SPAM Anyone?

My friend Mary had a post on her blog about SPAM (she'd bought some during preparations for Hurricane Ike), and challenged me to come up with a recipe using SPAM. Well bring it on girl! I love a good challenge...but I can't believe my first cooking one involves using SPAM as an ingredient! What am I getting myself in to?

All right ladies, here's a recipe using SPAM. I have another one in the works, and I'll post it when it's ready. Now...I admit, I did cheat. I looked on the internet for ideas. I've never cooked with SPAM either, so I didn't want to just buy a can and spend 3 days looking at it, hoping for inspiration.

But I did make this recipe for our family first, because I'm not about to post something without trying it on my crew. Yes, they are willing guinea pigs, God Bless 'em! I would say these are more of an appetizer than a main course, but they appealed to my kiddos because they were small and easy to eat. Go figure! Another plus-- they have bacon in them...anything with bacon is bound to be delicious right?

If I make these again, I'd like to try a sweet and sour sauce or honey mustard instead of dijon. I think it might balance out the meaty, salty taste of the SPAM better.

Savory SPAM Cresents

6 slices of bacon, cut in 1/4 dice

1/4 cut finely chopped onion

1 can SPAM, diced

1 large egg

3 tablespoons gratd parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

2 cans (8 count each) refrigerated cresent rolls

Take the SPAM out of the can and cut into very small dice. (It looks rather foreign, doesn't it?) Oh, and I used the SPAM Light. No sense in consuming more fat than I have too. And did you know that in addition to regular SPAM, my local grocery store carries a "Hickory" SPAM, and a single serving variety of SPAM? Who would have known?

This is really not hard, just be sure you use a nice sharp knife.

Here's the onion and bacon ready to go into the pan. I cut them into fairly small dice, since it's going to become a filling for the cresent rolls.

Saute the bacon and onion over medium heat until the bacon is crisp and the onion is tender.

Remove from the heat and drain on some paper towels.

Now, throw the SPAM in the bacon fat (yes, seriously...how can you let perfectly good bacon fat go to waste?), and saute for just a few minutes or until the SPAM gets a bit brown around the edges.

Take the browned SPAM out, and place in a large bowl. Add your sauted onions and bacon, egg, parmesan cheese, mustard, parsley, and pepper.

Mix well and kinda visually divide it into 16 portions. It comes out to about a big spoonful for each serving. I know...really precise :-) !

Now, open up the cresent rolls, and lay one out on a work surface. Place a big heaping spoonful (about 2 tablespoons) on the wider end.

Gently roll up the cresent roll, using your fingers to keep the filling in place as you roll. Once it's rolled up, the filling actually doesn't fall out hardly at all. Here's a close up...

Repeating with the remaining cresent rolls and filling. Line 'em up on a baking sheet, and then pop into the oven at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until nice and golden brown.

Right out of the oven...these little guys smell pretty good (not to mention your kitchen already smells like bacon, lol). Oh, and thanks Robin for the new baking sheet (it was too big for her smallish oven, so she just gave it to me!)

I'm trying to take better pics of my recipes, especially close-ups, somebody let me know how I'm doing okay? Thanks...appreciate it!

These are best served warm, but not straight out of the oven, especially for the little guys. By the time I took these last couple of pics, they were cool enough to eat.

The verdict at the table? Everyone though they were great...except the no-dinner child Christina. David said they were "tasty," and Gabriel went "ummmm!" Score another one for mom! And because we all know SPAM and bacon are not the most healthy things in the world, I made a big batch of steamed green beans on the side. Oh, and orange slices too, they weren't just for garnish.

Mary, if you make these, let me know! God bless your table tonight!