Pumpkin Cornbread Stuffed Mushrooms: Little Bites of Fall

Ingredients:
-1 pack of mushrooms (mini bella)
-3/4 C pumpkin puree
-1/2 C corn flour
-1/4 C whole wheat flour
-1/2 TB of the finest most see-through little onion bits you can chop (this is my way of avoiding cooking them beforehand)
-1 egg
-dash of thyme
-dash of salt
-dash of nutmeg
-parmesan cheese, freshly and finely grated
-handful of pecans, chopped

Preheat your oven to 350F and grease a baking pan.  Take the stems out of the mushrooms and clean the inside.  Mix all of the filling ingredients in a bowl, leaving the cheese and pecans aside as topping.

The stuffing WILL be a more dry mix.  My goal in doing that was to make sure it did not for any reason run over the mushrooms and create a big mess before it could get set.  Also, I wanted a firm texture this time as opposed to a more soft (and sometimes bland) texture that cream cheese bases can have.  That is also why I added in the pecans, for a little textural variety.

And seriously, what is more fall than a pecan? 

Anyway, stuff all the mushrooms and top each with a little sprinkle of cheese and a few pieces of chopped pecans.  Bake for about 17 minutes.  You probably can get a second pack of mini mushrooms stuffed out of this filling mix, but I only had one on hand and actually want to use the rest of the filling for a few experiments.

Namely, eggs benedict experiments.  (Random but true).

So these smelled really good while they were in the oven, for the record, and sure enough when I tasted them they made me think of Fall.  These were all really warm and cuddly flavors.  If you happen to have sage on hand, you could definitely add a dash of that in as well.  I do not have a full-blown spice collection as of yet, but I have the majority of my needs.

I googled "pumpkin and mushroom" beforehand to see if any recipes used the two together, and quite a few pasta recipes did just that.  I love pasta, so how could this go wrong?!  The cool thing about this recipe is with very minor tweaking, it could be a vegetarian snack.

Or you could add bacon and just go the complete opposite direction.

As for me, I will leave them as is because I think they are delightful.  If these were an appetizer at a party, I would pop a few.  I love little bites!

Happy crafting!