Monday, January 2, 2012

Dinner One

Here is the recipe I am *trying* to make.

Fennel                                                Leek (I hope)

Don't buy a vegetable you aren't sure what it looks like without first figuring out what it looks like. I love leeks, but apparently I don't know what they look like in the store, so I accidentally bought fennel (which I clearly don't know what that looks like either).  I went back and got a leek after seeing a picture. Know any good fennel recipes? (Snuggs likes it raw.) Also, fresh veggies are expensive! I'm not sure how to cut down on the cost of these. Usually I just buy frozen bags, but I doubt leeks come frozen... any ideas?

I also couldn't find any raw organic Arcorio rice, so I just bought a box of spinach and mushroom risotto and am just going to use the risotto and not the flavor packet. Probs not the most cost-effective thing.

Had to look up how to blanch the asparagus. Here's how.

Definitely recommend Barefoot Riesling as the white wine. Not only is it super cheap ($4.99), it's delicious to drink while cooking!

Instead of dishing out four bucks for gluten-free veggie broth, I opted for the Garden Veggie bouillon cubes for $3. It makes 16 cups of broth opposed to the 1 quart (4 cups) of the pre-made broth. Tastes good, too.

Once you (or I) get passed the cooking learning curve of vegetable identification and cooking-lingo, this is actually a very simple, albeit kind of time consuming (but maybe it just feels long because I'm used to making pasta), recipe.

Tip: Don't eat the asparagus before adding it to the risotto because you think you have too much asparagus but you didn't know risotto gets bigger as it cooks

Final product!



Wow. This recipe sure makes something Heavenly! I would definitely consider myself... a bad cook. But this is REALLY good! There is so much flavor and I have a lot of leftovers. Pretty good first day.

1 comment:

  1. If I had a dollar for every time I went to the store looking for something I'd never actually seen before...once I bought romaine lettuce instead of spinach (in my very early cooking days!)

    To save money on fresh veggies, I look at all the local grocery store ads and strategize my meals for the week based on what is on sale. When my favorite veggies go on sale (yellow and red peppers!), I buy a ton of them, cut them up, and freeze them for later. Some veggies have to be blanched before you freeze them. Sam's Club also has pretty good prices on fresh veggies (but you have to buy a lot of them...), so if you don't have a membership, make friends with someone who does!

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