Jill Can Cook: Sausage & Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

I don't currently like mushrooms and I have no plans to start eating them. You can pretty much count on the fact that I'll never eat mushrooms. There, I said it. Now we don't have to pretend like I'm ever going to eat them. Lol

... But.. My family likes mushrooms (I must be adopted) and for this Christmas, I decided to be completely selfless and make a mushroom dish for the ones that I love.

Well, not completely selfless since I do get to blog about it. Anyway, not important. Back to the story.

I asked my siblings (3 of them.. All older. I'm the cute, little baby) if they would eat stuffed mushrooms because obviously, I wasn't going to do it. They all said yes. In fact, they were enthusiastic about it! They love mushrooms! They love me! I'm their favorite sister! I'm so selfless! They love the blog!

Well, they said yes. The rest of it might all be in my head even though it feels real!

I hope this recipe comes out well. I don't even plan on tasting one bite of it. Gross. (Is it ok to blog about making food that I really don't like?! It seems weird, but at least I'm honest, right?! Hahah)

Sausage & Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• 24 oz white button mushrooms
• ⅓ lb hot Italian sausage, ground
• ½ yellow onion, finely diced
• 6 cloves garlic, finely minced
• ⅓ cup dry white wine (I used pinot grigio)
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped (or ¼ tsp dried thyme leaves)
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 egg yolk
• ¾ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions 

1. Wipe off mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Twist stems of mushrooms to remove (or use a paring knife).
2. Chop mushroom stems finely and set aside.
3. Cook and crumble sausage finely. Remove to a plate to cool.
4. Reduce heat to MED-LOW and add onions and garlic to the same skillet with sausage grease. Saute for 3 minutes.
5. Pour in wine to deglaze pan, using a wooden spoon to scrape the pan to release the brown sausage bits, and allow most of the liquid to cook off.
6. Stir in chopped mushroom stems and thyme and saute for 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set mixture aside on a plate to cool.
7. In a bowl, combine softened cream cheese, egg yolk, and Parmesan cheese. Stir to combine well.
8. Add cooled, cooked sausage and cooled onion mixture. Stir well, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so to firm up.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
10. Using a spoon or teaspoon measuring spoon, add mixture to the top of the mushrooms, pressing slightly to fill the cavity. Add a little extra to create a mound on top of the mushroom.
11. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Broil the last minute if you want a more golden brown topping.
12. Let cool a few minutes, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley, and serve.

I had planned to make this, plus several other items for my parents Christmas party. Sounds easy, right? Think again.. My parents aren't our only stop on Christmas day. We get up and leave really early in the morning and bounce from party to party, family to family, state to state. So, making several food items for my parents party, which was the last stop of the day, meant a lot of planning the night before. Luckily, I had Joe helping me out. A lot!

He got together an entire dish while I slaved over cleaning the mushrooms. I was kind of worried I'd ruin them in some way so it took me forever!

I pulled the stems out of the mushrooms. It was easy just to twist them a little.

The mushrooms in the pan.

Joe cut up the mushroom stems as well as the onions. He also put together a little pan of bacon wrapped weenies!

While Joe was playing "Sexy Sous Chef," I was cooking the sausage, which looks really gross in this pic for some reason!

There it is all cooked. Looks a lot more appetizing now. Whew!

The cut up mushrooms getting ready to get added into the pan.

The onions, mushrooms, white wine, and seasonings cooking up!

Everything into the bowl for a lot of mixing!

And then everything went into zip lock containers/covered pans and went into the fridge.

The next morning, we loaded all of our goodies into our cooler to take with us to my parents house. After opening up some presents and mingling for 30 seconds, I got my zip lock containers and pans. I stuffed the mushrooms with the mixture. I pulled my sister, Tania, away from the party in order to help me fill all those mushrooms up.

This is where I want to give out some advice: Either buy more mushrooms or cut the rest of the recipe in half because, even though we over filled the mushrooms, we still ended up with a ton of the cheese mixture left over. Seems wasteful. So keep that in mind.

Anyway, they were ready to serve!!

Joe loves it when I look like the cook of the family. It's funny because he does most of the cooking!

I was so ecstatic to hear everyone raving about the mushrooms! Not me, I didn't even so much as try the stuffing part. No effin' way!!!

There wasn't even one left over at the end of the evening. It should also be said that my mother put together a large meal earlier in the day that, unfortunately, I missed out on.  So, I'm sure most everyone's bellies were nice and full. I'm glad they made room and enjoyed the mushrooms. It puts me in the spirit to possibly make them again, using a different recipe for the stuffing, at some point. We'll see. 

Stay tuned because I made another new dish for my parents Christmas party that I hope to post soon! That dish came out sinfully delicious as well AND I actually ate that one!!