We had out-of-town family come to stay with us last weekend and I cooked up a storm. Friends came to visit our guests and so I ended up having a cocktail party and a dinner the same night! Knowing how busy the evening would be, it seemed smart to rely on a few make ahead favorites. The clear winner was stuffed mushrooms. I forget how good they are because neither of my guys would touch a mushroom if their lives depended on it, but everyone else did. There was not a single stray mushroom left on the plate for late night snacking - very disappointing to the busy hostess. One of my friends went to another gathering afterward and said she wished she’d stuck a few in her purse because they were so much better than anything at her second party. That’s a pretty good endorsement.
A nice thing about these mushrooms is that they can be made up to a day before you bake them. That is partly because they aren’t stuffed with disgusting breadcrumbs, which are a waste of space in a poor little mushroom. This recipe has sausage in it, but one of my guests doesn’t eat red meat so I saved a bit of filling and added shrimp to hers instead. They were yummy too. Crab would have been equally nice, but it wasn’t hanging around in my freezer. Mushrooms are sort of a friendly vegetable; they play well with almost anything you put in them. I say almost anything because once at a party someone served them stuffed with grapes and cheese, it was a disaster. The grapes exploded in the oven. Stick with my recipe and you won’t have to worry about any kitchen fireworks, instead you’ll enjoy kitchen compliments.
Ingredients
3 (8 oz) boxes of whole mushrooms
1/2 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper
1/2 lb breakfast sausage, hot or mild – your call
1/4 c Sherry
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1 ½ c grated cheese, combination of cheddar and Monterey Jack or Provolone (hint – Grate your own from a block of cheese, it’s 10 times better!)
1/2 c Parmesan cheese
Directions
Wash mushrooms. Recent wisdom says to wipe off the dirt, but a quick rinse never hurt anyone.
Remove stems and chop very finely.
Melt butter in a skillet over medium high heat and add mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Sauté until they begin to lose their liquid, about 10 minutes.
Add sherry and cook until it’s absorbed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside in a bowl.
Cook sausage and remove skillet from the heat.
Mix cream cheese, egg yolk, grated cheese and Parmesan cheese. Add onion mixture and sausage.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Fill mushrooms very generously with stuffing mixture.
Place in a casserole dish and bake for 25 to 35 minutes until brown and delicious, or until you can’t stand how wonderful they smell and you have to have one!
