Another treat exclusively for my FA watchers. (My DA people don't get this.)

Kinda hard to tell what these are at first glance, but these are stuffed mushrooms. They make great appetizers, party snacks or a meal in itself. They're my all time favorite food and are pretty easy to make.
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MUSHROOM BASICS (Read this first!)
Mushrooms come in a variety of sizes. Common sizes:
1. Small, white button mushrooms that are used the most often in dishes that require chopped or sliced mushrooms. These are the smallest.
2. Medium sized "stuffing" mushrooms are used in exactly what the name suggests. They look and taste the same as the button mushrooms and the only thing different is the size and price. Not all grocery stores will sell this size.
3. Large Portabello mushrooms are the largest you'll be able to find in your average grocery store. These are mostly used in things like mushrooms burgers or in dishes that need large pieces or the whole mushroom. Definitely a meatier flavor than the other two kinds mentioned. As a result they are also used in pasta dishes.

CLEANING AND PREPARING (Read this too!)
This is really important. Not just for mushrooms but for all fruits and veggies. WASH BEFORE USE UNLESS THE PACKAGE SAYS IT IS WASHED ALREADY!!!!! I can't stress this enough. Not only is it unsanitary and can spread germs, but dirt can get in the food and ruin the taste and texture of the dish. No one wants that.

ASSUME MUSHROOMS MUST BE WASHED UNLESS SAID OTHERWISE ON THE PACKAGE
Really you can wash mushrooms like anything else. Run it underwater and scrub lightly with your hand, rag or paper towel until all the dirt comes off. Simple and relatively quick. Next is taking off the stems. Nothing special is required of this except maybe a spoon or knife. For most mushrooms, you can simple wiggle and pop the stem out with your hands. Some may need your spoon or knife to scoop it out.

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How to make it

Ingredients:
Two packages of button mushrooms or stuffing mushrooms (Washed and stems removed. See above for how to clean and prepare mushrooms.)

All the stems of the prepared mushrooms chopped into small pieces

1/2 - 3/4 lb of uncooked, ground sausage (Not in the casing, so no links.)

1 package of cream cheese (The kind that comes in the box.)

1 cup of plain bread crumbs or panko breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon of parsley

3-4 cloves of garlic minced

1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper

4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese

Equipment:
Oven preheated to 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C
Stove top
Skillet
Normal Spatula
Mixing Spatula
Knives for chopping
Cookie sheet or broiler pan
Measuring cups and spoons
Mixing bowl
Normal spoons
Timer of some sort

What to do:
1. Prepare mushrooms if you haven't already. Meaning wash and remove stems. (See above if you don't know how to do that.) Also chop the stems into small pieces.
2. Heat the skillet and cook the sausage fully until there is no pink left. Break the sausage into small pieces and crumble as best you can while cooking or shortly after cooking.
3.While the sausage is cooking, get a mixing bowl out and combine everything except the sausage and whole mushrooms.
4. Add sausage to the bowl after it's done cooking.
5. Combine all ingredients until it is well mixed and no breadcrumbs are still unmixed in the bowl.
6. Put the mushrooms on the cookie sheet or broiler pan and fill with the sausage mixture.
7. Put it in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. Take out of the oven and cool. Then eat!
(Any water that comes out of the mushrooms after baking is normal. Drain on a paper towel if that bothers you.)

Variations:
Take out spices you don't like.

If you can't find stuffing mushrooms use button mushrooms. They taste the same

If you can't find either of the other two mushroom kinds, you can use the large portabellos. You'll just end up making less mushrooms.

If you don't like the stems you can leave them out of the recipe entirely and just throw them in the trash. Adding them to the mixture is good if you want to make the filling last longer or if you have too little filling to fill the last few mushrooms.

You can use neufatchal cheese instead of cream cheese. Really this doesn't make a difference at all. They taste the same. The only difference is that neufatchal cheese has 1/3 less fat than normal cream cheese.

Use spicy sausage instead of plain. You might have to add less cayenne pepper because the spice is in the sausage already.

You can use Italian or seasoned breadcrumbs. Just add less or no parsley if you do this.

Add black pepper if you like the flavor of it.