Stuffed Artichokes

What am doing? Went to the Buford Highway Market to pick up some fresh veggies for this week. I also picked up two items from the meat department...Mohammed's ground lamb meat on a skewer and his pieces of marinated lamb on a skewer. The seasoned ground lamb was good..had it with left over risotto..and tonight had the lovely seasoned lamb chunks...with it only being myself and not wanting to turn on the grill...just cut the pieces smaller and panfried and put on a piece of wonderful French baguett which I had pulled from the freezer. Being in a hurry, just used good old Kraft mayo...using a light touch. Then that stuffed artichoke that I had thawed and turned the oven on to heat....would have been too much...so tomorrow will heat that up again.

Day before yesterday I did the risotto bit. I do not follow a recipe...just know what I am doing...for me..part of the liquid was a little white wine and cream...then cooled the risotto, added a couple of eggs which I had beat up..and then folded in gently by hand one pound of lump crab. Then I made individual patties and wrapped each in plastic wrap. These will be taken out of the freezer and generally panfried as the occasion arises....

I had also make a couple of quiches using be basic quiche recipe from Julia Child added a little more cheese..onion..and bacon. These were cut up and frozen in individual servings. This is great for that breakfast on the go or when you want something but don't have the time or patience to cook.

Oh, yup, out of the freezer again the night before...the most wonderful....yum, mac and cheese. And again..I just don't know what is wrong with writing down a recipe as I make it up...the mac was the hollow spirals....the sauce, who knows what cheese...a little lighter than velvetta..smooth, oh so smooth, then I had added blanched cauliflower and pieces of cured chorizo...I had been to a checkup..of sorts and wanted something that would soothe my soul as well as the body...well that was it! I ate the WHOLE thing...yup..maybe left one piece of pasta...how much did I eat...wellllll...it was packed in a 2.25 pound container...and I heated another one last night and could only eat half..almost half...so how did I eat the whole thing? heaven only knows...

Crab Stuffed Mushroom Recipe

Sometimes..in fact many times I do cook without a recipe and in that case I can give you a rough idea of what I did...to start with the crab..snow crab had been on sale at the local farmers market. I did what any red blooded cook would do..bought an arm full, brought it home, and then took it out of the shell and refroze it in small packages..yes, probably easier to by lump..but that's not the point...then five leftover large mushroom..which turned out to be six when I recounted..

about 1/2 pound snow crab
6 large mushrooms
4 ounce cream cheese
couple dashes of soy sauce
glug of white wine
stems of mushrooms sauteed with about 1/3 vidallia onion, small dice

couple pinches of black pepper
pinch of garlic powder
about 1T chives, snipped
some panko sauteed in butter for garnish
some parmesan for garnish


forgot the 1/2 beaten egg that I mixed in the stuffing


Mixed the stuffing..filled the mushrooms, garnished, put them in a pan with a little butter for a couple of minutes and then threw pan in oven at 375*...set the times for 25 minutes..will check on that. I do use the timer most of the time..and all the time if I leave the kitchen to do something else..like check the computer or work on the torch..easy

THEY are out...the kitchen smelled of crab...the baked stuffed mushrooms look fantastic..too hot to eat this moment...but wait..