Mushroom and Pumpkin Risotto

We had good friends over for dinner tonight before our male halves went to play a gig with their jazz band. Fredrik disturbed this friend deeply by mentioning his new-found distaste for meat -- "this just doesn't sit well with me," O. said, looking a little distraught. I suggested it might be because, since they work at the same company (and also worked at the same company before that), are members of 3 or 4 or ten bands together, constantly start and stop and start and stop and start again using tobacco together, and otherwise seem to live intertwined and parallel lives, that O. might be afraid a meatless future is also on the horizon for him. It didn't help that his wife said she wouldn't have a problem with that either!

I used some of the several kilos of pureed pumpking I now have on hand to try my hand at a mushroom and pumpkin risotto. It was quite good except for two things -- one, it had too little salt. But everyone knows that about my cooking at this point, so no shocker there. Two, it really is a bit light on fat and protein to be served alone. But bah, if we add more cheese or... I dunno, drink a glass of heavy cream along with it? Then it's fine! Noone complained, anyway. :)

Mushroom and Pumpkin Risotto (6 portions)

3 T butter (45 g smör)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (3 vitlöksklyftor, finhackade)
1 yellow onion, chopped (1 gul lök, hackad)
1 lb assorted mushrooms, chopped (450 olika sorters svamp, hackade)
3/4 c cracked wild rice (2 dl vildris)
1 1/2 c long-grain rice (4 dl parboiled ris)
20 oz. pumpkin meat (600 g färdigpurerad pumpa)*
5 c vegetable bullion (1,2 l grönsaksbuljong)
1 t salt (1 tsk salt)
1 t sage (1 tsk salvia)
1 t thyme (1 tsk timjan)
6 T dried cranberries (6 msk torkade tranbär)
6 T grated parmesan (6 msk riven parmesan)

In a large pot, saute garlic and onions until tender. Add the mushrooms and continue to saute until they are soft. Add the rice and cook another minute or two. Mix in the pumpkin until it coats the rice and then add the bullion, sage, thyme and salt. Bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, adding more liquid if needed. Sprinkle over the cranberries and cheese after dishing up on individual plates.

Calories per serving: 455
Protein: 11 g
Fat: 10 g
Carbs: 79 g


*I believe pumpkin typically comes in 15 oz (450 g) cans. I'm sure this amount it fine. I just happened to have 20 oz from the pumpkin I baked this morning.

Hazelnut patties -- engh, okay.

Well hello there. I'm writing twice in the space of a couple days. Imagine that!

So, Fredrik's announcement that he now believes it's unnecessary for us to kill da widdle baby aminals in order to eat, I was actually quite pleased. I've never been a stranger to such thoughts myself, and as a matter of fact, I ate vegetarian for about a year before marrying my carnivorous ex-husband a decade ago. I actually believe that pairing up causes the world to have far fewer vegetarians than it would have otherwise.

But I also was a little pissed off, in a playful sort of way. Here I've spent a good long time trying to find recipes that both he and I like and that contain plenty of vegetables, balanced nutrients, and all that other blah-de-blah. And it happened more than once that, when I asked him what he thought of a new recipe I tried, he could comment "It's okay, but there's no meat in it!" Indeed, an entire series of "All-meat parties," a potluck gathering that entailed very specific rules about the dishes people brought, was spawned because Fredrik and another friend joked about faintness and iron-deficiency when presented once with a meatless meal. On top of that, I'm the shopper and usually the cooker in this family.

What this means is that I welcomed his new-found interest in vegetarianism with both a sort of inner "yay, new project!" excitement as well as a desire to get him to work for it! First I suggested that we start by cutting back on the mammals rather than attempting to entirely quit meat cold-turkey (ha.). I think I could easily adjust to life with beef and pork, but I'm not quite ready to give up cheese, even though I know that a little baby cow has died for my cheese...

I also said he'd best have picked out at least 2 vegetarian recipes that he wanted to cook this week, before I made my weekly trip to the store.

I noticed a trend when he started sending me recipe ideas and I compared them to my own ideas: I was attempting to come up with recipes that simply didn't contain meat -- indeed, that perhaps never were intended to contain meat in their natural form -- but Fredrik seemed to be finding recipes that contained meat-replacements -- spaghetti "meat sauce" made with soy-based fake meat and a recipe for hazelnut patties were his first offerings. :)

He made the hazelnut patties last night, along with a very good tsatziki (which was our best guess as to what might taste good with hazelnut patties...). I won't share the recipe with you because, quite frankly, we weren't impressed and decided not to make it again in the future. It's possible that we could turn it into something good, but we'll have to come back to it later.

In the meantime, I'm very excited about a cheesy spinach pasta I'm going to try!

I'm also pretty jazzed about pumpkin. I just made about 2 kg of pureed pumpkin after following the directions in these videos: Processing pie for pumpkin. I used a big jack-o-lantern pumpkin, but it turned out just great for cooking purposes. I've got a couple small pumpkins that I'm going to process for baking, and I'm looking forward to playing around with cooking with the rest. And Bennie thought it was tasty just as it was!

Vege... wha?

My husband has decided that vegetarianism is the way to go.

Seriously, just like that.

Like, say you're lying in bed with a book, next to your husband and his book, winding down at the end of the day. And he sort of mumbles lazily, "I think I'll have lunch with my coworkers tomorrow instead of taking leftovers." Or "By the way, I'm playing squash on Thursday after work, hope that's okay." Although this was sort of more like "by the way, I think animals are conscious and experience suffering and therefore we ought to quit eating meat. Oh, and the cats are due for their vaccinations."

Okay, interesting! But like I said to him, it's a crying shame he doesn't like cilantro...

Abyss

Benjamin is lying in his buggy basket on the floor. Sleeping soundly after having a whole big bottle of milk that I thawed out yesterday but didn't end up using. Twisting and turning in silent irritation over the flies that keep landing on his face, but not waking up. Generally looking like an angel.

Mom is sitting on the couch, staring at him and bawling her eyes out.

I will never forgot turning my fingers into bloody stumps on the jagged walls of the deep, dark nightmare of losing our first baby and seeing it treated like a piece of trash.

I will also never, ever forget that I have gotten off easy. A woman I've never met but would like to call my friend has had the completely unnecessary and cruel experience of living through a repeat second trimester loss. Another acquaintence has survived the unspeakable experience of one full-term stillbirth, followed later by the death of her 5-day old little boy. Since Benjamin came less than a year after our loss, the period of time in which I was forced to wonder "What do you call a mother without a child?" for my own sake was forgivingly short. I feel deeply humbled by the stories that I know are worse than mine, and desperately hopeful that they will eventually have a similarly "happy" ending.

That is why I want anyone who has children to read the following blog. Over and over again. Until your eyes bleed, seriously.

Mirne's blog.

I know too many women who understand, or at least have a fraction of an idea about, the terrible road Mirne has just started down -- and I hate the vile taste of having to add: for the third time.

What's the uplifting punch line? None, I'm afraid. Sorry to bring you down. But you knew the name of the blog when you came in.

Harald is a nag.

Alright, alright. I'm starting to have time to blog again. And even to cook sometimes.

On the other hand, my computer has now started to show signs of old age (the warranty expired a month ago, after all), so aside from no longer having working speakers, it decides to type not one but two "I" characters every time I hit the "I" key. You will have to, therefore, forgive any consequent misspellings.

Tomorrow I hope to post some recipes, but tonight I'll leave you with this: Fredrik has just walked into our bedroom to tell our son, who I put to bed 3 minutes ago after his extensive good-night routine, that "every night you start to cry, and every night I put your pacifier back in and tell you that every night you start to cry and I put your pacifier back in..." I feel that if Benjamin doesn't learn to fall asleep on his own soon, this meta-routine will get out of hand.

Benny, let me tell you about Erectile Dysfuntion...

So I've just finished the day's 15th or so breast-feeding session, after earlier contemplating the idea that I might get sideways, angry glances for doing so in public in Las Vegas (you know, where prostitution and marijuana are legal, right?), and wouldn't you know, I find something at CNN.com that gives me a related opportunity to say "Grow the fuck up, America":

Congressman wants to ban ED ads.

Admittedly, my last post about what people don't want their kids to see on TV would have been a "Grow the fuck up, Great Britain," but still. Seriously. Ms. Shelley Hix replies to the article:

"Thank you Jim Moran. I have voiced oposition to these ads since day one. I have teenage grandsons and have to be on guard every single minute they are visiting and watching TV. While we are on the subject of ads, the women’s feminine products are getting more explicit by the day. It’s time to get them under control also."

Dear god! Her teenage grandsons! Someone might be forced to explain erections and menstruation to them (things which I'm sure they know NOTHING about yet), and gosh darnit all to heck, do they expect the boys' FAMILY to have to discuss it with them? Heavens to Betsy, the nerve of some people and their naughty TV ads!

Time in a bottle

So, as I'm sure you've figured out, this is why I have no time to blog:



No time to blog, I say? Hell, since April 17, I barely have time to piss...