Risotto

I've been slacking off on this blog a bit lately but it's only meant for really amazing things I eat/drink and I guess I haven't had a lot of that lately. I did have some amazing food in Seattle last week, but nothing really unique and worthy of a post here.

I had a tooth pulled this week so I've been on all soft foods since Monday, which pretty much sucks. In addition to that I've also had some killer sore throat/cold/sinus/allergy? thing going on so I haven't had much of an appetite. Today though I got a craving for risotto and since I can eat that with my tooth situation I thought I would look for a recipe and make up a big batch for the weekend. I found a great recipe for the crock pot which sounded weird but much easier than the "cook for awhile, add more chicken stock, cook more, add stock, etc." that you usually do for risotto. Turning on the crock pot and letting it go for a couple hours sounded great.

I decided to make a plain recipe with just shallots, garlic, olive oil, mushrooms, salt, and chicken stock then I added some fresh thyme and rosemary (from my herb garden on the deck!) and let everything cook down for a couple hours. It has made my house smell amazing and once it was ready I added in a little cream and parm. cheese - delicious. Simple, warm, hearty, and comforting - risotto is like mac-n-cheese for Italians I think (although I also love me some mac-n-cheese!). The herbs gave it some depth and subtle flavor, the creaminess and cheesiness was just perfect and it was exactly what I needed.