who needs phyllo?

There are many reasons to like staying in a hotel. Room service, comfortable beds, fancy pillows. (Kaytie once found pillow that she liked so much, we paid the front desk 50 bucks for it. They thought we were nuts.) One of our favorite things to do when we stay in a hotel is to watch TV.

I know that sounds lame. What you should know is that Kaytie and I only pay 12 bucks a month for cable at home. This means that we only get about 18 channels, two of which are shopping networks, and two of which are CSPAN. So, when given the opportunity to surf through dozens of channels, we have a tendency to veg out. And I'm sure you can guess what we usually end up watching. Food Network, of course.

During one recent stay, we saw someone use tortillas & muffin tins to make crunchy cups for a migas-style brunch dish (which was delicious, by the way, but you'll have to find that recipe on their site). We're always looking for new ways to serve hand-held food (because of the Christmas party), so I was excited to try some smaller tortilla cups.

Spinach Cups

makes 24

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 c mayo

1 egg

5 oz fresh spinach

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, diced

6 slices bacon

1/4 c finely grated parmesan

juice of 1/4 lemon

salt & pepper to taste

6 flour tortillas

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cook the bacon over medium heat until crispy. Set the bacon aside, and drain most of the grease from the frying pan. Turn off the stove.

Cut the tortillas into quarters. Briefly warm a quarter-tortilla in the frying pan, about 2-3 seconds per side. Press the tortilla into an oiled mini-muffin tin. This is dangerous, and you may burn yourself. (No pain, no gain. Stop whining.) Repeat the warming & pressing maneuvers 23 more times.

Bake the cups for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, turn the stove back on to medium heat, and saute the onion until translucent.

Add the garlic & saute for about 30 seconds to a minute.

Remove the onions & garlic, and saute the spinach until wilted.

Crumble the bacon.

In a medium bowl, combine most of the crumbled bacon (reserve about 1/4 cup), cream cheese, mayo, and egg. Stir together, and then add the onion, garlic, spinach, and parmesan. Squeeze in the lemon juice and mix everything well. Season with salt & pepper. Stir some more.

Spoon equal amounts of the mixture into each tortilla cup.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Cover loosely with foil to prevent over-browning of the tortillas, and then bake about 5 more minutes.

Top with crumbled bacon.

These are best warm, but they're pretty good at room temperature, too. You'll see some variation of the tortilla cup at the 2011 Christmas party, I'm sure.