Showing posts with label Caprese Portabella Mushrooms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caprese Portabella Mushrooms. Show all posts

Friday, April 17, 2020

Morning, TV and Spanish, Words for Wednesday, Shopping, Beans, Sunshine,

Matt is not up yet this morning, says he had a bad night. Probable because he sleeps a lot during the day and the body can only sleep so much I think. His breakfast is sitting on the table along with his morning pills so I will have to get him up soon for the pills alone.

As I mentioned, it's shopping today. I do hope I get everything but I don't suppose I will. I've got one egg left as I said and not much of anything else in the fridge. Just thought, I could have got some sausages out to defrost and cook for breakfast - for me anyway, Matt sticks to his cereal. I didn't think, I guess I could have had his cereal too, not very exciting stuff but....

Being Thursday I usually end up watching Morse on Public TV. It goes on quite late and then I end up writing my blog and doing my Spanish lesson which means I get to bed later than usual. I seem to have  trouble getting to bed before midnight anyway. So, I am writing this in the morning and will try to do my Spanish this afternoon.

Every Wednesday Elephant's Child publishes Words for Wednesday, sometimes these words are published on someone else's blog, but the idea is to make up a little story using some or all of the words. Much to my surprise, I am doing quite well at that. I especially liked the little story I did this week.

Alcalador sat in his sunless cave and settled down among the thousands of gold treasures on which he liked to sleep. The world had presumably forgotten his existence and he could sleep in happy contentment. Before he could drop from somnolence into sleep, he heard delicate footsteps outside – he called stop but whoever approached continued to do so in a more aggressive manner. Was this someone who was drawn to the rumours of great wealth, he hoped not but had had to deal with such before. Eventually a figure appeared in the entrance to the cave and he uttered one word, “Witch” for he recognized her, she had been to visit him many eons before. “We have to have a talk about what is going on in the world, which only we can fix, Alcalador” she said. She approached him at a brisk pace and sat between his giant legs, he debated whether to roast her to a crisp but decided to listen to what she had to say, the world could well be in trouble. 

The highlighted words are the ones we had to use this week. I am patting myself on the back. If you like writing, you should go and try it. Some people come up with marvellous ways to use the words given to us. We are such an inventive lot.

Just got my shopping and, unbelievably, they didn't have bananas or carrots. Kathy, who so very kindly picked up my shopping for me, also picked up some bananas for me and brought me some carrots too. Rather more than I needed, but better than having none. I have decided I rather like tortillas to use for breakfast, I ended up with two packets today. I have stuck one lot in the freezer. The proper way to freeze them is to re-pack them individually, might regret that I haven't done that.

I have bought two types of beans so I think I will invent a bean soup as I can no longer get hold of the 13 bean soup I had been making. I do enjoy bean soups, cooked in the Instant Pot of course.

I do wish the sun would put his hat on and come out today. Asparagus doesn't grow without a dollop of sun and rain both.

I published this recipe in 2016 and thought it sounded so good I would publish again We still seem to be able to get mushrooms around here, just not bananas LOL.

CAPRESE PORTABELLA MUSHROOMS

MUSHROOMS CANADA
PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES | COOK TIME: 30 MINUTES | SERVES 4

Ingredients

8 portabella mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cup quinoa, cooked
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar, divided
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
16 mini buffala mozzarella balls
16 cherry tomatoes
¼ cup chopped fresh basil

Method
1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Cook quinoa according to package directions. Meanwhile, gently wash away dirt from mushrooms, then carefully cut away stems and scrape out each mushroom. Set filling aside.
3. In a large bowl, toss quinoa with mushroom filling, minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Stuff each mushroom with filling, then top each with two mozzarella balls and two cherry tomatoes.
4. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes until cheese is completely melted. Remove from oven and top each mushroom with a bit of fresh basil. Enjoy!

Have a great day, stay well, stay safe, stay home.
 

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Port and Banquets.

So now our winter league is over for this season and doesn't start again until September. Some of the members will be bowling in the summer league but many won't. However we do get bowlers from other leagues bowling with us in the summer. A friend/bowler is off to Portugal for the summer again. She comes from northern Portugal quite close to where a friend lives with whom we stayed for a couple of days when we went there a few years ago. Also close to Oporto, the home of Port. I enjoy port so it was fun going to the home of the drink. They call them caves although they are no longer actually in caves. I've probably mentioned it, but the reason port came into being was one year the Portuguese wine was awful and two Scottish wine exporters didn't think it was good enough so they tried adding brandy to the wine and port was born. The brands of port still bear Scottish names like Graham's and Taylor Fladgate to name a couple. I forget, now, which cave we visited, but I had never realised there were so many qualities and varieties of port.

We had our bowling banquet Monday and the food was good as usual except for the beans which, I'm afraid were tough. I would love the caterer's recipe for her beef. It's delicious. She (the caterer) also served lots of pies for dessert including one a bit like a lemon meringue but with a lemon crumble on it instead of the meringue. It was delicious. I went back kind of hoping to get more, luckily for my waist line it had all gone. I actually won a couple of things this year. So did Matt. I got the high single with handicap and I also won a $25 voucher for our local grocery store. Our 50/50 each week has two sections, one you win money outright, the other you have to bowl a strike. It hadn't been won in a while so it had gone up to $70. Neither of us even got to try for the strike, boo hoo. Actually we are usually unlucky with the 50/50 so it was a surprise that the very last draw of the season was my gift voucher.

I enjoy Caprese and portabella mushrooms so this recipe is right up my street.

Caprese Portabella Mushrooms

Mushrooms Canada
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Serves 4

Ingredients

8 portabella mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cup quinoa, cooked
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar, divided
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
16 mini buffala mozzarella balls
16 cherry tomatoes
¼ cup chopped fresh basil

Method
1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Cook quinoa according to package directions. Meanwhile, gently wash away dirt from mushrooms, then carefully cut away stems and scrape out each mushroom. Set filling aside.
3. In a large bowl, toss quinoa with mushroom filling, minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Stuff each mushroom with filling, then top each with two mozzarella balls and two cherry tomatoes.
4. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes until cheese is completely melted. Remove from oven and top each mushroom with a bit of fresh basil. Enjoy!

Have a great day