Since some of us may be having a different sort of holiday meal this year, I though it would be fun to share some favorite recipes. This year is the first year I won’t be cooking with my mom or sisters but I’ll still be making some of our favorite recipes. I’ll go first and share my Yiayia’s Greek Chicken and my Stuffed Mushroom recipe. The mushrooms are Dana’s favorite and I used to make them for her back when hanging out with friends was a thing people could do. Please share a recipe or two of of your own. We may not be with all our families but we can still eat like we are!
Stuffed Mushrooms
16 ounces of fresh button or cremini mushrooms (a box around here is usually 8 oz.)
4 oz. of cream cheese (1/2 a block, you can use low fat but do not use fat free), room temperature
4 oz. of goat cheese, room temperature
1-2 fresh jalapeños, minced
1 small white onion, minced or shredded
breadcrumbs
Pre-heat oven to 350 F. In a bowl, mix cheeses, jalapeño and onion (a fork works best to really mix things together). Clean the mushrooms and pull out the stems. Place mushrooms on a towel to dry. Take about half to a third of the stems and mince them. Mix minced stems into the cheese mixture. Mix well and pepper to taste (you can add salt if you want, I do not).
On a small plate put some breadcrumbs. Fill each mushroom with cheese mixture and lightly smoosh top of mushroom up-side-down into bread crumbs. Place mushrooms, breaded side up, on a baking pan with a lim, lined in foil. When you have stuffed and breaded all the mushrooms, sprinkle a tablespoon or so of breadcrumbs into bottom of pan, this helps absorb some of the mushroom liquid when cooking. Bake for 30 minutes and enjoy warm.
Save any leftover cheese mixture to spread on crackers.
Yiayia’s Greek Chicken
1 whole roasting chicken (thawed)
fingerling potatoes or new potatoes cut in half
4 large carrots, cut into large pieces (you can use any good roasting veg, just try and cut all pieces to same size)
3-4 big juicy lemons, halved
1 T. dried oregano (possibly a little more)
salt and pepper
good olive oil
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Put veggies in the bottom of pan, place rack and chicken on top. I use a roasting rack but you can just put it right in the pan, though it will take longer to cook. Squeeze the juice of 2 of the lemons into a cup.
Generously drizzle olive oil over chicken and veggies (~2-3 T.), rub olive oil into the skin of the chicken, make sure it’s well coated. Drizzle lemon juice from the cup over chicken and veggies, sprinkle it all with oregano and salt and pepper. Top off with a light drizzle of olive oil over the seasonings (~.5 T.)
Stuff the cavity of the chicken with 2 unsqueezed lemon halves. Put it in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 450 to start to crisp the skin.
Remove the pan from the oven and reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Baste the chicken, toss veggies a bit. Put chicken back in oven and roast for 20 minutes per pound. ( 5.5 lb chicken will take about 1 hour and 50 minutes with this method.)
Baste the chicken every 30 minutes (toss veggies if needed to cook evenly). You can up the temp for the last 15 for a crispier skin.
Remove the chicken to a platter. Squeeze the lemons from inside the chicken on to the chicken and let stand for 10 minutes.
.
