Appetizers/Tappas/Hors D'oeuvres

...Also known as...Alex doesn't want to make a full meal!

I recently had an appetizer night with some new friends. I was, as always, on a budget so I tried to just use what was in the fridge. Low and behold- I succeeded!

On the menu- stuffed mushrooms & bacon wrapped yummies

Stuffed Mushrooms-Ingredients:
Cremini mushrooms, turkey bacon, fresh parsley, onions, garlic, bread crumbs, EVOO, Parmesan cheese
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 375 F. De-stem and wash mushrooms,lay caps underside up on a baking dish lined with tin foil. Finely chop stems, onion, garlic, parsley, and turkey bacon. Drizzle a medium sized saute pan with EVOO and add onions and garlic over medium high heat. Once the onions and garlic are tender and fragrant, add the mushroom stems and allow to cook down. Add the turkey bacon and let it get nice and crispy. Once this mixture is cooked through take off the heat, and stir in a few tbsp of bread crumbs. I used the canned Italian style kind (one of my favorite cheats) but you can make your own in a food processor. The bread crumbs will create a kind of adhesive for the mixture, but make sure you don't add so many that the mixture becomes over dry. The mushrooms and turkey bacon add so much yummy juices you should be able to be pretty liberal with the bread crumbs. Spoon the bread crumb mixture into each mushroom cap, and top with grated Parmesan cheese. Bake the caps for about 7 mins, or until nice and golden brown. Serve warm.

Bacon wrapped yummies-Ingredients:
Bacon slices, cut in half. Small cooked shrimp, tails removed. Fresh bay scallops. Artichoke hearts.
Method:
I hit a dilemma when creating this little dish, I had all of these things that I really wanted to wrap in bacon, but it seemed like overkill to have three separate bacon wrapped items (oh my troubles, why are you so great?) So, my solution was to wrap them ALL TOGETHER in bacon. Hence- bacon wrapped yummies. To get started have the bacon ready to go, shrimps and scallops rinsed and set aside, and artichoke hearts drained and ready to use. I like to have assembly lines, they are amazing, especially if you have a cooks assistant and you really want to make sure they don't mess up YOUR dish :-). One at a time, lay a piece of bacon on a flat surface. On top of the bacon place one shrimp, next to that one bay scallop, and next to that one artichoke heart. Then roll the bacon enclosing all of the ingredients in a nice little package and secure with a toothpick. Repeat until you have the desired amount of units. There are two great ways to cook these little guys. One, stove top in a saute pan. Two, in the oven if you are like me and don't have enough stove top space or zero patience when time to cook rolls around. I chose to bake them in a muffin tin, so each yummie had its own space to cook and get delicious, and no juices spilled onto my oven.

Both of these appetizers proved to be delicious and pretty easy. There are so many ways to cheat when preparing things like this. Here is a little list of the cheats I found helpful in these recipes:

Packaged bread crumbs vs. making my own
precooked peeled shrimp vs. peeling and cooking or paying a butcher to do it :)
canned artichoke hearts vs. cooking and separating my own
pre grated Parmesan cheese vs. spending 20 mins killing my forearm with a cheese-grater

Till next time!!!