Stuffed Mushrooms

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New Year's Eve is just around the corner, which means cocktail parties, which means appetizers, which means stuffed mushrooms, right?!

Here's a recipe I love. They're breadcrumbless, which is nice if you decided to start your resolution to go low carb one day before the New Year. I mean, if that's the case, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! YOU'RE GIVING UP YOUR LAST FREE EAT-ANYTHING-YOU-WANT DAY! But otherwise, you know, it's cool.

One of my Christmas presents was a rad little Cuisinart chopper. You don't know how many times I've chopped up pecans or walnuts with a knife, cursing the whole time because it would be so much easier with a little food processor number. I guess my guy got a little tired of hearing it (understandably), because one of 'em was under the tree. What I'm getting at here is, the handy chopper makes this recipe much, much, much easier. (And also, my guy rocks.)

Anyway, here's the recipe!

Stuffed Mushrooms

Adapted from the Mouthwatering Stuffed Mushrooms recipe on Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 20 mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 cup canned artichoke hearts, drained
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese plus a little more to sprinkle on top
• 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 teaspoons grated onion
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional if you want 'em to have a little kick)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash the mushrooms well, and pop the stem off of each, saving the stem.

   

3. Chop up the stems finely, or place them in your cool new little food chopper and pulse them a couple of times.

   

   Love it!
    

4. Add the olive oil to a frying pan. On medium, cook the chopped stems and the garlic in the olive oil until most of the moisture from the mushroom stems has dissipated. This should only take a couple of minutes – and be sure not to burn the garlic!

   

5. Stir the salt into the mushroom stem and garlic mixture.
6. Mix the filling:

   If you're using a small chopper: Throw in the artichoke hearts and pulse a few times until coarsely diced. Pour into a bowl and mix together with the mushroom mixture, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, onion, and peppers. You could also try mixing all of this stuff in your chopper, but it may be a tad small for all of it at once. Trust me, I've already learned this lesson, and I've only had my chopper for four days.

   This here would have worked great had I remembered to put the blade in before I added the ingredients. Hey, I'm new to this chopper thing!

   

   If you're using a large food processor: Pulse all the ingredients (except for the mushroom tops) in the food processor. Leave some chunks! Chunks are good!

   If you're going by hand: Chop up the artichoke hearts, them mix them with the mushroom mixture, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, onion, and peppers.
    

7. Okay! Now that your filling has mixed, set your mushrooms top side down on the cookie sheet.
8. Using a spoon, stick the filling into each shroom, with lots overflowing.
9. Sprinkle the top with additional Parmesan cheese.

   

10. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes, until the mushrooms are very hot and liquid starts to form underneath them. 
11. Switch the oven to broil and broil for another two minutes or so, getting the top nice and golden brown.
12. Allow to cool for a good ten minutes or so before handling these little buggers – they're very rolly and if one rolls over, it'll spill its hot contents. Excellent opportunity to see how it's tasting, though.
13. I like to serve these on my deviled egg platter. See: Above comment about rolling.
14. And enjoy!