Marinated Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms

Props for this tasty little appetizer goes to a wonderful blogger, COOKING FOR MY PEACE OF MIND. She advertisers her cooking style as "stress cooking" to deal with distractions outside her "everything is fine" kitchen! I love her site, and it is always worth a look...

Here's her recipe...

1 1/2 lbs. mushrooms (I used crimini)
3/4 cup oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp basil
6 - 10 pepper corns
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove

Gently wash your mushrooms and cut the dry ends off the...stub? stem? trunk? Whatever it is...cut it off!

In a good sized deep skillet or large sauce pan, combine everything except for the mushrooms. Simmer for about 10 mins

Add your mushrooms and stir until nicely coated. You'll know when they're all coated cuz they get all shiny and pretty.

Cover and cook. Now...depending on the size of your mushrooms, you'll want to cook them for about 5 - 10 minutes. The original recipe said 3 - 5 minutes but my mushrooms were pretty good sized and I ended up cooking them for 10 minutes. You don't want them soggy...wilted or soft. You want them....mmm...I dunno....kinda al dente.

Once they've cooked and cooled off, put them in a storage container and keep in the fridge until you're ready to eat.

WELL, this sounds easy enough... Pretty quick, and can be made ahead of time (Very important when you have a houseful of people coming over)... I made a few small changes,

HERE's WHAT I DID...

First, I substituted Oils and Vinegars for some flavored oils and vinegars. I had some O OLIVE OIL brand Jalapeno/Lime Oil, and some Zinfandel Vinegar. Next, I altered her spices. Earlier in the year, I made a batch of Steven Reichlen's recipe for MEDITERRANEAN RUB. The rub is equal parts tarragon, oregano, dill, thyme, rosemary and salt. I like to keep my rubs for no more than 3 months. After that time, the spices start to lose their potency. So, it's now or never to use this rub. Honestly, I have used this on pork, beef and fish. On ALL of these meats, it ... well, for lack of a more polite word, it sucked as a rub for meat. But, as a flavoring in oil, all these spices should blend well... Let's see...

Oh, and I love garlic... 1 garlic clove??? I don't think so... add a bunch!

And from there, I just followed the recipe...

AND THEY WERE INCREDIBLE! Not a little bit, but a LOT. I even ate the sauteed garlic cloves...INCREDIBLE! They are a wonderful little finger food (I served with long wooden skewers). They were very popular.

Hey, would this little girl lie to you... Very Popular!