Stack of Stuff- Egg, Mushrooms, Spinach, and Onion Over Polenta

I'm on spring break this week. Please imagine me saying "spring break" with quotey fingers, because it's a bit of a joke. I'm, of course, still at work. I've still got chores to get done. And worst of all, plenty of homework so I'll be ready for the two tests awaiting me next week. Oh, and my poetry analysis is due too. Blerg. Anyway, I knew I needed to do at least a little cooking this week, even if I'm still plenty busy. Mushrooms were on sale this week, I had a little extra spinach in the fridge, and I've been craving eggs lately. I decided polenta, onion, and parmesan would round things out nicely. This was a pretty simple and quick dinner to put together. I need to remember things like this more often. Simple is key for me, with so little time on my hands.

Egg, Mushrooms, Spinach, and Onion over Polenta
Serves 2

1/2 tube firm polenta, in 1/2" slices, about 6
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
10 oz. mushrooms- cleaned, trimmed, and quartered
3 cups fresh spinach
2 eggs
Olive oil
Shaved parmesan
Balsamic vinegar

• Heat your polenta according to your taste- I pan fried in butter, then kept warm in a 250 degree oven while I prepared the rest of the ingredients.
• Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat; add onion, season with salt; as onions begin to soften add mushrooms. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and stir occasionally. Cook until onion and mushroom are softened and golden.
• Cook eggs according to your taste- I fried ours sunny side up (except that I overcooked mine a little and broke the yolk of Josh's, oh well). Meanwhile, add your spinach to the onion and mushrooms and stir until wilted down.
• Plate your polenta, top with mushroom mixture, egg, and add some shaved parmesan, if you wish.
  

Mushroom & Spinach Tart

Amazingly I have another recipe to share. So soon! I can almost see your looks of astonishment. Whose to know that I actually made this, like, a month ago? Well, I guess whoever reads this now that I spilled the beans. This recipe was somewhat a success. If you ignore the fact that I have terrible luck handling puff pastry (any kind of pastry dough really, I think it can sense fear) then it was indeed successful. It was edible, which is really the true test of a recipe, right? This is, of course once again an Everyday Food recipe, but I came across it when Tracy at Shutterbean shared it. I have a thing for mushrooms for some reason these days, so this recipe really appealed to me. I don't think I ever got the dough to really roll out properly, so I ended up with extra filling, topping, whatever you'd like to call it. But I put it to good use in a variation of an old recipe that I'll share with you soon, so no complaints about that. My only complaint is I have the other half of the puff pastry package in the freezer and I think it is well aware of my insecurities. I hate it when my groceries get the upper-hand.

Mushroom & Spinach Tart
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4














Flour, for rolling out puff pastry
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed according to package instructions
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 10 oz. packages white mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 10 oz. fresh baby spinach
2 oz. soft goat cheese, crumbled

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to a 16" x 10" rectangle. Trim uneven edges. Place the pastry on a baking sheet. With a sharp knife, lightly score dough to form a 1" border. Using a fork, prick dough inside the border every 1/2". Bake until golden, rotating pan once, about 15 minutes or until tender.
• Meanwhile, in a small saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, toss onion with 1 tablespoon oil. Season with salt. Cover and cook over medium heat until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir. Continue cooking with cover on for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Set aside.
• In a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, heat remaining oil. Add mushrooms; cover and cook until tender and all liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Fold in spinach; season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes more. Drain any liquid.
• Top dough with mushroom-spinach mixture. Scatter onion and goat cheese on top. Bake until cheese is lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

My notes: I used feta for the cheese, because I use feta every chance I get. Why wouldn't you? It's fetastic. You like that word I just made up? And I served some Balsamic-Roasted Pearl Onions on the side. Yes I realize that means we had two kinds of onions in this one meal. I love onions so, again, why not? Don't worry- I haven't created any words for onions. Yet.

Balsamic-Roasted Pearl Onions

Josh and I agree on a lot of things, but sometimes there are some foods that just don't fall into that category. And for quite some time onions were one of those things that I loved and he couldn't care less for. But his taste has slowly been growing, and he's been widening the range of foods he enjoys. A few weeks ago when he declared that he liked those tiny onions I knew I had to take advantage of this new revelation. I had been dying to roast some onions for a long time, but never getting around to making them if it was only going to be me eating them. Shortly after he gave pearl onions the seal of approval I was looking for a side dish to make with some savory french toast. I saw this recipe and knew that my chance had finally come. To the oven!

Balsamic-Roasted Pearl Onions
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4














2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen pearl onions, thawed and patted dry, or 1 1/4 pounds fresh
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. If using fresh onions, soak them in warm water for 5 minutes to loosen skins; using a paring knife, cut off ends, and peel onions.
• Toss onions with vinegar and oil on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Roast until onions are tender, 25 to 30 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times and rotating baking sheet halfway through.

My notes: I used frozen onions to make this an easier week night option. I think this was a great, easy recipe and Josh definitely approved. Now to push the boundaries a little and try more versions of roasted onions!

More Mushrooms

Alright, this is the last mushroom recipe.....for now. Seriously, I'm kind of in love with them lately. And, there are mushrooms growing in my front yard now. Not the edible kind, in fact probably poisonous or something, but still. They seem to have really worked their way into my life, ha. Clearly I can't just write about mushrooms though- talk about a niche! But I do need to share this one last fungi recipe with you. This has been on my to-cook list for a seriously long time. This recipe was one of the reader submissions in the October 2007 issue of Everyday Food. If you don't have this issue you should look on eBay, or order a back issue, something. That is my favorite issue of EF (should a person have a favorite issue? Oh well, I do.) I've gotten a lot of great recipes out of that month's magazine, and there's still a lot in it that I haven't made yet. This recipe finally jumped from the to-cook to the gobbled up column last week though. With a nice salad, and maybe glass of wine and a little fruit for dessert you have such a lovely meal! The original recipe did not include mushrooms, so some alterations had to be made.

Baked Eggs with Mushrooms, Onions and Croutons
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4















3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for ramekins
3 slices white sandwhich bread, cut into small cubes
coarse salt & pepper
1 small onion, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
4 large eggs
¼ cup heavy cream

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter four 8 oz. ramekins or custard cups. Set a kettle of water to boil.
• Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low. Add bread; cook, tossing occasionally, until lightly browned, 6-8 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, and transfer to a bowl; reserve skillet.
• Melt remaining tablespoons butter in skillet on medium. Add onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3-5 minutes.
• Dividing evenly, spoon onion into ramekins, and top with croutons. Gently break 1 egg into each ramekin (keeping yolk intact). Top each egg with 1 tablespoon cream, and season with salt and pepper. Place ramekins in an 8-inch square baking dish, and pour enough boiling water to come halfway up side of ramekins. Bake until whites are set, 15-18 minutes.
• Carefully remove ramekins from water bath, and serve immediately.

My notes: I added a cup of sliced mushrooms, which I just tossed into the skillet with the onions. Also I decreased the onion by 1/2, and used 2 small slices sourdough bread for my croutons. I was only making 2 servings in my 10 oz. ramekins, so I used 1 tablespoon of cream per cup.

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

I had noticed this recipe before. It had wormed it's way into a back corner of my mind, and slept there, waiting for the day it would be awoken. And last week while I was planning my weekly menu, it finally arose. Molly mentioned it once again on her blog last week, which brought it to the forefront of my mind. I decided it would be perfect for this week, and as it turned out I picked the perfect night to make it. It was quite cold last night, and sleet came shining down most of the evening. This sauce was bright, but also very comforting. Josh is not always the biggest fan of sauce. He has been known to skip out on it completely and just coat is spaghetti with butter and Parmesan instead. But he seemed pleased to try this, and in fact had a second helping. Huzzah, a very simple and delicious sauce that my husband is happy to eat. In the future I would like to pull this recipe out for entertaining.

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Recipe from Orangette, adapted from Marcella Hazan; Makes 4 servings












2 cups whole, peeled, canned plum tomatoes, chopped, with their juices (about one 28-oz. can)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt, to taste

• Combine the tomatoes, their juices, the butter, and the onion halves in a medium saucepan. Add a pinch or two of salt. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, at a very slow but steady simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free from the tomato. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and salt as needed.
• Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta.

My notes: I think one of the things that I really liked about this is that it reminded me very much of the simplest of simple meals my grandmother used to make when I was growing up- macaroni and tomato juice. Yep, that's about as simple as it gets, short of just dry macaroni. This had a similar, but so much fuller flavor. Loved this sauce. Try it. I added some cracked black pepper and a little freshly grated Parmesan. Josh added a lot of Parmesan, as per usual.