I don't take pretty blog photos....

...but my food tastes delicious. See, my photos suck because I have either a point and shoot camera and piss-poor lighting or a camera phone and, well...piss-poor lighting. Either way my photos don't really lend themselves to a successful food blog. I'm hoping my writing helps in that category, but then again I just used the phrase "piss-poor" twice in a post about food, so I'm pretty much screwed.

I also have a horrible habit of forgetting to take photos of the process in which I take to get to the delicious food and instead just take a photo of the end product, leaving you, the reading probably thinking, "well...great, it sounds delicious, though her presentation is crap, look at that, she just kind of slopped it on a plate like a neanderthal and didn't even bother to take photos to show me HOW to get it to look like this hot mess. Ugh!"

Trust me when I say...don't judge a book by it's cover people. While my photos might not always (or ever) look like they came out of Cooks Illustrated or were made by Deb over at Smitten Kitchen (seriously, my favorite cooking blog, ever...that woman is pure genius) the recipes I acquire and often adapt are amazingly delicious. I spend hours on Pinterest so you don't have to.

You're welcome.

Today's recipe comes from a blog I found on, duh, Pinerest! This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone if you've been reading my blog at all....ever. It's called Aunt Clara's Kitchen and is self described as a "collection of traditional Dominican and Dominican-Inspired recipes, home ideas, crafts and chronicles of the Auntie's adventures."

I adapted it slightly from the original. It really didn't need my adaptations, Aunt Clara has a fantastic recipe here, however I can't help myself from monkeying around with recipes I find and making them my own.  Please be sure to check out her blog, her photos are beautiful and her blog has many tasty looking recipes. 

Polenta and Mushroom Casserole

I have no idea how people have such nice presentation for their blogs...

Prep Time: 30 minutes                                     Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes                      Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

For the base
• 2 cups of polenta
• 2.5 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 Jalepeno,diced (this was one of my add-in's)
• 1 cup (or 1 can) of sweet corn
• 1/3 cup of raisins (optional but definitely adds to the dish!)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil (to cover the baking pan)
For the filling
• 1.5 lb of portobello mushrooms
• 0.5 lb of sun-dried tomatoes, cut into 1/2"-pieces
• 1 large white onion, cut into very small cubes
• 1/3 cup of basil, chopped
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
For the sauce
• 5 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon garlic with sundried tomato (the jarred kind, this was an accidental add-in that ended up tasting great)
• 2 sprigs of fresh oregano
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions

To make the filling
1. Heat the oil over very low heat.
2. Add the onion.
3. Cook until onions are transparent.
4. Add mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes.
5. Cook until the mushrooms are tender.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Remove from the heat and add the basil.
8. Reserve.
To make the base
9. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
10. Mix polenta, water, sweet corn, jalepeno, raisins, salt and sugar in a deep pot.
11. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly.
12. When the polenta is cooked and it starts lifting from the bottom remove from the heat.
13. Cover a 2 quart-baking pan with olive oil.
14. Pour half of the polenta mix and spread in an even layer.
15. Add the filling and smooth it out.
16. Spread the remaining polenta mix in an even layer and smooth it out with a fork.
17. Place in the oven and cook until the top is light golden.
To make the sauce
18. Heat olive oil over very low heat.
19. Add garlic and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stir and do not let it burn.
20. Add the tomatoes and cook until they are tender.
21. Remove the twigs from the oregano and add the leaves to the pan.
22. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
23. Using a potato masher, mash the sauce over the heat until there are no big clumps.
24. Pour into a sauce dish.


Serve with the sauce on top and enjoy! 

*Notes about my changes* I served with Sriracha drizzled over the top, we like heat in our household and Sriracha has a great flavor :) I also added a handful of Sungolds (the small orange cherry tomatoes) to the sauce because he have an over abundance of them in our garden. Very tasty!!

Our most recent veggie harvest.  We currently have 18 ripe red tomatoes!

Sriracha Popcorn

I'm going to admit it, right here, right now.

I am addicted to popcorn.

There, I said it. Whew, it feels good to have that out in the open.

It's one of those versatile snacks that you can enjoy in many different ways. You have your popcorn balls, your cracker jacks, your kettle corn, your Little Lads crack corn (my Mainers know what I'm talking about here), your butter smothered theater popcorn and your home popped put random delicious stuff on it, popcorn.

Sriracha falls into that last category....I really didn't know that it fell into that category until I saw this recipe but holy awesome sauce people- YOU NEED THIS POPCORN!

Sriracha, for those of you who aren't aware, is an amazing hot chili sauce that hails from Thailand and has been steadily gaining popularity over the last 5 years, especially since the introduction of sites like Pinterest that have exploded the recipe sharing culture of the interwebs.

Anyway, Geeky Dude, who is normally not a popcorn fan gobbled it right up and told me that it was the, and I quote "tastiest, most delicious popcorn ever!"

Sriracha Popcorn

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

½ Cup White popcorn kernels

Salt

Use a large stock pot with a lid to pop the popcorn.  Over a medium to high heat, add the vegetable oil and kernels to the pot.  Once the first kernel pops, add the lid and shake frequently to prevent burning.  When the popping has almost stopped, dump into a large paper bag and sprinkle with salt and shake.  Next add the Sriracha Butter to the popcorn and shake really well to ensure popcorn is well covered.

Sriracha Butter

4 Tablespoons Butter

1 Tablespoon Sriracha Sauce

2 Garlic cloves, finely minced

In a medium sauce pan, add the butter and let it melt over medium heat.  Next add the sriracha sauce and minced garlic.  Stir until combined.  Turn off the heat and let the flavors meld for 5 to 10 minutes.  Pop the kernels while the butter is infusing.

**Notes and Alterations** 

This is the second time I've made this popcorn. The first time I neglected to use the paper bag method and that was a mistake. Definitely use the bag, it evenly distributes the butter. Also...the first time I noticed that 4 tablespoons of butter is far too much butter for Geeky Dude and I, so we cut it down to 3 and upped the Sriracha to 2.5 tablespoons rather than 2. The spice was perfect but I think we might still go down to 2.5 or 2 tablespoons of butter next time around. Even so, it was still delicious! Our garlic cloves were giant, but we found that this worked out perfectly for us, as we LOVE garlic :)

Enjoy!!!