All week, I’ll be sharing the recipes, tips and tricks and some table inspiration for your Thanksgiving meal!

This year, we’re serving up:

• Butternut Squash & Apple Soup
• Green Bean Casserole (from scratch!)
• Caramelized Shallots
• Spicy Sausage Stuffing with Cranberries
• Homemade Cranberry Sauce
• Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes
• Bourbon Glazed Turkey Thighs

Get ready to get cooking!

When we’re hosting a casual get together like this week’s Sunday Funday menu, I try to keep everything quick, easy and straightforward. These sausage stuffed mushrooms and parmesan crisps are so easy – worth every second of effort and they’ll make your guests feel like you really, really went all out for them.

You can even make this app ahead of time – make the filling, stuff the mushrooms and keep them in the oven. They do have to bake for 50 minutes, so from a time perspective, I like to think about these coming out 15 minutes after I expect guests to arrive. That gives everyone a few minutes to say hey, grab a drink and settle in.

The ingredients are so straightforward: sausage, mushrooms, scallions, parsley, panko, lemon, parmesan and an egg. I even have a tip to use the filling for another meal.

And then we have these INSANELY easy parmesan crisps. I mean. You literally just grate some parm, sprinkle in seasoning and bake them up for 7 minutes. So easy. Delicate, but easy.

Sausage Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer

Yield: About 32 mushrooms | Time: ~60 minutes

Ingredients

2- 14 ounce packages of mushrooms (whole, not sliced, I used baby bellas because they’re meaty!)

1 lb sausage (you can use sausage links, just remove the casing)

4-6 cloves of garlic (depending on your preference – I used 5)

1/4 c parsley + more for garnish

Scant 2/3c panko

1/3 c parmesan cheese

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of 1-2 lemons

S + P to taste

optional: red pepper flake

1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. De-stem mushrooms, reserve stems.

3. Cook sausage, working the sausage into as small crumbles as possible.

4. Chop mushrooms & garlic into fine pieces; lightly salt. (You want all the stuffing ingredients to be small when you’re working with small mushrooms so you can actually fit the stuffing into the mushroom caps!)

5. Once the sausage is cooked through, add the mushrooms and garlic. Cook until mushrooms and garlic are soft, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, slice scallions thinly.

6. Add scallions and panko crumbs, cook another 2-3 minutes until scallions are just soft. Meanwhile, chop the parsley.

7. Remove from the heat and add in 2 tbsp olive oil.

8. Move the filling to a mixing bowl, add in Parmesan. Add the juice of 1 lemon, and salt and pepper to taste.

9. Taste the filling! Check for lemon, salt and pepper. Add red pepper flake if using. Adjust accordingly.

10. Beat the egg in a separate bowl, add to mixture and combine.

11. Fill your mushroom caps! Bake for 50 minutes.*

* Okay, friends! A few options here:

Stuff those mushrooms, cover them up with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge. I take them out, heat up the oven, and then pop them in 30-45 minutes before I expect guests.

Also, you can do only ONE package of mushrooms, halve the mixture and keep one half without egg to top pasta with later in the week. Or you could only use one half of the mixture for your get together, keep the other half to stuff big portabella mushrooms with later in the week (in this case you want to keep the egg in the mixture, whereas with pasta, you do not).

Easy Parmesan Crisps

Yield: About 24 crisps | Time: About 30 minutes

These can be made ahead. Just let them cook and then place in an airtight container.

Ingredients

1c grated parmesan (I use peccorino, hand grated)

1 tbsp red pepper flake

A few cranks of black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Grate parmesan.

3. Add red pepper flake (leave out if you’re sensitive to spice) and black pepper.

4. Gently combine.

5. Line baking sheet with parchment.

6. Drop 1 tbsp of parmesan-pepper mixture in little heaps, about 1-2 inches apart.

7. Bake for 6-8 minutes, check at 6 to see how you’re getting along. You want the crisps to be a golden color.

8. Remove from the oven and transfer to a plate GENTLY.

9. Enjoy! You might want to double, or triple the recipe. This is so crazy addicting, especially if you’re like me and obsessed with salt!