Liquored-up French Onion Soup

Ingredients

• 4 cups of sliced yellow onions (we used a mandolin slicer. It was awesome)
• olive oil
• 1 cup medium-dry sherry
  
• 1.5 cups white wine
• 4 cups beef stock (or veg)
  
• 1 tsp salt
• freshly ground pepper
• goat cheese
• toasted croutons (optional)
  

In a large stockpot over medium high heat, saute the onions with the oil for about 20 minutes, until the onions turn a rich golden brown color.
Deglaze the pan with the sherry.
Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
Add the white wine and cook for 15 more minutes, still uncovered.
Add beef stock, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
If you want to make croutons, simply grill (or toast) some stale bread and then chop that into small pieces.
Add the croutons to the bottom of your soup bowl, spoon in some soup, and then dot with goat cheese.
Eat.

Notes: This soup would have been delicious but there was TOO MUCH BOOZE. I made a semi-serious error and accidentally put in twice as much alcohol as was necessary. The measurements in bold are INCORRECT. Halve those numbers. That's how much alcohol you need for this recipe. No more than that. We tried to remedy the situation by boiling the soup and cooking the excess alcohol off, but I think we just ended up over-cooking the onions. SO. Dan didn't mind it as much as I did. I couldn't finish the rest of mine. He actually ate leftovers.
This recipe could be good if I knew how to measure things.

Disaster Index: 4/10 (with right proportions, there is hope. Stay tuned)

Corn Risotto

Ingredients

• 2 ears corn
• olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 5 strips turkey bacon
• 3/4 cups Arborio rice
• 3 cups chicken stock (or veg stock, if you must)
  
• additional water, as needed
• salt
• pepper
• parsley
  

Using a sharp knife, slice the kernels of corn off of the cob. You should have about 1 cup of corn.
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and saute until soft and fragrant (about 8 minutes). Add the bacon and saute for another 5 minutes. Add the rice, and stir with wooden spoon to mix with the onions. Start adding the stock, about 1/2 cup at a time, adding more when the rice has absorbed the stock. Do this for like, 15 minutes, until the rice starts to get tender. Add the corn and stir. Add enough stock such that the rice is tender but not mushy.
Stir in parsley, salt, and pepper. Eat.

Thoughts: This was pretty easy to make and it was super delicious. The corn and bacon make the texture sort of chewy, which is pretty delightful. This is super tasty. That's all I have to say.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Orange

This is based off of a Food Network recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 sweet potatoes, skinned and chopped into medium-smallish sections
  
• 1/8 cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tbsp margarine
• 1/4 cup scallions, chopped
• salt and pepper, as needed
  

Put the potatoes in a large pot filled with 1/2 cup water. Cover, turn on medium-high heat, and steam until the potatoes are tender, about 8-10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mash the potatoes with the milk, orange juice, zest, salt, nutmeg, and margarine. When well incorporated, add the green onions, salt and pepper, and mix again.

Thoughts: This recipe was pretty much as easy as it looks. Except that I burned myself several times while trying to stir the potatoes in the boiling water. So, you know. Otherwise it was pretty painless (ho ho ho). The original recipe called for buttermilk rather than skim milk (and a lot more of it), but we didn't have any. I'm not sure if it would have been better with the buttermilk or not. I didn't feel like it could have used more liquid. I think the combination of the milk, butter, orange juice, and onions might have been a little too much. The onions were the last straw, I think. I mean, the taste isn't bad - there's just something that's sort of off about it.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Scalloped Potatoes

This is a recipe from "The Best Light Recipe" cookbook. Because this is a light rendition of scalloped potatoes, the calories contained therein are 210/serving vs. 410/serving. Not bad.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• fresh ground pepper - lots
• 5 medium yukon gold potatoes - though russets are better - peeled and sliced as thinly as you can get them
  
• 2 cups 2% milk - don't try to use skim. It won't be good. Just be glad it isn't whole milk
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp light cream cheese
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Combine oil, onions, and salt in a large pot. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and pepper and cook until well-incorporated and fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add the potatoes and milk and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until partially tender (a fork can be jabbed into a potato slice with some resistence), about 10 minutes.
In a separate container, whisk the cornstarch and water together until well mixed. Then add to the pot and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.
Stir in the cream cheese and 2 tbsp of the parmesan. Don't break up the potatoes, if you can help it.
Transfer the mixture to a metal baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until the potatoes are completely tender (a fork goes in easily) and the top is golden brown, about 10-15 minutes longer.
Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Thoughts: OMG this was delicious. It probably would have been more flavorful if we can used thyme and bay leaves, like the recipe recommended. But we didn't have those things and we NEEDED POTATOES NOW. So we did without. And it was still delicious. You can't even tell that this recipe is half the calories. It's totally better without whole milk and heavy cream. Yikes.
I have practically no criticisms. Maybe a little more salt? To each her own. Maybe it doesn't matter.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Portobello Pizza

Ingredients

• 2 large portobello mushrooms, de-stemmed and de-gilled
• olive oil
• goat cheese
• pesto
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• tomatoes (grape or normal ones)
  

Heat griddle to high heat. Brush the tops and bottoms of the mushrooms with olive oil.
When the griddle is hot, place the mushroom bottom-side down on the griddle and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Grill for 2-3 minutes.
Flip the mushrooms, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Grill for 2-3 minutes.
After 2-3 has passed, fill the mushroom caps with pesto. Then dot with goat cheese. Cover the mushrooms with the lid of a soup pot (one that will cover the mushrooms completely without squishing them). The original recipe calls for these to be cooked on a grill, and to melt the cheese by covering the top of the grill. If you have a grill, you can do this, but if you're doing it on a griddle, then covering the mushrooms with a lid is as close as you're going to get. Just make sure the lid isn't plastic or anything.
Once the cheese has melted to your satisfaction, remove the mushrooms from the griddle.
Slice the tomatoes into appropriate slices and put them on the mushrooms.
Eat.

Thoughts: This was pretty delicious and pretty easy. It is not in the least bit healthy for you, despite the mushrooms and tomatoes. At least we're using olive oil, which has the right kind of fat. The kind of fat in goat cheese is NOT the right kind. You could probably substitute goat cheese for something like mozzarella, which would be WAY healthier. It would probably be pretty good too. Also you could lighten up on the pesto, which is like, 115 calories per 1/8th cup. So think about that. Overall, pretty delicious though.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Eggplant with Fish Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp salt
• 2 medium-sized eggplants
• 6 cups water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 2 eggs
  
• chopped cilantro, for garnish

Dissolve the salt into the water. Chop up the eggplant into bite-sized pieces and add to the salt water. Soak for 5 minutes, then drain and set aside.
In a small bowl, add the fish sauce and sugar. Stir to dissolve sugar. Set aside.
Heat garlic and oil in a pan. Cook until garlic is crispy. Add the eggplant. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Add hte fish sauce/sugar. Stir-fry for another minute. Crack the eggs into the mixture. Cook until eggs are done.
Garnish with cilantro. Eat.

Thoughts: This dish was ALL RIGHT. The recipe looked promising, but we must have messed something up or something. The eggplant was SUPER chewy, but the recipe said to stir-fry it for like, a total of 3 minutes. So I don't think we undercooked it. Maybe we should have used some sort of Asian eggplant instead of the kind you usually find in grocery stores here? I think Asian eggplants usually have a LOT more flavor. Also, I cracked the eggs into the eggplant without whisking them first, so some parts of the egg were white and some were yellow. So it sort of looked unappetizing. This recipe was also SUPER salty. I got a headache after eating it. Too much fish sauce, maybe. If we were to make this again, I might cut the fish sauce down to like, 1 tbsp. Also because Dan hates the smell of fish sauce. And now our apartment smells like it. A lot. I think I'm going to be the only one eating the leftovers.

Disaster Index: 5/10 - we haven't made anything this bad in a while.