Veggilicious

In honor of my many vegetarian blogger buddies, I made a dish sans meat! Vegetarian meals are always a challenge for me because, as I've mentioned before, I'm just way more comfortable and creative with meat products.

I grabbed this package of mushrooms on Sunday as a back up just in case my whole eggplant thing didn't work.

Clearly the eggplant worked so I marinated on the mushroom situation for a couple days. I finally settled on a pasta dish...really the only thing I could think of with mixed mushrooms. I think it was a good choice!

Linguine with Sauteed Mushrooms and Onions

1 serving linguine, cooked according to package

3 tbsp butter

4 oz mixed mushrooms

1 small onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp tarragon

1/2 tbsp sherry

1 1/2 tbsp heavy cream

squirt sriracha sauce

salt & pepper to taste

Heat butter in a large pan over medium low heat. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add onion and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in tarragon and sriracha and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add sherry and cook for 2 minutes before adding cream and salt and pepper. Lower heat and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Serve over linguine.

As you can see I tossed in some greens for fun :) I neeeeded to use the broccolini in my fridge, so I blanched them, sprinkled them with salt and placed a few on my plate. It immediately brought back another food memory...

When I was little, my gramma did a lot of the cooking during the week and my mom did a fair share whenever she wasn't working. My gramma was a hard core meat eater (hi, SPAM) and veggies were usually incorporated into dishes to add flavor (think celery, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes). That being said, there was one vegetable that ALWAYS made a solo appearance - BROCCOLI.

I'm not saying we had broccoli with every meal, but whenever it showed up on the dinner table, it was always simple - steamed or blanched in salty water. I LOOOOOVED my broccoli cooked this way. The broccoli still had a bit of a crunch and wasn't salty...it just tasted like it took a dip in the ocean :)

My broccolini wasn't quite the same, but every so often I'd take a bite and smile.

What dishes take you back to your childhood??

I'm off - MUST get a run/walk in tomorrow morning. 16 days left til the National Half...eek! I know I'm not going to be able to run the whole thing and it makes me angry. Angry at my achilles. Angry that I got injured in the first place. The warmer weather has made me crave long runs and it's so frustrating sticking to this run/walk thing. UGGGGHHH. Ok, crankypants out!