Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Creamy and savory with a slight kick. These mushrooms will go fast at any event or be just enough to placate the hungry hoards that show up around dinner time known as friends and family so you can finish making dinner.

I love how the softness of the mushroom and cream cheese is offset by the crunch of the red pepper. I tend to notice texture more and more now since my best friend is obsessed by it. I'm big on taste considering it's well...food but her thing is texture. To each their own I suppose.

Cream cheese Stuffed Mushrooms 

1 package of white button mushrooms about 18

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tsp fresh rosemary, diced or 1/2 tsp dried

1 package cream cheese, room temperature

olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 F
If you wipe the dirt off the mushrooms with a damp cloth instead of rinsing them with water you'll avoid them becoming waterlogged and getting soggy when baking but if you are in a hurry rinse and be sure to dry thoroughly. Remove the steams and if you feel like going above and beyond, save the stems and chop them up to add to the cream cheese mixture. Otherwise, just throw them out. Cream you cream cheese with a spoon till there are no lumps and it is easily spreadable. Add your rosemary, garlic, red pepper, and mushroom stems (if you kept them). Mix until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Brush the mushroom caps with olive oil and stuff them with cream cheese mixture. About a tablespoon each or so depending on the size of your mushrooms should do the trick. Pop those babies into the oven on a large baking sheet and bake for twenty minutes. Transfer to a pretty dish and watch them disappear faster than they show up in your neighbors yard. (you really should stop kicking those mushrooms so they stop spreading :p )