Stuffed mushrooms

I'm making them as an appetizer for Christmas Eve, but I had to look up a recipe online. It came down to two choices. One had crab meat and the other didn't. I asked my mom and my sister what they thought I should pick, but all they said was, "It's up to you," and, "You're the chef, use you're best judgement."


Hello? I'm a chef in training. I've never had stuffed mushrooms before. I don't know what one would taste better! Crab meat or cream cheese?


Anyways, I finally exited out of the crab meat and stuck with this bad boy.


Ingredients:

12 whole fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.
2.Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.
3. When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.


Hopefully, he won't disappoint.