Chris' Portobello Mushrooms

Hello on the 25th day of the Vegan Month of Food, and the fourth day of my Parks and Recreation theme week! (This post also fits in with the Work With it Wednesday theme, since I was a bit skeptical of portobello mushrooms and haven't been that much of an asparagus fan.)

Chris' Portobello Mushrooms

In "Indianapolis," (season 3, episode 6), Leslie and Ron are traveling to the city to receive a commendation award, but all Ron cares about is eating at his favorite steakhouse. When they arrive, however, they discover that it has been shut down due to a health code violation. Chris, who now lives in Indianapolis, offers to "fire up the grill" at his place. While preparing the meal, Chris offers some salad to Ron. (Hehehe, look at me, I finally figured out how to embed a video in a post!)

Chris: Ron, would you like some salad?

Ron: (chuckles) Since I am not a rabbit, no, I do not.

Chris: Try it, salad's good for you. (serves him some salad)

Ron: You got it. (Chris leaves to work on the rest of the meal, Ron dumps his salad back into the main serving bowl) Mmmm, delicious!

Later, when Ron goes out to the grill to check on the steaks, he discovers that Chris isn't actually cooking steak... 

Ron: Ahhhh!!!!

Leslie: Ron?

Ron: What in the devil's name is this?!

Chris: Portobello mushrooms.

Ron: Where's the steak?

Chris: Oh, there's no steak. That's a healthier option. It's organically grown.

Ron: Oh... (gets unsteady)

Leslie: Ron, are you OK? Woah, woah, woah, OK. (helps Ron into a chair) (to Chris) Can you get us a cold compress or something?

Ingredients for Chris' meal:

--2 organic portobello mushrooms

--olive oil

--salt

--pepper

--asparagus

--rosemary

--garlic salt

--red and orange peppers

--mixed greens

Pre-heat oven to 400°F, cover a baking tray with a sheet of aluminum foil. Clean, de-stem, and de-gill the portobello mushrooms. Brush olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides, set bottom-up on the tray. Trim the asparagus, lay them out in a baking dish. Drizzle olive oil atop, and sprinkle on some rosemary, garlic salt, salt, and pepper. Bake both the mushrooms and the asparagus for 10 minutes. Flip the mushrooms, add sliced peppers and a bit more garlic salt to the asparagus and stir. Return mushrooms and the asparagus dish to the oven to bake for another 10 minutes. Prepare a salad using the mixed greens. After removing the mushrooms, allow them to sit for a bit on a folded paper towel to soak up excess oil. Serve with the asparagus dish and the salad.

The portobello mushrooms turned out better than I expected. They weren't as oily as I'd feared they'd be and they were nice and soft on the inside. The texture of mushrooms has always seemed weird to me, but it really wasn't too bad. The asparagus dish was alright; I think I used too much olive oil, so maybe next time I make it, it'll be better. The salad, being just mixed greens, was plain; I don't really like dressings, so I ended up just chopping up some of the mushroom and asparagus and peppers to mix them in with the greens, and combining everything together in one dish worked out nicely.

But wait, there's more! Before making this dinner, I prepared a quick appetizer...

The Snakehole Lounge's Pigs in a Blanket

Also in this episode, April and Andy go out together to the Snakehole Lounge, a Pawnee bar. Andy is embarrassed that he doesn't have money to buy drinks, so April suggests that they see how much free stuff they can get throughout the night. At one point, she comes back with a whole tray of pigs in a blanket.

April: I got this from a waiter. I told him I had a pork deficiency.

Andy: Sweet! Pigs in a blanket! I always wondered why they called them that...

Ingredients:

--4 Lightlife Smart Dogs

--1 package vegan crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 350°F. Unroll the rolls and slice the smart dogs in half. Roll up one half smart dog in each roll. Place on greased baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes. Serve & enjoy!

Apart from getting a bit burnt on the bottom, these "pork-deficient" (vegan) pigs in blankets turned out great, very delicious for being so easy to make. I only had two of them, so I'm looking forward to finishing off the rest in the next couple days; yum!

Bonus quotes from the episode:

April: Hey, uh, six beers for, uh, table twelve.

Woman behind bar: Do you work here?

April: Yeah, my dad owns this place. I'm Janet, Janet Snakehole.

Here's a picture of Mystery curled up, all snuggly on the couch.

Peace. :)