Food with a Meaning

There are many ways to use wine in food; spaghetti and clams, mussels, steak, etc. However, my favorite is a red wine reduction sauce with chicken and sautéed mushrooms. This dish is one of my favorites to make because it is relatively quick and easy, but it is flavorful and sophisticated. 

The ingredients necessary for this dish are;

Chicken breast 

Red wine (preferably inexpensive dry red wine) for the sauce

Sliced and washed mushrooms

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Butter

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Step 1: Prepare two pans with olive oil, salt, and pepper. One pan can be a little smaller (for the sauce) and the other is for cooking the chicken. Turn both burners on low and wait a few minutes. (If possible, try to cook the chicken at the same time as you cook the sauce to save time, but it is not necessary).

Step 2: Once the olive oil is heated up (be careful of oil splatter) , add chicken to the larger pan. Add butter to the smaller pan. Wait until it is melted then add red wine. The trick for the red wine sauce is to smell it. When it no longer has a strong alcohol smell that means it is cooked. The bubbling will also indicate a cooked sauce. 

Step 3: Once the sauce is cooked, pour into a separate bowl. Be careful, it will be hot. 

Step 4: In the same pan you used for the sauce, add some more olive oil. Once that heats up, add the mushrooms. Flip the mushrooms consistently until they are thoroughly cooked. They will shrink once sauteed. 

Step 5: Add the sauce back to the mushroom pan and let mushrooms soak in the wine sauce. This will let the mushrooms absorb the sauce a bit.

Step 6: Cooking the chicken; once the olive oil is heated up in the larger pan, add chicken. Cook on low to medium, but cook as desired. I like to cut open the chicken to check before I add the sauce, but it is up to you whether you want to cook it longer. 

Step 7: As mentioned above, now you add the red wine and mushroom sauce. This will let the sauce soak into the chicken. 

Step 8: Sides are up to you of course. I enjoy some small potatoes or sweet potatoes with my chicken! 

Step 9: Plate your chicken and enjoy!

There are many other recipes for red wine reduction sauce such as Food Republics shallot red wine sauce: https://www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/basic-red-wine-reduction-sauce-recipe/

There is also a recipe that adds broth to the sauce. This creates a different consistency which would be yummy with steak : https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/238062/red-wine-reduction-sauce/

Hello fellow food lovers,

Today I want to share a special recipe with you!

Cooking is one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy learning new recipes and getting to try the final product. I especially like when someone teaches me how to make something. For example, these dumplings were first made by my grandmother (I call her Guga). She used to make me these dumplings every time I would visit her. One day I asked if she could teach me how to make them, and it started a great tradition. As a child, I remember I would make my own menus for my family pretending we were at a restaurant. I would put some other options on there to spice it up, but the main course was, of course, spinach ricotta dumplings.

I want to share this recipe as a way to encourage people to make this meal for themselves and their family. However, it is more of an appetizer than anything.

First, gather the appropriate ingredients:

1 box (or bag) of fresh spinach, 2 cups of ricotta cheese, 1 cup of parmesan cheese, 1 package of wonton wrappers, two cloves of shallots, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Step 1: Add olive oil, salt and pepper to a large pan. Turn to low heat. Cut up shallots to a relatively small size. Add to oil and cook until brown. Add spinach and cook until all of the spinach is soft (sauté)

Step 2: Once the spinach has sat for about 5 minutes, add ricotta cheese and parmesan cheese to the same mixing bowl.

This will be your dumpling filling:

Step 3: Find a cutting board and place your wonton wrappers in one corner, that way you can have access to them as you make each dumpling. Fill a separate small bowl with water to dip your fingers in to wet the edges of the wonton wrappers.

Each wonton is square-shaped. There are other, larger wonton wrappers available, but these are the size I chose for this batch. 

Step 4: Place each individual wrapper in the center of the cutting board, one at a time, as you fill the wrappers. Wet all four edges of the wrapper before you add the filling.

Take about a quarter-size amount of filling and place it in the center of the wrapper. Fold over one side to make it into a triangle. From here, take a fork and crimp the edges of the triangular dumpling (This keeps the dumplings from opening while you cook them).

Step 5: Add more olive oil to the pan you used to sauté the spinach. Turn up the heat to low/medium. Be careful of oil splatter!

Add each dumpling to the pan. It may take a few rounds to cook all of the dumplings, so be patient:) You want to make sure each dumpling has enough space to cook. 

Step 6: Flip each dumpling once the bottom side is a golden-brown. Cook the other side the same. You will most likely need to continue adding olive oil in order to keep them from burning.

Once they are finished, you can prepare them with a dipping sauce! I usually prefer soy sauce, but other people I have made these for have used marinara sauce as well. I would encourage everyone to add their own spin to this recipe! 

@eng304cripps

Chocolate is my favorite flavor, of anything! I love double chocolate cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, hot chocolate, I could go on. I especially like chocolate cake. I have not tried this recipe yet, but I am excited to see how it turns out! I found a recipe from Taste of Home https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/classic-chocolate-cake/ and it looked very yummy. I want to put my own spin on it and add my mom’s homemade cream cheese frosting. 

The cake recipe is as follows:

⅔ cups of softened butter

1 and ⅔ cups of sugar

3 eggs

2 cups of all-purpose flour

⅔ cup baking cocoa 

1 and ¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt 

1 and ⅓ cups of milk

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Step 2: In one bowl, add the sugar and butter, and mix until fluffy

Step 3: Add eggs 1 at a time

Step 4: In a separate bowl, add all of the dry ingredients; flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Once that is mixed together, add to the wet mixture. Add milk and mix everything together.

Step 5: Put mixture into greased and floured pan

Step 6: Put pan into oven and cook for about 35-40 minutes

Step 7: Frosting time! Add 2 bars of cream cheese to a bowl. Add about 2 cups of confectioners sugar to the bowl and blend (preferably with an electric mixer). Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Continue adding sugar until the mixture is smooth and consistent. Add sugar as you please, it is more of a taste thing for me. I like the cream cheese flavor so I usually add less sugar.

Step 8: Take cake out of the oven and let cool. Once the cake is cool enough, you can add your frosting!

The recipe came out pretty well. I advise using full fat cream cheese for the frosting to get the right consistency. I also think it takes a bit longer than 35-40 minutes to bake, but it depends on the oven. Overall, I think this recipe went well and it tasted very yummy!

Enjoy!!!