For me, being on serious overtime means surviving on catering and never, ever, ever getting to cook. But never fear, for the time after a movie is done (called “unemployment”, or as I prefer “extended vacation”) means lots of cooking and experimenting with new recipes! Now, so far some have been, uh, lackluster. I’m looking at you, rock hard homemade rice crackers. But others have been lovely. Like these nice Prosciutto, Dijon, and Gruyere Puffs:

Om nom nom.

Now, I gleefully stole this recipe from the lovely blog Joy the Baker. I strayed from her recipe in a few minor ways, but the changes are so slight that I’ll just put a little link here to her instead. Ze Puffs! Credit where credit is due! These mofos are soft, flavorful, and so very easy to make. Seriously. If you’ve ever used Play-doh or assembled a sandwich, you’re good to go.

My changes are as follows: I am not terribly fond of the double roll style of pastry that she used, so I just did a single roll. The double roll stuff tends to fall apart as I eat it, so I stuck with a more compact formation. The picture makes the finished rolls look huge, but they’re really quite small, less than palm sized. As a result, I went with less of the filling than the original recipe called for, fearing that the flavor would be too intense. And boy am I glad I did. I went about half on the Prosciutto and Gruyere, and used a little less than a tablespoon of Dijon. The dijon can be a little overwhelming, so use less if you’re not crazy about it.

Oh man are these good! I forsee an entire summer of rolled puff pasty awesomes and delights! Spinach and mushroom! Olive tapenade! Who knows what else!

On tap for this summer’s food blogging assuming I get off my lazy ass and do it:

- Cookbook reviews, including “The Japanese Kitchen”!
- Restaurant reviews, like Shinsengumi Ramen and La Provence!
- Tips, tricks, and product reviews, none of which come to mind at the moment!
- My favorite Southern dishes, aka, a thinly veiled excuse to eat tasty things when I go home this summer!
- Recipes, assuming I can get the rice crackers to come out right this time!

I’ll see you mofos later.