Banning TV for the night

I was driving to work today and listening to the radio.  Ryan Seacrest interrupts the weather report with breaking news....one of the women that Tiger Woods had an affair with is going to be having her own reality TV show.  Yup, that's what I heard.  I just became angry with the fact that someone is going to profit over the sadness that a family went through.  I don't want to get all political here, but I'm just becoming more and more annoyed with the whole celebrity obsession thing.  I know I'm guilty of it...I LOVE American Idol and Jersey Shore and Entertainment Tonight...its a half hour of doing something that is completely mindless, and sometimes you need that.  And I know I gossip about celebrities with my girlfriends all the time.  But I think I'm doing too much of it lately.  So, I vowed that tonight I wouldn't turn the TV on at all.  Its after 8pm and so far so good!  I made an amazing dinner for myself, and am going to finish reading New Moon tonight (hopefully), and then might get to bed early!  Sounds like a good night to me.

(But someone please text me the results of Idol!)  HAHAA!!!

Anyway, I had some of the mascarpone cheese leftover from tiramisu the other night and needed to use it up.  So I found this recipe from Cooking Light for porcini mushroom risotto.  I've made risotto before, and always love it, but had never done something like this before.  It tasted like....well, mushrooms!  But better!  However, this is NOT a pretty looking dish at all.  Its just...brown.  I know you eat with your eyes first, but honestly, it smells so so yummy, you'll want to eat it.  After a glass of wine, most things look appetizing anyway :)

It SNOWED in Nashua this morning (a few flakes, but still, its about to be May)  This is definitely a dish that would be great in the fall or winter...it has such a hearty flavor and its so creamy.  Or on a snowy day in May!  It was delish though.  I didn't use the Parmesan cheese though...just used up the rest of the mascarpone cheese instead.  Also used dried thyme instead of fresh.  Fresh absolutely would have been better because it would've added some color.  And I'm sure you can do this with just regular mushrooms instead of the porcini's...would definitely save some bucks.  I think you would just double the beef broth in that case, since you wouldn't have the cooking liquid from the mushrooms.  That cooking liquid though....was out of this world!  I don't know who ever thought of the idea "hey, let me dry out these mushrooms, then put them in boiling water months later, and eat them"....probably the same person that looked at a lobster for the first time and said "now THATS something I want to eat!"  Either way, they were both geniuses.  Wish I could say the same for creators of some of the reality TV shows out there.