The Barbie-Stolpa Family gets lost in the massive snowstorm of 2009. Found naked, the Barbie-Stolpas had apparently befriended an indigenous cat only found in regions such as this. Sadly, the cat met the same demise as the family. Lesson to all: Dress appropriately during snowstorms and while in elfin villages...
Hubby and I are both battling nasty upper respiratory infections. Both of us wanted soup, neither of us had a mom handy to come make it for us! I drugged myself up and trudged to the store to get ingredients for Pioneer Woman's Sherried Tomato Soup.
O.M.G. is this to die for.
I am fairly certain this will aid in my recovery, and just had to share how yummy this is. Going to make some grilled cheese sammies to go with it too.
Merry Christmas and welcome to my blog!! I was so excited to finally have my pick of recipes this month for Barefoot Bloggers!! If you love to cook Ina Garten's (aka The Barefoot Contessa) recipes and love to blog about it, please join our group!!
For my selection this month, I chose Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms. Mainly, I needed a good appetizer recipe and this one definitely paid off. I made this twice this month, the first time with button-sized mushrooms and then again with larger portobello mushrooms. They tasted great either way. I made no alterations to my recipe, it tastes perfect to me as is. I hope you enjoyed making them as much as I did! I will certainly be adding this to my repertoire for the future!
Have a blessed Christmas!!!
The recipe:
Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms
2009, Ina Garten, All Rights Reserved
Prep Time: 15 min
Inactive Prep Time:-
Cook Time: 1 hr 15 min
Level: Easy
Serves:6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
16 extra-large white mushrooms
5 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
2 1/2 tablespoons Marsala wine or medium sherry
3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from the casings
6 scallions, white and green parts, minced
2 garlic cloves minced
2/3 cup panko crumbs
5 ounces mascarpone cheese, preferably from Italy
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop them finely. Set aside. Place the mushroom caps in a shallow bowl and toss with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and Marsala. Set aside.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, crumbling it with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook the sausage for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until it's completely browned. Add the chopped mushroom stems and cook for 3 more minutes. Stir in the scallions and garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the panko crumbs, stirring to combine evenly with all the other ingredients. Finally, swirl in the mascarpone and continue cooking until the mascarpone has melted and made the sausage mixture creamy. Off the heat, stir in the Parmesan, parsley, and season with salt and pepper, to taste, Cool slightly.
Fill each mushroom generously with the sausage mixture. Arrange the mushrooms in a baking dish large enough to hold all the mushrooms in a snug single layer. Bake until the stuffing for 50 minutes, until the stuffing is browned and crusty.
I'm so late getting my recipes posted this month...it's been a bit of a crazy time in our lives right now. Pardon my tardiness to the party!!
The first December recipe was suggested by Peggy of Pantry Revisited, who selected Croissant Bread Pudding as her choice. I was SO ecstatic about her choice, I commented on one of her blog postings to tell her so. This is my husband's favorite dessert and I am ashamed to admit that he makes this recipe better than I do!! This is one we usually make every year to take to parties or events that require our culinary participation. This month, I made it twice: once for my MOPS group Christmas party and again for an early Christmas dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house. It is one of the most decadent, rich, and just plain yummy desserts there is. I highly recommend this one to anyone!!
The recipe can be found here. Thanks again, Peggy!!!
Well, it has taken me about 24 hours to let everything sink in and feel at peace with the answer to Emily's issues. The nutshell version is that yesterday we saw Dr. Mannaa, her pulmonologist, who (bless his heart) explained things so thoroughly to me that I honestly am accepting of the situation. In essence, Emily has a mild form of cerebral palsy. This is very likely a result of her not getting enough oxygen either in the womb or right after being born (which makes sense, considering she was on oxygen for 10 hours after birth).
The original term that was given to us by the neurologist was "static encephalopathy" which is really a nice, long, confusing technical term for cerebral palsy. CP, however, comes in many forms, and is caused by different things. Most people think of kids with CP as being wheelchair bound, unable to walk or speak, etc. In Emily's case, it presents itself as delays...she had delayed speech, delayed walking, delayed muscle growth/strength, delayed swallowing...the list goes on. Everything is just delayed. This will likely pose some issues once she gets in school but I am learning that there are ways to deal with that (just like kids who are dyslexic, for example). The screaming issues are likely related to her being in pain from all the aspiration but also just flat-out frustration. I am going to explore the best ways to deal with this moving forward.
So, this is it. There will be no more tests, except for one more blood test in the morning which will hopefully rule out something called mitochondriopathy, which is a birth defect (basically) within the mitochondria of the cells and can also explain neurological problems.
Thank you to all of our friends and family for the prayers and messages of strength and comfort while we have painstakingly gotten to this point. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.
