cooking

Post hurricane Irene, we are gearing up to get my sister married. It appears that all caterers in my little town believe they are Escoffier and think it is therefore appropriate to charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for food and labor. One proposed paying the waiters a little less per hour than we pay our attorney! with a mandatory 18% gratuity tacked on. Who knew so many culinary movie stars could be packed in such a small place?
And getting slowly to the point of this post, I'm doing it myself...

First up- Two Hot Appetizers....
Sundried tomato and goat cheese tartlets.
2 large logs of goat cheese
2 packages of cream cheese
4 eggs
2 8oz jars of chopped sundried tomato in olive oil
fresh herbs (marjoram and thyme, in this case...)
pepper and garlic powder (tsp. each?? to taste)
Blend all ingredients with a hand mixer, spoon into prepared puff pastry cups (c'mon I'm not THAT good...) garnish with herb leaves. Bake at 350 for around 6min, longer if freezing first. (makes 120 bite size, or 60 muffin-cup size)

Broccoli Rabi Stuffed Mushrooms
2 large heads broccoli rabi
1/2 cup prepared roasted garlic (chopped)
salt & pepper, olive oil (a lot)
1/2lb ricotta cheese (season with salt and pepper)
camembert cheese (1.5lbs)
6 LARGE boxes of button mushrooms
Chop rabi finely. In a large sautee pan, fry the rabi and garlic in oil until well mixed, and rabi are beginning to soften. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon ricotta mixture into mushroom caps, top with rabi.
Coat the bottom of a baking sheet with olive oil and assemble the mushrooms. Bake at 375 or so for around 40 min or until mushrooms are tender. Top each with a dollop of camembert. Try to serve them before you gobble them all...

My camera seems to have disappeared in the festivities, so you'll have to imagine. I can tell you it all disappeared mighty quickly...