(Can I just take a moment here to say that I am completely won over by this cookbook? If you had been debating getting it, do it. Whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, or omnivorous, understand that when it comes to delicious vegetable presentations, vegetarians and vegans have it going on!)

I yanked the mushrooms from their box, scrubbed and stemmed them, and got set to prepare. Into a pie plate, I mixed the marinade: half a cup of “cooking wine” (pshhht; I used a good cabernet sauvignon, under the rule that you should never, ever cook with a wine that you wouldn’t drink), a tablespoon of olive oil (man, I’m almost out!), two tablespoons each of balsamic vinegar and tamari soy sauce (yes, you can tell the difference), and two minced cloves of garlic.

Is that not pretty?

The mushrooms went into the marinade. I didn’t have the full-sized portobellos that the book suggested, so I used twelve baby mushrooms instead of the two large or 4 small ones in the actual recipe. They lay on their backs, and I filled each cavity with the marinade and let them drink it up for twenty minutes.

Then I covered the pie plate with foil and baked them for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. After that, the foil came off, they got flipped to their bellies, and they roasted like that for another 10 minutes.

Yeah, don’t even waste these guys on the kids. They just won’t appreciate them. (This is what you tell yourself repeatedly as you hoard every last one…maybe grudgingly letting your partner have a few. )

Made 12 mushrooms. Per mushroom, allowing for extra marinade on top – Fat: 1.2g; Carbohydrates: 1.5g; Calories:24.5; Protein: 0.7g.