Blue Cayenne

Spinach and Mushroom Gratin

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Ingredients

• 1 pound white mushrooms (I used portobello mushrooms)
• 1 1/2 T. unsalted butter (plus more for buttering the dish)
• Salt
• 1 pound spinach (stemmed, washed and drained)
• 1 1/4 C. heavy cream
• Freshly-ground black pepper
• Paprika or Cayenne Pepper for garnish
• Chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

1. Clean mushrooms and slice into 1/8-inch slices.
2. Melt butter in a skillet and saute mushrooms until they are soft and beginning to take on some color. This will take about 10 minutes. Drain any excess liquid from the pan of mushrooms and set drained mushrooms aside.
3. Bring a large pan of water to a boil and blanch the spinach until it is wilted but still bright green in color. This will only take a few seconds. Remove the spinach from the boiling water and put it into an ice bath to cool. The ice bath will help the spinach retain its color. Next, put the spinach into a colander to drain. When the spinach has drained, give it a good squeeze to get it as dry as possible. Chop the spinach. Set aside.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Put the heavy cream into a saucepan and heat over low heat until the cream is reduced by half. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to the cream.
6. Butter a small (2 quart) baking dish and spread the spinach evenly across the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the spinach with about 1/8 t. of salt. Arrange the sliced and cooked mushrooms on top of the spinach in an even layer. Spoon the reduced cream evenly over the top of the mushrooms. Bake (uncovered) for 5-10 minutes until the dish is heated through. I did put this dish under the broiler for a minute or two to get a little extra browning on the surface of the cream/mushroom layer.
7. Garnish and serve immediately.

Nutrition

Calories

1242 cal

Fat

111 g

Carbs

41 g

Protein

37 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

Plum Cobbler Bars

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Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds black or purple plums (pits removed and roughly chopped--about 6 cups)
• 1 1/2 C. plus 1/3 C. granulated sugar
• 1/4 C. cornstarch
• 2 t. vanilla extract
• 3 C. old-fashioned oats
• 2 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C. whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 C. light brown sugar
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1 t. coarse kosher salt
• 1 t. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 C. unsalted butter (melted)

Instructions

1. Put a small plate in the refrigerator. You will use the cold plate to test the jam later in this recipe.
2. Combine chopped plums and 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a large pot. Heat the plums over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Cook the plums and sugar until the plums release their juices and become very tender. This will take 12 to 15 minutes.
3. Puree the cooked plum mixture with an immersion blender or in a regular blender until almost smooth. Be careful here; you are working with very hot liquids. You want a little texture in your jam. Return the puree to the pot (if you didn't use the immersion blender) and continue to cook at medium to low heat until the mixture thickens and reduces by half. This will take about 10 minutes. When your jam is finished cooking, you should have approximately 3 1/2 cups of plum jam. At this point, you can test your jam by putting a spoonful on the chilled plate. The jam should be thick and, after two minutes, when you drag your finger through the jam, it should leave a clean separation between the two remaining sections of jam. If it doesn't, cook your jam for a few more minutes.
4. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 1/3 C. granulated sugar with the cornstarch. Then, whisk this cornstarch mixture into the jam. Stir occasionally. Cook until the jam reaches a simmer. When it does, simmer for one minute more (be careful at this point not to scorch your jam). Stir in the vanilla extract. Cool the jam until it reaches room temperature.
5. Heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 by 13 baking sheet with parchment paper, overhanging the paper on all the sides.
6. In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Then, add the melted butter and mix until the mixture reaches a crumbly consistency. I used my hands to mix the butter with the oat mixture. Press 2/3 of the crumb mixture into an even layer on the parchment-lined baking pan. Spread the jam evenly over the oat mixture. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture evenly over the top of the jam.
7. Bake bars at 350 degrees F until the jam bubbles on the edges of the bars and until the oat mixture is a light borwn. This will bake from 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely.
8. Slice the bars into 16 even pieces.
9. Note: I found that the bars were at their very best about three days after baking them.

Nutrition

Calories

6307 cal

Fat

25 g

Carbs

1251 g

Protein

88 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

Blueberry Muffins and A Little Refrigerator Drama

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Ingredients

• 1/2 C. butter (at room temperature)
• 1 C. sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 2 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C. milk
• 2 1/2 C. blueberries (preferably fresh)
• 1/4 C. sugar (for topping)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by lining cups with parchment and greasing the parchment or by inserting paper cupcake cups. (It is possible to make 16 or so muffins by reducing the amount of batter you put into each muffin tin. I did this and the muffin size was perfect.)
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until it is well-mixed. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat the mixture well after the addition of each egg. Add the baking powder, salt and vanilla. Mix well, scraping the bottom of your bowl to be sure that all the ingredients are incorporated into the batter.
3. Add the flour alternating with the milk. Mix these ingredients together gently--just to combine. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to be sure all the ingredients are mixed together.
4. Mash 1/2 C. of blueberries. Add these mashed berries to the batter along with the remainder of the whole berries. Mix just to combine.
5. Using a 1/4 C. measure, scoop portions of the batter into the muffin tins.
6. Sprinkle 1/2 t. granulated sugar on top of each muffin and bake for about 30 minutes. You want the tops of your muffins to be a light golden brown. Your muffins are done when you can stick a toothpick into the center of a muffin comes out clean. (I gave my muffins a few extra minutes of baking to get just the golden brown color that I wanted. Baking times will vary from oven to oven.)
7. Remove muffins from the oven. Gently (the muffins will be tender at this point) loosen the edges of the muffins from the edges of the pan, or, if you are using cupcake cups, loosen the cups within the muffin tins. Let the muffins sit for about 5 minutes and them remove them from the muffin pan. Cool on a rack.
8. These muffins were delicious but very tender on the first day. They were perfect on the second day.