Mushroom Risotto – Old School, but Yummy

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Zschulz

Ingredients

6 Cups Chicken broth
3 Tbs Olive oil
1 Pound Portobello Mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 Pound White Mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 Shallots, diced
1.5 Cups Arborio Rice
.5 Cup Dry White Wine
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 Tbs Butter
Fresh Chives chopped finely
.3 cup parm cheese grated

Warm the broth in a saucepan or the microwave and hold aside for cooking later

Sautee mushrooms in 2 Tbs of olive oil for about 3 minutes and hold aside for later

Sautee the shallots in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil for 1 minute and then add the dry Arborio rice. Stir constantly until the rice is a light golden color

Add the .5 cup of white wine and stir constantly until it is absorbed by the rice. Continue adding .5 cup of the warm chicken broth at a time, stirring constantly and waiting until it has been absorbed by the rice until the rice is al-dente – about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and add mushrooms (liquid and all), add butter, chives, salt (to taste), pepper (to taste), and parmesan cheese.

Expensive Day

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Zschulz

Okay, I’m the consumate (sp) do-it-yourselver, but yesterday was, by no means, a do-it-yourself day. It turns out that my kitchen is attached to a grease pit on my neighbor’s side of the house. Well, on Monday, I was painting the dining room again (see blog from http://elaben.com/zackblog/?p=21 ) and wanted some fresh air in the room to help to dry the walls as it was getting a bit humid in there. It was a lovely spring day, about 60 degrees, and in with the beautiful fresh air was the heavy fetted smell of poo water. I blew it off while I was painting, but intened to get back to it if it continued. It continued. I did a walk-through of the property and on my nieghbor’s driveway ( their driveway sits about 4′ onto our property – they better be nice or I’ll fence their cars in [insert evil laugh] ) I saw a small ”manhole” that was burping some white-ish (paint) assy smelling water. Okay, given my experience as a building engineer, I deduced that it might be a grease trap. I called the plumber. YUP. I had to call a sewage company to pump it out, then pay the plumber to route out the exit pipe into the sewer. The bad news – $600+; the good news – the plumbing company that I use offers a free camera service down the line. After the routing, the waste line looks great all the way to the city connection. Great! No $10,000 kick in the nuts in the foreseeable future. All I have to do is make sure that I budget that $600 every three years or so. Good thing about the grease trap is that it seperates the grease and solids from the kitchen – which are much worse for the lines than the poo and TP. Also, they suggested an enzyme treatment (from any hardware store) to help dissolve the solids and grease which could extend the time between pumpings…cool. More good news, the nearly 100-year-old pit was constructed well and is still in great working order – another $5000 in re-routing the line narrowly averted. That was the whole morning – standing in the sun getting my bald head burned and smelling shit. I laughed a lot because it was just sooo disgusting.

The rest of the day was cleaning up the yard. I’ve been trying not to throw yard waste away. We don’t have a ton of property that isn’t visible to the public (corner house) and I really don’t want the “pile of shame,” so I’ve been cutting up branches in very small pieces and composting them; using the bigger branches for kindling for the fireplace; using the large chunks for firewood. I mulch the grass, but had to dethach this spring, so I used the thatch for mulch in the flowerbeds and the mulched leaves from last year are split between the compost heap and the balance of the flowerbeds. Hopefully, this will net a more healthy garden, but right now it feels like a game of cat and mouse trying to hide the waste from the garbage dump.

So, looks like the gym will have to wait until next week. Shit! I can hear myself getting fatter!!! I have to take the kids to school, so more later…

Day of completion…

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Zschulz

Got a lot Done today. First, the dining room needed to be finished. When we moved here, the room was mauve. I painted it dark blue and it was fine for about 6 months, then suddenly it was the wrong color again. I’m not sure when that happened, but things like that slip past me pretty often. Even though I bought the best paint out there (Benjamin Moore Aura), it still took three coats to make the blue hue go away. In order to save some time, I slopped over onto the lower moulding so that there were no drips on the paint line, so I needed to go through and re-trim the base and touch up the rest of the casings in the room. It looks great now. I cleaned up the room and put all the painting stuff away. Nice feeling to be done! [sidebar begin] I’m pretty sure I’m ADHD and one of the nasty side-effects is that you have problems finishing things. I mean like, really getting it polished-up done. Lots of little threads hanging around the ADHD’s life. I saw a video recently on this problem and am now looking to try to get some medication to limit the effects of this dealio. It might be interesting feel how the “others” live. [end sidebar]

Then, onto other more pressing stuff. Our insurance is weird; they only pay for certain stuff, so every time I, Shayna or the kids go to the doctor, I get like five bills for little things that the insurance will not cover. Annoying little bills because they just suck your time to fill out, pay and then ger reimbursed from the pre-tax account that you get with the insurance – it’s not the money because they’re only for like $5 – $50; it’s the time you have to invest in collecting the receipts and matching them up with the bills; then submitting the paperwork. Sheesh!

Okay, I got a ticked the other day because I didn’t get a Highland Park decal for my car. I spent the time and money getting the Illinois plates and thought that I had done my civic duty and responsibility – not so! If you have a car registered in HP, you have to buy a decal to BE in HP. If you are caught without one, you get a $50 slap on the ass. WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD! So, today, I went and got the sticker ($40/yr) and paid my welcome letter. I called the cops about the ticket and they told me I should have called City Hall to tell them that I was new to the neiborhood. Most places I’ve lived, they couldn’t have cared less hat I was in the neighborhood as long as I wasn’t a pederast! Last time I checked, I’m not on the list! Life’s been good to me, so far.

Next, to Ela’s school: she enrolled in a cool after school program that involves a guest poet for six weeks with the kids once a week! Ela came home from that really pumped! She has been showing a really creative side that’s just blooming.

It’s bed time for the kids now and Benjamin is waiting for me to join him. Peace out!

Back to the gym tomorrow

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Zschulz

Been about 2 weeks since I’ve been to the gym. Feels like forever! Tomorrow I’m back to it. I’ve been doing exercize in the form of yard work, but the intense cardio just feels tons better to me. The yard is looking killer, though and I should have a top-shelf garden this year. Now I have to figure out exactly what is in my garden. The former owner of our house put a ton of flowers in the ground and I know absolutely nothing about flora. Interesting, I can make them grow and at the same time not know anything about them. This year, I’m going to draw out a map of the garden as I find out exactly what’s growing in there. Good luck, right?

Jumping through my ass…

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Zschulz

Ever have one of those days where you NEVER stop doing laundry? Well, today was one of those days! Tomorrow I have a t least three more to go. This was a direct result of the muddy soccer weekend we had. I don’t care how big your washer is, coats take up a ton of washer space and take forever to dry.

Nice thing is that the weather is getting much nicer and the kids are almost out of coats for now, So washing them wasn’t a fire drill. Ela noticed today that the hedges that surround our property did NOT have leaves on them this morning, but when we walked by them coming back from the bus stop, THEY DID! She was delighted. Spring is coming! I noticed it too, but didn’t think that she would. She is so tuned into her surroundings and is so observant.

Okay, it’s late (for me) and I need to wind down in front of Mythbusters while reading a book so I can go to sleep.

Hey! I finally made myself a blog!

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Zschulz

Does this this thing date automatically??? Anyway, it’s Sunday, April 10, 2011. Today was Benjamin’s first day of soccer. It was hilarious! The field was really wet and everybody got soaked and muddy. Ben had a terrific time. He said that he made 6 goals, but in reality, he never got close. He did, though, head directly towards the goal and continued on past the goal at least six times. Maybe that’s what he considered a goal.

After soccer, we went to Dairy Queen with our amazing neighbors, Alexis (and her father) and David, and hung out there (to dry – we were a mess) and enjoyed the unusually hot day today. It was about 85 – but will be back at 40 in the AM.

This evening, Ben got a killer headache – I think he was exhausted and a little dehydrated. Penny, our dog, took a bath with Ela, who was extraordinary in her gentileness while bathing with her. Needless to say, Penny got (the zooms) after the bath and gave us a ton of impromptu entertainment.

Everyone’s asleep now and it’s a total joy to see such a beautiful family – nice and quiet…Quiet is good!

Zack Shack

I've Got Things to Say

Monthly Archives: April 2011