Yam Casserole and Rosemary Asparagus

Tonight I made one of my favorite dishes of all time.  It's a yam cheese casserole.  The first time I had it was at my neighbors house on Thanksgiving.  My family had spent the day serving turkey dinners to the homeless in Seattle and did not plan on having a traditional meal.  However, our neighbors (and close friends) told us to come over and help ourselves to their leftovers.  We devoured this casserole like nobody's business.  My mom tweaked the recipe a bit (it was originally quite spicy, which is one of my acid reflux triggers) and since then it's been a thanksgiving and family staple.  This dish can also be made with sweet potatoes and is just as yummy.

Cheesy Yams

-cooking spray
-2-3 large yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds
-coarse salt and ground pepper
-1 1/2 cups grated Chihuahua or Monterey Jack cheese (16oz)
-1 1/2 cups Cotija or French feta cheese, crumbled (60z)
-1 small onion, thinly sliced
-1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mushroom broth
-1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In almost every recipe I forget this first step.  It's really important to remember to preheat the oven! Pam an 9" x 18" baking dish. Arrange half of the potatoes in dish, overlapping slices, sprinkling salt and pepper between layers.  After about 2 layers, sprinkle half of each cheese and top with onion.  Stir the cilantro into broth; drizzle over the onions.  Top with the remaining potatoes using the same layering technique.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheeses.  Cover with foil; bake for 30 or 40 minutes.  Remove foil and bake until very tender and top is well browned, about another 30 minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.

So I definitely forgot to cover with foil and didn't bake it long enough.  It turned out fine, the yams were just a little firm.  And I am excited to eat leftovers for days!

I also made some sautéed asparagus to go with it.

Rosemary Asparagus

Asparagus, trimmed
salt and pepper
garlic powder
rosemary

Heat a little olive oil over in a skillet on medium.  Add asparagus and allow to cook for a few minutes.  When they've started browning add seasonings and cook to desired softness.

Breakfast in a Bowl

I do not like breakfast, and never really have.  Growing up, my mom would be lucky if she could feed me a piece of toast.  During high school I would have piece of microwaved rye bread with butter for breakfast, then I graduated to cheerios with no milk, and last year I became a big girl and started eating corn flakes with milk.  It's not that I don't like breakfast foods (although I still don't really like milk with cereal); it just never agreed with my stomach that early in the morning.  Last night, however, my friend Kayla spent the night so I decided to make her something special for breakfast.  I had bookmarked this recipe (another one that I stumbled upon) months ago, but, since I am not big on breakfast, had never made.

Baked Eggs in Bread Bowls

sourdough dinner rolls
eggs
herbs of your choosing
cheese of your choosing
salt and pepper
cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut off the top of the bread roll and set aside.  Scoop out the bread guts to create a bowl big enough for an egg to fit in.  My grocery store only had large sourdough for the use of chowder bowls, so me and Kayla shared one and I made the hole big enough for two eggs.  Add whatever herbs you would like; I just sprinkled some chives from my herb garden.  Add a splash of cream and season with salt and pepper.  Finally, sprinkle with some cheese.  For ours, I chose Parmesan.  Bake in the oven until the eggs are cooked through and the bread is nicely toasted, about 20-25 minutes.  You can also put the top of the bread in to get toasted as well, but we already had more bread due to the larger sourdough roll.  Allow the bread bowl to sit for a few minutes and then dig in!

It was a bit of a challenge to share one with two people, but after we ate the delicious egg filling we broke the bread in half and ate the bowl.  It was a very tasty way to start our rainy day.

I Must be on a Mushroom Binge

I love vegetables, and right now I seem to be particularly obsessed with mushrooms.  The recipe I made tonight, I've actually made once before and it was so good I knew I would just have to make it again for friends.  I found it while using stumble upon on Shutterbug, another blog.  School is starting up soon, and a lot of my friends are finally moving back.  So, I invited my friends Sam and Kayla over tonight to make this creamy, veggie filled pasta.

Mushroom and Spinach pasta (you can also add asparagus, but I forgot to buy some)

8 ounces pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pound sliced mushrooms
6 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup milk
approximately 8 cups fresh spinach
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Boil salted water and cook pasta according to directions (last time I used angel hair and it was too flimsy for the thick sauce, so this time I used plain-jane spaghetti).  Heat olive oil in a large pan and add the garlic and mushrooms.  Allow to cook until softened.  Add the cream cheese and milk and bring to a boil, while stirring. Add the spinach and stir it in until it's all wilted.  Season with salt and pepper.  Throw in the chives and Parmesan and serve right away to prevent clumping.

While me and my friends cooked this tonight, we made a bad discovery.  My biggest stove burner is broken and isn't heating up.  As a result, the spinach did not wilt properly.  However, my tall and handsome friend saved it by switching it to one of the smaller burners to finish cooking. It's a big bummer.  I hope my property management company will fix it...

At least the pasta was a success!

My first attempt at blogging and mushroom sauce

One of my main goals in life is to be as good of a cook as my mom.  I still have a lot to learn!  But I'm practicing almost everyday, and have accumulated a few skills and a few of my own recipes.  So part of my blogging mission is to share my exploration of food as I try new recipes and improvise my own.

But there is another side to this story.  For eleven years I've had acid reflux disease, also known as GERD.  It was manageable for most of my adolescence, but in my freshman year of college it decided to re-rear it's ugly head.  Eating in the dining hall was a nightmare (everything was smothered in tomato sauce or was spicy), and i ended up living on toasted peanut butter and banana sandwiches the rest of the year.  Delicious, yes, but really monotonous after the third or fourth meal.  The second part of my food blog is to find acid reflux friendly recipes, with the hope that maybe someday someone else with acid reflux might happenstance upon my blog and find a recipe they want to try.  It might just be a pipe dream, but I'll take it!

My dinner tonight was a really fun experiment.  I made penne with a mushroom sauce.  All the ingredients were in my fridge (no last minute grocery store trip necessary) and it went together really fast.  I approximated  the amounts of each ingredient.

1/4 lb mushrooms (I used cremini)
1/2 cube butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 glove garlic, chopped
1/8 teaspoon dill
1/4 teaspoon sweet basil
1/4-1/3 cup milk
Parmesan

Boil salted water and cook pasta according to box.  Sauté the mushrooms, garlic, and onion in the butter (I didn't have enough butter so I used equal parts butter and olive oil).  Once the onions are nice and soft add the milk, dill, and sweet basil.  I grew the basil in my little herb garden on my apartment balcony.  Allow to simmer for about ten minutes or until a little thicker.  Mine wasn't thickening so I added a dash of flour.  Toss the sauce with pasta and add a few sprinkles of grated Parmasean.

It was beyond delicious and I can't wait to make it for my roommate!