OOTD: When life gives you lemons...

I always struggle to name OOTD posts.  I feel like they are expected to be somewhat clever and informative, but nothing so boring like "Yellow and grey striped sweater with blue pants".  At least today I have a reason behind the title.

See these pants?  These creamy, light blue pants?  Guess what color they were online?  Lavender.  Lilac.  Whatever.

NOT BLUE.

I loved the color online - a nice, light purple.  So imagine my surprise when they showed up and they are blue.  Because these are definitely blue.  I looked at them in fluorescent and natural light, at my apartment and in hotels, in the morning and in the evening.  And they are always blue.

I thought about returning them.  Were they too '70s?  What would I wear with them?  But in the end, laziness won out and then I stumbled across this sweater in my closet, which I haven't worn in a long time.  It's a long, very thin cardigan that I don't wear often because it's rather delicate and I usually push up my sleeves and that would make the sleeves stretch out.

And imagine how the lightbulb went off in my head when I realized that the grey in the sweater was a very good match to the blue in the pants.  I wore a basic black V-neck underneath, and there we go.  The pants are a keeper!

Food: Mushroom & Carrot Soup

During our first trip to Poland, we spent a few days in Przemysl, where MK had lived during junior high.  We stayed with his old math teacher, the math teacher's wife, and I believe the math teacher's wife's mother.  For dinner one night, we had the most delicious soup.

A light broth with the thinnest browned mushrooms, small carrot slices, and thin noodles.

So simple, and yet so difficult to recreate.  Of course, being from the old Polish (heck, Old World) mold, the women were confounded when I asked for a recipe after we'd made it back to the States.  A recipe?  Well, they could try, but...

...which is a similar response when I ask for any recipe from any Polish person, in my opinion.  MK's mother, MK's grandmother - always the same response.  Even for something like a cake or bread, which here in the States we spend so much time carefully measuring and prepping - they just eyeball everything and it comes out just fine.

The main star of this dish is, of course, the mushrooms.  In this case, two pounds of baby bella/crimini mushrooms.

That's right.  Two pounds.

The bulk of the prep goes into slicing the mushrooms, very thinly.  Do not wuss out and buy those pre-sliced mushrooms from the produce, as oh-so-tempting as it may be.  They are too thick to really be good in this recipe.  Even many of the mushrooms in the picture above are sliced too thickly, but after 20 solid minutes of slicing so many mushrooms, I got a little lazy.

But trust me.  Thin slices!

Every great recipe starts with butter.  (True statement.)

I melted an entire stick.

Add the mushrooms.  And salt them - generously.  Add some salt, and then add some more.  If you think you've added too much, then you've probably added enough.  (I use Kosher salt for this.)

From here, you just let the butter, heat, and salt work their magic.  Cook the mushrooms until they have shrunk in size and all of the liquid has evaporated.  I reduce them by starting on medium heat and then slowly turning it up to medium-high/high.  The whole process can take about 10-15 minutes.

Make sure you stir the mushrooms occasionally.

In the end, what you want is nicely browned mushrooms (be careful not to overcook them and burn them!), with a nice fond (little brown bits) all over the bottom of the pan.

Remove the mushrooms from the pan and return the pan to the burner.

Add in the following: 2 cartons (32 oz. each) of chicken stock and 8 cups of water plus about 10 tsps of chicken granules (or equivalent bouillon cubes).  Feel free to substitute whatever combination you want, but for this recipe/amount of mushrooms, you'll want 16 cups of chicken stock/broth.  I personally like stock/broth made from chicken bouillon, so to each her own.

Once the broth is in the pot, peel and slice three carrots into matchsticks.

Add the carrots to the pot and let cook for about 3-5 minutes.  Next, add your choice of noodles.  Some stores sell short, thin noodles (think broken up spaghetti) in a package, but I couldn't find any.  My preference is to use Lubella pasta (Polish brand), but we went with whole wheat spaghetti and I just broke it up myself.  Add the pasta to the pot and then let cook per the amount specified on the package.  In the last 3 minutes of cooking time, add the mushrooms to warm them back up.  Then sit back and enjoy!

Mushroom & Carrot Soup

Ingredients

2 lbs button mushrooms (exotic mushrooms not recommended), sliced very thinly

1 stick unsalted butter

16 cups chicken stock/broth, any combination

3 carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1/2 lb thin spaghetti, broken into short pieces

Kosher salt

Chives, if desired (as garnish)

Steps

1.  Slice mushrooms thinly and set aside.

2.  Over medium heat, melt 1 stick of butter in a large pot.

3.  Add mushrooms and salt liberally.

4.  Reduce mushrooms down until liquid has evaporated and mushrooms are turning a golden brown color.  Remove mushrooms from pot.

5.  Return pot to heat and add in 16 cups chicken stock/broth.  Heat over medium-high heat.

6.  Add matchstick carrots to pot and let cook for 3-5 minutes.

7.  Add spaghetti to pot and cook per package instructions.

8.  When there is 3 minutes left until the spaghetti is done, add in mushrooms.

Food: Cheesy Bacon Israeli Couscous

Israeli couscous may be one of my favorite foods. I'm not entirely sure why - maybe it's the tiny round shape, or maybe it's the chewy al dente-ness, or maybe it's the fact that it's technically pasta, which is definitely one of my favorite foods (which I suppose was bound to happen with a half Italian family).  It's super quick to make and since it's really just little balls of pasta, you can get as creative as you want with it. 

I always like to start by toasting it in a dry skillet, over medium to medium-high heat, stirring frequently.  It toasts up pretty quickly, so keep an eye on it!

Once it starts getting nice and golden brown, it's time to add in the liquid.  You can use water (just like making pasta), but I like to use chicken or beef broth.  I imagine any liquid will do, really.  Vegetable broth, mushroom broth...you get the picture.  On this particular day, I used chicken broth, primarily because I grabbed the wrong container out of the refrigerator.  You want to cover the couscous with broth, and then I usually add a little more for good measure.

Cover the toasted couscous with stock/broth

From here, you just let the couscous cook until the liquid has evaporated.  Definitely keep a close eye on the couscous as it cooks, because once the broth has gone, it can start sticking to the pan.  If it does stick to the pan, just add a little more broth and stir until the couscous loosens from the pan and the broth has evaporated again.

 Off the heat, stir in your "extras". I usually add Parmesan cheese to my Israeli couscous (mmm, pasta with cheese), and we had some bacon leftover from breakfast, and I was itching to use up the chives I'd bought for another recipe. That's what I love about couscous - you can use it as a blank slate to use up whatever you have on hand.