Fun guy casserole

Over the years I've saved recipes passed on to me from various sources, like other people's family members. In this case, my friend Jenn's grandfather's mushroom casserole. Which I call Fun Guy casserole. Funghi. Fun guy. Get it? I'd never make it on Last Comic Standing.

One of the ways I use this blog is as a repository for those recipes. I sometimes adapt them, to make it smaller like I did here. If you want to do this in a 13x9, check out the original recipe on the bottom.

Ingredients
3 lb fresh mushrooms, roughly chopped and cleaned (I used 1.5 lb crimini & 1.5 lb white)
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS garlic powder
1/2 cup water from cooked mushrooms

Ingredient/amounts from Jenn's Grandfather's original recipe - directions are the same)
5 lb fresh mushrooms, roughly chopped and cleaned; 1C Italian bread crumbs; 3/4C grated cheese; 4TBS olive oil; 2-3 cloves garlic; 1C water from cooked mushrooms. Bake in 13x9 instead of pie dish

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.

Put mushrooms in large stockpot with water. Boil 10 minutes. Reserve 1C water and drain the rest. Let the mushrooms cool. When cool, add rest of ingredients and mix well. Place in a greased baking dish and bake for 45 min or until crispy.

Quick, easy, fun guy way to a variation on the veggie side.

I smell something burning. Rog, is that your underwear?

Sorry Dee Spencer, it is not Rog's underwear. It's the smell of the weekend getting close.

I personally can't wait. I will finish planting my spring and summer bulbs, do a lot of work for Relay For Life of South Philadelphia, make a kick ass yet healthy creamy cauliflower soup, see a lot of friends, and probably have a hangover on Sunday. Ok definitely on the hangover. I'm not as spry as I used to be. Recovery is not swift.


T H U R S D A Y  T H O U G H TS

1. As you can see from the forward, I do not have off tomorrow. In Dream World B, I would have all the bank holidays off. Dream World A is where I win the lottery and have every day off.

Thank you, veterans. I appreciate your courage and your service. We are the land of the free only so long as we are also the home of the brave.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms.  It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. 

~G.K. Chesterton

Along those lines, happy birthday to the USMC. Semper Fidelis. Thank you.

2. My second day hair is brought to you by got2B fat-tastic dry shampoo. Ladies who say you can't go a day without washing your hair, I feel you. I have oily hair and I said that for 20 some years, until my fabulous stylist Kristi Morgan at Sensational Scissors said really, you CAN go a day or more between washings, and your color will last longer. Now I actually think my hair looks best on the second day I don't wash it. Thank you fat-tastic dry shampoo. Find it at Rite Aid. Once a month they run buy 1 get 1 free sales. I always buy two and am happy as a flipping clam.

3. Today is my little nephew's very first birthday. Happy birthday Jax! I love you.

4.Yesterday five Christmas gifts arrived in the mail. I am officially more than halfway finished Christmas shopping. Tick tock, mofos. Lots of awesome online deals out there.

5. I don't understand why so many movies are being made in 3D. I have motion issues, 3D makes me ill. Stop it, Hollywood.

6. Revenge and Modern Family didn't air this week due to the CMAs. I'm thankful this is my complaint for the day.

7. Dunkin Donuts near Track 1 at Suburban Station, please be speedy with your renovations. Where's a girl to get her morning coffee on Fridays without having to tramp through the urine filled underbelly of the station?

8. Brace yourself - I have not made a dish containing mushrooms this week...and I don't plan to. Earth shattering, I know. Is everyone ok? Counselling will be provided for those who need it. The first person to name the type of mushroom in this photo in a comment will receive a $5 Dunkin Donuts gift card in the mail.

9. I'm afraid to go to my sculpting class this afternoon. After class two weeks ago, I couldn't walk downstairs without looking like Forrest Gump with his leg braces on. Nor could I sit on the toilet without bracing myself. TMI? It's my blog. I'm not Bobby Brown but it is  my prerogative.

10. I am lifting this ditty pretty directly from my facebook status this morning. I cannot tell a lie.

I'm confused by the Joe Paterno supporters lamenting over what's being done to him. Most of those statuses say nothing about the victims. What if your kid was the next victim because he didn't do enough? Let's be real - he was the most powerful man in Happy Valley. He could've blown the lid off of this and had it handled another way. For a man who holds so much power, taught conservative family values and is a father himself, he should have done more when he saw nothing was being done by the AD. When there is a far reaching coverup of of this magnitude, EVERYONE must go. When you're the boss, it starts with you. No, he's not going out with his head held high. None of those kids left the showers with theirs up either.

Sandusky is a vile being. Those who stood by and didn't do enough are not in the A+ column. In his FB status, my friend PJ Katz opened with this quote, which is so very relevant to this situation: "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." THAT is why Joe, and hopefully the rest of the people who knew about this, are being removed.

To those who say we don't know everything: No, we don't. But we do have 23 pages of a grand jury report that tell us what happened. We do know after that report came out, 20 more victims came forward. We know that Paterno himself says in hindsight he wishes he did more. What more do we need to know? The unwillingness of anyone who witnessed something to follow through and make sure this predator was dealt with appropriately makes them culpable as well. To do what is required of you legally does not in any way mean you did what was required of you morally, and that's what makes you unable to sleep at night.

To PSU alums and students: Your institution is famous for its football program, but it is certainly not defined by it. You have many things to be proud of that don't have anything to do with a football field. Don't take it personally when the world at large puts your icons on blast. Find solace and strength in your numbers. You still ARE Penn State. Current students, go back to class. Learn, grow, make the world a better place.

To those that still want to argue: imagine the boy in the shower was your child, and someone walked in on him being raped and didn't shout or attempt to intervene physically. And the people in power who knew about it didn't follow up to find that boy, or to make sure it didn't happen to another little boy. How staunch are you now in your support of the coaching and administrative staff who had knowledge of these heinous acts? If you say you still support them, I call bullshit.

I simply can't understand the sympathies expressed for the adults who knew about the abuse instead of the victims who endured it. It sickens me.

Blast off,

SMD

I scream, you scream, we all scream for mushrooms

You read that right, and not the magic kind either. My facebook peeps know I've been cooking with mushrooms on all burners in my kitchen since mid-October. I am enchanted and possibly obsessed with the funghi.

Since mid October I've made the following:
Rustic Mushroom Tart: this was excellent, but definitely not healthy. I did use skim milk in the bechemal sauce to cut a little bit of fat.


Glorious.

Mushroom Herb Mac & Cheese: This was excellent, and not too heavy.

I just threw this creamy dreamy pasta together with a bit of a veggie ragout: tomatoes, zucchini, onion, garlic, and baby bellas.

Lunch last week - veggie beef barley soup in the crockpot, adapted from my Mom Mom's recipe. The baby bellas stole the show.

By last week, I was recklessly throwing mushrooms into everything. I added baby bellas to this lovely veggie lasagna:

For this week's lunches, I cut the beef and just made mushroom barley soup:

And yesterday while I had the mushroom barley soup going, I made what I thought would land me my mushroom crown of glory: PDub's Burgundy Mushrooms. They cook on the stove top for NINE hours: six with the lid on and three with them off. In the time they were on the stove, I exercised, spent an hour and a half doing yardwork and planting bulbs, packed lunch, cut up veggies, put laundry away, spent 4.5 hours at my neighbor's house drinking wine and shooting the shit with some ladies, and read half of a James Patterson book. That is some serious time on the stove.

I've wanted to make them for years. They were good, but not as good as I expected them to be. MFD loved them over buttery white rice.

Four pounds of button mushrooms

After six hours of cooking with the lid on

After the full nine hours

PDub's mushrooms stuffed with brie are a better bet for me. I've done them with brie and with fontina, I prefer the brie but neither disappoints. They define yum. Serve them as an appetizer at a party this holiday season. Your guests will appreciate them.

I am looking forward to a life partnership with mushrooms.

Also...is Monday over yet? Good Christ.

Toodles,

SMD

p.s. I encountered three slugs at close range during Sunday's yard work. I'm glad I refrained from crapping my pants and screaming like a school girl.