About 6 or 7 years ago a group of friends in the neighborhood decided to start celebrating New Years Eve together.  We had so much fun at that first dinner, which we made “progressive” style dinner (a course is served at each person’s house i.e. appetizer/house 1; salad-soup/house 2; main course/house 3 and dessert/house 4), we have made New Years a tradition.

In fact, this group is one of those unique, dynamic groups where everyone enjoys each others company, that we have started celebrating St. Valentine’s Day, 4^th of July, onset of fall, and New Years Eve, with the occasional get-together thrown in for good measure!

{Note, the four couples share a great history of our respective children (adult children now) all growing up together and we’ve been connected with the same schools and community for 20+ years}

Our New Years Eve dinners are now hosted by one of the couples and we all bring a course.  My course this year is appetizer.  I have one recipe in mind and need maybe one or two more.  I thought I’d share the recipe for this easy, scrumptious appetizer in case you need an appetizer for a dinner.

Bacon Pinwheels

Makes 18 to 20 appetizer servings.

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 (17.3 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed *

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 (6.5ounce) container spreadable light cheese with herbs *

1 cup crumbled cooked bacon

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

On a clean, flat surface, sprinkle cornmeal.

Unfold pastry on cornmeal.

Spread mustard lightly over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border around sides.

Spread cheese over mustard.

Sprinkle with bacon.

Roll up pastry, jelly-roll fashion, and slice into 1/2-inch pieces.

Place pinwheels, cut side down, 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.

Brush each pinwheel with olive oil.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm

*In this recipe the cooks used Pepperidge Farm pastry and Alouette cheese.

What are you doing this New Years Eve?