It’s Friday. It’s also parent-teacher conference day and there is no school, so I’ll be carting my daughter around all day. And my aunt and uncle are coming to dinner. Oh, and we’re throwing a pumpkin-carving party tomorrow. I don’t want to be exhausted by the end of the night. It’s also really cold and rainy. The good thing is that my aunt is a great help in the kitchen and my uncle is great at entertaining my daughter, so we can be a bit more ambitious when they come. Whatever we make needs to be very warming, somewhat festive and exceptionally satisfying.
I’m sick of beans and we’re making chili tomorrow anyway, so no legumes. We’re all still tired of pasta. What about mushroom risotto? We have lots of dried and fresh mushrooms right now. My aunt can drink wine and stir (or I can for that matter). What with it? Greens from the garden will complement nicely. Maybe my uncle will bring some meat. If so we’ll cook it simply. We’ll have crusty bread and cheese too. Oh and olives as well!
- Mushroom risotto
- Sauteed garden greens
- Bread
- Cheese
- Olives
The plan: Cut the garden greens with my daughter before the rain starts. Sometime in the afternoon, soak some dried mushrooms in hot water. Buy some wine. Then cook everything when my aunt and uncle arrive.
How it went:
I ended up not using the greens, simply because the cold rain started and everyone came early and I never made it out the side door to cut them. We made a beet salad instead, which was beautiful with the risotto. My aunt brought some beef which she sliced finely and I cooked in butter, adding a shallot and red wine sauce at the end a la Julia Child. It all worked well together and so did we, finishing off two bottles of wine and feeling much better about life after it was all over. There are no pictures because it was all devoured immediately.