Roasted mushrooms with mustard cream sauce

I may or may not have said it before, but what in the hell was I thinking, hating mushrooms?

Lost my goddamn mind.

Recently I had a burger with grilled portobellas as the "meat" and I just about cried eating it, they were so good. Slightly overcooked and charred on the edges, which made them chewy and delightful and packed with flavour. Oh my.

I like making big fat roasted mushrooms to have with the sauces I used to love with steaks. Why be sad and mourn the sauce (which, let's face it, I thought was the best part anyway), when I could still have them, only with something else?

My favourite is a quick, home-made diane sauce that I think breaks every rule in the book, but oh my lord it is delicious. Much like this mustardy one even though it didn't have any brandy or anything that probably would have launched it into the stratosphere of deliciousness.

Don't ask me what I'll eat with mushroom sauce. I'm still thinking. Schnitzel, maybe?

I was absolutely starving the other day and kept seeing recipes for mushroom risotto, and mushroom soup and mushroom gorgeousness in a thousand other forms, so I went home and threw this lot into the oven. You're going to need 2-3 per person. We served it with mashed potato and a sauteed mix of spinach, broccoli and garlic.

Sauce serves 4.

Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
150 ml cream
salt and white pepper

Directions

1. Gently saute the garlic and mustard in a little butter in a frying pan.

2. Add cream and turn up the heat. Allow to boil, reduce and thicken for a little while until your desired consistency.

3. Season to taste.

4. Cry. It's ok. I understand, it's really, really good.

Banana waffles and butterscotch sauce

Waffles were definitely something I never ate until I was an adult. That whole small-town girl thing, supermarket didn't stock such nonsense, and people definitely didn't have their own waffle irons. I'm not entirely convinced they were even available in Australia.

My mama bought me one for Christmas when I was about 23, and I was far too excited than a normal person would be at the prospect of making my own waffles. My only problem was I didn't have any kind of electric beater (or even hand-cranked one) with which to beat my egg whites, as the recipe suggested.

That so didn't stop me. I sat in front of the tv with a big bowl, some egg whites and a whisk and beat them by hand until they were firm enough. No kidding. It took me about an hour and I never, ever did it again. That poor waffle iron got put back into the cupboard until I could afford electric beaters!

I still don't have electric beaters, or a mixer of any kind. but I DO have an electric whisk attachment to my stick blender! Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Some people still look at me incredulously when I tell them I beat my butter and sugar by hand. I like to think it's because I'm old-fashioned and I enjoy having one bicep bigger than the other, but it more truthfully is because I'll never in my whole life ever be able to afford a KitchenAid mixer.

For these waffles, I used the basic waffle batter recipe that came with the waffle maker (whoa, extreme! I know!), except I added mashed banana to it. Easy peasy.

The butterscotch sauce is even easier. You have butter, sugar and cream? you have butterscotch sauce!

You got a door? You got a gym!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cream
3 tablespoons butter

Directions:
1. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a saucepan, then let simmer, stirring, two minutes until thickened.