Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Marscapone Cheese

Well, here is another version of the stuffed portobellos. Sometimes you just crave them, and Dave was craving them. I prefer them with ground turkey, but since we try to eat healthy all week long, I will usually cave and let him pick the meat and Italian Sausage was on the menu. I am going to try something new and add pictures to the blog (as you can see from a few of the other posts) and have taken pics at each stage of the cooking.

2 pkgs of ground Italian Sausage, hot or mild (your preference)

1/2 jar of sun-dried tomatoes, julienned in olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 leek, chopped

1/4 cup dry sherry

1 tbsp crushed red pepper

1 tbsp fresh thyme

6 oz container marscarpone cheese

1/2 cup shredded gruyere cheese

Pre heat over to 350 degrees. Pre-chop the leeks, mince the garlic and chop the sun-dried tomatoes and thyme.

In a large saute pan, take 2 tbsp olive oil and brown the italian sausage till it is cooked thoroughly. Remove from heat and put into a bowl. In the same pan, add the leeks and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and the sun-dried tomatoes. Saute for 5 - 7 minutes on medium heat.

Deglaze the pan with the sherry. Add the thyme. Saute for about 5 more minutes. Add the sausage back into the mixture and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes giving the mixture a minute for the tastes to meld together. While the mixture is sauteing, prepare the portobellos. Remove the stems and place the caps on a baking pan. When you are ready to fill the caps, add the marscapone cheese to the mixture stir it, letting it melt into the sausage mixture.

Fill the mushroom caps with the mixture then top each mushroom cap with the gruyere cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Lemon Roasted Potatoes

A friend of ours made these for us and they were fantastic. He found the recipe on a website (allrecipes.com) and cut back on some of the butter for me (since he knows I am so health conscious). As you will see by the photo I am attaching, they were pretty much gone, before I had a chance to react and take a picture of the final product. :) I was only able to take a picture of a few of these little guys (only the few that were left once we all inhaled them) but it is just a testament to the chef!

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup butter, unsalted, melted (1 stick) he actually only used half a stick of butter for the recipe

2 tbsps lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp dried dill weed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

5 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the canola oil, melted butter, lemon juice, garlic, dill, salt and pepper. Add potatoes and toss to coat. Spread the potatoes out on a baking sheet and drizzle any remaining liquid from the bowl over them. Bake in the preheated oven until potatoes are brown and crispy, about 45 minutes.

The potatoes came out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. MMM MMM