Balloons and Stuffed Mushrooms!

You always know that the balloons from the parade are huge, but you don't realize how huge until you see them in person. They are gigantic! They are held down my nets and bags of sand. It was really fun, but probably something that we won't do again for a couple of years.

Anyway, my job for Thanksgiving dinner was to bring stuffed mushrooms, stuffed peppers and stuffing. My family kind of goes overboard for every holiday (it is the Italian in us.) so while most people sit down for an hour, our dinner takes much longer because we eat, pause, rest, stop, eat, pause, rest, stop and do that about four or five time...literally.

For my recipes, I wanted to make everything from scratch so I made 3 loaves of bread in my bread machine 2 days before. The 3 loaves ended from being too much but Danny and I will use the extra 1.5 loaves leftover. I sliced the bread into about 1/2 inch thick slices and then put it into the food processor to make them into breadcrumbs. (I used about 4 slices for both the mushrooms and stuffed peppers.) I rinsed and de-stemed the mushrooms. This is the breadcrumb mixture in the bowl. I put about a teaspoon of the mixture in each one.

This is Giada's recipe from the Food Network.

• 1/2 cup Italian-style dried bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms, stemmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Stir the bread crumbs, Pecorino Romano, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, to taste, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium bowl to blend.

Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat. Spoon the filling into the mushroom cavities and arrange on the baking sheet, cavity side up. Drizzle remaining oil over the filling in each mushroom. Bake until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is heated through and golden on top, about 25 minutes. Serve.

Everyone enjoyed these healthy mushrooms with their turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Hope you enjoy your Friday, whether you are working, home, or doing some shopping on this Black Friday. As one of my students said on Wednesday, Black Friday is a holiday too! :)