Duelin’ Deals Blog by Marlaine

I have always resisted buying mushrooms in quantity because I wasn’t sure what to do with them to keep them fresh. Whenever I buy a package, I poke holes in the wrap to let air in and put them in the fridge, or take the wrap off completely. Our local Pick ‘N Save had such a great deal on fresh mushrooms that I just couldn’t resist getting a bunch. I bought 6 – 8oz for $5! That is a lot of mushrooms at a really low price. We usually don’t use fresh mushrooms because they are usually over $2 for an 8oz package. Sigh……. but we love them so much!

I decided to try it this time because a spaghetti sauce we often buy from Aldi’s has pretty decent sized mushrooms in the sauce. I have seen that anything that can be canned can also be frozen somehow – usually!

Cut off dirt and any soft pieces. If they seem extra dirty, rinse them off or use a soft brush to clean them. Put wet mushrooms on paper towels and cover with paper towels. Do not rinse unless you are going to use them right away or the dampness will promote withering. Don’t use water unless you have to!

This time I sautéed onions first in a little butter and then added mushrooms, letting the mushrooms gently soften down. We used some on our hamburgers for dinner (Aldi’s had a great deal on onions!)………Wowow that was incredible! I put some of the mixture in freezer containers and into our big freezer.

I’ll use some of the onion/mushroom mix with fresh green and yellow peppers (green peppers that turned yellow – smiling), sliced browned Italian sausage, browned hamburger and an Alfredo sauce to pour over fettuccine noodles. It will quicken the cooking time and saves me a lot of fiddly work later!

You can also freeze them alone but never freeze fresh ones…. I tried that a while ago and those mushrooms turned to yucky mush! Sauté in butter or olive oil. OR simmer (do not boil) the cleaned and washed mushrooms in lightly salted water for about 15 minutes, cool, put into a plastic container or bag, add some of the cooking liquid, label, date (they will keep for a few months), and freeze.

You can also store the mushrooms for a few days or a week in your refrigerator by taking them out of any plastic wraps or containers and putting them into a paper bag. If you get them into paper bags and into the fridge once you get them home, they could dry out enough to be able to store them dried. They have to be completely dried though.

I’ve dried a lot of parsley, lemon balm, chives, and many other herbs using the paper bag in the fridge trick. Remove leaves from the stems to save yourself a lot of work later. Just remember to reach in and hand toss the herbs around a bit every few days – that way you can test the dryness. If you have cats, gather catnip and leave branches whole or in bigger pieces – they especially love catnip out of the fridge in the middle of winter!

We had a white Christmas thanks to my hub’s strange Let It Snow song he kept singing before Christmas. (Any one who knows how he sings would know any song he sings would be a strange song, snickering!) It seemed to have strange snow drawing power somehow and we had more snow than normal. And we did have one white Christmas this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since my adorable hub is from Australia, I used to tell him how changeable our weather is in Wisconsin. Well, he certainly received a prime lesson in Wisconsin weather this last two weeks! We went from a near (nicely warm) 55 degrees with all snow and ice melting down to ground creating constant mud tracks on the kitchen floor – to 7 inches of snow… all within one 24 hour period! The best thing about mid January snow is that we know it won’t last much longer – only a couple more months!

This last snow was so sudden and thick that we went outside to marvel at it since two hours earlier I was outside noticing that all the snow was totally gone. We took Gypsy with us but…….. she didn’t really like it either! We were outside for only a few minutes, too!

It is hard to prepare for snow sometimes but we watch the weather news and whenever we hear a storm is on the way, we go to Aldi’s and Pick ‘n Save to stock up on whatever we might need for the next few days. We also make sure we take back any library books that might go past their grace days and be over-due if we get snowed in. Since we don’t have any real vices, it isn’t too hard to make sure we have milk and coffee, dog food, cat food, bird food and stuff in the big freezer for a few days. Keeping a good bag of potatoes and a bag of onions in the pantry at all times insures we won’t go hungry.

It is also good to keep the car’s gas tank full as much as possible during the winter and use “heet” to avoid ice crystals in the gas. While life is certainly different in the city, with it’s gas stations every 10 blocks or so, I grew up in the farmlands. The habits of my childhood have stuck with me and winters seem a small inconvenience to me here in Milwaukee.

Hmmmmmmmmm that reminds me of the year we had to have snowmobile deliveries because we couldn’t get out of our driveway (really long driveway!). I wonder how Gypsy would take to a snow sled harness……….. (She’s a wonderful dog but a bit of a …. – maybe I should keep that to myself!)

I came across this real easy way to make that chocolate sauce that hardens up when spooned over ice cream and wow – it is sooooooooo good! And a lot cheaper!

I made a Boston Cream pie not too long ago and the choco coating I made got too thick and hard to cut. A few days ago, I noticed some chocolate chips left over from Christmas baking. I hadn’t really liked them in the cookies and was debating about what to do with them. They were duel favored swirled chips – caramel and chocolate – and the caramel flavor is lost in my chocolate chip cookies. So I thought I would give it a go and see if it would work on ice cream.

I put about half a cup of chips in a glass bowl with two tablespoons of butter. I put it in the microwave on high for two minutes. (I always use the cup saucer that fits over the bowl perfectly when I heat things up in the micro. Don’t use plastic wrap!) Be careful taking that out – it gets pretty hot. Mix it with a metal spoon slowly. The chips will continue to melt. If the sauce doesn’t seem runny enough, add just a bit more butter and stir it in. It will harden up on the ice cream. It needs to be able to run off the spoon.

This stuff is so good! When you buy up chips on baking holiday sales like we do, they are a heck of a lot cheaper than the hard shell chocolate stuff you can buy in the store.

And……….

You can choose the flavor you crave to use for topping. Butterscotch, peanut butter, chocolate, whatever fancy flavors are available or on sale or………….. at a discount place like Aldi’s. Those choco chips are perfect for this – and the butter is cheaper there too! Try choco chips with a table spoon of peanut butter first instead of butter and mix it. Or choco chips with a bit of vanilla when you heat it with the butter makes the caramel flavor. Remember when working with chocolate to add the butter, vanilla, peanut butter or whatever flavoring you choose before you start melting the choco. If you add anything with moisture after it’s melted, it will make the chocolate seize up and get grainy. It’s a yucky texture that’s hard to fix but a bit of vegetable oil mixed in sort of fixes it – though it gives it an odd taste. Adding some butter while melting tempers the chocolate nicely.

Be patient while mixing the butter in. Slow steady stirring works best.

Of course, a little more butter in the choco and you have one heck of an additional decoration type topping for a frosted cake. You can use it to drizzle over the cake or cover it! It will harden when the choco cools so work fast. Experiment with proportions and you’ll find other uses for this sauce. You can watch for sales on baking choco as well – and white chocolate sold in bulk. All these work about the same way. Just remember to under add the amount of butter first because you can always increase the amount later. Too much butter and then you will need to add more choco to thicken it up.

Another hint/tip………. I leave the left over choco sauce in the glass bowl covered by the saucer and store in the fridge. Just add more chips and butter to the bowl before microwaving and you will not be wasting any of this great stuff like you do with that expensive bottled version! (Have you ever looked inside those bottles when it seems like you can’t get any more out? Usually enough for another serving in there!)

Enjoy this one!