Prosciutto/Mozzarella Asparagus Wraps, and Christmas With The Dogs!

A couple of weeks ago, I was wondering if my amaryllis bulbs were going to bloom in time for Christmas.

And here we are!

Yeah!

We traveled to Connecticut for Christmas, to my brother's house.  You may remember my post a few months ago , where I showed a clip from ConnecticutStyle featuring his restaurant.

Christmas dinner started off with shrimp & lobster, and ended with cannoli cake.  With a lot of good stuff in between.  

My kids were eagerly anticipating our trip to Connecticut because my brother has four dogs.

I was unable to corral them into a group shot on Christmas, so here's an archive photo from this summer when Hounder (front and center) was a puppy.  All of these dogs are rescues, even the pure-bred Weimaraner.

The cast of characters:

Simba (a.k.a. "old man"), who will be 15 next month.

Hounder, the 70-lb puppy, 8 months old.

Oklee, 5 years old, eyeing one of Mrs. Dog's treats .

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good photo of 13-year-old Mrs. Dog (a.k.a. "girlfriend").  You can see her in the group photo, she's the black-and-tan dog on the far left.

Today's recipe is asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and mozzarella.  It's one of the side dishes I prepared for my Christmas Eve party.

But before I give you the recipe, I need to show you what Erin's been up to lately:

Aren't they cute?

She made them for our Christmas Eve party.

A double-batch of rice krispy treats, rolled into balls and decorated with oreos, mini reeses cups and pull-apart twizzlers.

The snowman theme continued yesterday, when her BFF Abby came over and they made this cake.

Today's Playlist

• "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked".......Cage The Elephant
• "Somewhere Only We Know"......Keane
• "Show Me What I'm Looking For".......Carolina Liar
• "Animal"........Neon Trees
• "Creep"........Radiohead
• "Seven Nation Army"........The White Stripes
• "No One Knows"......Queens Of The Stone Age
• "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid".......The Offspring
• "Pumped Up Kicks".........Foster The People
• "Sins Of My Youth".........Neon Trees

Asparagus Wrapped With Prosciutto And Mozzarella (serves 8 to 12)

• 2 lbs asparagus (trimmed of the tough ends)
• 8 oz. mozzarella (sliced from the deli or wedge)
• 1/2 lb. prosciutto (from the deli), sliced paper-thin

Gather your ingredients.

Trim or snap off the tough ends of the asparagus.

If you have a wedge of mozzarella, slice it into 1/4" slices,

and cut the slices into sticks about 1/2" wide.

If you bought your mozzarella sliced from the deli, you're all set.

Boil a large (six to eight quart) pot of water.  Bring it to a rolling boil.  Do not salt the water, the prosciutto will provide all the saltiness that you need.

When the water comes to a rolling boil, blanch the asparagus for one minute.  Set your timer, watch the clock, whatever you need to do...just make sure the asparagus is in the boiling water for only one minute.

Am I repeating myself?  Yep, I just want to make sure that you understand that it only takes one minute to blanch the asparagus.

After one minute, you can either remove your asparagus from the pot and plunge it into a bowl of ice water, or drain the water from the pot and immediately add ice water to the pot.  The reason you need to put the asparagus into ice water is to stop it from cooking (turning to mush).

After it has cooled, drain your asparagus.

Place a stick of mozzarella with three or four spears of asparagus. If you are using sliced mozzarella, wrap a slice around the asparagus spears.

Wrap the asparagus/mozzarella in a slice of prosciutto.

Place your little bundles into a broiling pan.  Make sure they are in a single layer.  You can see that mine didn't all quite fit into the pan.  If this is the case, and you have to stack them a bit, try to arrange them so that the prosciutto is exposed.

It doesn't matter so much if the tips of the asparagus are covered, because it is really the prosciutto that you want to crisp under the broiler.

Set your broiler to HIGH and place the tray of asparagus under it for 3 to 5 minutes.  Keep a close eye on it so that your asparagus doesn't burn!  You may need to reposition the tray every couple of minutes so that the prosciutto crisps evenly.

 Remove from the oven to a serving plate and serve immediately.

Enjoy!