Oh my goodness, we’re all sick again. Patricia brought home something Thursday (not covid or flu) and gave it to my mom, Will, Julius and I. Patricia has been miserable for the last 5 days and hasn’t been sleeping at night but they prescribed her antibiotics for an infection in at least one ear… hopefully that helps! Of course as I was at the urgent care Julius’ teacher called to tell us he was really under the weather. He didn’t have a fever but we brought him home and he napped for 3 hours! When he woke up he had a fever of 103F.
I haven’t broached the subject of nasal swabs for a covid test with Julius, but he doesn’t seem to mind them as much after our debacle over Christmas where he had to take about 5 covid tests in 1 week. After crying through the first round of swabbing he told me the name “nasal swab” was too scary and that he would only do another one if I used a different name. I started calling them “teddy bear puffs”, and now he is happy to take them. Mind over matter I guess. Patricia on the other hand is totally fine with them. She has had 4 tests in the past 5 days including 2 today and barely reacts. The first time I performed a test on Patricia this week, she picked up the used swab teddy bear puff while I wasn’t looking and attempted to reinsert it into her nose. More power to you.
Speaking of mind over matter, Patricia’s vocabulary has really picked up! In the last few days I’ve heard her say “Patricia”, “nose” (this one many times to help her blow her nose), “spoon”, “bowl”, and some others that are escaping me now. It’s funny because it’s another one of those situations like Julius where we have to translate her baby pronounciation. Will is much better at interpreting kidspeak than I am, even with Julius’ speech. (Though Julius likes to make up words sometimes, so it makes things particularly difficult.) Julius has a great vocabulary and has been quite a goof lately. He figured out the annoying “repeat everything someone says” prank and has been trying out “jokes”, whereby he says something he thinks is silly then laughs maniacally at it. (The laugh is definitely maniacal, but in an adorable way, if that’s a thing.) He is quite funny though when he is trying not to be. The other day we were playing a game and he wanted to collect all the yellow pieces so he told me “don’t pick up the yellow pieces” then later, “try not to think of the yellow ones”. I’m glad he couldn’t see in my brain because all I was doing was trying not to laugh while thinking about those yellow pieces.
Tonight I want to share THE BEST VEGETARIAN GRAVY RECIPE. You may or may not know that I am a gravy fiend. Gravy, typically made from meat drippings is decidedly not vegetarian. In my 2 years, 5 months of vegetarianism (okay in the 8 months I have been eating sustainably harvested fish/crustaceans once a month, so maybe I’m pescatarian) I’ve had some truly awful premade vegetarian gravies. I know I already posted another vegetarian gravy recipe for Thanksgiving a couple years ago, and trust me there will be more. (I’m German so you can’t have too many different recipes involving meat drippings gravy… some day I am going to make a vegetarian sauerbraten or rouladen.) Anyway that recipe is great, and is a great substitute for a typical turkey gravy because the mushrooms are only used for their umami flavor. In this recipe, the mushrooms stay in and not only impart flavor to the dish but act as big chunks of meaty deliciousness. I am in love. We’ve had this recipe several times and usually I just wing it, but the last 2 times I wrote down (and then verified) the recipe to share with all you lovely readers. I LOVE gravy so this size batch makes enough for a family of 4. Those who use their nectar of the gods sparingly (read: don’t drown their food in it) may find this serves 6. Enjoy! Oh and I serve this over mashed potatoes and Morningstar chik’n patties which I think are awesome and have a very chicken schnitzel-ish flavor to them, which is only enhanced by this gravy.
I’m hungry just looking at this picture.
The World’s Best Mushroom Gravy (come at me)
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- 16 oz mushrooms
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- ¼ cup red wine
- 2 cups vegetable broth (I use this amazing vegetarian boullion by knorr which doesn’t have msg, it’s 1tsp to 1 cup boiling water) simmer for 3 min
- .5 tsp gravy master
- 2tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2tbsp water
- salt and pepper to taste
- Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium high until shimmering but not smoking.
- Add mushrooms and cook until golden brown, turning only occasionally. (Note: if the mushrooms are too crowded in the pan they will start to release their juices too early and will not brown. My solution to this is to crank up the heat to max and toss mushrooms a bit more often so they don’t burn.)
- When mushrooms are brown, add chopped garlic and saute until fragrant, about a minute. (Note: if you cranked up the heat in the previous step make sure you are doing this on medium high heat)
- Add the wine to the pan and cook until reduced – about 2 min
- Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add 1/2 tsp of Gravy Master. Simmer until liquid is slightly reduced.
- While simmering, mix cornstarch with 2tbsp water until fully mixed.
- Slowly pour cornstarch/water mixture into the simmering gravy while stirring, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan, reaching all over as you stir. Continue stirring until smooth, then lower the heat to very low to keep warm or remove from heat and serve immediately.
Picture instructions below for those visual learners.
Brown mushrooms in olive oil over medium high heat.
Add garlic and saute until fragrant
Add red wine and reduce.
Mushrooms with reduce red wine.
Add boullion and gravy master and reduce.
Mixture after reducing.
Stir together cornstarch and water
Stir gravy while adding cornstarch mixture
Finished gravy. Yummm
