I love Google. I love my cookbooks, too, but I often Google the random pantry and freezer ingredients I'm trying to rid myself of and see what recipes come up. This was the result of one such exercise and it was AWESOME.

KAYLA'S SAUTEED MUSHROOMS

We had a group over for dinner on Saturday that consisted of several carnivores and one vegetarian. This is what I invented as a meatless alternative to the shepherd's pie I served to the meat eaters. I was going to plop some mashed potatoes on it and bake it just like a shepherd's pie, but I decided against it and just served in with mashed potatoes on the side. Last night I had the leftovers tossed with pasta, so the possibilities are truly endless with this little dish :)

1 package white button mushrooms
1 1/2 stalks (?) of garlic chives
1 tablespoon of butter
a few glugs of Port
a few glugs of soy sauce
a few shakes of dried thyme

Chop the garlic chives into 1" pieces and saute in melted butter. Add mushrooms and, when starting to turn brown, add glugs of Port and soy sauce. Continue to stir, letting soy sauce and Port mostly evaporate. Add thyme, continue to saute, and serve once everything is sufficiently cooked.

Soba with Garlic Chives, Mushrooms and Bok Choy

This dish was made possible by my local Vietnamese super store, Super Cao Nguyen (or Super Caoafragelistic, as I like to call it) and the kind people who post Cooking Light recipes on their sites when CL's site is down. I substituted brown rice for the soba, but I'm sure it's delighful in its original form as well. Who knew bok choy and garlic chives were so good? One word of caution: don't chop cranberries for cranberry banana bread on the same cutting board you used for dicing garlic chives. Trust me, cranberry-garlic-chive bread will never, ever be a hit.