These are a few of my favorite things other than cake: Mushrooms. Butter. Wine. Goat Cheese. Garlic. And these mushrooms hit all of them, and turned out marginally better than the roasted acorn squash. I’d almost take a picture, except for a couple minor things – the photograph embargo on this blog, and the fact that there are only three left.
I live alone. That should tell you how good they are.
They’re also ridiculously simple, nothing more than mushroom caps, sauteed in butter and then stuffed with plain goat cheese, and then topped with parsley, green onions, and garlic cooked in the remainder of the butter and some white wine. Bake for fifteen minutes, and you’re golden. Inspired by this recipe on The Pioneer Woman Cooks, but I, uh, have had bad experiences with brie.
Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms with Herbs and Garlic
1 14 oz package of mushrooms, washed, stems removed
1 4 oz package of goat cheese
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
4 green onions, sliced thin
1/4 C butter
1 generous splash white wine.
Preheat oven to 350F. Wash mushrooms and remove stems. Melt butter in a skillet and saute the mushroom caps for approximately five minutes, or until golden. Place in baking dish.
Chop parsley and garlic, slice green onions and dump in the same skillet the mushrooms cooked in. Saute until parsley is wilted and garlic is fragrant. Add wine and cook until evaporated.
Meanwhile, stuff the mushroom caps with goat cheese. I started with a knife, but just use your fingers. Really. You’ll thank me for it.
Top the mushrooms with the parsley mixture and cook for 15-18 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
That’s it, really. It looks amazingly complicated, but it’s not. At all.
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Welcome to my brand new, shiny baking blog. It’s still under construction – I want a header eventually – but for now, all the baking posts I’ve been adding to my main blog at zonkered.net can be here. Over this weekend I’ll probably post my two most recent cakes, but for now: the Single Girl’s Thanksgiving Menu (for 2009, at any rate). No cake, but there is pie, and even the savory items are baked.
Okay, or roasted, if you insist.
The only thing I’ve done so far is apple pie, loosely based on Deb at Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, but also planned for the day are stuffed mushrooms and roasted acorn squash, loosely based (yes, again) on a couple of the Pioneer Woman’s recipes.
Deb’s apple pie is from America’s Test Kitchen; thus, my pie is from America’s Test Kitchen + my mother + me, when I changed stuff around. I haven’t tried it yet. It may very well be a horrible disaster.
I doubt it, but you never know.
Apple Pie
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
4 Gala apples, peeled cored and sliced
3/4 C sugar
2 T flour
1 T Penzey’s Apple Pie Spice
1 T lemon juice
2 prepared pie crusts
Preheat oven to 425F and fit one pie crust to your pie plate. Let the edges hang over for now, and attack the apples. This is going to take a while.
Fill a bowl with water and add the 1 T of lemon juice – this will keep your apple slices from turning brown, and since you’re using seven of them, this is a concern. Peel, core and slice, and then drain the apples when you’re done.
In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, and pie spice. Toss the apples until they’re coated. Get in their with your hands; using a spoon is just going to make you lose apple slices, and you won’t get them coated. You’re going to get goop all over your hands anyway.
Pile the apples in the crust – they should mound up pretty high – and then cover them up with the second pie crust. Trim the edges and seal. Use a fork if you’re fancy, use your fingers if, like me, you’re lucky that the pie crust didn’t completely fall to pieces. Cut holes in the top to vent, unless again, you’re like me and managed to rip three holes in the middle while stretching it over the pie.
Sometimes being something of a disaster is a good thing.
Slide the pie into the oven; bake for 10 minutes at 425F, and then lower to 350F for an additional 40-50 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for at least four hours before eating. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or anything else that sounds fantabulous.
The mushrooms and squash might show up later. I make no promises.
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