All American Appetizer! Pinwheels!

I hope this finds you all having a relaxing evening, recovering from this ugly Monday syndrome!  What a fantastic day here in Nebraska, gorgeous weather, and summer is on the horizon!

Now, I know that most of you have eaten, heard of, or in fact made these appetizers, which we call "picky food".  Truth is, they are old news right?  Well, I would have to agree to some extent, but I am hoping to revive these always popular finger lickin' "picky's" and give you some new idea's on how to fill them.  They are so easy and as my sister and I were making them, I was thinking of a million different things you could really do with these babies and I was amazed at my on genius.  Well, I am sure someone else has thought of most of my ideas as well but, in reality you can do about anything you would do in a wrap!!  Just cut the pieces smaller!

My secret is that I put as much as I can in the food processor.  I process it until it is 2 notches from mush.  Seriously, I do.  There are tiny pieces but it is very spreadable and not to big to be rolled effectively into the pretty little pinwheel shape!  Tomatoes, onions, olives, bacon (unless you use bits) all can be done in the food processor and prepared to complete perfection for this appetizer.

To begin you will need cream cheese, sour cream, and flour tortilla's.  From there I will go into specific varieties and list you my versions!

Here is what you need for the basic bacon, tomato, ranch version:

1 8oz. pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
8 flour tortilla's
1 tbsp ranch dressing dry mix
1/2-3/4 cup bacon (bits or crumbled)
1/2 cup onion (optional)
3 tomato's minced in food processor
(pictures is all my ingredients for other versions as well)

In a bowl with a hand mixer combine cream cheese (room temp), sour cream and ranch dressing mix.  Mix until smooth.  Set aside while you process your other ingredients.  After you process your tomatoes, let them drain in a small strainer to get as much liquid out of them as possible like this.

Lay out your tortilla.  Spread with a layer of your cream cheese mixture.  Layer on tomatoes, and bacon.  Roll up and put on a plate, seam side down.  Continue until your cream cheese mixture is gone.  Refrigerate 1 hour before slicing into pinwheels!

Dill Pickle and Ham Version (my personal fav of course)

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1lb thin sliced deli ham

1 jar of your favorite WHOLE dill pickles

Mix cream cheese and sour cream completely.  Lay out tortilla and spread on mixture.  Cover in slices of thin sliced ham.  I would do 2 layers of ham.  Line your pickles up on one end and roll like this!

Taco Pinwheels
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup taco sauce OR 1 pkg taco seasoning mix
black olives
tomatoes (processed) and drained
onion
1 pkg grated cheese (cheddar or mexican blend)

Do I need to type this again?  HAHA   Drain olives and tomatoes like this...

Spread on cream cheese layer, tomatoes, olives, onions and cheese.  Make sure not to use so much it pushes out the end and won't roll nicely.  As with all the others refrigerate for 1 hour before slicing.

Now there are a TON of options....you could do ground beef in these if you make sure it is in tiny pieces.  You could shred chicken to add as well.  You could use guacamole as a second layer of spread.   I wouldn't use lettuce as it will wilt and get slimy.

There are NUMEROUS sweet version ideas as well.  Mashed bananas, cream cheese with powdered sugar, nutella, thinly sliced strawberries, fruit preserves, ganache, the possibilities are endless!

It is a almost Memorial Day weekend, what a great EASY fingerfood to take to your bbq!!

Your "picky lovin" chefwannabe

Chris