Cinnamon Bread!

Making this today! I'm so excited!

Today is my Mummy's birthday (YAY!), so we went to the fabulous Cloud 9 for brunch! :) It was really busy (I was surprised but very glad I made a reservation!), but soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. :)
They do the brunch as a buffet, and there was food as far as the eye could see. And just to get it out of the way, I forgot to bring my camera. I know, I'm a total jerk. I really wish I had remembered it, but oh well. Can't do anything now. :P You'll just have to use your imagination. :)
For breakfast/lunch, I had:
The most delicious baked apples to ever touch my palate, wild rice, vegetarian Eggs Benedict, and right next to that: bacon, current glazed pork, and ham and pasta. :P I had roast beef, chicken marsala, bacon and scallion quiche (I'm not usually a quiche person, but this was amazing), French toast, a waffle, amazing green beans, delicious corned beef, and I don't even know what else. I know I totally sound like an animal, but please know that I only took teeny portions of each. :P
For dessert, I feasted upon: chocolate mousse in a mini-beer glass, blueberry cobbler, cheesecake, raspberry tart, Bailey's Irish Cream cake (so good!), tiramasu, a whoopie pie cookie a bit bigger than my thumb, and crème brûlée, which was probably my favorite. We're talking egg yolks, cream, and sugar, people. SO bad, but so good.

Risotto.

I made risotto for the first time! Yay! I've only had it twice in my life before this, but I absolutely adored it on both occasions. The first time was at Apollo's in Waterville; it was a pan-seared tuna steak (done at medium; I had no idea that fish could be done like steak!) sitting on top of a lavender risotto. I really don't care for lavender much, but this dish was yummy.



The second time was in Ireland, at a place called Flanagan's Mummy and I stopped at the before we left. It was a mushroom risotto with parmesan and a few small diced tomatoes on top; it was marvelous!

I've been craving it ever since then, so I finally decided to go ahead and try to make it.
I found the simplest recipe I could on this website (the others I looked at were really advanced and complicated-looking; I just wanted something basic), and got the special Arborio rice at Uncle Dean's (♥). For a moment, I toyed with the idea of just getting short, regular rice, but I soon saw the Arborio on the top shelf and went with that. And I'm so glad I did. The thing about Arborio is that as you add cup after cup of hot stock to it, it gradually absorbs it and gives it its delicious, creamy distinctiveness. Regular rice softens, but it doens't really get fat and have the same creaminess. So, here's the recipe:

6 cups chicken broth, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 pound portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 pound white mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 shallots, diced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
4 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a saucepan, warm the broth over low heat.
2. Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove mushrooms and their liquid, and set aside.
3. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet, and stir in the shallots. Cook 1 minute. Add rice, stirring to coat with oil, about 2 minutes. When the rice has taken on a pale, golden color, pour in wine, stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed. Add 1/2 cup broth to the rice, and stir until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, and stir in mushrooms with their liquid, butter, chives, and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I actually did not use all the mushrooms the recipe called for (didn't have enough. So sad!), shallots (a small onion in lieu of) or any wine (we were out). But it still tasted amazing nonetheless, if I may say so. As a matter of fact, all the recipes I looked at called for at least 1/2 cup of dry white wine, but I just added extra stock instead and it came out fine. I also added a quarter cup of cream, which made it nice and gooey and extra-super-creamy. that's only optional, though. ;) During the whole process, I kept snatching pieces of rice out of the pan to see if they'd softened up at all, but they just weren't until I had about two cups left. I was getting nervous that I didn't do something right, but after my last cup of stock was in, it softened right up fabulously.

inedible jewlery

Browsing etsy today, I found the COOLEST thing EVER: inedible jewelry. Tiny cupcakes, pomegranates, mini chocolate covered strawberry earrings? I'm dying from the cuteness.

Guacamole Recipe!

We love the recipe for Guacamole on the Whole Food's Website!

James’ (new) Best Ever Guacamole

4 medium avocados (ripe)
1/3 cup cherry tomatoes (grape or regular variety, interior pulp removed and sliced into small pieces)
1/4 small red onion (finely chopped)
1 hot pepper (jalapeño, seeds removed and finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (finely chopped)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (or more to taste)
1/4 teaspoon chili powder (or to taste)
Juice of 1/2 lime (sliced in half and grilled in a skillet or on the barbeque)
Cilantro to taste (or not if you don’t like it)
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients except the avocados and set aside for the flavors to merge. Setting the pits aside, roughly mash the avocados taking care to leave whole chunks. Fold in the rest of the ingredients carefully and correct the seasoning to taste. Return the pits and serve. Enjoy!