The recipe is technically called “Polenta Portobellos” and for the first several times leafing through my favorite cookbook I passed by this quickly, as I’m on the fence about polenta. I recall that I like it at times (although never over the moon about it) and not at others. And I certainly had never attempted to make it. But the other key ingredients of the recipe – Brussels sprouts, onions, goat cheese and of course mushrooms – are right up my alley, and are favorites of the friends we recently had to the house for dinner. Even though I love appetizers, my usual approach is to leave that decision and preparation until the eleventh hour, at which time I’m left only with the option of stopping quickly at the store to pick up cheese, bread and olives – most of which gets packaged back up at the end of the evening and discovered a few weeks later, having to be tossed. With a little more time to plan this time around, I wanted to try an appetizer to have ready for them on arrival, since there would be a good amount of time between that and dinner (we needed to squeeze in bath and bedtime for the kids). They were a hit (even with my husband, who was initially skeptical), polenta and all. Recipe and prep tips included below, and original source link here.

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