My daughter Samantha’s favorite vegetable is the mushroom.   No clue where that came from, suffice it to say, I’ve found a way to incorporated mushrooms into several dishes.  (Please, send me any recipes you might have with them too Dear Wine Friends!)  So, while working the Hart Show Choir Rummage Sale a few weeks ago, I found myself sorting a table of books, and spied a cookbook solely dedicated to recipes with mushrooms.  This one we made together, and the italics below are my daughter’s “adjustments” along with my own.

Garlic Mushrooms

Serves 4 (Our family is party of three!)

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

1 lb medium cup mushrooms

6 oz softened butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed (we diced)

juice and grated rind of 1/2 lemon (Mom broke the juicer, Sam squeezed the juice from both halves, mom grated what she could.)

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

salt and pepper (just a couple of turns from our shakers)

fresh crusty bread, to serve (Like the buttery sauce under Le Chene’s Escargot, we knew we’d be mopping this sauce up with toasted French bread.  It was almost better than the mushrooms!

And, after this appetizer, we were too full to make dinner!)

1 – Preheat the oven to 425.  Remove the mushroom stalk and arrange the mushrooms, rounded-side down, in a shallow ovenproof dish.

2 – Mix the butter, garlic, lemon juice and rind, parsley, salt and pepper together in a bowl.   (We added grated Parmesan cheese to give these a little more substance.  I wanted to add bread crumbs, maybe crab next time, but I got out-voted.) Divide the garlic butter between the mushroom caps.

3 – Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and the garlic butter is sizzling.  Serve at once with crusty bread.

I had a Ghost Pines Chardonnay in an ice bath for the length of time this baked.  Pulling it from my ice bucket made our little appetizer more festive (my daughter had iced water), but the pairing wasn’t great.  Next time I’m chilling Champagne to pair!