Tate's Kitchen: Mushroom Bruschetta

Tate had her first day of first grade yesterday.

Rather than sit in the parking lot and cry all morning like I did when she started kindergarten I came home looking for something to do.....pretty much anything to distract my little breaking heart.

(yes...I really did cry all morning that first day of kindergarten)

My baby is growing up too fast.

Okay...back to why I'm here.

Mushroom Bruschetta is another one of those dishes I saw on some crazy cooking show and decided I needed to make it. Of course I can't remember the name of the show nor could I find the recipe on-line but how hard could it be?

Let's use a little imagination.

I can do this.

This was quick and easy to pull together and perfect for a day that I did not have the mental dynamic to follow a complicated recipe.

It was also surprisingly filling for what I thought was just going to be a little appetizer.

YOU WILL NEED:

1 baguette

good extra virgin olive oil

1 portobello mushroom

10 oz of some other types of mushrooms

(I used a mix of button and cremini)

4 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

(more if you want more heat)

salt

pepper

fresh thyme for garnish

fresh parsley for garnish

freshly grated parmesan cheese for garnish

TO DO:

By the way...that 10 oz of mushrooms came out to around 4 cups - chopped.

Finely chop all the mushrooms - portobello included.

Finely chop the garlic cloves.

Slice the baguette in a diagonal pattern about a half inch thick.

Warm a couple turns of olive oil in a large skillet.

Add the chopped garlic.

Cook the garlic until just beginning to brown on the edges.

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan then add all the chopped mushrooms.

Add all the dried herbs and the pepper flakes. Cook on medium high for ten, fifteen minutes. There will be quite a bit of liquid in the pan now. You want to keep cooking at a fairly high temp (without burning the mushrooms - you might have to turn the stove down a bit) so all this liquid can evaporate quickly.