C'est Cheese!

Or, in layman’s terms, mushrooms stuffed with blue cheese. This is one of my appetizer standards, easy to make, can be prepared ahead of time, and totally scrummy. I’ve adapted it from a couple different recipes for stuffed mushrooms, so here’s the final version:

• 24 large fresh mushrooms
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1 clove garlic
• ¼ cup butter
• 2/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs (seasoned)
• ½ cup crumbled blue cheese

1. Rinse and drain mushrooms. Remove stems; reserve caps. Chop stems.
2. In a medium saucepan, cook the chopped stems, green onions and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in bread crumbs and blue cheese. Spoon crumb mixture into mushroom caps. Arrange mushrooms in a 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake in 425° oven for 8-10 minutes or until heated through.

(You can make variations of this recipe by reducing the bread crumbs to 2 tablespoons and adding ½ lbs cooked sausage, by using cheddar cheese instead of blue, or using an 8 oz. package of cream cheese instead of the bread crumbs, but the blue cheese ones are my favorite.)

Serves 6-8