Gutsy Cooks week 4

I am behind in my gutsy cooking.  The busyness of life and my own exhaustion in living said life, has gotten in the way.  I almost let this weeks menu slip by when Jim said "Will we have something new and delicious tonight?"  Ahhhhhh, I my cooking soul has been revived!  So I busted out my mushrooms!  This weeks menu was Wild Mushroom Tartlets and Vanilla Custard.  I didn't make the custard tonight because it takes at least 4 hours to cool and the 4 hour mark would have landed at kidlet bed time, so we'll try that another time.

First, I need to say that I think I should gain bonus points for attempting to only grocery shop at Wal Mart.  Ugh!  You first might ask yourself   "Self.  Why would Brenda torture herself by not only shopping at Wal Mart in the first place, but try to shop there almost exclusively?'' My answer is that I have 4 kids.  'Nuf said.

So, surprise surprise, Wal Mart did NOT have the dried mushrooms that I needed.  Or any wild mushrooms, for that matter.  So I bought 2 packages of mushrooms.  Mini portabellas and then the regular old white mushrooms. 

My next obstacle is that I don't have the mini tart pans with removable bottoms.  Think think.  Think think think ""Lightbulb""  I can make a big tart with my spring-form pan.

Third obstacle, I have to make hollandaise sauce.  Ugh!  Really? Can I just skip that step?  Don't you need a culinary degree to make such a thing?  I just worked and I'm tired and.... fine fine.  I looked it up in my trusty Kitchen Bible.  It didn't look impossible.

I was ready.

They say to make the crust in the food processor.  It worked really well.  My crust ended up being a little dry, but since I used the bigger pan, I just kind of patted the crust into the pan instead of rolling it out as the recipe directed.  It worked out well.  Then I cooked up the mushrooms and onion.  The mushrooms are supposed to cool and then be put in the food- processor with some cream cheese.   The recipe says to do the mushrooms first then the crust.  In the interest of laziness, I did the crust first, didn't wash the bowl, then did the mushrooms.  It all worked out.

So then the hollandaise.  I won't bore you with the details, because the whole process went smoothly.  I will however, stop here and say.  Until today I would say "I don't like hollandaise sauce."  But I was basing that on the one time I had it.  I ate Eggs Benedict at Perkins Family Restaurant.  Perkins, is known for their pancakes, not their hollandaise sauce.  And there is a reason for that.  Ick.  But, this lovely, beautiful, happy golden sauce I made today has totally changed my mind and I may just start eating it on everything.  Hollandaise on your cereal kids?

And so, I bet you want to know what we all thought of this naughty little tart.  Treasure ate a few bites but didn't want to finish her piece.  Asked gave it a thumbs down.  Joy had the best response "I don't really like it, but I can see how someone who likes that sort of thing might think it's good."  When asked if he would eat it again Jim immediately said yes.  He thought the sauce was a little too 'acidy' but he overlooked that and had a second piece.  I think I could eat this often, maybe daily.  There are 4 pieces left, if I can somehow eat them all tomorrow... I will.