Pasta + Mushroom & Clam Sauce

This light, seafood pasta dish is for hardcore mushroom lovers, so if mushrooms are not on your list, feel free to substitute a favorite vegetable instead! 

The pasta base will be delicious clams, canned, along with an extra bottle of juice.

Your main ingredient is...

Find fresh parsley, onions, red bell peppers, several cloves of garlic, and rinse those dirty mushrooms especially well. 

Next, chop, slice, and mince accordingly.

Then with extra-virgin olive oil, saute the bell peppers, garlic, and onions. Best cooking aroma in the history of cooking.

Next add the mushrooms and 1-2 tablespoons of flour -- this depends on just how much clam juice you'll pour in a moment and how thick you want your sauce. Stir in the flour well.

Next, your clams and juice! One thing is for certain: clam juice is HIGHLY reflective with a beautiful pearly sheen! 

Generously add dried thyme; it pairs wonderfully with a seafood-based sauce. Continue to stir/simmer on MED HI.

Finally, add salt and pepper to taste, then toss in your freshly-minced parsley, stir, and remove from heat.

On to the pasta! Again, whole wheat is best for your body. Measure out 2 ounces of dried pasta per person for dieting purposes.

Cook pasta accordingly, then combine with your mushroom and clam sauce! A very light and fragrant, end-of-summer-appropriate dinner, to say the least! This finished photo was taken without flash to avoid that extremely reflective sheen. All finished.

Enjoy~!

Wonton Soup (餛飩湯)

No more MSG-loaded, tiny, overpriced bowls of Wonton soup at your local Chinese restaurant. You can easily make the soup in the comfort of your own kitchen. These step-by-step instructions should help you to that one very special, piping-hot bowl of Asian goodness. 加油!

 We start with your mixture, the inside "stuffing" of your wontons. You can make it meat heavy or vegetable heavy; in this case, this is a vegetable-heavy recipe and the bright green mixture can be prettily seen through the thin wonton skin in the finished bowl of soup.

Determine your own serving size/preference. Ground pork and minced frozen spinach combined with minced green onions equals the most perfect wonton mixture known to man. Stir in a teaspoon of salt.

Open your pack of wonton wrappers and fill a small bowl with water, which serves as "glue" when folding.

Place a dollop of mixture in the center -- not too much. Practice makes perfect.

Dabble a line of water on all four sides with your finger.

Next, fold one corner over to its opposite corner and squeeze shut so it creates a triangle shape.

It will look like this. Squeeze only the edges together, not flattening the entire wonton!

Next, bend the top corner down slightly. Wet the two bottom corners with water and bend them down.

Use a finger to push the center upwards to help you bend down the bottom corners.

Squeeze the two corners together, with the wet sides pressed together.

Such a pretty bonnet!

And repeat and repeat and repeat! Soon you'll have a whole army of bonnets or "money pockets" at your command.

Now, to prepare our soup base. Soy sauce and sesame oil are a must.

Mustard stems provide that distinctive and flavorful taste to your wonton soup. Mince them and mince a few more green onions.

In a bowl, add just a sprinkle of salt. All of these oils and sauces are salty enough. Add a dabble of soy sauce, minced stems, a drop of sesame oil (the flavor is very, very strong), and the green onions.

Then, boil a large pot of water. Ladle water into the bowl. 

There it is, your homemade wonton soup base and it smells so good.

Often times, vegetables are combined with wontons. 小白菜, or "baby bok choy" is used in this recipe, found in abundance and in many different varieties at your local Chinese supermarket. Any kind of "bok choy" would be perfect.

Looks like lettuce, but don't be fooled. Drop in boiling water and it will be cooked almost immediately. After literally 20-30 seconds, dole into the soup bowls. 

Time to cook the wontons. If you've laid them on a board, you'll have no trouble transporting them to the stove. If you've traditionally used paper, it'd be much easier to slide them onto a cardboard of some sort.

With the same pot of boiling water, drop the wontons in one by one. Stir the water to keep it moving so they don't stick to the bottom. 

They will be ready when they all begin to float on the surface. That pretty green mixture will be visible through the cooked skins.

Ladle into your soup bowls, and you have completed the not-so-daunting task! Smells just like the Chinese restaurant.

All finished!

Enjoy~!

Roasted Peach Lemonade Smoothie

That's a mouthful to say, but it's a SCRUMPTIOUS mouthful! This is an interestingly unique drink; definitely an autumn-y smoothie, ideal for gazing out at the growing shadows and the last sunny rays of summer.

Roasting/baking fruit helps bring out a more intense flavor, especially for fruit that's teetering on the brink of going bad.

I have my somewhat-softened white peaches here, cut in halves and pitted exactly like preparing an avocado.

I dusted the tops with white sugar. I'm sure brown sugar would be just as delicious!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and roast! Almost immediately the kitchen will be perfumed with a peachy, honeyed aroma. Roast for 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, if you don't have pre-made lemonade on hand, you can take the time to mix your own lemonade. Choose from either lemon juice or lemonade packets or even real lemons...

Or in my case, leftover frozen lemon juice! That should be titled "cube mass" since I had to smash it on the floor to break it up.

Then it's time to play scientist with the blender. Tinker around with your lemonade supplies and sugar, taste accordingly, keep adding water, and eventually you'll get to your perfect mixture.

Here are my lemonade cubes with water and sugar.

And after much experimenting, I have my homemade lemonade -- yay!

Your peaches are ready. The pits have filled with their naturally sweet, syrupy nectar and they smell dangerously like pie! They've also faded to a pretty fall color similar to potpourri. 

I don't mind the peach skins, so I blended them whole. You can spoon out the flesh if you don't care for skin in your smoothie. Blend peaches with just a small amount of lemonade, then stir the puree with the rest of the lemonade.

Your finished smoothie will have a deliciously tart but pleasantly sweet flavor! Peaches and lemonade make an interesting pair. This may not appeal to some folks, but I actually enjoyed this smoothie warm since I didn't ice it after pureeing the piping-hot peaches. 

All finished.

Enjoy~!

Hatch Chile Stew

It's Hatch season! And that only means one thing: get ready to enjoy your very own Hatch Chile Stew. 

No time to lose!

When you first walk into Sprouts, it would be impossible to miss their giant display of freshly-packaged green Hatch chilies. The "medium" heat chilies turned out to be quite mild raw, but then the spiciness kicked on in the finished stew.

Remove the paper-thin outer skin by either peeling or rinsing -- it will fall right off.

Then rinse out all the innards and seeds.

Have a few tomatoes on standby, chop up an onion, and mince a clove of garlic.

Bring out some nice glistening slabs of pork loin -- about two pounds worth. Cube but cube into smaller pieces than pictured for easier consumption...

Slice your chilies and dice the tomatoes and you're set for the stove.

Looks like brains, but tasty brains!

Next, brown the diced pork in a pan on HIGH heat with a bit of olive oil. 

Toss in the onions/garlic and saute until onions are translucent.

Next, for a thicker consistency, add 1/4 cup flour and stir well. Then toss in the tomatoes and chilies.

For salt, 1/2 tsp; for sugar (to balance the acidity of the tomatoes), 1/2 tsp. And for pepper, a whole lot.

Finally... add approx 2 cups water and simmer that baby for just over an hour.

 When it's time, warm a few of these delicious tortillas which happen to be extremely suitable for your healthy diet too.

Serve with a sprinkle of cheese and down it boiling hot like I did. Oh, the FLAVORS! Hatch season is very good on the dieter's belly. All finished.

Enjoy~!