Last night we gathered around our Christmas tree with some very old (not in age but in terms of how long we have known them) and dear friends. When we first starting hanging out with these friends none of us were married and we were known to go to a bar or two. Now we have all gotten married and most of us have had kids.  There is one couple in the group that are still living a pretty cool hipster lifestyle without kids. It was reluctantly that this friend agreed to let me host our annual Christmas get together at my house so that I could deal with my baby’s sleep schedule. I think she thought that we would be having triscuits with that spray on cheese on paper plates (hey that sounds kind of tasty doesn’t it?). But I managed to wrangle up my Mom’s Christmas china and we put out a SPREAD! (Mom, if you are reading this…don’t expect to get that china back anytime soon. I’m kind of digging it!)

One of the things I made to impress my friend were these bacon stuffed mushrooms and boy did they deliver. They were the perfect companion to the tenderloin her husband smoked in their Big Green Egg and the shrimp salad sandwiches she brought (I need that recipe, Stat!!).  So if you need to impress some people and you don’t have a lot of time, I highly recommend this recipe!!!

Also, I want to give a shout out to my dear friend, A, who got me the handheld blender I wrote that I wanted in my post about salsa. Thank you!!

Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

(Adapted from this recipe: http://www.mountainmamacooks.com/2011/02/bacon-and-cream-cheese-stuffed-mushrooms/)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
16 oz standard mushrooms with stems

2/3 cup parmesan cheese

8 oz sour cream

1 package bacon (or pancetta if you are feeling fancy. Going try that next time!)

1 yellow onion

1 clove garlic

Directions:

1. Chop up your bacon or pancetta and fry in a pan until nice and crispy. Remove bacon with slotted spoon and reserve bacon grease.

2. Meanwhile, wash your mushrooms and remove stems. You can discard the stems unless you want to use them for some other purpose. This recipe does not use them.

3.  Lay mushrooms out bottom side up on a baking sheet.

4. Cook onion in bacon grease until slightly carmelized. About 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant. About 1 more minute.

5. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave your brick of cream cheese w/ parmesan cheese for about 2 minutes.

6. Add bacon and onion mixture to cream cheese mixture and mix well. Scoop mixture into mushrooms.

7. Bake mushrooms at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until mushrooms are cooked through and mixture is browned.

(note: You can make your bacon cream cheese mixture a day in advance and refrigerate and add to your mushrooms on the day you want to cook them)

Enjoy!!