AI Art Auction – Part II

Well, last night was a lovely evening… and somewhat of a success as far as Amnesty is concerned.  Friend and members came out to support the work of Amnesty International, have a drink or two, find out about the Women of Zimbabwe Arise movement and take some art home with them.  We were grateful for the generosity of our friends, and for the donations of the artists and I think everyone was pleased with their acquisitions.

A BIG grateful THANKYOU from me goes to Claire, Katie and Denise who came out on a busy week night… wonderful to see them and extremely wonderful of Katie to buy this wooly beret that looks superb on her!

On the nibbles front, I tried out this recipe for stuffed mushrooms from Purple Foodie, but made some adaptations due to the resources and time available to me, and the limitations of my oven.  My adapted recipe, which made about 60 little button mushrooms – that I thought turned out pretty OK for a first experiment – is below:

Herb Butter Mushrooms With Mozzarella

30 oz. button mushrooms or cremini mushrooms (I used both for a nice mix)

6-8 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4C of Basil leaves

3 stems Rosemary leaves

45g/3tbsp cold butter, cut into tiny cubes

Olive oil to brush the baking sheet and mushrooms

4 oz./115g mozzarella

Salt and pepper

1. Brush the pan with olive oil and place the mushrooms gill sides up with the stem removed.
2. Chop the stems in the food processor with the garlic, basil and rosemary and stuff it back into the mushrooms.
3. Dot the mushroom stuffing with cold butter.
4. Brush with olive oil and top it with thin slices of mozzarella cheese.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Slip the pan under a broiler for 5-7 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the mushrooms fragrant
7. Pop the pan into the oven on a low heat (~325F) for about 10mins to allow mushrooms to cook a little more.
8. Put pan on top of oven for final 10mins to allow mushrooms to stew in their own juices a little…
9. Transfer to a plate, garnish with cilantro and serve immediately (or in this case… even later in the day they are still moist and tasty)!

I’d have taken you a photo of them… but the day was a little crazy, so I didn’t quite get there… you will just have to imagine as they are all gone.  This might be my new party treat.