Veggies, A Chop and Good Ol' Cornbread

Generally the only channel I know how to find on my tv is the foodnetwork. Seriously. I usually just fish around until I find what I'm looking for or stumble across the tv line up channel. Because of this, I tend to get a lot of ideas and get REALLY distracted when working on my homework. (did you know I'm working on my master's degree?) So when I was watching today...I mean doing my homework, I kept going back and forth about what I wanted to cook. I posed the question to my facebook friends, and when I decided to make chicken, I discover I'm out of chicken. Typical! So that left me with a pork chop. And what a pork chop!

I think sometimes the flavor of the meat is under-appreciated. I like to season meat simply and tonight I just sauteed onions and garlic then added the pork chop that I had salted and peppered. Very simple, but very tasty. To compliment my meal I decided to roast some carrots and potato pieces and make a piece of cornbread...and I started with stuffed mushrooms. What...they weren't going to last much longer. And, you know Buddy ate a good part of my food...not the mushrooms.


The veggies were super easy, too. I just took about 1/2 cup of chopped potato pieces, 1/3 cup carrots (those cute little precut ones!) about 2 table spoons of olive oil, a good sprinkle of marjoram, basil, salt and pepper. I tossed it all together and threw it in the oven (in my handy dandy glass dish) and baked it at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes. I didn't watch the time really, I just checked them to see if they were tender and tossed them occasionally while they were cooking.

Here's how I made the cornbread and the mushrooms.

Cornbread
3 heaping table spoons of cornmeal
1 table spoon flour
1 table spoon beaten egg
1 table spoon veggie oil
2 table spoons milk
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 table spoon sugar

Preheat oven to 450
1. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Grease small ramican or muffin pan and pour mixture into the pan.
3. Bake until the edges start to brown-about 20 minutes.

Stuffed mushrooms

1/3 cup Italian seasoned bred crumbs
2 table spoons shredded pecorino romano cheese
2 table spoons olive oil
1 tea spoon fresh, finely chopped parsley
6 white mushrooms-washed and with stems removed

Preheat oven to 400.

1. Mix the bread crumbs, cheese and parsley all together. Add the olive oil and mix well.
2. Stuff the mushroom with the mixture...put it where the stem was...it makes a little bucket :)
3. Pour about a table spoon of olive oil into a small baking dish to coat the bottom. Place the mushrooms in the dish and drizzle lightly with a olive oil.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops brown and the mushrooms are tender.

These turned out really well, but I feel like the mixture needs to be more moist. You might add a table spoon or two of water to help them out. I know when you get stuffed mushrooms at the OG, they have clams and maybe clam juice in them. (betcha didn't realize that!) I don't have clams or clam juice on hand, so maybe olive juice? water? melted butter? ....ooohh...melted butter would be good. Don't get me wrong, they're good like they are, but I think the stuffing shouldn't be dry.


I hope y'all try some of these recipes out! Happy Cooking!


amy