The Reason We Gain Weight This Time of Year...

It's not the ham, the turkey or the roast. The mashed potatoes don't help and neither does the stuffing or pumpkin pie. But those things don't make you fat. It's the finger food that makes you fat. It's the "Oh just one more won't hurt" attitude that goes right to your (my) muffin top. This epiphany came to me after I made my first ever parmesan gorgonzola sticks. I ate the equivalent to, well, dinner, by the time I was done! They were so warm and tangy, chewy good; was super hard to resist going back for more. But I digress...

This is a monthly recipe club blog and I swear we, the six beauties (even with muffin tops) are going to get to it next month. One of us will pick a recipe and the rest of us will be forced to make it. Okay, the others may not feel as "forced" as I do; I'm probably the least excited about kitchen duty in our group. But I do love to eat and drink and talk about food, which is enough motivation to be part of this experiment. Plus my husband deserves at least one home-cooked meal a month. I guess.

So, backtracking again, one of us will host and post the recipe, we'll all make it and then review it here on this blog. But that starts in January. For now, we've agreed to each post an appetizer we make in December, our last bit of freedom. I made parm gorg sticks for a dinner party with some friends. They turned out awesome, as I mentioned having eaten half of them above.

But as I often do, I tweaked the recipe because I was missing a main ingredient: the rolling pin. "Note to beauties: Please avoid recipes that call for things to be rolled out." So the original recipe is for parmesan gorgonzola twists but since I couldn't roll it, I couldn't really twist much. I just sorta skipped over that part and improvised by making them fat, little sticks instead. Delicious. I also added extra gorg cheese crumbles on top of the sticks to melt as they baked. It was a very good move.

Enjoy!

Parmeson Gorgonzola Twists (or STICKS)
Makes 24

Ingredients:

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
4 to 6 thin prosciutto slices
1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 egg, beaten to blend (for glaze)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment. Roll out pastry on lightly floured surface to 12-inch square. Arrange prosciutto in single layer on half of pastry. Sprinkle cheeses, then thyme over. Brush egg glaze on other half of pastry and fold over onto cheese; press firmly. Roll out pastry to 11x8-inch rectangle (Or NOT).

Brush with egg glaze; sprinkle with pepper. Cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips. Twist strips (or NOT) 3 times and arrange on sheets, pressing ends onto sheet to keep strips twisted. Brush twists lightly with egg glaze. Bake until brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool slightly. Serve warm.



Btw, this is what I made with the puff pastry leftovers: jalapeno cheddar puff pastry dogs. YUMMY.