Homemade Cheddar Bay Biscuits

These cheese garlic biscuits are easy to whip up. I made them for an "American" dinner party and paired it with a prime rib a few months ago.

A few tips:

• Use whatever cheese you have on hand. I used a Mexican four cheese package. 
• Do not overmix the batter, or else the biscuits will turn out hard and dense. Unless you want hockey pucks on your dinner table, mix until the dough just comes together! 
• I chose to bake my biscuits in a muffin tin, but you can just drop spoonfuls of batter on a baking sheet. 
• You can play around with the baking temperature to find your ideal baking temp at which your biscuits with be golden brown and the cheese nicely melted. 

Cheddar Bay Biscuits (modified from allrecipes.com)

makes 12 biscuits

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

5 tablespoons butter

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare pans by greasing muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, garlic powder, and baking powder. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or 2 forks until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add in milk and cheddar cheese, stir until just combined. Do not overmix! Divide batter into 12 muffin tins. 
3. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until tops are lightly browned. Combine melted butter and minced, then brush garlic butter over hot biscuits. 

Annual White Elephant Gift Exchange and Stuffed Mushrooms

We had our annual (second time) white elephant at our house a few days ago. The prerequisite for the party was to bring a wrapped gift and some kind of hor d'oeuvres. Besides being a French word I can never spell (thank you, Google!), hor d'oeuvres means appetizer-type foods. At first, I was afraid that we wouldn't have enough food at the party. However, as it always turns out at potlucks, there is too much! We had a varied and very pretty table spread. Also, there were lots of first-time recipes, which contributed to the fun!

Menu:

1. Spinach and Cheese Pinwheels (Tiff)
2. Green Onion Pancakes (Aud)
3. Stuffed Mushrooms with Cream Cheese Filling (Lydia- recipe below)
4. Baguettes Topped with Cream Cheese Filling (Lydia- I made way too much filling!)
5. Lettuce Wraps (Mom)
6. Potstickers (Rich)
7. Muddy Buddy (Mare and Glo)
8. Cream Puffs (Mare)
9. Chicken Meatballs (Cass)
10. McDonald's Chicken Nuggets (Mols)
11. Punch (Ann and Ben)

I have made stuffed mushrooms in the past, but this time I used a new recipe. I modified it a bit, and it was a great hit! I made too much filling, so I have cut down the filling to fit about 30 small white mushrooms. 

Stuffed Mushrooms 

25 whole fresh mushrooms 

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/3 cup chopped crab meat (I used imitation crab meat because I had that on hand)

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened 

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Grated Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Black pepper and salt, to taste

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Wash mushrooms and twist off stems. Drain mushrooms and dry on paper towel. Arrange mushroom caps on greased baking sheet. Remove woody part of stems and chop rest of stems finely. 
3. Heat oil in pan, and add garlic and mushroom stems. Cook until moisture is gone. Remove mixture, and cool until warm (no longer hot). 
4. Mix together cream cheese, mushroom and garlic mixture, crab meat, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper in bowl. 
5. Put cream cheese mixture into large ziplock bag, snip off corner, and pipe mixture into mushroom caps. Top each mushroom with extra Parmesan cheese.  
6. Bake mushrooms in oven for 20 minutes, until mushrooms release their juices. 

Stuffed Mushrooms

more 'shrooms

Baguettes with Cream Cheese Spread

Who's dat blocking all the food? :)

Our Abundant Feast!