A Dana Original!

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Gather 'round, everyone! It's time for a trip down memory lane. Back when I was thirteen and trying to figure myself out, I told my mom that I wanted to be a vegetarian. Our "very serious, grown-up" conversation went something like this...

Me: "Mom, I really want to be a vegetarian."
Mom: "I'm worried about you getting proper nutrition. Are you going to get enough protein?"
Me: "Yes, I promise."
Mom: "Fine, but if you start getting malnourished, this stops."
Me: "Fair enough."


Okay, I may have misrepresented myself here a little. I was probably a bit more petulant than that (I was a real brat at thirteen), but my representation of my mom is accurate. That's something I've always appreciated about my mom: She'll voice her own concerns and opinions, but she's always pretty much let us experiment and learn for ourselves, within reason of course. Well, the vegetarianism didn't last too long. When I was fifteen, I decided I was done with not eating meat, but I still learned a lot along the way. Today's recipe harks back to my vegetarian days and is distinctly me because I just made it up!

Vegetable Linguine with Mushroom Sauce

3 tbsp olive oil (or enough to coat the bottom of your saute pan)
1 lb of white button mushrooms, wiped clean
3/4 cup milk (more for a looser sauce)
1 heaping tbsp of minced garlic (less if you don't love as much garlic)

Pour your olive oil into your pan and turn it up to medium-high heat. Then put your mushrooms in cap-side down and let them start to saute.

Once your caps are gorgeously golden brown, turn them onto their sides and snap the lid on. Let them cook down till they get all brown and soft. Now would be a good time to start your water for your pasta too. I just cooked up a box of Ronzoni Garden Delight Linguine (I did say this was a vegetarian dish after all).

Once your mushrooms are done with their saute, pop them into a food processor and let'er rip! Alternatively, you can either chop your mushrooms before they get cooked or you can slice them in a mushroom slicer. I had a reason for chopping them into such small little bits, though, which I will get to in a moment.

Some of you may recognize this bad boy. This is my immersion/stick blender, but I attached the food processor attachment to the stick for this application.

Voila! Instantly minced mushrooms.

Now, return the minced mushrooms to your pan and add the milk. You'll want to cook the milk down so that it is hot and just a little thicker. You could use cream for this as well, but I really wanted a light sauce.

Finally, just at the end, add your minced garlic. I really love garlic, so I really heaped it in there, but less is okay too. Then, let it all heat up for just a little longer, pour over your cooked pasta, and mix.

I really wish my camera took better pictures, because I think all the lovely colors got lost in this photo. Like I said, I cooked up some Garden Delight pasta, which has spinach noodles and tomato noodles and all kinds of good stuff. It's green and red and yellow and bright. What's more, this is a really healthy, delicious dish. Meat eaters will like it too because the minced mushrooms actually mimic ground beef pretty well. If you mixed the mushrooms in with a red sauce, they might not even know the difference! I really love white sauces, though, and don't get them very often, so I stuck with my dairy base. Mushrooms have a really meaty flavor and texture too. They're most of the reason I believe in the concept of umami, the fifth taste. Like I said, meat lovers need not fear with this dish. No meaty savoriness is lost despite the lack of meat.

I was really proud of this meal, which also freezes up nicely in single-size portions. Have I mentioned that Mike hates mushrooms? It's because he's crazy, and why I made this when he was out of town. I win! I also discovered with this recipe that I cook just like my great-grandmother Gee-Gee did, by the "looks right" method. I found myself simply portioning out the ingredients by whatever seemed right and then had to go back and estimate the measurements (hence the flexibility in the ingredient list above). Love you, Gee. :-) I do hope you try it and that you like it. I personally don't see what's not to like.

Bonus: Ah! A Yummy New Tea.
Me: "I like my men how I like my tea, hot, sweet, and citrus-y."
Heather: "How do you make a man citrus-y?"

Okay, I know this is not a recipe, but I have to talk about a great discovery I made recently. I've mentioned that I love tea, but I may not have properly emphasized just how much I love it. My very good friend Sally, who is born and bred English, thinks I have a problem because of how much I love tea, and we drank no less than five cups of tea a day together back at uni. That should tell you how much I love tea. Well, I found a little tea house/shop called World Cup of Tea a bit south of Nashville. Now, I have a favorite tea house here in town called The Savannah Tea House, but that doesn't mean I can't explore, right? Mike went with me to the shop (proof positive that he is in the running for best hubby ever, especially since he doesn't even like tea), and I asked our server for a recommendation. He asked me some good questions about my preferences and recommended a tea there called Mandarin Chamomile. It was divine! It really didn't need any sweetener, but I still added it because it's tasty.

Here is the fabulous Mandarin Chamomile tea. I liked it so much I bought four ounces. Now, I thought they meant four ounces by measure. No, it was by weight. Do you know how much tea makes up four ounces by weight? A lot! I now have two bags of delightful Mandarin Chamomile tea. It's very good quality loose leaf tea with proper size orange peel pieces and whole chamomile flowers. Absolute heaven. Anyone care to join me in drinking it up? :-)