Fresh Approach Cooking

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It has come to my attention (because I have been paying attention you see) that the posts on this site rarely, if ever have anything to do with the accompanying recipe.

Seriously.

I mean, let's face the facts...not every event in life leads to a delicious meal (though wouldn't that be nice) and not every meal has a
great/mildly interesting/remotely readable story attached.

Heck. Sometimes, a girl just makes dinner.

Or has a cocktail snack.

Lil' nibbles if you will.

So I am implementing a new policy that may or may not stick.

From now on, I'm going to write some non-sense (in other words, that part is status quo) and then include a recipe. There may be a correlation, there may not. I'm going to stop worrying about it. Are you okay with that?

Who knows, it might be fun. Less pressure. (Um, cuz, you know, this site is too uptight as it is...)

So here goes...random babblings by a girl who cooks...

I joined a swim club. I tried to explain this to The Ombudsman, who mistook my comment to mean I had joined some sort of athletic group that meets at a pool. I mean really. The mear thought of it all (knowing me as he does) had him laughing so hard something akin to a snort occurred. And then another. It basically had the boy rolling on the floor.

What I had meant, of course was that I joined a club with a pool for the summer. So I can lounge in peace and get some rays without going to the gritty/grotty beach. Working out was not on my agenda. Laps and whatnot are not my thing. I wear bikinis. They aren't designed to actually stay on under exertion (or so I suspect, never having tried it.) they are for show. For show people.

All that transpired as we ate these mushrooms and downed yet another delightful Dark and Stormy (Note to self: must post about that...) and it was as I ate my third one that I realized he may have been on to something. What with my habit of eshewing real meals in favor of cocktails and requisite salty-fatty cocktail snacks, maybe I should have joined a more athletic group.

Hmmm. Food for thought.

6 medium portabellas mushroom caps (Trader Joes sells "Stuffing Caps" Clever people.)
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 heaping tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
1 teaspoon dried herbs (oregano and thyme are nice)
2 thick slices of cooked sausage or salami, minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a medium pan heat the oil and saute the shallot and garlic until softened. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir to combine and remove from the heat. The mixture should be moist, if not add a bit more oil. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Using a small spoon, scoop the gills out of the mushrooms. Lightly oil the tops of each mushroom. Fill each cap with the bread-crumb mixture. Don't pack it in, but make sure it isn't too loose either. The cap is going to shrink while it bakes after all.

Bake on a lined cookie sheet or in a dish, uncovered, for 15 minutes or until browned on top.

Remove from the oven, let cool slightly. Serve.

Makes six.

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Look at how pretty a vegetarian version of these can be! Or how they look with spinach! Mmm.

More than 85% of Australian households purchase fresh mushrooms regularly; 55% of them boy at least once a week and 385 of primary grocery shoppers always have them on their shopping list.

In the mid 1970's most of the mushrooms eaten in Australia were in cans, today Australians eat 85% of their mushrooms fresh. -Australian Mushrooms.com

Labels: Appetizer