Tuesday: Mushrooms and Pokemon

That's the end result of today's dinner.  It wasn't terribly hard to make, but was kind of a time-sensitive meal.  I didn't take intermediate steps, mostly because I had to continually do things.  Here are the steps though:

1. Clean asparagus and big portabello mushroom.  Preheat oven to 425, set water for pasta to boil.
2. Oil asparagus, and place it on a baking sheet and set aside.
3. Pull out mushroom stem, and then scoop out all the gills.  Mince a clove of garlic, and a good chunk of green onion, and the removed mushroom bits.
4. Melt a gob of butter in a pan, and saute the mushroom bits, the onion, and the garlic.  When the moisture is largely gone, add half a tub of crab meat (I used the cheaper claw meat, since I don't really need nice lump for this).  Sprinkle with some pepper, old bay, and a bit of salt. Quickly cook that until the crab meat is heated throughout (I think pretty much all crab is sold pre-cooked).  You should put the pasta on to boil around here, too.
5. Remove crab mixture to bowl, add some mayo, some dijon, maybe a tablespoon of bread crumbs, and some parmesan.  Mix it all together, and scoop it into the mushroom.  Add the mushroom to the baking sheet, and place in the oven.
6. While the aspargus and mushroom bake, mince more garlic and onion, and melt another chunk of butter.  Add the garlic and onion, and stir constantly to brown the butter (keeping track to not burn anything).  Add some herbs (I used sage and rosemary, since I had that). Add vermouth to thin, and let it reduce slightly.  Add fully cooked pasta, and follow with more parmesan, stirring to let the cheese thicken the sauce.
7. Plate the pasta, and follow with the veggies, which should be done about the same time (the mushroom deflates a bit, and the top is toasted, as shown above).

Here's a cross section as I was eating:

The dark gills have turned the crab mixture a bit purple-y, but the flavor was wonderful.  I probably could have added a bit more flavor to the pasta, but it worked ok as a base to dress up with the crabby stuffing.  My thought was to do something similar for new year's eve, although almost certainly using regular size mushrooms instead.  Still, I wanted to at least try it out first.

And now I have half a tub of crab meat that I need to use.  Maybe make something like this stuffing and have a crab roll sandwich for dinner this week?

I then spent the evening watching "Pokemon the Movie 99: Victini Totally Cheats for Ash, and Then Random Shit Happens."  Here's Victini:

Wait, what's that he's eating?

Macarons?  Seriously Pokemon, now you're doing food trends in the movies?  That surprised me a bit:

Me: "Macarons?"

Cilan: "My homemade macarons!"

Me: "WTF?"

Anyway, pretty much the same as previous movies. Pros:

• Cute new Pokemon eating desserts.
• Reasonably funny.

Cons:

• Not enough Team Rocket.
• Lack of clear villain.
• The second half kind of degenerates into completely opaque set of plot points required to save the world.
• Ash almost dies, making this movie #99 where he almost dies.