Wild Mushroom Soup

Posted by marisa rosemellia in Recipes, soup and tagged with , ,

Wild Mushroom Soup

10 oz. shitake mushrooms

10 oz. cremini mushrooms

10 oz. white button mushrooms

2 medium size leeks

1 large shallot

2 small carrots

2 small ribs celery (from the heart)

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp. olive oil

4 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

1/2 cup white wine

4 cups vegetable stock

10-12 fresh sage leaves, chopped

1 cup half and half

small handful of fresh parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

creme fraiche (for serving)

Clean and remove the stems from the mushrooms. Slice them into thin slices and set aside.

Chop the garlic, shallots, carrots and celery into small pieces. Clean and slice the leeks into very thin slices. Drizzle the olive oil into a large dutch oven and heat it over medium heat. Place the vegetables into the pot and saute until they are soft and the leeks are tender (about ten minutes). Salt and pepper the vegetables to taste.

Add 3 tablespoons of butter to the pot and melt it into the vegetables. Add the flour and stir to combine, add the sage and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the white wine and cook until the wine is absorbed.

Add in all of the mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for about 10 minutes or until the all of the mushrooms are soft (they will reduce in volume).

Add four cups of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Allow the soup to simmer for 10 -15 minutes. Add the half and half, the fresh parsley and the remaining tablespoon of butter and simmer a few minutes more.

Serve the soup with a dollop of creme fraiche on top.

Pickle Mania!

Posted by marisa rosemellia in quick and easy, Recipes and tagged with , , ,

Happy National Pickle Day!

I’ve been pickling and fermenting a lot of veggies lately. This past weekend I made my own Kimchi (recipe to follow later this week).

I think I have finally discovered the perfect combination veggies, herbs and brine to make the perfect pickle (or at least come pretty close to perfect). Here it is:

3 cups water

1 cup aged white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon whole black pepper corns

handful of dill (a few whole sprigs)

3 big garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

5-6 Kirby cucumbers (or as many as you could fit into a large mason jar) or 3/4 lb fresh green beans, trimmed

Boil the water, vinegar, and salt together in a small pot until the salt is dissolved, allow to cool to room temperature.

Slice the Kirby cucumbers into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Pack the jar with the dill sprigs, whole peppercorns, smashed garlic, and pickle rounds or green beans (or both!)

Pour the brine over the ingredients – fill the jar up to the top. Screw on a clean lid and band and place the jar in the refrigerator for at least a day. This makes enough brine to fill two large mason jars, just make sure you buy some extra cucumber or other veggies.

You get awesome pickles!

Use the same brine and experiment with other veggies and herbs. Try these other combinations that I think are awesome:

carrots, basil, and garlic

asparagus, purple basil, and sweet onions

okra and garlic

cucumbers, fennel fronds, garlic, and dill

yellow wax beans, dill, and garlic

yellow and green beans, parsley, and sweet onion

Happy pickling!

Make your own soda

Posted by marisa rosemellia in Recipes and tagged with , , , ,

I’ve made my own ginger ale a few times now. It’s surprisingly easy to make your home-made soda.

Before you start, you’ll want to make sure you have some proper bottles to put your soda in. You could bottle the soda in regular beer bottles if you have the equipment.You’ll need clean beer bottles, caps and a capper that you can get at your local home brew shop. If you’re in the Lancaster area try Mr. Steve’s Homebrew or Lancaster Homebrew. There are also tons of places online to get home brewing supplies.

I like to use swing top bottles that have a rubber seal. It’s easier than bottling using caps and the bottles that I use are clear so you can see the soda.

The first step is to make a ginger syrup:

12 oz. fresh ginger root

1 cup organic cane sugar

1 cup water

Remove the skin from the ginger root, cut it in small pieces, place it in a food processor and shred the ginger until it is very finely ground up. Place the ground up ginger root, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of water in a small sauce pot and bring to a boil. Allow the mixture to boil until the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat off, cover the pot and allow to steep for one hour.

After an hour, the syrup should be cool enough to handle. Use a piece of cheese cloth to strain the syrup into a clean jar. Squeeze any juice out of the left over pulp that you can by twisting it in the cheese cloth.

You can use this syrup for more than just the soda. You could mix a little bit into your maple syrup to serve on top of waffles. It’s nice to add a little on top of vanilla or honey ice cream, or if you have an ice cream maker… you can use it to make your own ginger ice cream. Mixing it into fruit salad can add a new twist to a simple dessert. You can use it in anything where you would use simple syrup, great for cocktails!

To make the soda:

To a clean 1 liter bottle, add 6 oz. of the ginger syrup and a pinch (about 20 granules) of champagne yeast. You can find champagne yeast at the home brew store for pretty cheap, you can also use bread yeast if you really can’t find it but I do not think it works as well.

Fill the bottle up to the bottom of the neck with filtered water. It’s important to leave a little space so you don’t have too much pressure build up in the bottle. Once the yeast starts working, carbon dioxide gas will be produced. Leave the bottles at room temperature for 48 hours. After 48 hours you can place your bottles in the refrigerator. The refrigeration will stop the yeast from producing carbon dioxide.

I have read a lot of warnings that bottles can explode if you add too much yeast, leave it at room temperature for too long, or fill the bottle too much. I have never had this happen to me, but just be aware that it is a possibility.

You could make a great Dark and Stormy with your home-made ginger ale or a very simple ginger and whiskey cocktail.

Just add 1 oz of good quality whiskey to 8 oz of ginger ale -simple and delicious.

If you like the rooster glass, they came from  pier one imports.  I don’t think they have them any more but you could find similar ones here.  I received my rooster glasses for my birthday one year from one of my very good friends. They are a perfect size for making a small mixed drink or serving up your morning glass of OJ.

The Fridge

Posted by marisa rosemellia in Beer, Restaurants

It’s Friday! I’m going to make a recommendation for a great place to grab a few drinks if you are in the Lancaster area.

If you like good beer, you should stop by The Fridge! I’ve been there a few times so far, and I’m headed there tonight…

They make some fancy pizzas and they have an excellent beer selection.

Here’s some of the pizza’s the have featured in the past two months:

Every pizza I’ve had there was great! If you want the best selection, get there early. They make pizzas until they run out of ingredients then they are gone for the evening. It’s worth making a trip in a little early to get some.

They have some great beers in the giant fridge that they have in the center of the place. You could drink any one you want while you are there or make a mixed 6-pack to take with you. They also have beers that are not refrigerated to take home. It’s a big selection.

Last month Dan and I shared this gem:

Duvel Triple Hop, excellent beer! perfect to share, it’s pretty strong but super smooth… It’s a little dangerous for the afternoon.

Last Friday I went in with Dan to have some drinks. We shared some of the daft beers. They always have great beers on tap that are constantly changing. You could also fill a growler to take home with you or drink while you are hanging out.

Here’s the beers we tried last weekend:

471 Small Batch Double IPA from Breckenridge

Autumnation from Sixpoint

Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour Red Ale

Extreme Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout from Rock Art

All were good, I don’t have anything bad to say about any of them. My favorite was the Autumnnation from Sixpoint. It was kind of pumpkin flavored but not too strong, and a little hoppy, a great fall beer.

The draft beers are constantly changing. Check out the Fridge’s Facebook page for updates!


NOLA Eats – Po’Boys for Sandwich Wednesday!

Posted by marisa rosemellia in Restaurants, sandwiches, Travel and tagged with , , , ,

I started looking through some of my vacation photos this week and it’s been making me miss summer. I never finished blogging about my week in New Orleans. I was really on the go with no time to hang out at the computer. I’ll be sharing some more vacation posts this week, just because I’m kind of missing summer…

I ate a few Po’boys throughout the week. After our day at the Audubon Zoo we stopped at Mahony’s, one of Dan’s favorite spots.

In addition to being all talked up by Dan, Mahony’s has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network. Dan keeps telling me of this Pork Belly and Pepper Jelly sandwich that they make sometimes… if you’re lucky enough to be there when they have it on the menu.  He claims that it is his favorite sandwich ever. That’s a big claim, to say a sandwich is your favorite sandwich of all time. So I was excited to try this elusive sandwich… no luck the day we were there – it’s a special they rarely have, Dan must have gotten lucky last time… or is he making it up? We will never know.

I ordered the grilled shrimp and friend green tomato po’boy with remoulade sauce, along with super skinny fried onion rings.


It was good, I was stuffed by the time I got to the end of it. The shrimp was cooked well and not over done. The Fried green tomatoes were great and it had remoulade sauce spread on it. I think it probably could have used a little more remoulade.

Dan got the cochon sandwich with creole cole slaw. I have to be honest… this was the superior po’boy. They meat was cooked perfectly and the cole slaw was creamy and delicious. It was very well-balanced. yum.

I ate my second po’boy at a restaurant outside of New Orleans in a way smaller town called Lafitte. It was on the way back from our awesome air boat ride through the swamps where our boat captain feed marshmallows to the gators.

The restaurant was called Restaurant des Familles because it was right on the Bayou des Familles. It doesn’t look like much from the front but it was actually a pretty fancy restaurant inside. The whole back of the building is a wall of windows that’s right up against the water and you can gator watch while you eat.

I started with a cup of Gumbo.

And then I had the fried catfish po’boy.

It was pretty awesome.

I think I had a pretty good po’boy experience while in Louisiana. There are a bunch of places that I didn’t get to go to… so I already have my sandwiches picked out for my next visit!

Sandwich Wednesday! – Italian Filone

Posted by marisa rosemellia in sandwiches and tagged with , , , , , ,

Sandwich Wednesday! Why? Because Wednesday is right in the middle of the week, sandwiched!

For my first Sandwich Wednesday I’m featuring my Italian Filone.

This is another photo taken by Jason Bleecher. I think he made this sandwich look extra good!

Filone is a type of bread that is like a big fat baguette with crusty outside and soft inside. I stuffed it with Italian meats from Mandros Imported Foods. They have the best selection of cheeses in Lancaster – if you’re from around Lancaster, you have to stop in and try some! They also have awesome salami.

The Sandwich starts of with an olive tapenade made with kalamata olives, capers and roasted red peppers. I layered on capicola, mortadela, genoa salami, and provolone cheese.  It’s topped with spring mix and red onion. I hollowed out the top to the bread so that all the sandwich filling could fit inside.

Pumpkin Seeds

Posted by marisa rosemellia in Recipes and tagged with , , ,

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love making costumes, dressing up, and going to a party where everyone else is in costume too! There are so many fun things to do around this time and so many fun foods and special dishes to make for parties.

I took some time to carve a pumpkin…

I added some feathers to make it really look like an owl! It was pretty fun. I think next year I am going to get some better pumpkin carving tools and make a better carving. If you have any good ideas let me know. I want to make something interesting.

From this pumpkin project, I pulled out 1 cup of pumpkin seeds.

I decided to roast them and try something new this year. I made a mixture of sugar spices to coat the seeds. Here’s the recipe to my spiced up roasted pumpkin seeds.

If you like my cute goose measuring cup you can find a similar set here.  I got my gaggle of geese measuring cups a few years back at Anthropologie and they are no longer available.

Sweet and Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (all pulp removed and washed)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 tsp. organic cane sugar

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. smoked sweet paprika

1/4 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tbsp. water

Spread the cleaned seeds out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil and 1/4 tsp. of the sea salt over the seeds and stir them so that all of them are coated.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, until they are golden and crispy.

You can eat the seeds just like this. This simple roast is how I usually eat them. They are really good- nice and simple just roasted and salted.

To spice them up, mix the other 1/4 tsp of salt in with the rest of the spices and the 2 tsp. sugar in a small bowl. Toss the seeds in and add the 1 tbsp. of water – just to help the spices stick to the seeds. Mix it well to make sure all of the seeds are coated.

Spread the seeds out on the baking sheet in a single layer again and bake for about 10 minutes (you want to try to get them dry again so they don’t all stick together). They come out kind of caramelized or candied but they have a nice little spice to them.

Make sure you save your pumpkin seeds! They make a great Fall snack and it’s kind of fun to pick them out of the pumpkin.

Beer Taste – Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

Posted by marisa rosemellia in Beer and tagged with , , ,

Well there certainly has been a lack of pumpkin beers available this year. I have been looking every time I go to get beer. I guess it is so popular that distributors and stores can’t keep it on the shelves. The past few years I have been able to get a bunch of different kinds from breweries all over the place. This year I have had only a few!

I was very happy when my friend Janeen brought me some Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. This is my number 1 favorite pumpkin beer! I thought I was going to miss out on it this year because I could not find it anywhere.

We had a crazy snowstorm yesterday, so here’s the punkin ale next to my snowy pumpkins. Good thing it’s a really good beer to enjoy in the cooler weather.

Punkin ale is a brown ale with real pumpkins, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s much lighter in color than other brown ales but it has big bold flavors. It’s perfect to pair with fall comfort foods. It is really well-balanced and does not have that overly spicy pumpkin pie flavor. I think it is awesome! It definitely gets my pick as the best of the pumpkin beers every year.

I think they is my favorite punkin beer because it has nutmeg in it. I love nutmeg – It’s my secret ingredient in some of my pasta sauces, it is great with greens like kale, and I like to add a little into some of my treats when I bake. The brown sugar also adds a little something special to this brew.

Punkin Beer was originally made for the Punkin Chunkin event that takes place in Delaware every year. You can check out the event on the Discovery Channel website.

I hope you can find this pumpkin beer this year if you haven’t tried it yet. Good Luck!

Food Photography and Caprese Salad

Posted by marisa rosemellia in quick and easy, Recipes and tagged with , , , , , ,

Last month, my photographer friend Jason Bleecher took some photos of some food I created. I’ll be sharing the photos and the recipes over the next few weeks!

Caprese Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

1/2 cup good quality Balsamic vinegar

3 fresh mozzarella balls

3-4 medium size red and yellow heirloom tomatoes

1 cup of red and yellow cherry tomatoes

purple and green basil leaves

Salt and pepper

Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil

In a small pan, reduce the balsamic vinegar to half over medium heat. Slice the mozzarella and tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices and half the cherry tomatoes. Arrange the tomatoes and mozzarella in alternating layers on the plate. Chiffonade the green basil and spread it over the salad, garnish with purple basil leaves. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar reduction and olive oil over the salad and season with salt and pepper.

Simple and delicious, especially when tomatoes are in season.