OMG a Recipe: Farmers Market Finds and Yes, Everything's Better With Butter

Farmers Market Fever is in full effect, yo. Which is to say, you may spend several trips to the market, fully bedazzled and bewildered by all the amazing fresh, local produce, and somewhat stymied over what the heck to do with a bouquet of baby artichokes, or a bag full of doughnut peaches. At least, that's how I roll when I visit the market: Dazed and Confused. Seriously, I can't decide what to get, because it all looks good and I know it always comes down to too much culinary potential, too little shelf-life freshness. But a recent trip caught me on an odd moment of laser-focus -- I picked two things, one favorite familiar and one exotic item, and it allowed me to come up with a most delicious, singular meal: penne and spinach in cream sauce, topped with herbed oyster mushrooms, toasted in butter. Ooh, la-lah, bitches.

Do you prefer clams or oyster (mushrooms)? - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Pantry/Freezer Raid Dinner

I said pantry, not panty, you perv-o's. Get your mind out of the gutter and back into the kitchen -- there's a meal to be made! It was another one of those weeks where I was feeling less than inspired, other than the basic need of hunger. But I don't want it to be boring or cause a major restocking of the fridge. So I looked at what we had on-hand and put together a tasty and somewhat unplanned meal from frozen items, pantry goods, and the weekly impulse buys at Costco. What came out of it was a Wild Mushroom and Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Gorgonzola Haricot Vert.

A deliciously unplanned meal for our weekly enjoyment - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I tend to squirrel away items, including food. Hello, producers of Hoarders TV shows? I think I'm your next candidate. When I'm at Costco, the power of bulk buying takes over, I inevitably make the rookie mistake every time, despite my frequent visits, and I wind up with something weird like a huge block of gorgonzola cheese or three pounds of baby green beans. Hey, it happens. I can be like Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, and just sit on the couch and eat cheese all day, but everything else needs a purpose, lest it rot in our crisper drawer. I defrosted a pork tenderloin because again, I squirrel food, which includes buying meat on sale and wrapping/freezing it for later use. Digging through the pantry, I found a random bag of dried wild mushrooms. I can't remember why I bought it, but there they were. These seemingly unrelated items came together like a puzzle in my brain and I got cookin'.

The mushrooms were rehydrated in hot water and chopped up. The mushroomy liquid was reserved for a pan sauce. I took a leftover shallot and finely diced it, saving half for the sauce and the other for the pork stuffing. I wilted some fresh spinach that was already getting wilty in the fridge and added the mushrooms and shallot with some salt and pepper. The mixture became the stuffing for the pork tenderloin, laid down the middle and then tied it all up with string to keep it together. I salted and peppered the outside of the stuffed tenderloin, seared it in a hot pan to give it a bit of crust, and then let it finish off on a baking sheet in the oven. I deglazed the pan with the mushroom liquid, along with some marsala sitting in the pantry, added the last of the shallots, a bit o' seasoning, and let the sauce reduce.

The green beans were lightly blanched in boiling water, drained off, and then tossed with a little salt, pepper, some olive oil, and crumbles of the gorgonzola cheese. This made for a pretty side dish next to the slices of stuffed pork tenderloin. I think the point of these unplanned meals is to show that cooking doesn't have to be a labored, heavily-planned event. It can be inspired by whatever's available, and the flavors can be pushed and pulled to work together, even if on their own, the ingredients don't look like they'd play nicely in the sandbox.

FoodTrek/UnRecipe: Remember to Eat Your Greens (with lots of cheese)

It's no secret that we have a love of board games, and we regularly gather at a friend's house every month for game-playing, beer-drinking, and trash-talking. You know, wholesome family fun with alcohol and profanity. It tends to be a pot luck affair, so at the last meetup, our contribution to the meal was a side dish that was somewhere between a casserole and creamed spinach. Either way, it was a tasty offering that made it easy to eat one's greens the Wasabi Way... basically with cheese and cream.

A hearty plate of comfort food and trash-talkin' for Game Night - Photo by Wasabi Prime

All vegetable side dishes start out with the best of intentions, as in, they start out with vegetables. This one was a mix of freezer and fresh goods -- frozen chopped spinach and fresh zucchini and leeks. I know it's good to start out with the freshest ingredients available, but I've learned my lesson with spinach enough times to know that cooking down fresh spinach is like watching a magic act. Not that I'm expecting Criss Angel to show up in some ruffled RenFair number and leather pants, but even the largest bag of fresh spinach from Costco is going to magically disappear into maybe four servings once it's cooked down in a pan. It's kind of disappointing since those two pound bags are impressive and one would hope it would last beyond a couple of meals. I stock up on boxes of frozen spinach when it's on supersale and just keep them in the freezer; a few days to thaw in the fridge or a few minutes on defrost in the microwave, and it's fine in a pinch, no disappointment required.

I made up for my frozen trespasses with a thinly-sliced leek and a zucchini shredded on a box grater, and then drained of excess water. Sauteeing these greens together in a pan with salt and pepper, they gave up any remaining liquids before a cup and a half of cream was added to completely reverse any healthy intentions. Oh, and some chunks of goat cheese were thrown in for good measure, to make sure and destroy all hopes of nutritional life, while adding a creamy emulsifying effect.

Well, it started out healthy, before all the cheese, cream and breadcrumbs showed up - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I had some toasted rye breadcrumbs, which crusted the top of the creamy vegetable casserole with an earthy look, as it baked off in the oven. I don't mean to say it made it rustic -- it really did look like a field of dirt in miniature. Our friends commented that they could have put little model train people and trees, creating a little edible landscape. But since it was dinnertime, and they made a truly heavenly ham as the dinner's centerpiece, we skipped playing with our food and chose the novel path of eating it with much om-nom-nomitude.

Zoe and Milo contemplate a world of ham - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Rounds of our favorite, Dominion, were played, doggies Zoe and Milo licked their chops to plead their case of I Can Haz? and everyone ate and drank well that night. Much gratitude and thanks to the Clan McDaniels household for being such generous hosts these last few months, as well as organizing these regular board game nights. Looking forward to our next bout of feudal empires won and lost!