Stuffed Mushrooms

Due to the fact that I could eat mushrooms everyday, I am shocked that it took me so long to make stuffed mushrooms.  This was my first attempt ever and they were DELICIOUS!  I changed the recipe I found and added one of the other favorite ingredients, bacon.  I had always thought that stuffed mushrooms were really time consuming and hard to make. Boy was I wrong.  It ended up taking about 30 minutes after cutting everything up and pulling out the food processor.  The work was well worth it.  I halved the recipe I found and still had a bunch of filling left over.

Ingredients:
20 mushrooms, about 2 inches in diameter
1/2 onion chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves chopped
2 sliced of crispy bacon, chopped
3 slice white bread
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon parsley
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper


Remove stem from mushrooms and finely chop, set aside.  Put cubed bread slices into food processor and chop into bread crumbs.  Add in olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Place in a baking pan and spread out.  Bake at 350 for about 6 minutes, allowing bread to dry out.  While bread is baking, saute chopped mushroom stems in butter for about 5 minutes.  Add in onion, bacon, garlic, oregano and remainder of salt & pepper.  Cook until onion is translucent and remove from heat.  Let the mixture cool and then add in bread crumbs, cheese and parsley.  

Place the mushroom caps stem side down in another baking dish.  Bake at 350 for around 10 minutes, or until the mushrooms start to loose water.  Remove from the oven and then stuff with mixture.  Bake at 350 for about 10 more minutes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Original Recipe found here.

Its been awhile since I have posted, for that I apologize!  Things have been busy and I have not had to time to edit photos and write up postings!  Here are the cupcakes I made for Valentines Day! (Yes, even though I haven't been posting, I am still cooking all the time!!)  To be honest, I haven't yet tried the cupcakes in their entirety.  I had some of the cake without the frosting. Tomorrow I will be taking them to work and I'll let you know how many minuted go by before they are all gone! =)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tablespoons red food coloring (if using the liquid, if not 1 tablespoon will be fine!)

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 cup muffin pans with cupcake papers.  You will get 2 batches out of this recipe.  You can also use as a cake recipe.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a mixer.  The recipe suggested a hand-held, but I used my stand mixer.  Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting. 

Frost with cream cheese frosting recipe, found here.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Original recipe found here.

This was a very each cream cheese frosting recipe.  The downside to it, which is good for the red velvet cupcakes, is that the cream cheese flavor really stood out.  I like my frosting to have more a vanilla taste, but overall the pairing of the two turned out.  The red velvet cupcake recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.