Sherried Mushroom Sauce

This sauce is delicious served over pasta, potatoes, rice, or the prime rib.

1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
4 tablespoons butter
Seasoning salt (Buy a commercial brand, or combine 4 parts salt with one part garlic powder and one part black pepper)
2 tablespoons sherry (Recommended: Paul Masson Medium Dry)
3 cups heavy cream

In a medium frying pan, sauté mushrooms in butter until well browned but not dry. Add sherry, and heavy cream. Mix ingredients and reduce until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (approximately 30 to 45 minutes). Add seasoning salt to taste, about 1 teaspoon.

Wild Rice Blend

This recipe cooks rice using the same method employed for pasta. Rather than measure an exact ratio of rice to water, you simply cook the rice in plenty of water and then drain it. This is a more forgiving method for cooking rice at altitude.

In a large saucepan, bring at least eight cups of water to a boil.

Add two cups of wild rice or wild rice blend, and return to a boil.

Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low, and simmer the wild rice for about one hour. (At sea level, cooking time will be closer to 45 minutes.)

Check the rice for doneness. If the rice is still too firm and chewy, simmer for an additional ten to fifteen minutes; then check the texture again.

When the rice has reached the desired texture, drain it, season it, and serve it. This recipe yields about six one-cup servings.

Note: We were unable to find pure wild rice, even after checking three grocery stores. We settled on Lundberg Wild Rice Blend, which pairs wild rice with brown rice.