Dd's Mushroom Soup

MUSHROOM SOUP

2 TB butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ # fresh cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated in 1 cup water, reserve liquid
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
2-3 TB flour, as needed

2 TB dry sherry
3 c. beef broth
1 tsp. soy sauce

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3-4 TB heavy cream

Garnish: croutons, chopped Italian parsley, grated parmesan cheese

In a large stockpot over medium heat sauté onions in butter until tender.  Add garlic, mushrooms and thyme.  Cook 2 minutes until mushrooms have wilted.  Add flour stirring until completely blended.  Add sherry, broth and reserved porcini liquid scraping any fond that has formed on the bottom of the pot.  Add soy sauce, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer.  Cook 10-12 minutes until mushrooms are tender.  Using an immersion blender purée soup to desired consistency.  Stir in heavy cream.  Garnish as desired. 

Serves 2-3 as entree.

Awesome Three-Ingredient Deep-Fried Eggplant

I've only ever had this at Mei Sum Dim Sum Restaurant.  It's my favorite eggplant dish, but I've never been able to find a recipe.  So I had to make one up.

I added "Awesome" to the title because that's what Landon said about it.

As always with eggplant, I soaked sliced eggplant in salted water for about an hour.  You can go shorter, but I took Kai to the dog park before cooking.

Pat dry and dredge in corn starch with fried garlic mixed in (plus salt to taste).  Then fry.

 

This is the fried garlic that I used.

   

I don't like deep frying because of the mess so I rarely do it, but this came out really good.  Do you think air frying would work?

  

Ceramics Class

Red is mine and Geri's.  Blue is Cleta's.  Green is Erick's.

Next week we glaze.  I have ten pieces to glaze.  So for our 2-hour class I can spend 12 minutes on each.  Wish me luck.

Honolulu Aunty, thank you for the underglazes!  We will totally make use of them.

Not Dropping It

Click on the photo below to watch a video of when the “drop it” command didn't work.

Cy's Breakfast

 Naty's Kitchen in Maunakea Market.  Pig's Feet with Rice ($10), Rice Soup ($6), Iced Coffee ($6.50).

   

Ceramics Class

I must say that the people in this class sure produce a lot of pieces.  The instructor said that she might need to do two bisque firings instead of just one to accommodate all of the pieces.

Here are my planters.  I did the one on the right in the last few minutes of the class with my leftover clay.  It was the most fun to do of the three. 😆

 

Green circle is Cleta's and red is Erick's.  Geri had a scratchy throat so didn't attend. 

   

   

   

Below is a short video of a flip through of my notebook.  It helps to keep my mind in order.

  

Roselani Ice Cream

I've been enjoying this Roselani Pa'uwela Sunrise Ice cream.  It's an orange dreamsicle flavored ice cream with pineapple chunks in it.  It's super ono.

 

It's also super expensive.  But I can’t take my money with me, right?

  

Hawaiian Chili Pepper Plants Update

I transplanted some of the seedlings into bigger pots.  Luckily, I had kept the wonderful cinder/soil mixture from the plants that my friend Ryan gave to me.  

I had to move the pots away from our other plants because they were getting white flies from them.  ☹️

I already gave Geri two of the plants.  I wanted to give her more because their survival rate is much greater with her than with me, but she said two was enough. 

Cleta's Zucchini Fries

Per Cleta:  Cut, salt and leave on paper towel to absorb water.  Roll in flour, dip in beaten egg, pat well in panko.  Hot oil is key for crisp outside, kinda firm inside.

Ceramics Class

Our second ceramics class was yesterday.   I made another paint palette on the lower right, this time with bigger wells than the one I made at the last session.  Erick made the dinosaur, Cleta's incense holder is below Erick's and Geri's vases/bowls are to the right of Cleta's. 

 

Geri's plate is on the left and my cat/owl planter is on the right.  I'm starting to feel more productive and less frustrated than before.  I think me and Clay can be friends.