amazingly delicious mushrooms! My mouth waters every time I read that part...

Jack is doing low carb most of the time, the Atkins diet which I don't like but hey, he's a grown man and can make up his own mind...but when we have my homemade pizza, which he loves, he was always left out. So I came up with this - and sometimes, if I know I've had my share of breads on a particular day, I'll do this version as well, just to cut back on carbs myself. It's really good, although occasionally, the 'skin' of the mushrooms is just a little bit tough. And I named it in honor of Farmer Maggot. Don't let the name turn you off, ROFL!

Farmer Maggot Pizza

Brush or rinse 4 portabello mushrooms and remove the stems - be careful not to tear through the cap. If rinsing, let them drain for a while, with the gills pointing down. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray, and place the mushroom caps gill side up in the pan. Spritz the mushrooms with just a little cooking spray or brush lightly with olive oil, to keep them from drying out, and bake them at 400 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes, to soften them up a bit. Remove from oven and top with a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce (or pizza sauce, if you prefer). You can sprinkle other seasonings on the tomato sauce too, like minced garlic, parsley, grated parmesan, etc. Top that with a light layer of torn spinach leaves. You could also sprinkle a little chopped onion or olives or whatever veggie on this too. Top the leaves with a little meat, if you desire - 3 or 4 pepperoni slices cover these nicely, or a sprinkle of cooked pork sausage. Top the meat with grated cheese, or if you're not using meat, put the cheese on the spinach. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees. After removing from the pan, let them sit for 5 minutes and then transfer to plates. You probably could eat these with your hands, but they are kind of drippy (you know how watery mushrooms are) and so we use a knife and fork. Enjoy!

steak with balsamic sauce...

What the heck is a flat iron steak?

I had that question the other day, when I saw this recipe. I googly-eyed it, and got that it's similar to a top blade steak or roast. So anyway, I just bought this big chunk of beef. I don't remember what it was called, heh, but it was pretty thick - too thick, as it turns out, and slightly on the tough side, but tasted wonderful anyway in the end. Next time, and there will be many next times with this recipe, I'll use a good cut of meat, just whatever I want - sirloin, or t-bone, whatever...

OK, here's the recipe. Be forewarned - it stinks to high heaven, when cooking (the sauce) - or so Jack and the kids told me. I just thought it smelled vinegary. It's kinda like fish sauce, though - stinky but when you eat it, wow, is it full of flavor!

Steak with Balsamic Sauce

3 pound flat iron steak

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons coarse peppercorns (I used coarse ground black pepper)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)

1 tablespoon butter (I just used the olive oil for this)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I had none, but didn't miss it this time)

Brush steaks with oil. Press peppercorns and salt into each side of steak. Melt butter in large skillet over medium high heat. Add steak and cook on both sides until desired doneness. Remove to plate and keep warm. Stir garlic into the pan and cook over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar and increase heat to medium high; simmer until reduced by half. Thinly slice steak scross the grain and arrange on platter. Pour sauce over steak and sprinkle with parsley.

pumpkin with a twist ~

When I was growing up, we never had pumpkin pie. My mom wasn't too crazy about it, I guess - and she liked sweet potato pie better, so that's what we always had. I like my mom's sweet potato pie pretty much best of all, with the exception of chocolate and cherry pies. But when I first tasted a pumpkin pie, I wondered why my mom deprived me. LOL

The other thing we hardly ever had was cheesecake. I don't think we could really afford it. So we had cakes and pies and cookies, but I don't remember ever having a cheesecake until I was in my teens.

Anyway - as an adult, I really do love cheesecake, and pumpkin pie. So I did a search and got this recipe from allrecipes.com.

I haven't tasted the final product at the time of writing this blog; it's for the family Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house. But I did taste the filling before baking and it was light and tasty. I think I'm going to like this cheesecake. I'll do an edit and let you know.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

2 - 8 oz packages cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

1 - 15 oz can pumpkin

1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

Blend cream cheese, sugar, and pumpkin. Add spices and mix well. Add salt, and then eggs, one at a time, blending well after each egg addition. Pour into prepared pastry shell (deep dish or 2 8") or into graham cracker crust. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees; cool completely and refrigerate overnight.

I typically just 'dump' all the ingredients in and mix, if flour is not involved, and that's what I did. You will likely get a smoother filling if you actually mix in the steps listed above. lol

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, I love you dearly and thank God for you.

chilly means chili ~

Or what passes for chili around here.

As I've grown older, chili is the only thing (so far) my stomach can't tolerate. It gives me acid reflux something terrible. So I go easy on the chili powder (avert your eyes, purists!).

But - I make up for it with a nice few shakes of Gunslinger hot sauce, teehee!

So - here's my easy sort-of chili, and since I was totally out of chili powder, Tony Chachere's made a great sub.

2 pounds deer burger

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 bell pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon minced garlic

Cook and drain (if needed) the deer meat in a large Dutch oven. In a separate pan, saute the onion, pepper, and garlic until soft and add to the deer meat. Add 2 cans diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, and 2 cans Ranch style beans (you can use the kind with jalapenos, if you like). Stir in about 3 tablespoons Tony's and some black pepper to taste. Hold off on salt until it's done, because Tony's is salty. Simmer for 30 minutes or more.

Jack always asks for rice to put under his chili. You can't see me but I'm rolling my eyes, LOL.

The other thing we had tonight was grilled squash slices, cooked in my new grill basket. Tossed them with a little olive oil, worcestershire sauce, and Tony's, and grilled for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This, my friends, was even better than the pseudochili...

new toys ~

In case no one knew, I just love Pampered Chef's bamboo cooking utensils. Here are the 2 latest additions to my cookie jar...

Plus a new thing, I hope we really enjoy around here - a grill basket. To keep those pesky hot dogs and shrimps and squash slices and mushrooms and whatever else teensy we are grilling topside of the grill rack.

I'll let ya know how that part goes.

spring rolls ~

I'm gonna let the pictures do most of the talking, because this is pretty self-explanatory, imo. These babies were very tasty, even my boys liked them and they are not so adventurous, most days.

The rice paper was dipped (fairly quickly, lol) in hot water ~ pretty fun to work with. And the nuoc cham might look a little funny because I didn't have red chilis or paste, so I just poured some red chili sauce into the mixture. Tasted just fine & dandy.

The meat - it's pork; the veggies - onion, celery, carrot, cucumber, spinach; the noodles - the teensy rice noodles. I thought I had cilantro on hand but I was mistaken. It would have been delish too.

I gotta figure out better how to wrap a little tighter - some of the filling fell out when I dipped it, after a bite or two. But overall, this was a success and I'll be making them often, varying the veggies and meat a bit.

birthday present ~

My dear and sweet friend Tom and his lovely wife Evelyn sent me a birthday present and I got it today...

I just love them.

And I just love what they sent, too!

I decided to call him to say thank you, instead of emailing or pm'ing, and we had the greatest little talk, oh, man, there's nothing like hearing a friend's voice, even if you've never seen their face (except in pictures, LOL - and Tom has a really great face, as well as his voice!). While we were talking, he taught me to say nuoc cham, which he also taught me to make, a while back...except that my Southern accent only got me to "that's close enough" LOL.

In case you pop in here, Tom, thank you again, and you are so awesome! I can hardly wait to make those spring rolls!
XOXOXOXO

(yes, I already had busted into those dried mangoes, LOL)