Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Holiday Gift Guide

Kitchen Stuff makes great holiday gifts.  We have a few wonderful items we've received as wedding gifts that I think would make great holiday presents.
For the more serious cook :
This is a great pot - it's wonderfully nonstick, etc.  and the lid lets you drain the water out like the Amazing Pasta Pot on those infomercials.  Also, the pour spout is fantastic.

For the from a box chef:
This opens cans smoothly, and the lids come right off.  It's amazing.  Totally amazing.  If there is a convenience cook in your life, this is the perfect gift.

For the baker:
I LOVE this bowl.  LOVE it.  The lid is perfect.  It goes onto the bowl, and locks on and stays, but isn't hard to put on.  It's great for mixing because of the higher sides - the stuff is easier to mix.  
For the wine enthusiast: 
This is a great, cheap alternative to the Rabbit corkscrew set.  It's sooooo much easier than a crummy ordinary corkscrew - it's unbelievable.  

Any specific requests for gift suggestions?  

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Butternut Squash Apple Soup

Mr. Barefoot and I went out recently to spend a gift certificate we got at a silent auction and tried a wonderful butternut-squash apple soup.  I found this recipe when I was looking for healthy recipes to eat during the stressful and overindulgent holiday season and plan to try it this week.  It combines leeks, apples, ginger and butternut squash, so I feel like it must be delicious.
Ingredients:

1 1/2 Tbsp ginger root, fresh, grated  
1 medium leek(s), white part only, coarsely chopped  
4 3/4 oz frozen apple juice concentrate (undiluted), about 1/2 cup  
3 large apple(s), Golden Delicious, peeled, cored and cut into eighths  
3 pound(s) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut in chunks (about 1 large squash)
4 cup(s) canned chicken broth, divided (I'll be using veggie bullion)
1/2 tsp table salt  
1/2 tsp black pepper  
1/2 cup(s) fat-free half-and-half

Procedure:

Combine ginger, leek and apple juice concentrate in a large pot; cover and simmer until leeks are tender, about 10 minutes. Add apples, squash and 1 cup broth; cover and simmer until very tender, about 1 hour. [I will probably do this in the slow cooker.]

Purée soup in pot using a hand-held immersion blender. Or purée soup in a blender in small batches (be careful not to splatter hot liquid) and return puréed soup to pot.

Add remaining 3 cups broth, salt and pepper; simmer until heated through, about 10 minutes. Stir in half and half and serve. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

I'll be updating as soon as I've tried this.  We'll probably serve it with goat cheese crostini.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

The deliciousness

Green beans with radishes

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Sausage stuffing with homemade croutons

Homemade crescent roll dough with brie and cranberries

Mashed potatoes
With a LOT of garlic
Squash Casserole
With cheese
The Barefoots cook Thanksgiving dinner

Recipes to follow! Hope you had a great holiday!  

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving Begins

So I received a lovely recipe card box and recipe cards from my sister in law at my bridal shower.  For a little while, I was like, "I have two recipe binders...how could I possibly also use recipe cards?"  Then I started dealing with using several unwieldy cookbooks in the kitchen and decided that I should transfer my thanksgiving recipes to the cards.  
So now, instead of a cookbook or laptop, I just have the cards.  I'm also a sucker for tradition, and I love the idea of having a box of traditional holiday recipes, even if I don't make every one every year.  I also love the idea of handing these down to my kids one day.  This one is for gingersnap crusted pumpkin cheesecake, which I'm taking to my grandmother's tomorrow.  
I found the recipe on Allrecipes and changed it a little bit.  
Crust: 
Ingredients:  
  • 1 1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • Procedure:
  • Mix brown sugar, crumbs, and butter together with a mixer until it reaches paste-like consistency.  
  • Press into a springform pan.  This was really hard.  The crumbs did not stick to my nonstick pan, and it was very hard to press evenly or get a nice line.  This is the first time I've made a cheesecake in a springform pan though, so I think next time will go better.  


For the filling:
3 sticks cream cheese (or half a log from costco)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups solid-pack pumpkin (in re-reading the recipe, I used 1 1/2 cans which is actually almost 3 cups...oops)
1/2 cup heavy cream 
1/3 cup maple syrup (remember to spray pam on your measuring cup before you measure this - it slides right out)
1 tbsp vanilla (I forgot this)
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon 
1/2 tsp ground allspice 
4 eggs

Oven at 325.

Procedure:
1) Cream brown sugar and cream cheese together with an electric mixer until fluffy.  
2) Add pumpkin.  Add heavy cream and maple syrup.  Add spices.  
3) Beat in eggs, one by one.  
4) Pour into filling and put in oven.  Cook for 90 minutes, let cool for 30, and then refrigerate overnight.  

Results:
1.) My cheesecake leaked.  I'm not totally sure what this is, but the pan that I baked it on came out sopping wet.  
2.) This is a very tall cheesecake, I think the 1.5 extra cups of pumpkin don't help.  Not totally sure what the crust will look like.  According to the reviews, as it cools, it will continue to cook and also possibly cave in.  

This is beginning to feel like a bad idea. 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Thankful

Dear Matt & Heather: 
Thank you so much for the lovely cheese grater.  We really love it and it was so helpful with all of the cheese grating that we had to do for first Thanksgiving last night.  We had to grate several cups of cheese, and as we all know, fresh grated cheese > packaged cheese, especially when it has that powdery stuff that makes my mac and cheese get all clumpy.  So thanks again! 


XOXO, 
The Barefoots

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Tofu alla Vodka

I'm a terrible housewife.  (I'm hoping I'll get fired.)  Last week, Mr. Barefoot went to work without lunch, because I hadn't cooked anything all week.  He asked if I wanted to meet up to go to lunch, or bring him lunch so we didn't have to spend money on eating out.  I asked him if he wanted to come home for lunch, and he agreed.  He works a quick bike ride away, so it was possible and I immediately hopped in the kitchen and started whipping up lunch.  Only...we don't have that much food and I haven't watched 30-minute meals in a really long time.  So I made pasta, with vodka sauce, and then I threw in some tofu and some baby spinach we had.

It was delicious.  I tried to fry up the tofu first, but it was a waste of time and cooking oil - instead, you should cut the tofu up into really small pieces and scramble it a bit, then pour the vodka sauce on top to cook.  This recipe would probably be better with time to marinate, but it was pretty good.

Ingredients:
-tofu (half a block)
-spaghetti
-vodka sauce
-baby spinach

Procedure:
1) Cook spaghetti.
2) Cut tofu up into tiny pieces and fry in a saucepan on medium heat.  Then add the vodka sauce.
3) Drain the spaghetti.  Add to saucepan.
4) Stir to combine.
5) Add leaves of baby spinach.

Serve and enjoy.  Like everything else in life, this probably would be better with cheese.  And some garlic.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Asparagus Frittata

The other night, I didn't feel like making anything complicated for dinner.  So I made a frittata.  We had asparagus and it needed to be used, so I googled "asparagus frittata".  The recipe that came up was this one, and I had everything it needed, except I subbed in some cheddar cheese.  Apparently frittatas can be made with pretty much anything, and they come out fairly delicious.  So I'll be making more, but here is the procedure for this one, illustrated TPW style.
1.) Crack a few eggs.
2.) Melt butter in a pan
3.)  Chop the veggies.   
 4.) There is very little in life that isn't improved by garlic.  Mr. Barefoot HATES our garlic press, but I think it's awesome and I love how quickly I can add garlic to dishes I'm already trying to do super-fast.
5.) Saute everything in a pan.  I found it didn't take as long as the recipe said - I think I only sauted everything for about 4 minutes total.  
6.) Pour in the eggs.  
 7.) Top with cheese, toss under the broiler for four minutes.
8.) Serve and enjoy!  

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Butter and Me.

I have a complicated relationship with butter.  I had high cholesterol as a child and a mom who believes that fat = the devil.  In high school, I started baking on my own and began to understand something that is entirely separate from fat and cholesterol and calories:  I don't really like butter.

I don't add butter to things - MIL Barefoot was appalled that I didn't butter my toast before adding jam, Mr. Barefoot was confused that I don't put butter on a cheese and tomato sandwich (seriously? gross), I put syrup on my pancakes but it doesn't occur to me to break out the butter.  Sometimes I make a buttery noodles dish with Parmesan and yes, I like butter on toast.  When I bake cookies, I often search for a recipe that doesn't involve a sickening amount of butter (I don't like them if they taste too buttery).  If a recipe involves more than two sticks of butter, I typically steer clear.  As a health student, I hang on to the teaching about saturated versus unsaturated fats, so I usually pick olive oil over butter.

I read a number of cooking blogs - some that think that butter is unhealthy, some think that it is crucial and that nothing tastes good unless you use butter.  Such bloggers take the Paula Dean approach - scolding the rest of us for not using butter.  Some go another step and say things like, "what does low-fat mean?"  I know a few people who act like this too, and then complain about how many fat people there are.

As a person who used to be considered "obese" and now fluctuates between "overweight" and "normal", I'm sensitive to these attitudes, because I think they create an unhealthy dichotomy.  Some people act like they eat a full stick of butter every day, and it makes people like me feel like they got the short end of the stick, metabolism wise.  Which, frankly, a lot of us did.  But we don't need it rubbed in our faces like that.

My point with all of this is: I don't cook with a lot of butter.  And every Thanksgiving, I have a series of conversations about the use of butter in cooking.  I firmly believe that there is very little at Thanksgiving that requires as much butter as people put into it.  I also think that people use Thanksgiving as an excuse to overindulge and make food with at least six sticks of butter.  Which isn't necessary, because frankly, if you add enough salt and garlic to anything, it will still be delicious.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Registry Reviews: Noritake Colorwave

Back in March, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and registered for stuff.  Some of it was cooking, some was housewares, some was boring but necessary (towels.)  I really wished there was some way to find out things about the china that we registered for, and I didn't see many recommendations - most of the stuff I found was "look at how pretty and classic our Vera Wang China is".  That is not helpful.

We were very very fortunate to receive most of what we registered for, including our china.  I'm sharing it here because what we chose to do, particularly with our china, is a little unorthodox but it makes us happy, and it was very hard for me to find information on what kind of china to register for, how it fit in the cabinets, and what type of person it suited. (And a lot of people nowadays register for white china and white china is boring.)

We registered for four different colors of the Noritake Colorwave China.  It's a fairly heavy, dishwasher safe, glazed stoneware and it looks both elegant and whimsical, especially because we got the square.  We find that having different colored plates and bowls can be helpful in knowing whose dish is whose, and livens up the table.

This is our everyday-ware and our fancy-dinner ware, so we were happy to get plates that served both purposes.  As you can see, they are pretty tall (much taller than our old Corelle), but everything stacks together really well, meaning there is very little "wasted" space in our cabinet.  And we finally have enough bowls for both soup and cereal.

I actually love the mugs.  I was so against getting mugs and wanted to just register for open stock, but it cost the same to get the set with the mug and was easier for our guests.  First of all, they are actual mugs, not "teacups", there are no saucers, and they fit a reasonable amount of hot cocoa.  I find myself using these rather than our (large) collection of mugs because I like how they feel in my hand and the inside is a bit easier to clean than some of our mugs.  

The bowls are on the larger side, and they are flatter, which makes them great for things like both soup and cereal.  Our old Corelle bowls were okay for cereal, but too high for soup. Since they are large, they aren't ideal for ice cream, but we actually eat ice cream out of ramekins anyway.  For dinner, we usually use the smaller plates, which are still big enough for a reasonable one-pot type of meal, without a lot of side dishes.  If we're serving a main course and sides, we break out the big plates.  

If you are uptight and want fine china, this is not the set for you.  But if you want nice matching plates that double as fine china and everyday, this is definitely a great set to consider.  They also come in round, and you can get all of the same color if that is how you roll.   

Friday, November 12, 2010

"Who Brings the Sprouts?"

My father in law is a difficult man to impress.  I try very hard but the best I get is an ironic smile and a compliment I'm never sure is genuine on food I'm not sure is good.  So early on, when we began sharing holidays, he asked who in my family brings the sprouts on holidays.  Ever since, I have made an effort to be the one who brings the sprouts.  I tried cooking them in cream; I tried cooking them with maple syrup.  They were...edible.  Mr. Barefoot and his sister preferred them to the usual steamed brussels sprouts, but FIL Barefoot seemed unmoved.

Undaunted, and refusing to allow steamed sprouts a place at my table, I'm searching for sprouts recipes.  I think maybe these golden crusted sprouts.  Or, since I'm a sucker for anything with balsamic, I might give these a try.  

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Cornbread

Tonight I made cornbread and chili for Mr. Barefoot while I went to a job thing.  I made the Pioneer Woman's Skillet Cornbread.

It came out just fine, if you like your cornbread dry and tasteless.  I like sweeter, moister cornbread, so I will continue hunting for a recipe that mimics the #10 cornbread I had in the Caymans.  

Do you have a good cornbread recipe? Is it moist and delicious? Please share.  

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Mashed sweet potatoes are one of those really beautiful things in life, because they don't have to be very complicated.  The other night, I made amazing mashed sweet potatoes with just three ingredients:
-1 sweet potato
-2 tbsps cream cheese
-salt

Chop sweet potato into small pieces, boil until fork-mashable, then drain.  Put in a glass bowl or measuring cup and mash with a fork.  Add cream cheese and mix together.  Add salt until delicious.

Win.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Try.

Awhile ago, I realized I wanted to marry Mr. Barefoot.  Cuz I love him and think he's really cute and all that.

Now that we are married, I find myself struggling with the gravity of it all and what it means to be married.  Over the weekend, while "we" were cooking - by which I mean I was cooking and he was breathing down my neck and nagging me and taking up space in the kitchen, I realized something.  We will have this fight that we have semi-regularly, and we will be angry - but we will not leave.  We're both going to stay.  I'm not going to get a divorce over something as silly as how I stack the dish drainer.

So we're in it.  So then I realized that means I might as well try.  Since I'm not going anywhere, and neither is he, I might as well try to empty the draining rack and put things away before doing the next load of dishes.  (Yes, I usually just load wet dishes on top of dry dishes until something falls out and I admit defeat; or until he puts the dishes away.)  I might as well try to clean as I cook, rather than making a big giant mess.  I might as well try to use fewer pots and utensils as I cook.  I might as well try to make sure the kitchen doesn't look like a war zone when he comes home from work.  (And while we're on it, I might as well try to get a job because I suck at being a housewife.)

I promised more pictures and recipes, while I wax philosophic about marriage, so here is a recipe for homemade croutons (made with homemade bread).

You will need a loaf or so of bread, about a quarter cup of olive oil, some garlic powder, salt, italian seasonings, and an oven at 400 degrees.  

Cut the bread into cubes.  Put them in a bowl.  Mix the olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and seasonings together. Pour over cubes, then stir cubes until they are mostly well coated.  Spread on a pan (coat with foil if you really want to avoid cleanup), and then bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.  

Delicious and cheap, and an excellent use of a loaf of bread that I wasn't a huge fan of.  We probably won't buy croutons again.  

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Green Beens Sauteed with Radishes and Rosemary

This recipe is delicious.  Not enough people use radishes.  Try 'em! This recipe got rave reviews when I made it for a dinner party.  From "Cooking from the Garden".
Ingredients:
-3/4 lbs green beans, snapped in half
-5 lg red radishes
-1 tbsp butter
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
-3 scallions, finely sliced
-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1.) Blanch beans in approx 6 cups salted water (put beans in boiling water for 4 minutes)
2.) Drain and put in ice water bath
3) Cut radishes into matchsticks - a mandoline is helpful for this.
4) In a nonstick saucepan, melt butter on low heat and add olive oil.
5) Increase to medium and add rosemary.  Let cook for 3 minutes.
6) Add beans, radishes, scallions, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Saute for 4 minutes and serve immediately.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Thanksgiving Menu Plan

When you only have 5 people coming for thanksgiving, you do not need to make 10 side dishes.  I learned this the hard way last time, and was a major stresscase.  This year I think I will limit us to cooking:
-Turkey (Turkey Breast in the crockpot)
-Stuffing (Brought by MIL Barefoot)
-Roasted redskin potatoes in the crockpot (I may just cut them and put them under the turkey in the crockpot to cook in the juices and then make myself a small separate batch)
-Vegetarian main course (still deciding)
-Green beans with radishes (recipe tomorrow)
-Brussels Sprouts (my FIL always asks who is bringing the sprouts - I'm sure there is a recipe in one of our new cookbooks)
-Corn Pudding (brought by my SIL)
-Dessert (brought by my MIL)

This still looks like a lot of food, but it means Mr. Barefoot and I are only cooking 5 things and that two of them are in the crockpot and involve a minimal amount of work).  I can also enlist MIL and SIL barefoot to help cook vegetables once they get down here.  I'm also not going to make gravy - I think I'm going to use store-bought gravy.  Any recommendations?

I'm also going to serve a goat-cheese cranberry log with crackers.  Usually I do brie and cranberries, but I'm going to mix it up a bit - Mr. Barefoot often accuses me of being a one-trick pony.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Tonight we had our good friends over for dinner.  You know how you have that group of friends that every time you call them, they've got something going on and it's impossible to meet up?  Well, these aren't those friends - we have those friends too.  But somehow, the one night a month that we are free and have nothing planned, and we call them, it's miraculously the same night they have free and have nothing planned.  So we get together and eat food and play board games and it's awesome.  We usually play Ticket to Ride, but sometimes we go for Settlers of Catan.

Tonight, I made baked cod (this recipe, but I used garlic parmesean dressing and regular panko instead of croutons) with a leek and pea risotto and pumpkin bread pudding for dessert.  I made pumpkin bread yesterday, but when I went to take it out of the loaf pan it self-destructed and I got a mess of pumpkin bread - perfect for bread pudding.  So I tossed everything in the crockpot with some milk and it was pretty good - could have been improved with vanilla ice cream, but definitely something I would consider making for the holidays, especially for people that don't really like pumpkin.  Mr Barefoot doesn't care for it, but he made extra-sure to tell me how good the pudding was.  (I didn't use the allspice that the recipe called for, since we were out - I think that helped.)  I adapted the recipe from the "Best Loved Slow Cooker Recipes" cookbook we have, which is a great general slow cooker guide.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding:
Ingredients:
1 loaf pumpkin bread, left sitting on the counter all night because you were too lazy to put it away (or baked in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes to dry it out.)
1 3/4 cups milk
2 small apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 cup dried fruit (cranberries or raisins)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1 8oz container greek yogurt (I used vanilla but you could probably use plain)

Procedure:

  1. Cut bread into 1-inch pieces, place in a greased slow cooker
  2. Pour milk over bread, let soak in for 10-20 minutes while you core and chop the apple
  3. Stir in dried fruit and apple pieces 
  4. Combine egg, butter, yogurt, brown sugar, and any spices you would like into a small bowl
  5. Pour over bread and apples.
  6. Allow to cook on high for 2 hours (if you have a demonic slow cooker like ours) or on low for 4 hours.  

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Let's Talk Turkey

Oh wait. I'm a vegetarian.  We're hosting the in-laws for Thanksgiving this year, so in addition to making a turkey (I think we will crockpot turkey breast because it's only 4 carnivores) I need to make a delicious, not scary, vegetarian entree for myself that will also be a good side dish for others.  I'll be making mac 'n cheese for the Big Barefoot Thanksgiving, so I didn't want to do that twice.  The only requirement is that there must be some form of protein in the entree, and also I don't really want to do a soup.  I would also like it if the dish was vegan, so that I can bring leftovers to Thanksgiving the next day (we do it on the Friday) for my vegan cousin.
Some candidates (I would love more suggestions - particularly anything that has to do with butternut squash or sweet potatoes):
PUEBLO CORN PIE
6 to 8 servings

This layered casserole is adapted from a Native American recipe.
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium green or red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 1/2 cups cooked fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels
  • 2 1/2 cups canned or cooked pinto beans
  • 2 cups chopped ripe tomatoes, or one 16-ounce can diced, tomatoes, lightly drained
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • Salt to taste
Cornmeal topping:
  • 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup grated vegan Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese, optional
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic and bell pepper and continue to sauté until the onion is golden brown. 

Add the corn kernels, pinto beans, tomatoes, and seasonings. Stir well and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Remove from the heat. 

Bring 5 cups of water to a rolling boil in a heavy saucepan or double boiler. Slowly pour the cornmeal into the water in a thin, steady stream, stirring continuously to avoid lumping. Add the salt and cook over very low heat, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

Oil a shallow, 1 1/2-quart baking dish and line the bottom with half of the cooked cornmeal. Pour over it the skillet mixture and sprinkle with the optional grated cheese. Top with the remaining cornmeal, patting it in smoothly. 

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the cornmeal is golden brown and crusty. Let stand for 10 minutes, then cut into squares to serve. 


Sweet Potato Gratin 

  • 1 t oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 T lime juice
  • 1½ t lime zest (grated peel)
  • 2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
  • ½ t dried thyme
  • 1½ t salt
  • ½ t pepper
  • 2½ c coconut milk
  • 4 c sweet potatoes (about 1½ pounds), peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 c cooked rice
  • 1½ c cooked black beans (or 15 oz can, drained)
  • 1½ c fresh spinach, cleaned, de-stemmed, and finely chopped
  • ¾ c cornmeal
  • 1 T vegetable oil
  • ½ t dried thyme
  • ¼ t cumin
  • ¼ t salt
Preheat oven to 350, and lightly oil the baking dish.
Combine garlic, lime juice, lime zest, spices, and coconut milk in the medium bowl, and pour a third of it into the dish.
Spread half of the sweet potatoes in the dish, then half of the rice, beans, and then spinach. Pour another third of the coconut milk mixture on top, followed by the rest of the sweet potatoes, rice, beans, and spinach. Top with the rest of the coconut milk.
Mix cornmeal, oil, thyme, cumin, and salt and sprinkle over the gratin.
Bake for 30 minutes, rotate the pan in the over, and bake another half hour, until the topping is golden and the sweet potatoes are tender. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes, until any remaining liquid has been absorbed.


Mushroom And Spinach Galette
Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
My mom makes a delicious mushroom galette for me each year at Thanksgiving, and I've taken that idea as my inspiration here. I've removed the cheese and butter to make it lighter and vegan-friendly.
Makes 6 servings
Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 to 5 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the flour and salt. Drizzle the olive oil over the flour and cut in with a fork, combining lightly until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle water over the flour, a tablespoon at a time, and mix lightly with a fork. With your hands, press the pastry lightly into a ball, wrap in waxed paper, and let rest in the refrigerator at least 20 minutes.
Filling
2 shallots
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
10 white mushrooms
2 portobello mushroom caps
1 bunch spinach, washed and coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
Chop the shallots and place them in a frying pan with the olive oil. Saute over medium heat until they begin to soften. Lower the heat and add the wine. Slice the white and portobello mushrooms, and add them to the pan, cooking until they soften and release their liquid. Add the spinach, salt, pepper and herbs and cook until the spinach is wilted.
On a wide surface, roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper until it becomes a 1/4-inch-thick circle. Arrange the vegetable mixture in the middle of the dough, and loosely gather the dough around the filling, leaving an opening at the top (the dough won't close completely). Place the galette on a new sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake in the middle of the oven until filling is bubbly and crust is lightly browned, about 35 to 40 minutes.
Slice and serve.