Happy 2010!!

Hope everyone had a fun New Years Eve filled with friends and good food! I know we did! Some lovely friends of ours hosted a NYE party, and requested heavy hors d'oeurves and desserts. An excuse to make tasty little nibbles? Count me in! We made my Mother's Stuffed Mushrooms, Mediteranean Meat Rolls, and Zucchini Bread. Was faboo!

My Mother's Stuffed Mushrooms

The original recipe calls for two and a half sticks of butter. I suppose you could use that much if you really wanted, but I made this recipe with one stick + a few tablespoons.

these are also great "make ahead" snacks, easily freezable, then you just pop 'em in the oven.

2 10oz packages frozen spinach, thawed
48 large white button mushrooms, or 3-4 8oz packages mushrooms(see note below)
up to 2 sticks up butter (you probably won't need it all)
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 shallots, minched
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
1 tsp ground nutmeg

line a rimmed baking sheet with tin foil. seperate mushroom caps from the stems, and set the stems aside.

start with half a stick of butter and melt it in the microwave or on the stove. Be prepared to melt more as you go along with this step. I had 50 mushrooms, and this step took one whole stick of butter. Don't be stingy with the butter! If you melt your butter on the stove, keep the temp as low as possible. You can either brush the mushroom caps with butter with a pastry brush, or dip them into the melted butter. However you do it, you want them covered in a thin layer of butter. Lay caps on lined baking sheet.

Chop up the mushroom stems, and any mushroom caps that didn't survive the separation anxiety.

Pour any un-used butter into a skillet on the stove, and add chopped mushroom stems, shallots and and garlic and saute gently over medium heat for about 10 minutes. the mushrooms will soak up a lot of butter, so if the skillet gets dry, feel free to add more butter or a splash of olive oil. I know I did.

Add spinach and all other ingredients to skillet, turn heat down a bit, and cook until well blended. add more salt / pepper until you like how it tastes.

Fill caps with mixture.

If you're going to eat these babies now, bake on that same cookie sheet at 375 for 20 minutes, and serve hot.

Not gonna eat 'em now? No problem. toss the cookie sheet into the freezer, and the next morning place the mushrooms into zip lock bags, 12-15 per bag. place frozen caps on cookie sheets, bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

Note on Mushrooms: I bought the ones packaged in the 8oz packages, and some of them were tiny widdle shrooms! So I had a ton of filling left over. If you've got filling left over, no problem - it makes great stuffing for an omelet, and a great sauce tossed with pasta. Use right away, or freeze for later use.

I will post the other recipes as soon as I have time. Happy New Year!