catnip and coffee

Well, I’ve gardening so much lately that my time for cooking has been very limited and my meal creativity has been sorely lacking. One day last week I was wandering the grocery aisles looking for inspiration and found some very nice large white mushrooms and in the meat department there was some fresh chicken breakfast sausage on sale. Hmmm. Any idea where I’m going with this?

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to put it all together, but when I got home I remembered I had a package of cream cheese and some garlicy/cheesy dip mix from tastefully simple (but any flavor dip mix would work!) I mixed up the dry dip mix with the cream cheese (room temp for ease in mixing) in a large bowl, and stuck it in the fridge to meld the flavors.

Preheat your oven to about 325.

Next, wash and dry the mushrooms well. I usually fill a bowl with cold water and a good splash of vinegar and let them soak for a minute to get all the dirt off. When they’re dry, you can snap off the stems and set them aside for soup or something. Sometimes, not enough snaps off so I just take a knife or a small spoon and scrape out a little more. You want lots of room for the filling. If any of the mushrooms crack a bit - no worries - use them anyway!

Line a cookie sheet with foil and put your mushrooms on hole side up. Bake for 10-15 minutes. When you pull them out of the oven you will notice they are full of water. You need to get rid of all the liquid. I just use a paper towel and dip them in each individually until the liquid is soaked up. You can do your initial cooking with the mushrooms upside down so they drain better, but then you’ll have to flip them when they’re super hot and delicate (and slippery!) - and that’s not so easy!

While the mushrooms are baking you can start the sausage.

The sausage was the loose kind without the casings, but it you only have the kind with the casings just strip the meat out and throw the casing away before you cook them. I just throw the sausage in a frying pan and drain off the fat when it’s done. Make sure you break up the meat pretty fine while you’re cooking. You don’t want huge chunks.

Take your dip out of the fridge and dump the hot (drained) sausage into it and mix all together. The heat from the sausage will make it really easy to work with.

Now you just need to put a heap of stuffing in the mushrooms! I also put a bit of provolone on the very top of each one for a nice bit of melty goodness.

Stick the pan back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so - use your judgement - if the cheese is nicely melted and maybe even a little browned on top - they’re ready. Honestly, there’s no rules on this one - just whenever it seems hot enough.

These mushrooms were super yummy, made a nice meal, and it gave me lots of ideas on variations:

If I were to use hot italian sausage I would probably use plain cream cheese (no extra seasonings.)

If I used sundried tomato and basil chicken sausage (my favorite!) I would add some italian seasonings to the cream cheese.

Any good melting cheese on the top would work - mozzarella, white american, whatever, I just happened to have provolone on hand. Also, using sliced cheese is easier than shredded on this - it won’t fall off the top.

If I made this for company I might use the smaller button mushrooms for bite size portions, and I would put a bit of parsley, rosemary or basil leaf etc. on top for a pretty effect. By the way, neither dh or the boy would try this one - but that meant more for me!

Ingredient list:

• 2 or 3 packs of fresh large white button mushrooms (depending on the size of the packs err on the side of more mushrooms - you’ll be surprised how far a lb of meat will go)
• 1 lb or so fresh sausage, any flavor, sans casings
• 1 package cream cheese (I’m sure the light kind would work well too)
• 1 package dry dip mix (garlic or ranch or italian, the variations are endless, mmm maybe pesto!)
• a couple slices of cheese (again - whatever you have on hand!)

That’s it! So easy!