Stuffed Phyllo Triangles

I'm trying to be a new, improved me, but so far it feels like some sort of cartoon where there is a leak in, say, a wall, and I plug up one hole only to create another hole from, oh I don't know, displaced pressure or something sciency.

Anyways, so while I'm doing the dishes after making dinner instead of leaving the whole pile of crap for Todd the next morning, which was a new goal of mine since a dirty kitchen is just so depressing, it's also seriously cutting into my Sitting On The Couch Blogging And Talking About Myself time.

I always had the goal of blogging daily, but that has seriously fallen to the wayside. I shall blame the holidays and repeated bouts of sickness in my house. Because taking responsibility for my actions (and inactions) was definitely not on my Resolutions To-Do list.

But on to today's post! I made these bad boys for the Christmas Eve open house and I'm proud to say they were absolutely devoured. I also did bacon, egg and cheese triangles, mushroom, chicken sausage and bell pepper triangles, and apple cinnamon triangles. All were gone in like 30 minutes.

Crab-stuffed (anything-stuffed, really) Phyllo Triangles

1 roll frozen phyllo dough, thawed according to directions
2 cans crab meat, drained
1 can salmon, drained
8 oz neufchatel, softened
5 scallions, chopped
2 tsp horseradish
2 tbsp milk

Take care of your phyllo first. It takes about an hour to thaw. As it thaws, mix up the rest of the ingredients. It will seem a little difficult at first, as the neufchatel takes some time to soften, but it'll whip up in time.

Back to the phyllo: I thaw it inside its plastic wrap and then when it's soft and gives when you squeeze it, unwrap it, and roll it out very gently. As you pull the sheets apart, if the sheets stick together, blow gently against the line where the sheets are still stuck together, like you're trying to blow the fluff off of a dandelion (AKA gentle as hell). Luckily, I let them thaw long enough and so I got this rad outcome:

 At the point of this next photo, I had already laid down a sheet on top of parchment-paper and gingerly dabbed/swept melted butter onto it with a hair brush (NOT my rubber basting brush which I usually adore- it is way too harsh for such a delicate thing which is why it was promptly and permanently retired). I repeated the steps with another sheet, and cut the layers into five sections, using a butter knife.
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Jesus, I took out most of my upper arm but you can see what two weeks of holiday fun and two weeks of no workouts do to a woman who likes to eat and lay around watching BBC while complaining than the holidays make her too busy to work out. Sorry. Moving on. Todd took the photos, per my shrill, bitchy demands of "HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING? PICK UP THAT DAMN CAMERA I AM MAKING CRAB STUFFED SHIT OVER HERE" so there aren't a lot of photos, and none of them are that great, because he would literally stop mid-chore, snatch up the camera, take a photo and leave.

Holidays are just so warm and fuzzy. Aren't they?

Yeah. So now I have placed my second sheet of phyllo over the first, and am basting with more butter.

I have made my cuts, using just a butter knife because phyllo is so delicate, and made about five vertical strips. Then I took a tablespoon of crab mix and placed it at the base of each strip, like so:

It's hard to see, but the way you fold them is like a flag, into cute, yummy triangles!

Naturally I have no photos of the finished products because by this time either Todd had left the house or just started ignoring my screeching for more pictures. And I had like 8937584 more to make so I just said screw it. BUT, at this point, you put the finished triangles on a cookie sheet, brush the tops with, yep, more butter, and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until the crust is goldeny-brown.

You can also do what I did, which was to do them three days in advance, put them in a single layer into freezer bags and freeze them until the big day. For the party I put the frozen triangles onto a cookie sheet, brushed with more butter and popped them in the oven.

Enjoy!