THE Best Mushroom Rollups

Not everyone who reads my blog follows me on Facebook so you may be wondering why I would suddenly decide to post a recipe.

Well…my niece, who has been living abroad for almost 2 years, is coming home tomorrow. Due to the pandemic, she will be in quarantine/self-isolation for 14 days.  I mentioned on Facebook that because I am THE best aunt EVER…I was making her a batch of her favourite Mushroom Rollups. Also, I am desperate for content for this Challenge…so a blog post it is.

I originally got this recipe from a friend back in the 80’s. It has been tweaked over the years and while a little finicky…always a hit. Enjoy!

MUSHROOM ROLL-UPS

1 Large Onion (chopped)

2 lbs Mushrooms (roughly chopped)

¼ c Butter

8 oz Cream Cheese

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp Garlic Powder

Salt & Pepper to taste.

1.    Melt butter in large frying pan. Add onion and saute until soft. Add mushrooms and cook until tender and most of the liquid has evaporated.

2.    Cut cream cheese into chunks. Add cream cheese and rest of the ingredients. Stir until the cheese melts. Let stand until cool.

3.    Once cool, using a food processor or blender, puree the mixture in batches. Consistency should be just smooth enough to spread or as “chunky” as you like.

Here’s where the finicky part comes in. In the past, I have had to pre-order the bread as I like it to be cut horizontally so you have long strips of bread. You also need to trim off the crusts.

A few years, I discovered this crustless, pre-sliced bread made by President’s Choice. BEST. THING. EVER!!!! 

4.    Remove crusts from bread (if you can not get crustless). Roll each strip of bread with a rolling pin to slightly flatten. Spread mixture to the edges and roll up like a jelly roll (from the shorter end). Wrap in saran wrap and freeze.

5.    When ready to cook, cut into slices (~1/4” wide). Brush each side with melted garlic butter and bake at 400F for 10-15 minutes (flip halfway through) or until desired crispness. Serve hot.

Voila!  

P is for Pretzel Bark

It’s officially called Toffee Pretzel Bark but I needed a “P” topic so Pretzel Bark it is.

I got this recipe from one of my most favourite people in the whole wide world. We were visiting relatives and she pulled out this tasty treat after dinner. 

I only make it around Christmas time because there are usually people around who will help me eat it otherwise, I would probably eat the entire tray myself. It’s THAT good! And bonus…easy to make. 

(Toffee) PRETZEL BARK

8 oz mini pretzels
1 c butter
1 c brown sugar
2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use those chocolate wafers people use for chocolate making)

·        Preheat oven to 375F. Line a large cookie sheet with non-stick foil. 

·        Spread pretzels out in a single layer on cookie sheet.

·        Melt the butter and brown sugar in a pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Keep at medium heat, stop stirring and let bubble for 3 minutes. Not 2, 4, or 5. Exactly 3 minutes.

·        Pour over the pretzels. No need to worry that it doesn’t cover all of pretzels. It will spread.

·        Bake for 5 minutes.

·        Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

·        Let sit for 5 minutes to melt the chocolate and then spread.

·        Allow to set before breaking into pieces.    

I figured this could be a good quarantine recipe...you're welcome!

Pinterest...Keeping it Real

Are you a Pinterest fanatic? Do you have umpteen boards on Pinterest?  OR…are you like me…have a Pinterest account because everybody else does but have no idea what you are doing over “there”. Yesch…yet another time-sucking social media temptation.

Last week Bec over at Snagglebox (she is the one I mentioned in a previous post as being really, REALLY smart because well…she just IS) wrote yet another awesome, witty post “Real Parent Pinterest”. If you have not read it you need to. Off you go. Here is the link again. Just be sure to come back.

Hello again.

Then Sharon from The Tumultuous Truth (another awesome blogger from Down Under) suggested the online autism bloggy world build on Bec’s idea and so “Pinterest Keeping it Real Week” was born. This topic was yelling whispering sweet nothings in my ear so of course I had to write a post.

My last Monday Listicles was 10 Things I could do in 30 minutes or less. One of them was plan, prep and cook a gourmet meal…in Riley World. Since Whacamole Mom wanted more details…more details she shall have.

Meals in Riley World are boring  bland  ummm…uninspiring to say the least. Take for instance one of the few “meat” products that R will eat. You have surely heard of Tube Steaks???  

Imagine James Bond doing the voice-over for this Pin:

“All Beef.  Boiled…not grilled.”

So...anybody interested in coming over for a gourmet meal???   :D

"Friday's Fab Five"

Since I missed posting last Friday, this week will be a combo from the last two weeks. I hope you found my first installment of Friday's Fab Five "enlightening" and introduced you to some new blogs.

A new category this week will be "Recipes". After all I am always looking for a tried and true favourite recipe aren't you? You know...the ones that have been handed down through generations. This week's recipe can be found at a new blog I was turned onto over at The Glamorous Life of the Modern Day Soccer Mom. Her post on "How to Make Ice Cubes - An Old Family Recipe" is a must read! Very informative and I learnt some great tips!

I discovered the Momalog via Stasha’s "Monday Listicles" over at The good life. Ado’s post "Cindy Crawford is Perfect and I’m Not” had me reminiscing about my youth (although I was never anything close to a Cindy Crawford type…ha!), daydreaming, giggling and gasping in horror. Check it out to see why.

As you know Riley has autism so many of the blogs I follow are about autism. After 15 years of navigating Riley World one would think I would be fairly well-versed in all things autistic. Ummm…think again. *sigh*  Apparently there is something called the Sally-Anne test which was used in Simon Baron-Cohen’s (no not the Borat guy) study of Theory of Mind in Autism. I found this post “How I failed the Sally-Anne test and my autistic son didn’t” over at Outrunning the Storm. Try taking the test and see how you do. By the way…I failed too.

These next two blog posts deal with the wonderful world of “teenhood”! Even if you are not there yet these two posts will give you a taste of what’s in store for you. One is autism-related, the other is not however when you are dealing with teens…it really doesn’t seem to matter. Oish. Brace yourselves it could get ugly.

         1)   “When Obnoxiousness Reigns Supreme” at Raising Asperger’s Kids

         2)   “WTF Wednesday” at Twinisms

Have you discovered any new blogs? Please feel free to add them in the comments. I’d love to hear about them. 

Have a great weekend!

*All images taken from Google Images.

Absolutely To.Die.For Desserts!

I belong to a book club that meets once a month. You can read all about us and our monthly picks in the tab "Book Club Books" across the top. Our hostess of this month's meeting treated us to a couple of absolutely TO.DIE.FOR desserts! I'm always looking for new recipes so I'm hoping to start a section (this will be a work in progress) with some of my favourites.

I have yet to try making these 2 recipes myself since it was only the other night but I think this will be on my list of things to do for this long weekend. Yummers!

Rolo Cookies

2 ½ cups (590 mL) Flour

¾ cup (180 mL) Cocoa

1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda

1 cup (240 mL) White sugar

1 cup (240 mL) Brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup (240 mL) Butter, softened

2 teaspoons (10 mL) Vanilla

2 Eggs

70 to 75 Rolo Candies (7-8 packages)

Combine flour, cocoa and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, beat sugar and butter and add vanilla and eggs.

Stir in flour /cocoa mixture. Chill dough for 1 hour.

Shape about 1 ½ teaspoons (7 mL) of dough around a Rolo, making sure it is completely covered. 

Place on ungreased cookie sheet and chill for 1 hour.

Bake 7 to 8 minutes at 375°F (190°C).

Cool on wire rack.

Optional: when cool, drizzle with melted white chocolate and garnish with a nut.

(Makes 75 cookies)

Cream Cheese Stuffed Strawberries

8 oz cream cheese (I used the light, spreadable version)

3 or 4 Tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on top.

ENJOY!!!