Oh no! Risotto!

Risotto.  Ever eaten it?   Ever made it? 

When Cooper and I were in Scotland a few years ago, we ate a delicious mushroom risotto at a place called Greyfrier's Bobby bar.  While I'm not normally the biggest mushroom fan, I was totally sold on the whole risotto thing. 

I'd heard it was hard to make...not true at all!  You just have to babysit it a bit. 
Cooper got me a Cooking Light magazine for our anniversary and they had a tempting Bacon and Wild Mushroom Risotto with Baby Spinach recipe.  So, we tried it tonight.   If you want to try it (and why wouldn't you?) here's the link:  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/bacon-wild-mushroom-risotto-with-baby-spinach-10000001981765/. 

A few tips....
Start with some Arborio rice.  Has to be Arborio.  No substitutions there.

Crisp up some bacon in a large skillet. 

Saute the shallot, garlic, and thyme in the bacon yumminess.

While you've got that going for a few minutes, warm up your chicken stock in a separate saucepan.
Then, you add your mushrooms to the garlic and shallots and cook till they are soft.  Add a cup of the dry rice to your mix and stir it around a bit to get it coated in all the deliciousness. 

Some wine goes in and then you add the warm stock one ladle at a time, stirring constantly and waiting for the liquid to evaporate before adding another.  You keep doing that until you're out of stock and the rice is cooked through.  Takes about 25-30 minutes...that's the babysitting part. 

Once it's all yummy and soft and fluffy, you can add whatever you want!  We've added corn, asparagus, and butternut squash before. This recipe called for spinach, so we added that and some frozen peas too. 

Take it off the heat, add a little bit of cheese (rosemary asiago for us) and top it with the bacon.

Can it get better than that?