Stuffed Mushrooms

Difficulty Rating:

This is another delicious appetizer recipe that should keep your guests happy. And it's another meat-free dish, so your vegetarian friends will be happy. Assuming they still eat cheese. And if they don't eat cheese, you shouldn't be friends with them.

I'm not kidding. That's how you tell they're evil.



Recipe

24 fresh mushrooms, stems removed
1 (10-ounce package) frozen chopped spinach
2 ounces cream cheese
4 ounces feta cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped green onion, with tops
seasoning
1 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Wipe mushroom caps clean with a damp paper towel. Thaw spinach in a colander; squeeze out as much moisture as possible. In mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except mushrooms and Parmesan. Mix well. Fill mushroom caps with mixture and place on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle Parmesan on top. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Execution

Apparently I forgot a picture of the ingredients again, which makes me a bad person, but not as bad as people who don't eat cheese.

First thing's first though - you'll need to cap your mushrooms. Grocery stores will usually sell white mushrooms for stuffing, and they're nice and big with plenty of room for sticking stuff. I used brown mushrooms, and had a bunch of tiny ones, but it wasn't that big a deal.

Make sure you wash your mushrooms! They are grown in poop. You do not want to eat poop. Wash 'em off. Don't scrub them because that'll bruise the caps and make them brown and mushy, but just wipe them clean under the faucet using your fingers. Then you just wiggle the stem a little and pull it out. If some of the stem sticks in the bottom, just dig it out with a fingernail.

Once you've got that done, put your stuffing together. Now, I defrost the spinach the same way for this as I do for the spinach-artichoke dip - 5 minutes in the microwave, then squeeze out the excess water. I don't have all day for sittin' around watching spinach thaw, dammit.

Mush everything together except for the parmesan. Now, the original recipe is a Paula Dean one, and I dislike a lot of her recipes simply because they say things like "1 tbls House Seasoning" with a little link to how to make Paula's seasoning. Emeril does this too. How lazy can you freaking be - just give the seasonings you use, I'm not a Follower of the Church of Paula Dean so I don't have specially labeled pre-made spice mixtures to use with your specific recipes. Sheesh. Anyway, I used a spoonful of minced garlic (you can use a tbls garlic powder instead), a tsp each of salt and pepper, and a pinch of cayenne to give it a bit of a kick. Just a pinch though. Tiny peeench.

Then you just use a spoon and scoop it into your mushroom caps. I like to cook them in a casserole dish since it keeps the juices from dripping all over your stove. Just spray it with some cooking spray or grease it with a little oil to keep them from sticking.

Cover them with the parmesan cheese - a cup may seem like a lot, but that's only if you sprinkle them. COVER THEM. It is delicious.

Bake 'em at 350 until the cheese turns brown on top and the mushrooms release their juices (porny, non?), about 15-20 minutes.

Jenny really likes the mushrooms. She doesn't let anyone else eat them. No one tries, because she has the crazy eyes.

Zombie mushrooooooooms...

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Difficulty Rating:

Hot yummy delicious appetizers, coming up!

Recipe

1 10-oz pack frozen chopped spinach
2 (13 3/4 oz) cans artichoke hearts
1/2 c. mayo
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. freshly grated Parmesan
1 c. grated pepper-jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a casserole dish.

Heat spinach in microwave 5 mins & squeeze dry. Drain artichokes and coarsely chop either in food processor or by hand.

Combine everything but the pepper-jack. Scrape into casserole dish, sprinkle with pepper-jack, and bake for 30 minutes.

Execution

So simple, and delicious at the same time. This is an excellent dish when you have a bunch of people coming over and you need something to stuff in their pie-holes. :)

Ingredients

The recipe pretty much tells you all you need to know. I used jarred artichokes instead of canned because that's what they had at Costco, but the canned ones are actually better in my opinion.

First, chop up all the artichokes. I just do it by hand because I hate cleaning the food chopper when I don't have to.

Chop chop chop.

While you're doing that, stick the frozen spinach in the microwave for five minutes. Once it's done, it might be completely dry or it might have some liquid in the bottom, it really depends on your microwave. If it's got liquid in it, just smoosh it out with a spoon and drain it.

Then you just mix everything in a big bowl...

...then scrape it into a greased dish and cover with more cheese.

Bake for thirty minutes, and bam! Nummy dip for to dip things in!

I recommend some cubed sourdough bread, which is what we used, or any kind of thick, heavy bread. And if you have leftovers and are just looking for something to snack on, I usually spread it on a toasted bagel.

Guacamole

Difficulty Rating:

Sorry it's been so long since my last update, but school's been eating my brain so I haven't been cooking lately. But! Worry not, as I am cooking a large bit of food for Thanksgiving, and that'll give you a wide array of things to love. Plus, I'm making Red Beans & Rice this week, so look forward to that!

This takes about fifteen minutes to make with prep time, and involves dumping stuff in a bowl, but since avocados have to be found in a grocery store it's listed as a 2-Cookie recipe. But, seriously, very easy.

Recipe

2 medium, ripe avocados
1/2 small white onion, chopped fine
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and veined and chopped very fine
1 large tomatoe, chopped fine
2 limes, juiced
2-3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, destalked and torn

Mash up avocados with a hand masher or fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Eat with delicious chips.

Execution

I can't even think of what to write 'cause this is so simple. So... um... here we go!

Ingredients



You usually don't cut straight through the pit of the avocado, but my boyfriend go a little overexcited using my super-sharp awesome chef's knife. The way you usually do it is to act as if you're going to cut it in half, and just pull it apart instead of cutting the pit. Pull it out, then scoop the delicious mushy insides out and throw them in a bowl.

I use a hand-masher and get it all mushed up, and then it looks like this. Note that he already added the cilantro because he forgot I was taking pictures, but you get the idea.



So once it's all mashed up, you just add everything in. I don't really like spicy guacamole, so I scooped some out before he added the jalapenos, but if you want it to be spicy just be sure you cut the pieces really, really finely or you're gonna bite into a big hunk of ohmigoditburns!

But once it's all mixed up, you have some serious deliciousness to contend with. I like to pair it with some blue corn chips, which are tastier than crappy Tostidos anyway. Enjoy!