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“It used to be red wine could be consumed only with red meat and white with chicken, and so on, but nowdays almost anything goes.” That’s the adage of Bangor Hydro Electric Company’s communications officer, Susan Faloon. Almost anything goes in her kitchen, too. “I love cooking with wine; sometimes I even put it in the food,” she says, chuckling as she chops away at walnuts and cranberries while preparing her signature stuffed mushrooms.
This favorite appetizer came about by mistake one day. “This is actually a recipe I made up when a friend wanted me to cook something, and I didn’t really have enough time.” So, she turned to the cupboards and relied on some of her favorite ingredients: walnuts (which she keeps frozen to stay fresh) and dried cranberries. Because she was trained as a journalist, this Bangor resident and Howland native is always ready to swing into action and produce. “It’s very easy to grab a red onion and plump mushrooms, a block of blue cheese and cream, and make an appetizer that’s a big hit.”
The trick to cooking with mushrooms, Faloon says, is making sure they are fresh, plump, and that you only brush them clean with a cloth—you do not wash them. “Once the stems are pulled out [which you will chop up for the stuffing], place the mushrooms in a baking dish, drizzle them with olive oil, and bake for about five minutes. This shrinks the mushrooms so you don’t overstuff them.”
Another essential part of the Faloon formula: Don’t skimp on the cream. “Make sure you add heavy or whipping cream to the sauté. Half-and-half doesn’t give you the texture,” she says. When it’s time to scoop the stuffing into the mushrooms, she warns, “This is where it gets a little messy but that’s all right; they’re worth it with all this gooey cheese. And this appetizer goes great with wine.”
Faloon can’t just prepare one appetizer; she has to go for two, again showcasing another of her favorite ingredients, dried apricots, wrapped in bacon. “Dried apricots are full of antioxidants. They’re good for you,” she claims with conviction. She got the idea for this recipe from the one and only semester of culinary arts school she attended while juggling her career as a journalist, before joining Bangor Hydro.
“Just halve your bacon. Taking each of the slices, place a whole walnut and one apricot at the end, roll it up, stick it with a toothpick and bake.” In a 350°F oven it will take just 20 minutes to cook. “Three hundred and fifty is a pretty safe temperature to cook almost anything,” Faloon says. She usually plans on three or four bacon wraps per person, and it’s much less expensive than scallops wrapped in bacon. “This appetizer is super easy, and it’s a real crowd pleaser.”
When Susan Faloon is not on the job as communications officer, or stirring the pot in the kitchen, or tending to her two-year-old, she’s watching the Food Network getting ideas for her next creation. How does chicken chili served with blue-corn chips and blueberry-lemon sour cream sound? This is yet just one more invention of Faloon’s—and “it goes great with
any wine.”
----
Makes 4–6 appetizer-size portions
12 oz. pkg. baby bella mushrooms
(or large white stuffing mushrooms)
3 Tbs. butter
1 small onion
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup blue cheese
Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove stems from mushrooms and set aside. Melt 1 Tbs. butter in sauté pan and cook over med-high heat until mushrooms are slightly shrunken (about 5 minutes). Set aside.
Chop mushroom stems and onion, sauté over med-high heat until soft (about 5 minutes). Add bread crumbs, cream, and cayenne. Cook until slightly bubbling. Add walnuts, cranberries, and blue cheese, and mix together. Remove from heat. Using a small scoop, fill each mushroom, rounding mixture on mushroom. Place in ovenproof dish. Bake at 350° until heated through and brown on top (about 20 minutes). Serve.
----
Susan Faloon and her niece, Ashton Fancy, didn’t mean to out-cook a professional chef team from a highly regarded Irish restaurant—it just sort of happened.
The pair recently competed at the first annual Maine Celtic Celebration in Belfast in an Irish version of the Iron Chef competition. Entrants were to prepare four courses in an hour, and each dish had to contain potatoes.
“We and the chefs from the restaurant were the only competitors,” Faloon says, “so they were a little bit cocky.”
Faloon and her sous chef opened the competition with potato-encrusted scallops with mustard and dill sauce. (The potatoes were finely chopped. Faloon combined them with bread crumbs and chives, and affixed the breading with an egg wash, and sauted them until brown.)
Next course: cream of potato and Guinness beer soup, pureed with aged Irish cheddar, beef stock, onions, and butter. The judges went wild. “How can you go wrong with cream, butter, and beer?” Faloon says.
Course three: sauted potatoes, carrots, onions, and corned beef, topped with a whiskey marmalade glaze. And course four: apple potato pancakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream sauce. “That was sort of like a drink and a dessert all in one.”
Susan Faloon went home with the title Celtic Iron Chef, and the restaurant chefs went home knowing to never again underestimate an Irish girl from Howland with a good imagination.
This favorite appetizer came about by mistake one day. “This is actually a recipe I made up when a friend wanted me to cook something, and I didn’t really have enough time.” So, she turned to the cupboards and relied on some of her favorite ingredients: walnuts (which she keeps frozen to stay fresh) and dried cranberries. Because she was trained as a journalist, this Bangor resident and Howland native is always ready to swing into action and produce. “It’s very easy to grab a red onion and plump mushrooms, a block of blue cheese and cream, and make an appetizer that’s a big hit.”
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The trick to cooking with mushrooms, Faloon says, is making sure they are fresh, plump, and that you only brush them clean with a cloth—you do not wash them. “Once the stems are pulled out [which you will chop up for the stuffing], place the mushrooms in a baking dish, drizzle them with olive oil, and bake for about five minutes. This shrinks the mushrooms so you don’t overstuff them.”
Another essential part of the Faloon formula: Don’t skimp on the cream. “Make sure you add heavy or whipping cream to the sauté. Half-and-half doesn’t give you the texture,” she says. When it’s time to scoop the stuffing into the mushrooms, she warns, “This is where it gets a little messy but that’s all right; they’re worth it with all this gooey cheese. And this appetizer goes great with wine.”
Faloon can’t just prepare one appetizer; she has to go for two, again showcasing another of her favorite ingredients, dried apricots, wrapped in bacon. “Dried apricots are full of antioxidants. They’re good for you,” she claims with conviction. She got the idea for this recipe from the one and only semester of culinary arts school she attended while juggling her career as a journalist, before joining Bangor Hydro.
“Just halve your bacon. Taking each of the slices, place a whole walnut and one apricot at the end, roll it up, stick it with a toothpick and bake.” In a 350°F oven it will take just 20 minutes to cook. “Three hundred and fifty is a pretty safe temperature to cook almost anything,” Faloon says. She usually plans on three or four bacon wraps per person, and it’s much less expensive than scallops wrapped in bacon. “This appetizer is super easy, and it’s a real crowd pleaser.”
When Susan Faloon is not on the job as communications officer, or stirring the pot in the kitchen, or tending to her two-year-old, she’s watching the Food Network getting ideas for her next creation. How does chicken chili served with blue-corn chips and blueberry-lemon sour cream sound? This is yet just one more invention of Faloon’s—and “it goes great with
any wine.”
----
Swell-a Bella Mushrooms
Makes 4–6 appetizer-size portions12 oz. pkg. baby bella mushrooms
(or large white stuffing mushrooms)
3 Tbs. butter
1 small onion
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup blue cheese
Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove stems from mushrooms and set aside. Melt 1 Tbs. butter in sauté pan and cook over med-high heat until mushrooms are slightly shrunken (about 5 minutes). Set aside.
Chop mushroom stems and onion, sauté over med-high heat until soft (about 5 minutes). Add bread crumbs, cream, and cayenne. Cook until slightly bubbling. Add walnuts, cranberries, and blue cheese, and mix together. Remove from heat. Using a small scoop, fill each mushroom, rounding mixture on mushroom. Place in ovenproof dish. Bake at 350° until heated through and brown on top (about 20 minutes). Serve.
----
Accidental Iron Chef
Susan Faloon and her niece, Ashton Fancy, didn’t mean to out-cook a professional chef team from a highly regarded Irish restaurant—it just sort of happened. The pair recently competed at the first annual Maine Celtic Celebration in Belfast in an Irish version of the Iron Chef competition. Entrants were to prepare four courses in an hour, and each dish had to contain potatoes.
“We and the chefs from the restaurant were the only competitors,” Faloon says, “so they were a little bit cocky.”
Faloon and her sous chef opened the competition with potato-encrusted scallops with mustard and dill sauce. (The potatoes were finely chopped. Faloon combined them with bread crumbs and chives, and affixed the breading with an egg wash, and sauted them until brown.)
Next course: cream of potato and Guinness beer soup, pureed with aged Irish cheddar, beef stock, onions, and butter. The judges went wild. “How can you go wrong with cream, butter, and beer?” Faloon says.
Course three: sauted potatoes, carrots, onions, and corned beef, topped with a whiskey marmalade glaze. And course four: apple potato pancakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream sauce. “That was sort of like a drink and a dessert all in one.”
Susan Faloon went home with the title Celtic Iron Chef, and the restaurant chefs went home knowing to never again underestimate an Irish girl from Howland with a good imagination.
