Crazy mushroom risotto for "one of those days"

Today is one of those days when things don't go the way you planned but with a happy end. Have you ever had them too?

I got up this morning with my running gear next to the bed ready to sneak out the door as I have been doing for the last few weeks, when I heard Gab crying loudly. Worried he could wake up Aurelia, I picked him up. And that was it, the beginning of "one of those days": 

• I went downstairs and started to play with cars and balls at 5.30am. I think I crashed the cars a few times. I can't coordinate very well at that time in the morning and before my medicine, mi cafe.
• Coffee was spilt on the kitchen table while preparing milk for Gab who wasn't settled in his high chair.
• Aurelia was in a grumpy mood because her brother didn't want to hug her when she woke up. She is quite sensitive about it, and Gab is just a boy!
• Nick managed to have a nice quiet breakfast and said good-bye to play tennis at 7am. I didn't get annoyed. Well, just a bit.
• Gabriel is obsessed with flushing the toilet and one day I found one of his cars inside. Today, he threw the piece of banana bread I gave him for breakfast and it got stuck inside the toilet because he also threw a little sponge doll. I had to be a plumber for 10 minutes.
• Colliers (a group of guys employed by the embassy to do the maintenance of  the diplomats' houses once a month) came all together and turned on lights, air-cons..and put my house upside down. 
• At the same time the 7 men were here, baby Juanan felt my anxiety and didn't want to eat or sleep. So I took him upstairs and I closed the door of the office room to have a peaceful moment and a nice soup for lunch. Finally, Juanan fall sleep. Poor thing, he must have felt my nerves. Of course, I felt guilty thinking of that.
• I spent 3 hours at the hospital to change Juanan's leg cast. He was born with a twisted foot maybe because of his position or a lack of space inside the uterus. I go every week to the hospital and today it was cast number 9. I am not counting the 3 casts that came off his leg by themselves at home and were used by Aure and Gab during Halloween. In the procedure of the cast, the Dr removes his nappy as well, so you can imagine the mess on me, who has to hold a crying baby while breastfeeding in front of two doctors.
• I came home at 5pm covered in wee and kaka and worried about my mum in Spain who was hospitalised for an important surgery in Madrid. I wish I were there with her in these moments. The long distance is such an impediment in crucial situations.

This seems like Bridget Jones' diary, except I am not counting the number of cigarettes because I don't smoke or drink, although I should as wine is my night medicine!

Sometimes I feel like moaning in frustration, like I said in one of my posts, but then I stop for a sec to think about some of the achievements I had since I started this blog. I have found time for writing, for cooking and for exercising, but I cannot get up any earlier than 5am just to justify precious time for myself. 4am?? It would be to go too far, a bit crazy. 

So now and again I go back to that annoyed feeling in days like today. I try to avoid whinging but it is hard not to. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to be a working-mum instead of being a stay-home mum. Would I feel the same frustration?

Some of you have sent me your personal experiences by email or comments. Thanks for sharing it with me. Yes, it is true it is easier to accept mentally that you should change some things in your life, but very challenging to put it into practice. Despite our efforts, I am sure there will be "one of those days"  many times because we all have them, it is life. We just need to adjust our priorities, be more flexible, as long as the balance doesn't always incline to the same side.

I said this day had a happy end: a tasty mushroom and porcini risotto. Why did I choose a time consuming dish after this crappy day? Precisely. It is the slow stirring of the rice and the aroma of the wild dried mushrooms what relaxes me, leaving the stress behind. Tomorrow it will be better and if not, I will make a lasagna. Happy cooking!

This risotto was based on a recipe of Jamie Oliver from his book 30 minutes meals, but I changed a couple of things.

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 15g dried wild mushrooms, grinded to dust
• 2 cups of risotto rice
• 1/2 a glass of white wine 
• 1L chicken stock
• 1 clove of garlic
• a small bunch of fresh thyme
• a knob of butter
• Parmesan cheese

1. Heat the stock in a saucepan. Turn on the grill in the oven.
2. Meanwhile, fry the chopped onion in another saucepan (the heavier the base, the better) with a little bit of butter and a lug of olive oil. Stir until the onion is soft.
3. Add the rice and stir for a minute. Then pour the wine (and drink some!) with the heat up to evaporate the alcohol.
4. I add now the wild dried mushrooms "powder"
5. Then add the hot stock little by little, stirring all the time to "massage" starch out of the rice and stop it from sticking.
6. Get half of the fresh mushrooms and add them to the rice. get the other half and place it in a tray with a good lug of extra virgin olive oil, a generous pinch of salt and pepper and a crushed unpeeled clove of garlic. Add the leaves of a few sprigs of thyme. Put the tray under the grill to crisp up. and don't forget to stir the rice! After 5-7 minutes, remove the tray of the oven and set aside.
7. When the rice is al dente, stir in the butter, finely grate Parmesan all over and some lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle some of the mushrooms of the tray and parsley.

Buen provecho!

• My notes: 
• when you have an old cheese, keep it in a plastic bag in the freezer and add it to soups or stocks to enhance the flavour.
• don't rinse or peel the mushrooms or they will loose their nutrition and flavour. Just wipe them with a wet towel.
• use Calasparra rice if you are in Spain instead of risotto rice, in case you cannot get it.
• season the risotto during and after. The butter at the end of the stirring will give taste and a nice shiny look to the dish.
• Al dente is Italian "to the teeth", so the pasta or rice shouldn't be crunchy or too soft. The risotto rice should be firm, you can see the shape of the rice.
• always use HOT stock in the risotto. By the way, have some chicken stock in little bags in the freezer. They are very handy.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese or Parmesan cheese in English is a hard cheese, worth the expense. Try to avoid buying the already grated cheese in bags sold in supermarkets, if you read the ingredients, there are more names (additives or preservatives) than just cheese!