I'm back, with stuffed mushrooms

Yeah, I'm still alive :-) What have I done in this past month? Hmm... got pretty sick, got better, went to the beach, watched a bunch of movies, played some softball. Notice that baking/cooking isn't listed. Yep, I've been bad about that. But here I am now, with food!

So the other weekend was crab and beer fest at National Harbor. Because we planned in advance (was that sarcasm?) we did not get the general admission tickets. Not to be defeated by that, though, we had our own Crab Fest at Chez Smurf (aka Ang.'s place). That led to the best of sayings...

"We went to Angela's house and all we got were these stinking crabs!"

"By the end of the night you WILL have crabs!"

"Who knew having crabs could be so good."

What was on the menu? Maryland crab soup. Crab bites. Crab cakes eggs benedict. Steamed snow crab legs. And these not so photogenic but very tasty crab-stuffed mushrooms. The mushroom caps came out a bit... black. But they were tender. I think using white mushroom caps would make much prettier stuffed shrooms, but guess I'll just have to make them again to find out, heh. Oh, and coincidentally, stuffed mushrooms were part of my Hit List, so yay I can cross another item off!

Oh, and by the way, these were yummy. Not overwhelmingly crabby, not too mushroomy, just the right amount of cheese. Maybe next time I'll add some panko breadcrumbs to the top for some crunch, but they're delightful as is.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
from allrecipes.com

24-30 baby portabella or white mushrooms
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 stalk green onions, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp lemon juice
1 C crab meat
1/4 C breadcrumbs
1/4 C crushed buttery round crackers (since I had them leftover from the crabcakes, otherwise just make it more breadcrumbs)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 C monterey jack cheese, divided
1/4 C dry white wine

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with baking spray. Preheat oven to 375.

Remove stems from mushrooms and dice finely. Heat butter and oil over medium heat in a medium pan. Add mushroom stems and green onions and sautee about 3 minutes. Add garlic and sautee an additional 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool 5-10 minutes.

Arrange the mushroom caps out in the baking dish and spray one more time with the spray. Bake for 10 minutes.

Mix in the lemon juice, crab meat, breadcrumbs, crushed crackers, egg, dill, and 1/2 C of the cheese to the mushroom stem/onion mix.

Fill with the crab mixture, and top with the rest of the cheese. Pour wine into the bottom of the baking dish. Bake 20-30 minutes or until mushrooms are soft. (Note: I wonder if I'd used white mushrooms that I'd have to bake them for a shorter amount of time, because at 20 minutes the baby bellas were still on the raw side. Just something to keep in mind.)