Stuffed mushrooms

I love mushrooms, as long as they're cooked. This is my parents recipe, kind of altered.

Ingredients:

• mushrooms
• breadcrumbs
• shredded cheese (this time I used asiago...sometimes I use parmegian)
• minced garlic or garlic powder
• italian seasonings
• butter or olive oil

Directions:

• wash the mushrooms
• pop the stem out and scrape some of the insides out (put aside in bowl)
• take the stems and chop them up (i use my mini chopper)
• put them in a bowl and add breadcrumbs, garlic, seasonings and cheese.
• in a skillet, put a little butter or olive oil. Do this over medium heat.
  
• put the breadcrumb mixture in skillet and cook until it becomes a little gummy.
• Place the mushroom caps upside down on a cookie sheet and fill with the stuffing.
• Cook at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
  

Garlic Cheddar Chicken

A fellow knottie (Becky) posted this recipe the other day and it sounded so good. I decided to try it today, and I was correct! It is yummy!!

Ingredients:

• Extra virgin olive oil (or butter)
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (I used about 6-7)
  
• 3/4 c. dry Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
• Various Italian seasonings to taste
  
• 8 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded thin (I used 6)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
  
• Heat olive oil in saucepan over low heat and cook garlic until tender (I sauteed it in the EVOO, but then added about 1/2 cup of I can't believe its not butter spray (just pour it in) to make a garlic butter)
  
• In a shallow bowl, mix bread crumbs, Parmesan and cheddar cheese, and seasonings
• Dip each chicken breast in garlic butter to coat then press into breadcrumb mixture
• Put thin layer of breadcrumb mixture on the bottom of 9" x 13" baking dish, then arrange chicken breasts in dish
• Drizzle with remaining oil and top with any remaining breadcrumb mixture
• Bake 30 mins. or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear
• For the last couple minutes, I sprinkle cheddar and parmesan cheese on to the top of the chicken and then turn on the broiler to make the top of the dish crispy/browned (I didn't broil, I just put it back in to melt the cheese)
  

Sausage mushroom ragu and rigatoni

This came from the Rachael Ray magazine. Overall I'm not that thrilled with it and will probably not make it again. It was too watery for my liking. My regular sauce is better than this, in my opinion. Anyways, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• salt
• 1 lb rigatoni pasta
• 2 Tbl EVOO
• 1 1/2 lbs bulk italian sausage
• 4 portobello mushroom caps, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• pepper
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups beef broth
• 5 sprigs sage, leaves stripped and thinly sliced
• 1 cup grated pecorino-romano cheese, plus more to pass around the table

Directions:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain
• While the pasta is working, in a large, deep skillet, heat 1 Tbl EVOO, 1 turn of the pan, over medium-high heat until rippling. Add the sausage, crumbling with a wooden spoon and cook until browned. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a paper-towel lined plate to drain.
• Wipe out the skillet and add the remaining 1 Tbl EVOO, 1 turn of the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook over medium heat until softened. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Season with pepper. Stir in the tomatoes, beef broth, and sage. Stir in the sausage. Lower the heat and gently simmer the sauce for 10 minutes.
• To serve, toss the pasta with 2 cups ragu and 1 cup cheese.
  

Chicken Ala Beth....

I don't really know what to call this, as I just kind of made it up as I went along. It wasn't the greatest thing I've made...but it wasn't bad either. I got the thumbs up from Jake. I'm not really sure on measurements, so I'll write what I put in it and guesstimate as I go along.

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in half (to make 2 thinner pieces)
dill
flour
lemon pepper
2 lemons
mushrooms
onion
white wine
egg
garlic
butter (i use i cant believe its not butter spray--0 calories)
vegetable oil

Ok, so I had to defrost the chicken, so while that was going on I chopped the mushrooms, onions and garlic then set them aside.

Once the chicken was defrosted, I cut them in half to make 6 thin pieces of chicken.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, dill, and lemon pepper. Scramble 1-2 eggs in a separate bowl. Take each piece of chicken and put it in the egg, then the flour mixture, then back in egg and back in flour mixture.

In a deep skillet, melt the butter on medium heat. After dipping the chicken in the egg/flour, brown each side it in the skillet. You may want to add some vegetable oil. I did this b/c my butter kept drying up fast. I ended up cooking the chicken all the way and then taking it out of the skillet and setting it aside.

In the same skillet, add the wine. After all was said and done, I probably had about 2 cups in there. Then I added the juice of 2 lemons. I let this simmer for a while

In a separate skillet, I sauteed the mushrooms, onions and garlic in some butter. Once they were sauteed to my liking, I added them to the wine mixture.

Once everything was added together, I put the chicken back in the skillet. I let it simmer for about 1/2 hour.

My problem was that every time I tasted it, it was either too lemony or too winey. I settled with a tad bit too winey. I made brown rice with it and drizzled some of the wine sauce over the rice. All in all it wasn't bad....but like I said, not one of my best.

Shrimp Scampi

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I did, however, tweak it a little and will post to how I made it.

What you need:
1/2 cup butter
1 lb cooked shrimp (de-veined/de-shelled)
8 cloves garlic- minced (more or less depending on your taste)
3/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
pinch of red pepper flakes
Whatever pasta you enjoy (I used linguine)

Melt the butter in a pan on medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add in the shrimp and the garlic. Heat this for about 5 minutes, then add the wine and chicken broth. Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes while stirring occasionally. Add in a dash of red pepper flakes and you're done! I put it over pasta as I liked. I don't mix the whole batch into pasta because some people may like more or less sauce.

Enjoy!