Our Last 2010 Supper - Shrooms Bruschetta

We were a few hours away from dinner time. Mom and I still haven't got a clue what would work as a special appetizer. We had wanted to try the Jewish Baked Tomatoes with Mozarella which my friend, Lynda, had prepared during our get together pot-luck. Unfortunately, we couldn't find those big beefy tomatoes in the market places.

While we were preparing the ingredients for the other dishes, mom goes "I have an idea what we can cook", and writes a list of ingredients to ask the maid to buy. I kept asking mom what the dish is called, but she couldn't provide me with a name since there wasn't any.

She first tried it in the United States of America when she visited her brother's family. Her sister in law was at a buffet luncheon and chanced upon this tasty appetizer. Curious, she asked the chef for the recipe and tried it for her family. It apparently, was a hit.

Rather than naming it "The Untitled Dish", as was the case, I decided to baptize it Shrooms Bruschetta. Of course as always, we have tweaked the recipe a bit to suit our taste.

Shrooms Bruschetta

Ingredients:
2 packs of oyster mushrooms, sliced*
1 sweet white onion, sliced into rings
3 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
salt and pepper
french bread, sliced
olive oil
Italian seasoning
grated cheese
Bacon bits (optional)**

*You can use any mushroom you like. My mom recommends Portobello mushrooms, but if that is unavailable, you can opt for button mushrooms or oyster mushrooms as a substitute.

**We opted to use bacon bits as they were convenient for us, but you can use other meat like ground beef or pork if you like. You can also discard adding any meat products and go vegan.

How to:
1. In a skillet, heat the butter until it melts. Toss in the onion rings and cook until onion has softened.
2. Add the mushrooms and mix. Add in sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until mushrooms have browned.
3. Rub some olive oil onto bread slices. Put mushroom mixture over the bread slice and sprinkle a bit of Italian seasoning on top of each slice. Top with bacon and grated cheese.
4. Pop in the oven and leave there until cheese begins to melt. Serve immediately.
We were able to make around 12 slices.

It was interesting. During dinner, my grandfather who rarely says anything about the food except when it's inedible, commended that he enjoyed this little appetizer. I guess that scores some real mean points for this baby.

We hope to be seeing more of this in the weeks to follow.