super bowl - three cheese pinwheels - apparently three cheeses aren't enough for me

For the Super Bowl, I thought I'd make a ton of mini appetizers with the huge bundle of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls that I had hoarded in the fridge from months ago. I figured these would be similar to the Thanksgiving appetizers I made, but I definitely didn't want to make another sausage quiche or another bacon pinwheel. I couldn't think of anything interestingly different than quiches or pinwheels, so I figured I'd just switch it up a bit. Why not use my ultimate favorite ingredient as a replacement for the bacon in the pinwheels- cheese!


I got the idea from Pillsbury.com for the three cheese pinwheels. I varied it of course to suit my own needs. I used Pepper Jack cheese, Mozzarella cheese (instead of blue cheese- I know they're not similar, I was just going for something different), and cream cheese (as a binder for all the cheesiness). I also had one can of crescent rounds left, which would be perfect for the slicing of the pinwheels.


I spread out the dough and rolled it as large as I could. Then I spread the already mixed cheese combination evenly on to the dough. I also had an abundant amount of basil so I chopped up a few springs and sprinkled them on top.


I carefully rolled up the dough and set it in the fridge for the following day so I could bake them fresh for the day of the Super Bowl.


I sliced them evenly into 16 perfect little cute rounds.


The little pinwheels baked up and revealed little pockets of gooey cheese.


The little flecks of green are either the chopped basil or the jalapeno from the pepper jack cheese.


As for the taste- they were pretty good... definitely not as good as I would have liked them, but at the same time people were still eating them.


Typical me- I would have liked them a lot more cheesy. For some reason it just wasn't that gooey-stringy-cheesy type of food that I like.


That of course didn't stop me from eating a whole ton of these though. Anything with a bready-substance and melted cheese is damn good in my book.

---RECIPE---
Slightly adapted from Pillsbury.com.

ingredients:
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 can Pillsbury crescent rounds
1 tablespoon chopped basil
2 tablespoon cooked onion
1 garlic clove

directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In small bowl, mix all cheeses and mayonnaise until well blended and soft. Add basil, onion, and garlic.
3. Roll dough into long rectangle. Spread cheese mixture evenly over dough.
4. Starting at shorter side, roll up into a cylinder. Set in fridge until ready to bake.
5. When firm, cut into 16 slices. Place, cut side down, on cookie sheet.
6. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

amount:
Makes 16 pinwheels.