Italian Stuffed Mushrooms

This was another appetizer at my first dinner party, and seemed to be a pretty big hit.  This is by far the best stuffed mushroom recipe I've ever made, but I've only tried a couple.  The others I have tried all came out too dry and crumbly or just simply lacked flavor.

Roasted Eggplant, Stuffed Mushrooms, and Buffet Meatballs

 

Italian Stuffed Mushrooms
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 12-15 mushrooms


Ingredients:

• 2 strips bacon, diced
• 12-15 large mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 1/2 cup onion and garlic croutons, crushed (I couldn't find "onion and garlic" so I used Italian flavored)
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 medium tomato chopped
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano

Kitchen Items Needed:

• skillet
• cutting board and knife
• baking dish or cookie sheet

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F) .
2. In a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat.  Remove from skillet and drain on paper towels, reserving 1 Tbsp of grease in skillet.  I poured the rest into a ramekin, just in case the mixture came out too dry, and I was glad I did.
3. Remove mushroom stems from caps, and finely chop half of the stems.  Discard the rest, or if you're like me, snack on them while you finish the recipe.
4. Saute the chopped mushroom stems for 2-3 min, then remove from heat.
5. Stir in the remaining ingredients and the bacon.
6. Firmly stuff into mushroom caps.
7. Place on a greased baking dish or cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.

The Recipe Rundown

Difficulty:   This recipe is fairly straight forward, and the good news is if you save the rest of the bacon grease like I did, you can always add a little more to the mixture if your stuffing is too dry.  Since that's the only thing that can go wrong with a recipe like this, and there's an easy fix, I give this a 2/5 for difficulty, meaning beginner chef's should have no trouble, and the most common problem has an easy solution.

Taste:  I thought these were some of the best stuffed mushrooms I've had.  Bacon makes everything better, and having fresh tomatoes added, along with parmesan and mozzarella cheeses really gives the stuffing some actual flavor, rather than just tasting like bread crumbs mushed together.  I give this a 5/5 for taste.

Overall:  This recipe is incredible for just 30 minutes of effort, so I'm giving this an overall 5/5.

Suited For:  Anytime you need a bite-size, finger food appetizer, or if your kids won't eat plain old mushrooms.

Serving Suggestions:  For a nice finish and a little extra cheese, sprinkle with the stuffed mushrooms with extra mozzarella before baking.

Buffet Meatballs

I served these at the my first dinner party, and they were pretty good.  They're really simple, and the flavor was very unique.  I also like that this recipe could be easily adapted to fit any tastes.

Buffet Meatballs
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 4 hrs
Yield: about 11 dozen meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grape juice
• 1 cup apple jelly
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 4 lbs Italian style frozen meatballs

Kitchen Items Needed:

• small sauce pan
• 5-qt slow cooker

Instructions:

1. In a small sauce pan, combine the juice, jelly, ketchup, and tomato sauce.
2. Cook and stir over medium heat until the jelly is melted; remove from heat.
3. Place meatballs in a 5-qt slow cooker, pour the sauce over the meatballs, and gently stir to coat.
4. Cook 4 hrs on low until heated through.

The Recipe Rundown

Difficulty:  What can be more simple than leaving things in a crock pot to absorb all the sweet flavor?  This, and almost every crock recipe I've tried, gets a 1/5 for difficulty, meaning a beginner chef would have to try to mess this up.

Taste:  These were pretty tasty in my opinion, and the apple jelly gave the meatballs a unique flavor you don't normally get with buffet style meatballs.  Coming out of the crock pot, these were of course very moist.  I'm going to give this recipe a 4/5 for taste, because I think you could play with this recipe a little to make it even better.

Overall:  When planning a dinner party, or even just a social gathering, a recipe like this is perfect because you can get it taken care of 4 hours before your guests arrive and just leave it in the crock pot while you handle everything else that needs to be done for the party.  Since the flavor of the recipe, as stated, was very good, but not overwhelmingly amazing, I'm giving these meatballs an overall 4/5.

Suited for:  Buffets, dinner parties, or any other time you would serve 11 dozen meatballs.

Serving Suggestions:  Since the meatballs are a bit sweet from the apple jelly in the "sauce," serving alongside a salty appetizer complements this well.  I served stuffed mushrooms and roasted eggplant with this for appetizers.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

These little individual cheesecakes were so good that they were gone before I could get a picture of the finished product.  There's something to be said about an individual sized cheesecake cupcake, and I think it's best summed up with: "You can't eat just one!"  Having a few Oreos left over in the package was certainly not a bad thing from this recipe, and having friends ask me when I'm making them again reminds me why I like to be in the kitchen.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes
Prep Time: 20 min

Oreo "crusts" for the cupcakes

Cook Time: 22 min
Cool Time: at least 4 hrs
Yield: 30 individual cheesecake cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 30 cupcake liners
• 42 Oreos (or similar cookies) -- 30 whole cookies and 12 coarsely chopped
• 2 lbs (32 oz) cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream



Everything lined up to be beaten

• pinch of salt

Kitchen Items Needed:

• muffin tin(s) for 30 cupcakes (or bake in shifts)
• electric mixer
• large bowl, if there is not one with your mixer
• refrigerator

The batter is looking good

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees (F).
2. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners and place 1 whole Oreo in each liner.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium-high, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
4. Gradually add sugar, beating until combined.
5. Beat in the vanilla, then drizzle in the eggs a bit at a time, beating until combined.
6. Beat in sour cream and salt.  Stir in chopped Oreos.
7. Divide batter evenly among cups.  To make it easier to remove cupcakes once set, do not fill completely to the top, but leave enough of the paper liner to pull the cupcakes out by.
8. Bake 11 min and rotate, then bake another 11 min longer, or until the filling is set.
9. Let cupcakes cool on a rack, then refrigerate, at least 4 hours.  (I let mine refrigerate over night.)

The Recipe Rundown


Difficulty:  While this recipe isn't overly difficult, it's certainly a bit time consuming, and requires a bit of prep work before even getting to the recipe (like having on hand room temperature eggs that have been beaten).  I'm giving this recipe a 3/5 for difficulty, which means beginner chefs should be okay if they take their time and go through the recipe carefully.  More experienced chefs should have no trouble at all.

Taste:  Words like "yummmmmmmmm" and "wow" come to mind when describing this recipe.  I'm not a huge fan of sweets myself, but even I can't get enough of these.  Hands down this gets a 5/5 for taste.

Overall:  Making these bad boys at least once is definitely worth the effort; however, there is a good bit of planning and effort that goes into this.  This is not a dessert you whip up for tonight, but something you need to have planned ahead.  With that in mind, I'm giving this recipe an overall 4/5.

Suited for:  Anyone who likes cheesecake and/or cookies and cream.

Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon

For everyone out there who likes fish, and in particular salmon, this will surely become a favorite.  For all of you who don't like fish, neither did my friend Erica, and she cleaned her plate!  Erica is the pickiest eater I've ever met, but I lured her in with the promise of free dinner if she'd agree to try my salmon recipe, and to everyone's surprise, she liked it.  I may have to use her as my taste tester from now on!

Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon
Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min per inch of thickness (usually about 15 minutes)
Yield: # of salmon filets prepared

Ingredients:

•  1 Salmon fillet for each person, mine were about 1/3 lb each
• 1/2 - 3/4 cups brown sugar (or a brown-sugar substitute, like Splenda's)
• 1 tbsp garlic salt

Kitchen Items Needed:

• small bowl
• cookie sheet
• aluminum foil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. Mix brown sugar and garlic powder in small bowl with a fork.  The amounts given are estimates -- I always mix to taste.  You want the mixture to be sweet with just more than a hint of garlic.
3. Cover the cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
4. Rub each side of the salmon except the skin-side with the brown sugar mixture, and place skin-side down on the cookie sheet.  Sprinkle a little of the remaining brown sugar mixture on top of the fillets.
5. Cover with another piece of aluminum foil.
6. Bake for 10 minutes per inch of thickness in the thickest part of the salmon fillet.  An average of 15 minutes has worked well for me, unless you have some very thick salmon fillets.  The salmon should be fork tender when done.

The Recipe Rundown

Difficulty:  This is a fairly simple recipe; however, it may take a try or two until you discover the proportion of brown sugar to garlic salt that you prefer.  Everything else about the recipe is very straight forward, but for that reason alone, I give this recipe a 2-out-of-5 for difficulty, meaning beginner chefs should have no trouble if careful.

Taste:  If a picky eater that doesn't like fish will clean her plate, I don't think there's much else to say.  This is one of my favorites that I've been making for a couple of years now.  This definitely gets a 5-out-of-5 for taste.

Overall:  Since salmon is pretty healthy (even if covered in brown sugar), this recipe is super easy even after a long day at work, and it has been known to convert fish haters to fish eaters, I have to give this one an overall 5-out-of-5.

Suited for:  Everyone!  The sweet glaze for the fish can sway even the pickiest kids if presented well, and I have yet to find an adult that didn't like this recipe.

Serving Suggestions:  Salmon typically pairs well with rice, whether it's wild rice, rice pilaf, or just plain old white rice.  Since the salmon has a sweet glaze, some savory vegetables would round out a meal nicely, like green beans, asparagus, or a steamed medley of veggies.