Tag: PREP

My Friday…

LameTwitterMonkeyJackAssSoooooooooooooo…at a bout 2:30, I decided I was going to make myself stew in the slow-cooker. FOr anyone normal, this would have given the stew about 4-5 hours to be ready and yummy. But not me…here’s how mine went…

2:30 Got crock pot cleaned and ready.
Chopped Carrots.

2:35 Got sidetracked.

3:00 Got potatoes chopped and ready.
Chopped Green beans.

3:05 Got sidetracked.

3:45 got onion chopped.
Made sausage and crackers for lunch.

4:00 Got sidetracked.

4:30 Remembered I was prepping stew.
Saw Squirrel.

5:00 Remembered stew, chopped up sausage.

5:05 Fucking squirrel.

6:00 Remembered I was prepping a stew, chopped up the garlic.

6:05 Remembered I still had work to do.

7:00 I like my stew spicy, chopped some serrano, added salt n pepper. Back to work.

7:40 Turned the damn crock pot on.

7:45 Realized the damn stew wouldn’t be ready til midnight. Deemed blogable.

No joke…this happened…just another day πŸ˜‰

-T




TonyTown dot com soups on

A little grocery rant…

TonyTown dot com soups onThis has been bugging me since yesterday. Last evening I went grocery shopping. Now my grocery shopping is pretty static unless there is an ungodly good sale on something. I spent a whopping $44, and walked away with nearly 25lbs of fruits and veggies, and…wait for it…nearly 3 pounds of meat, which accounted for $15 of the bill.

Normally, I would prep about 1.5lbs of these groceries a day for meals & whatever….so yes…give or take a couple days, this is nearly two weeks of food for me. It’s just bothering me that meat is sooo frickin pricey, and this wasn’t even the premium stuff, it was just sausage (which is like the cheapest meat you could ever buy). Maybe at some point I’ll take the drive out to one of the local suppliers and arrange a walkthrough to document the process.

We all know I am a far cry from a vegetarian. But I am pretty picky about my meats. I don’t like processed anything, and sausage is about the only “processed” anything I get nowadays, and thats only because I don’t have the room to make and store my own sausage (it isn’t hard or messy, just not feasible without significant cold storage).

So my question is…why is a meat product that probably costs less than $.50 to produce sold at $5.00 per pound?!

*ugh*




Shrooms! (Mushrooms Stuffed Full of Yum)

I’ve been REALLY craptastic about posting to the blog, I know it. No excuses here…luckily this blog was never a part of my livelyhood and the only people to yell at me about it are on twitter (and Amazon – apparently they have some sort of *rule* about their paid authors actually writing…go figure).

Anyhow…it’s time for some really awesome foodstuff, I’ve been coming up with more and more really original recipes lately. I’ve gotten some pretty awesome reviews of my mushrooms, straight out of Tony’s Kitchen!

Real Simple.

So Simple this almost isn’t a real blog post, but here it goes.

INGREDIENTS

Fresh white (champaign) Mushrooms - Stuffed Mushrooms - Tonytown.comMushrooms (8-16oz)
These are those regular white mushrooms you find int the produce areas of the grocery store, you can find better ones if you really want to go all the way, and if you really want to impress your favorite vegetarian, you can opt to go with portabellas and top them with the stuffing, tastes frickin AWESOME.



Black and Green Olives - Stuffed Mushrooms - Tonytown.comBlack Olives (6oz)
If you want cheap and fast, just get black minced olives in a can. If you prefer fresher (I do – always) find yourself a decent olive bar (usually only found in decent grocery stores) and get your fill. Be prepared to pay far too much for fresh olives though..it’s almost silly.



A fresh white onion - Stuffed Mushrooms - Tonytown.com1 Large White Onion (6-10ounces at least)
Green onion really won’t work too well in this, and purple onions don’t mince as well, as I like, so I usually opt for the white onions on this. I’ve run into a couple people that didn’t like onions, but didn’t even bat an eyelash at chowing down on these stuffed mushrooms, so unless they are allergic, I encourage people to try them before acting like you’re asking them to try castor oil πŸ˜‰


Balls of Mozzarella Chesse - Stuffed Mushrooms - Tonytown.comMozzarella Cheese (8-16oz)
Finely shredded Moz is awesome. If you get fresher blocks it will make an incredible difference on the taste. If you have a Vegan in the group, you can substitute real Moz for Dairy-Free Mozzarella by Daiya Foods.

PREP

1. Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees (Fahrenheit).

2. Break the stems out of the mushrooms. I usually slice the stems for use in other sauces etc. No use in wasting good ingredients!

3. Mince the onion, the olives and the Moz. If you have a good processor you can mince this all at the same time until you have a fine paste. Otherwise, mince until you are comfy with the consistencies and mix them thoroughly together.

4. Treat the mushrooms like little bowls and you want to fill them up with the mixed stuffing. until they are overflowing by about 1/8 of an inch.

5. Place the mushrooms in a non-stick roasting pan. You only need to give them about a half inch space between so you should be able to fit quite a few in the pan.

COOKINS

Place the pan full of goodness into the preheated oven, and set your timer for 25 minutes.

NOTES
1. If you like your mushrooms’ texture to be more steamed than baked, you can easily pour a thin layer of water into the bottom of the roasting pan. About 1/4-3/8 of an inch of water will serve to effectively give you more juicy mushrooms.
2. If you opt for the Vegan Friendly version, please note that the Dairy-Free Mozzarella by Daiya Foods takes longer to melt so you may have to leave the Shrooms in the oven a bit longer. πŸ˜‰