This is me being brave

Disclaimer-
If you are one of those people on a diet do not, I repeat DO NOT
read further because the Diet Train has been derailed here
and ALL passengers got off.

See I can be brave I can conquer my fear, my fear of frying that is.
Yep frying, NOT flying. That's a fear that will never be conquered.
If you are wondering what brought this on you can go here, see she frys EVERYTHING, and I was dying to try several of her recipes.
But as you may or may not Know (if not read here) but I don't do frying. I usually end of catching things on fire.
BUT if I was going to make some of these lovelies I needed to conquer my fear, Be brave little rabbit, be brave. I gathered inspiration from one of the kids favorite movies, this one-

My kiddos are always in tears at the end of this movie, they are so cute :)

On we go, to get over my frying phobia I made these-

ok, ok so the mushrooms aren't fried but the others are! I made these for an appetizer night with some friends. And.... they..... were.... YUMMY, and even better I didn't catch a single thing on fire. Nothing even burned (if we don't count my thumb that is) how good was that!


Wontons
Ingred;
1/2 pkg cream cheese
3 sliced green onions
1/4t. ginger
1/2t. soy sauce
1/4c. crab
wonton wrappers
mushroom caps

Put the cream cheese, onions, ginger and soy sauce in the Food Processor, mix until well blended. Blend in the crab, use as a filling for wontons or in mushrooms.

I placed the mushrooms upside down on a baking sheet and drizzled with olive oil then baked at 375 for about 15 minutes, then turned them over and stuffed with this mixture and put a small cube of mozzarella on top and baked at 375 for about 20 minutes. Very good.

These mushrooms were started the same way but instead of the filling I put a small scallop in each one and wrapped a 1/4 of a piece of bacon around each one. I had never had scallops before and I have to say this was my favorite of these all.

For the mozzarella slices I got my inspiration from the frying link I gave you up above, I used her recipe although not exactly. She has great pictures and instructions so you really need to go check her blog out. There is a lot of great stuff over there.

I sliced the mozzarella into about 1/2 inch slices, layed them on a plate and drizzled with a mixture of olive oil, garlic salt and minced basil. I let this set in the fridge for about 15 minutes while I assembled the other ingred.
I put 1 egg in a flat bowl, 1/2c. flour in another and a mixture of bread crumbs and panko crumbs in another bowl.
I dipped the sliced in the flour first, then the egg, then the crumbs and fried on the stove for about 1-1/2 minutes on each side. These were the BEST I have ever had, EVER I tell you.

And I didn't catch ANYTHING on fire, I was very proud of myself :) :) :)

Fun with Artichokes

I have a couple more artichoke recipes that turned out to be keepers-

The first one is from AR, the only change I made was to add in some diced green olives.

Artichoke Salsa

Pretty good stuff, I think next time I will top it with some shredded cheese.


This next one is very versatile, it could be used as a cold pate.

Or topped with shredded mozzarella and baked as a dip.

Or used to stuff Mushrooms, it was yummy all 3 ways.

Artichoke Crab Spread
Ingred;
1/2c. marinated artichoke hearts
1/2c. crab meat
4 oz cream cheese
1/4c. parmesan cheese
1 green garlic stuffed olive
1/2t. salt

Blend all together in a food processor. If baking- bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Next time I make this I think I will add 1/2c. shredded mozzarella into the mix. This is a recipe that I will be making for game night for sure.

Miss M was cooking right alongside me, she made 2 beautiful little tea cakes and a scarecrow cookie.

She told me the recipe is a secret though, so I am unable to share it with you, sorry : )

Veggie Beef Lentil Soup

Veggie Beef Lentil Soup
Ingred;
1-14oz pkg lean smoked beef kielbasa
1-1/2c. dry lentils
1c. chopped carrots
1c. chopped onions
1/2c. chopped celery
4c. beef broth
2c. water
1 29 oz can tomato sauce
1c. quartered mushrooms
1 can corn
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1t. each dried parsley and basil

In a large pot bring the broth, water and tomato sauce to a boil.
Stir in the lentils.
Add in the remaining ingredients and and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender.

I have been looking for lentil recipes and this is a version of one I found on AR, the recipe I started with is here. I ended up changing it quite a bit so I posted what I did and am giving you the link if you want to check out the original. This was really good, I am looking forward to eating the leftovers that's for sure :)

More Mochi, More 'Shrooms and 5 Words from Willoughby

I made a Pumpkin Mochi Cake, I got the recipe from Allrecipes, there are quite a few Mochi recipes on there. Just type Mochi in the search box and check them all out! The picture isn't all that great but it was definitely a hit here at my house.

Pumpkin Mochi

Ingred;
2-1/2c. mochiko
2t. baking powder
2c. sugar
4 eggs
1- 30 oz can pumpkin
1- 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1c. melted butter
2t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Sift together the mochiko, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl. Mix together the eggs, pumpkin, milk, butter and vanilla. Stir this mixture into the dry mixture. Pour into the pan.
Bake for 1 hour, cool before serving.

I enjoy pumpkin desserts, and I really liked this but I think the Lemon Mochi is my favorite still :) :) :)


I made some 'shrooms tonight, they got a little overdone but were still tasty. I used the Parmesan puff filling I had leftover from yesterday in them, it worked really well. I wouldn't have overbaked them, they smelled so yummy I knew they were done, but I was distracted by a giant spider in my kiddos game cupboard. Yuck.

I received 5 words from Willoughby to play along in a Game.
If anyone else wants to play let me know and I can give you five words.

#1-Cold, I like the cold, not freezing cold exactly just chilly cold. My Mom has always called me a heater, because from the time I was really small I was always very, very warm blooded. As a Teen my family always made me keep my bedroom door closed because I liked to keep my windows open year round, even in winter. I grew up in Montana remember so it got pretty chilly in there at times.

#2-Light, I am a big fan of natural lighting. I like to leave the lights in my house off until it's almost too dark to see because I don't like the fake light. Hubby thinks I'm strange, so I tell him it only looks so dark because he is getting old, lol.

#3-Painting, I wish I could paint. Landscapes, Seascapes ( anything with escape in it sounds good to me :) I even took painting classes once a week for almost a year. And I still can't paint, I gave up the day I realized Miss B's paintings looked better than mine.

#4-Change, as most of you know I am not a big fan of change. I would like it if things stayed the same, and never changed :)

#5-Inspire, My children are my biggest inspiration. Everyday they inspire me to be better, I am constantly amazed by how giving and sweet they are to each other and those around them. They Inspire me everyday.

Sausage Meatball stuffed 'Shrooms

At a wedding we went to last month one of the things that were served at the reception were some yummy mushroom caps topped with meatballs. I really wanted to try making some. I think the ones we had were more of a ground beef, sausage mixture but I only used sausage. Also once I had made these they didn't look quite like the picture in my head. So I am going to have to try again, I think I need to bake off the meatballs and then put them in the mushroom caps and heat them through. Even though they weren't quite what I had remembered these were really, really good.

Sausage meatball stuffed Mushrooms
Ingred;
1 pkg reg. mushrooms, the bigger the better
1/4 c. cream cheese, softened
1/2c. parmesan cheese
1T. parsley
1/2 lb ground sausage
1/2t. salt
1/2t. onion powder
1/4t. pepper

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and place top down in a 8x13 pan. In a small bowl mix together the sausage, parsley, parmesan cheese, & pepper. Make into small meatballs and set aside. In another small bowl mix together the cream cheese, salt and onion powder, put about 1/2t. full of this mixture into each of the mushroom caps and top that off with a meatball.
I baked these at 375, I didn't time them very well, it took 30-45 min. maybe. I just watched them and when the meatballs started to brown on top I took them out.

These were sooooooo good, this version will definitely be made again (in fact I am trying to come up with an excuse to make them this weekend). But I do want to try again to make something closer to what we had.
If any of you have had anything similar to this I would love to hear about it, and borrow your recipe! :) :) :)

'Shrooms & Wontons

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingred;
1 pkg lg stuffer Mushrooms
1/2 pkg (4oz) Cream Cheese
1/4c. shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/4c. Crab (can use imitation)
2 Green Onions, sliced
1t. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4t. each Garlic & Onion Power
1/2t. salt

Oven 400
Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel, remove their stems and place caps on a cookie sheet. Lightly drizzle them with olive oil. Put the cream cheese in a food processor and blend, add in the remaining ingred and process until smooth. Using a spoon fill each mushroom cap with about 1t. of the filling. Place pan in the oven and cook for about 30 min. I did try wrapping some of them with half a slice of raw bacon, they turned out pretty good that way but had to cook about 10-15 longer.

Herb & Shrimp Wonton Cigars
Ingred;
Wonton Wrappers
4 oz Cream Cheese
1t. each fresh minced, Parsley, Basil & Oregano
1/4t. minced Garlic
1T. minced Onion
1/2t. Salt
1/2c. fresh Salad Shrimp

Oven 400.
Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil, lightly brush each wonton wrapper with olive oil, both sides. Place about 1t. of the herb cheese in middle of each wonton, spread in a vertical line, top with 4-6 shrimp and roll into a cigar. Repeat with remaining ingred. Place in oven and cook for about 30 min, until they are crispy. Serve with cocktail, or sweet & sour sauce for dipping.

Montana Chokecherry Syrup and some yummy 'Shrooms

I have been meaning to make and bottle some chokecherry syrup. I finally got around to it AND took some pictures! So here goes-
First you need these guys-
8c. White Sugar
4c. Chokecherry Syrup, I was given some from my Grandma that she had canned, Thanks Gram!
2 T. Lemon Juice
And here they are all lined up for their photo shoot-


Oh yeah in case you were wondering what Chokecherries look like here is a picture-

They are very sour, similar to cranberries but darker in color and smaller.

So you put all the ingredients in a big pan and heat until it's starts to boil, looks like this-


Let it boil for 1 min. let it cool for a bit then bottle it up. I'm using this for Teacher gifts so they ended up like this-

These were also something I made this weekend-
Sausage and Cheese stuffed 'Shrooms

Next time I make these I will post the recipe and some better pictures :)