Lazy Day Risotto

Saturday our trip to Sauvie's Island for pumpkins was rained out so Ben and I went to look at lighting fixtures. We took the money we'd stashed from the U-Price-It garage sale we had back in August and headed out. New lighting in the dining room has been on my wish list for a long time. Before the early nights of autumn turn the room into a cave I swore we'd have more light to eat by. I do love candles and the white Christmas lights around the window and a blazing fire in the wood stove, but our dining room is so dark you really can't see the food on your plate well enough to know what you're eating. There's no central light in the middle of the room over the table. We used to have one of those halogen floor lamps but I was afraid to plug it in when it started smoking recently.
After traveling to three different lighting stores we decided the light we both liked best was at Schoolhouse Electric and that we'd need at least three more garage sales with better stuff to sell in order to afford it. We stopped by Uncle Paul's Produce on the way home. I bought 3 pumpkins and a Brussel sprout tree--that was the best deal of the day. The tree was $2.49 and loaded with about 2 pounds of Brussels. That night for dinner we had roasted Brussel sprouts and mushroom risotto. At the Asian market you can buy those big bags of dried shitake mushrooms. When I hydrate them I save the broth to use as a base with onions, shallots, garlic and a bay leaf from our bay tree. The taste of fresh bay is soooooo much more wonderous than those tired dried up leaves you get at the store. After all the broth veggies are cooking away I throw in half a bottle of white wine, the mushroom broth and I keep it on the simmer while I start the risotto. On the right kind of day--as was Saturday--nothing is more comforting than standing in your socks in front of the stove listening to Luciana Souza while stirring a wide and shallow (sounds like some boy's I've known) pan of arborio rice (1 cup) in a slab of butter, adding the mushrooms (I'm poor so I used about a pound total of chopped Crimini and the hydrated shitake chopped roughly). The trick is to just relax and stir all on the lazy side. After the rice is coated with the butter and the rice is becoming slightly colored I dump in a goodly glass of the same white wine I used for the broth. This time it was Sauvignon Blanc. Let the wine evaporate and then start adding the mushroom broth that's simmering on the next burner. Everytime the broth evaporates add a bit more. Don't add too much at the same time and keep stirring. All told it takes about forty minutes start to finish. When the rice is tender stir in a good dollop of butter, some parm (half a cuppish) and taste for salt. It's so full of creamy goodness all you need is a glass of wine, some of those Brussels and later on a good, hot bath. Have your kitchen helper do the dishes--the other good thing about risotto is only two pans to clean!