Feed 5 for under 10 deliciously from Scratch

Hello again, and welcome.

Tonight I thought I'd share with you an example of our everyday sort of eating around the house. We just had a wonderful meal of baked potatoes, balsamic vinegar sauteed mushrooms, and deviled eggs, and it cost us less than ten dollars to feed our household of five.

Now, this is assuming you have some of these ingredients in your cupboards. If not, it will cost a bit more. Again, this meal feeds five, and it takes about forty-five minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

11 small to medium sized russet potatoes

6 eggs (free range are tastier)

15 large mushrooms

5 nice leaves of green lettuce, washed and dried

1 cube, or 1/2 cup, sweet cream, unsalted, butter at room temperature

1 shallot, chopped fine

3 tablespoons of parsley chopped fine

2 green onions chopped very thin

1 small handful grated parmesan cheese

1 cup sour cream (remember, some commercial brands are made with gelatin)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, and maybe as much as a tablespoon more

1 spoonful mayonnaise

1 tablespoon shao xing wine, or dry sherry

1/2 teaspoon ground hot red pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Salt to taste

Instructions:

Wash well and dry the potatoes and mushrooms.

Take two tablespoons of the butter and rub the potatoes well with it. place these in a hot oven and bake until skins are crisp, and flesh tender. Turn the potatoes after 20 minutes and prick skin with fork. (YES! they really do explode, sometimes.) In 45 minutes, they will be done.

While these are baking, saute mushrooms in a large skillet, over medium high heat in two tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle over mushrooms 1/2 teaspoon salt. If they expel any juice, pour it off and reserve it.

Also, place the six eggs covered in cold water over high heat. Bring to a boil and lower heat to sustain a low boil for twenty, or thirty minutes.

When the mushrooms begin to brown and stick, add the tablespoon balsamic vinegar and stir well, deglazing the pan. Be sure to turn the mushroom buttons frequently to achieve an evenly browned surface. When the vinegar cooks down, the mushrooms will be a lovely color, and the pan also. When the bottom of the pan is coated with a thin layer of sticky, vinegar mushroom sauce, ad the tablespoon of wine, and stirring, deglaze a second time. Remove pan from heat, and with a slotted spoon, the mushrooms from the pan.

By the way, this is the first time I have used balsamic vinegar for the first deglazing. It is so good!

Add 1/2 cup water to the pan, and stir, salting to taste. Pour this sauce into a bowl and set aside.

When the eggs are done, pour off the hot water, and add cold water to cover. In a few minutes, peel egges (typo, but so Chaucerian, I had to leave it in!) and slice in half lengthwise.

Carefully remove the yolks from the whites, arranging the whites on a plate, and putting the cooked yolks in a small bowl. Add a spoonful of mayonnaise, the 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper, salt and vinegar to taste, while stirring to make a thick paste.

Spoon the yolk mixture into the whites, sprinkle with paprika, and place in the refrigerator to chill.

When the potatoes are done, remove them from the oven and slice open, lengthwise.

Reheat the mushrooms and mushroom sauce, unless your timing is excellent.

Slice into the potatoes, opening the flesh. Salt it, pepper it, butter it, sauce it, shallot it, sprinkle with parmesan, green onion, dollop sour cream on it, etc.

Put three lovely mushrooms per person beside the potatoes on their plates.

Arrange the lettuce leaves on the plates, and set two deviled egg halves, per person on the lettuce leaves.

I hope you enjoy this dinner as much as we did.

Best wishes, Scratch