Mushrooms Stuffed With Amazingness

Happy New Year!!!

So my husband doesn't have a lot of traditions from his childhood that he felt the need to pass on to our kids (or even a ton he remembers, sheesh), but early on I learned that the traditions that are important revolve around New Year's Eve. And the cornerstone of a Traditional Smith Family New Year's Eve is stuffed mushrooms. It's basically a miracle I got this much out of him. When I pushed for details like "stuffed with what" all information stopped. "Stuff them with whatever you want, it doesn't matter. They just have to be stuffed." 

Okay then. 

After some cruising of Pinterest and the internet and some tweaking and combining and altering and mish moshing of recipes I have a finished product that I love. Like, LOVE. Like I could eat these every single day. 

Use: 

- 8oz thick cut Hickory smoked bacon

- 1/2 to 2/3 of an onion (white or yellow) 

- 1 clove of garlic 

- 16oz button mushrooms (fresh is best)

- 4oz of cream cheese

- a little more than 1/4 a cup shredded Parmesan*

- salt and pepper 

Do: 

1. Let the cream cheese get to room temp. This process is infinitely easier with soft cream cheese. 

2. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. 

3. Cut the raw bacon into little pieces - I use a kitchen shears but you can do this however you want, a shears is just the easiest for me. Cook the bacon in a large saute pan over medium heat. 

4. While the bacon cooks cut the mushroom stems out of the caps (I know I'm doing good when I can see the ribbing of the underside of the cap). Lay the mushroom caps on a foil lined baking sheet as you de-stem them. Then mince the stems and set them aside. 

5. Mince the onion and hopefully by now your bacon is done so take it out of the pan and set that aside. Get rid of the bacon grease but keep 2 or 3 tablespoons and use that to saute the onion until it's nice and soft. 

6. Add the mushrooms stems and garlic to the pan and cook it all together. SMELLS SO GOOD. 

7. Add some salt and pepper as you like. Lower your heat and toss in your cream cheese and your Parmesan and mix it up till it's all melty and ooey gooey. Throw in the bacon and mix it all up really good. Take it off the heat and stuff the mushroom caps (generously!!!). Bake them at 350F for about 25-30 minutes. You want soft mushrooms and hot filling. 

Now eat and be delighted. SO GOOD. 

Side notes: I can make this recipe pretty quickly now, but during the experimentation and learning phase I cooked the bacon on low heat to give myself time to de-stem mushrooms because I'm a perfectionist and de-stemming mushrooms is not something you do willy-nilly when you're a perfectionist. Also this filling makes good hot dip with a bit of toasted French bread or crackers. In fact I usually have a couple tablespoons of the filling leftover after stuffing the caps so I secretly eat it on crackers while husband waits for his mushrooms. 

*I have done this once with grated pepper jack cheese because husband likes a little spice in life so feel free to experiment with your cheese selection,