Taste of Home Magazine

Some time last year my elderly lady friend, Christine, gave me several older issues of Taste of Home Magazine. I really enjoyed them so I got online and found a deal ... $7 for a year of Taste of Home. I was excited to get the first issue but quickly became somewhat disappointed by the major format change of the new issues (way too busy for my liking) and also the introduction of all sorts of advertisements. Oh well. Times change right? The magazine itself is still pretty decent for the price ... it seems to have a lot more practical, every-day-type-recipes that normal home cooks would actually USE, or at least use as a springboard for ideas. It still has sections with tips and hints, however not nearly as helpful as the older issues.

Ok so what's my point? :)

The other morning we put a roast in the crockpot to slow cook all day long, but didn't know what we were going to do with it or serve with it. Towards supper time preparations we decided to chunk up the meat and make a gravy to serve over garlic toast, however we still didn't know what to have as sides. We grabbed the newest Taste of Home Magazine and Brianna and I decided to make two of the recipes. She chose "Scalloped Potatoes with Mushrooms" and I chose "Tuscan Roasted Asparagus". Here is the outcome and the recipes; for a downloadable PDF version of the recipes just click on the recipe title.

Tuscan Roasted Asparagus
From: Taste of Home Magazine

2T butter
1lb asparagus, cleaned and trimmed
2T minced onion
2T minced celery
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
1/2t basil
1/2t thyme
1/4t pepper
3T grated parmesan cheese

Preheat over to 350* and melt butter in a 9x13 baking dish.
Place asparagus in bottom of dish with melted butter.
Sprinkle with onion and celery, arrange tomato slices on top.
Sprinkle with seasonings and cheese.
Roast for 30 minutes or until asparagus is fork-tender.
Makes 4 servings

My notes:

I prefer using Roma tomatoes for this recipe. I leave off the thyme and add a little garlic and salt.
I am not sure this can really be called 'roasting' … more like 'baking'.

 

Scalloped Potatoes with Mushrooms

From: Taste of Home Magazine

2lbs potatoes (about 4 medium) peeled and sliced

1T butter

½lb sliced fresh mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

¼c all-purpose flour

1c chicken broth

1t salt

½t oregano

½t pepper

1c (8oz) sour cream

1c coarsely chopped fresh spinach

2c (8oz) shredded Swiss cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Place potatoes in a large saucepan; add water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook, uncovered, 8-12 minutes or until tender. Drain.

2. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and onion. Cook and stir 6-8 minutes or until tender. Stir in garlic; cook 1 minute longer.

3. In a bowl, whisk flour, broth and seasonings until smooth; stir into mushroom mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; cook and stire 1 minute or until thickened. Remove from heat; stire in sour cream.

4. Arrange half of the potatoes in a greased 1 ½qt or 8in square baking dish; top with the spinach. Spread hafl of the mushroom sauce over top; sprinkel with 1c cheese. Layer with remaining potatoes, sauce and cheese.

5. Bake, uncovered, 12-15 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 8.

Per serving prepared according to recipe instructions above: 269cal, 14g fat (9g saturated), 49mg cholesterol, 471mg sodium, 23g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 11g protein.

My notes.

In my opinion, there was WAY TOO MUCH dairy in this recipe. We doubled the recipe to make a 9x13 dish for leftovers. In our double recipe we substituted about 2 ounces of cream cheese for the 2c/16oz of sour cream (blended with a little water to thin it out). We did not sprinkle cheese in the middle on the first layer; we only sprinkled cheese on the top and even then it was way less than what is called for one recipe. So … in our double recipe we probably sprinkled a cup or so of cheese on top, nothing in the middle, and that was plenty enough. We did not have Swiss cheese, though I think that would have been the best option for flavor. We substituted home-canned mushrooms for fresh mushrooms and did not measure out the spinach.

I've never pre-cooked the potatoes in a scalloped potato dish before so this way was new to me. I'm not sure I liked it; they seemed a bit too mushy.