Crescent Roll Spirals

So this weekend was the last weekend before school started, and I go to go to a bridal shower for one of my friends.  You know I can't go to an event without bringing something-- having been raised in the South, it's just what you do.  You attend an event, you bring food.  Done.  So, in the grand Southern tradition of using pre-packaged foods to create some other type of food, I made crescent roll spirals.  My mom gave me this recipe originally-- it's one of the few recipes I know by heart, so I had some trouble when I went to find the original recipe.  Some trouble as in, there is no original recipe that I can find.  I'm preeeeeettttttyyy sure it's a Pampered Chef recipe, but it's not in any of the books I have. So, if you see this and know where it came from, please leave me a comment and I will be sure to add the citation.  (Fact: I love citations.  As an English teacher, it's killing me that I have no source for this.)

I also made ridiculous cupcakes with three different types of frosting for this event-- that's what I'll put up next. :)  These spirals are good, but the cupcakes were out of control.  I'm excited to show you my picture of those.  Hopefully I will get them up later this week!

Crescent Spirals
(Recipe from my mother via Pampered Chef?)
Makes approximately 56 spirals

2 tubes of crescent rolls
1 tub of spreadable cheese (I use Alouette Garlic and Herb)
1 bag of baby spinach, pre-washed (you will have tons of this left over-- we usually make salad)
1 package of deli ham (at least 8 slices)

Pre-heat the oven to the temperature directed on the crescent roll package.  Open the tube of crescent rolls.  There will be two "rolls" of dough in the tube.  Unroll each roll and separate it into two squares.  Each square is made up of two triangles-- don't separate the triangles, even though they are perforated!  Pinch together the perforations between the triangles.  What you end up with will look like the picture below:


The crescent roll dough with the triangular perforations pinched/smoothed to make one dough square.

Next, spread a generous layer of the cheese on top of your dough square.

After the cheese, layer the spinach.  Try to get close as close to the edge as possible without going over.

Next, place one slice of ham on top.  This layer will most likely hang over the edge-- that's OK.

Once you have all the layers complete, hold the crescent roll at one of the short ends and roll it into a spiral.  Try to get this as tight as possible without ripping the dough.  (The ham layer makes this a little difficult.)  Your spirals will look like this:

Cut the spirals cross-ways into equal slices.  Mine usually make about 7 slices each.

Lay the spirals on a cookie sheet and bake for the time directed on your crescent roll package.

Repeat these steps until you've used all your crescent rolls!