Valentine's Day food pictures/recipes

These stuffed mushrooms were SO GOOD! I'm so going to make them again! They were really easy to make. I got the basic recipe from Allrecipes and changed it (as I usually do).

Stuffed Mushrooms

Yield: 8 mushrooms

3 T. "real" crumbled bacon bits

8 crimini/baby bella mushrooms

1 T. margarine

1 green onion, finely chopped

3/4 c. cheddar cheese, shredded (I used lowfat)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Remove mushroom stems and finely chop.
In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Slowly cook and stir the chopped stems and onion until the onion is soft. Remove from heat.

Stir together the mushroom stem mixture, bacon and Cheddar. Mix well and scoop the mixture into the mushroom caps.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted.

The chicken cigars are a Rachael Ray recipe. I think she has good ideas, but sometimes she uses ingredients that are difficult to find. I completely rewrote that recipe. I'm not a big fan of ground chicken you buy in the store, so I sauted chicken breasts in the seasonings and shredded it in the food processor. I also added 2 oz of cream cheese because I was worried that they wouldn't stick together right. They were DELICIOUS!

The shrimp cocktail was also Rachael Ray's recipe. I followed it exactly. I couldn't find the jumbo shrimp but the ones marked "large" worked just as well, although they didn't turn out as pretty as hers did. The cocktail sauce had a good flavor and a better texture than what you usually buy from a bottle.

Exciting Friday night...and pimento cheese

This week has been so busy! Work was really really busy. Nine hours just doesn't give you ANY downtime during tax season, especially not with the deadline yesterday.

Jay is taking the LSAT tomorrow, so we didn't do too much tonight. We went to El Potrillo, and then went to check out the new Kroger on the "other side" of the interstate (by the Home Depot & Bonefish). Isn't sad that we planned to do that on a Friday night??? It is so cool! They have a sushi bar (bleh!) and a cheese bar!!!! I picked up some gouda to try one night this week. And I finally found some gourmet (low-cal) crackers I have been dying to try since I read about them on the Internet. WASA crackers. They don't have them at the Kroger that is 2 minutes from us. Rumor has it (according to Jay) that Madison is getting a Whole Foods store! I went in one with Audrea when I went to visit her in Austin. The one here is suposed to be large....50,000 square feet. Crazy!

Speaking of food, I had been craving pimento cheese recently. It wasn't something I didn't start eating it until a few years ago. My parents ate it sometimes when I was growing up, out of the Mrs. Stratton tub, but I would never try it (which is really strange considering how much I like cheese). Anyways, I was looking for a lower fat alternative, so I adapted a recipe and came up with this:

Lowfat Pimento Cheese
8 servings

2 oz lowfat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup fat-free mayo
3/4 cup shredded 2% sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper*
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 oz pimentos

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Refrigerate for at least an hour (to "ripen") before serving.
* can adjust cayenne pepper to taste. It has a good kick with 1/4 teaspoon.

Jay won't eat pimento cheese, so Leigh came over and had some with me Tuesday while Jay was in night class. I have enjoyed the leftovers in my lunch this week on white-wheat bread and stuffed into celery.

Oh, and Jay is watching the Bob Saget:That Ain't Right comedy special on HBO. This is the third time we've seen it. It upsets me greatly to hear Danny Tanner dropping f bombs all over the place. Somehow I don't know if Full House reruns will ever be the same again.