Category Archives: Entertaining

Stuffed Mushrooms

Posted in Entertaining, Sides, Starters, Vegetables by

Last week I catered a Bridal Shower and served these stuffed mushrooms. I apologize for the photo. After I plated them and put them out, I realized I hadn’t taken a picture. The mushrooms were very popular and before they were gone I had to run out and grab a photo of what was left. I made a double batch and by the time I was able to take a photo these 5 were the only ones left. That just shows you how popular and wonderful they are.

I was very excited to make these, I have had this recipe bookmarked for a long time and was waiting for the right time to make them. My kids and I are the only ones in the family who really like mushrooms, so I don’t usually buy them. After making the mushrooms, I told myself that I will make these again for us, I know my son would go crazy over them.

The Bridal Shower was a success and along with the mushrooms I made chicken salad in phyllo cups, pasta salad, meatballs, stuffed strawberries and cupcakes. I can’t wait to show you the cupcake stand I made. I’ll be posting that later this week.

Stuffed Mushrooms:

  • 24 whole fresh button mushrooms
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
  • 2 tsp. vegetable oil
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • ¼ tsp. pepper
  • ¼ tsp. onion powder
  • ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper, or less if you don’t want a big kick
  • 2 tbs Bread crumbs
  • minced herbs, for garnish (optional)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Lightly grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.  Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully remove the stems from the mushroom caps, setting the caps aside for later.  Add the stems to the bowl of a food processor.  Add the garlic to the food processor as well, and pulse in brief bursts until them mushroom stems and garlic are finely chopped.
  2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chopped mushroom stems and garlic and cook until all the moisture has disappeared, about 5-7 minutes.  Lower the heat to medium-low.  Stir in the cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and spices.  Stir together until the mixture is smooth and creamy; remove from the heat.  Using a small spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of filling.  Arrange the mushroom caps on the prepared baking sheet. (At this point you can refrigerate the mushrooms till ready, I made them a day in advance)
  3. Top with bread crumbs.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the mushrooms are hot and liquid starts to form under the caps.  Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with fresh herbs if using and serve immediately

Source: Annie’s Eats who adapted from Allrecipes

Baby Shower 2011

Posted in Chicken, Cookies, Entertaining, Sides, Starters by

Over the weekend we had my sister-in-law’s baby shower. I co-hosted the shower with my mother-in-law. We have been planning for months and finally it all came together exactly how we planned. Later this week I’ll post the recipes to some of the dishes we served but for now I’m going to give you highlights from the day.

Here I am with the beautiful and pregnant Mandi. My niece is there too but you can’t see her yet, she’s still baking.

The place settings were onesie sugar cookies and wrapped silverware. I forgot to get a photo of the tables once the white onesies were on them. We put a white onesie with a paper plate placed inside of the onsie at every table, along with fabric markers. Each guest got to draw or write whatever they wanted on the onesie. (I forgot to get photos of that too and will update once I get those). They turned out so dang cute!

Some of the cookies that were placed around the tables. Yumm

One of the things I was really excited about was this photofetti. You can use any photos you have and have them made into confetti. I got some photos of Mandi pregnant and even used a sonogram photo. They turned out great and were a huge hit.

Let’s get to the important part, the food. Chicken Enchilada Wraps was one of the first things I thought about serving. They turned out so good. I did have to make a few adjustments to the recipe and I’ll get into that later this week.

Spinach Dip was next on the list. Mandi loves it and what mommy wants, mommy gets.

These meatballs are the easiest to prepare and yet taste like you have spent hours on them. Most of you have probably made them or eaten them. The sauce is grape jelly and chili sauce and that’s it. Pour over frozen Italian meatballs, place in crock pot and in a few hours you have the best tasting meatballs.

My mother-in-law made the shrimp mousse. The first time I had shrimp mousse was this past Christmas Eve. It’s really easy to put together and it turns out so pretty. Tastes pretty darn good too.

Fruit kabobs are a fun way to present fresh fruit. They are fun to put together even though my daughter kept sticking herself with the skewers.

To wash it all down we served “Mock Champagne Punch”. You can find the recipe at Delish. She posted this recipe as I was looking for something other than the typical red fruit juice and 7-up punch. We made a fruit ring to keep the punch cold. We took frozen fruit and filled it with white grape juice so it wouldn’t dilute the punch.

I love this picture. Mandi got so many wonderful things and I hope we gave her a baby shower to remember. Now I sit here patiently waiting for the little bambina to arrive.