Little Bites of Meaty, Cheesy Goodness!

I attended a potluck breakfast awhile back and one of the ladies brought an amazing recipe that contained three ingredients, Sausage, Cheese and Bisquick.  I know what your saying...REALLY?  What is the binding ingredient?  That doesn't sound crazy flavorful!  Guess what?  These babies are FLAVOR BOMBS!  I saw several variations on Allrecipes.com for this recipe ranging from the amount of Bisquick to the cook time.  Since I couldn't remember the recipe my potluck friend told me, I decided to do a combination of several different recipes from Allrecipes.com.

Bisquick Sausage Bites:
1lb Jalpeno sausage
2.5  Cups cheese
3 Cups Bisquick
Water, as needed

Preheat oven to 350F

Thoroughly combine ingredients...this is going to take some serious elbow grease because you are forcing the sausage and cheese and Bisquick together and I think they are secretly enemies.  Be forewarned.  As water as needed.  Roll into 1.5 inches balls of dough and put on cookie sheet.  Cook for 25 minutes.

These little bites are ADDICTIVE!  Oh my goodness!  I could eat them all day, in fact, that is just what I did the day I made them, breakfast, snack and lunch!  The next time I make these babies I'm going to use less Bisquick and more cheese.

Love random finds!

I got a wild hair tonight and thought it would be fun to create a want-to-be, lazy girl's version of focaccia/naan.  I had a loaf of Rhoades frozen bread to be used.  I followed the quick rise instructions on the package (place in non-stick pan, pre-heat oven to 200 degrees F, then turn off and add boiling water to a pan beneath the bread), rolled it out with a rolling pin,

 spread garlic infused canola oil over both sides and

GRILLED IT!!!!

Oh MY!  Was this a tasty method for cooking dough!  I had some seasonings for bread dipping and soaked up their yummy goodness with this GRILLED BREAD!!!  I think I have found a replacement for garlic bread!  I used my indoor, stove top, grill pan to cook the bread, but now that I know it will turn out, I'm going to do it on our charcoal grill next time!

Perfect Little Muffin Pan

O.K., I'm going to make a shameless plug for Pampered Chef.  In part because I started selling Pampered Chef, but more importantly, BECAUSE THIS PAN FREAKING ROCKS!!!!  Pampered Chef has a silly number of appetizer recipes you can make in this pan.  On future posts, I'll highlight some of my favorite appetizer recipes.  Today I'm going to share my first made up recipe I created in this pan for Thanksgiving appetizers.

So my Dad is pretty crazy about Brie en Cruet.  He gets a big round bite of Brie, puts some kind of jam on top and wraps it all up in puff pastry.  It is good, but I wasn't have a large crowd at my house for Thanksgiving and I wasn't sure about the palates of some of my guests.  As a result, I created the following recipe.

Mini-Brie en Cruet:

2 packages refrigerated Pillsbury croissant dough

1 pie slice of brie - my favorite is Presidente

1 small jar of your favorite jam - I used a raspberry habenero jam for a little KICK!

Open croissant package and cut the already pre-cut slices in half.  Push them into place in your mini-muffin pan.  (Pampered Chef also sells a wooden dowl to help you with this task.) - Sorry, I can't help myself. :)  Cut the brie into squares small enough to fit into pan without overflowing from the croissant dough.  If you are not keen on the rind around the brie, you can cut it off.  Spoon a small amount of jam on top and close the croissant dough around cheese and jam like it is a package. 

Cook according to instruction on croissant dough package.

Another option for this SWEET pan is the obvious...MINI-MUFFINS!  Now that my daughter is eating everything we are eating this is a FABULOUS option for kid sized muffins.  Today I made blueberry oatmeal muffins in this pan.  I love them because they are small and bite sized (and we all know food in cute shapes and small sizes taste better) and my daughter loved them because they fit her hand well.

Bisquick Sweet Muffins

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 egg

2 cups Original Bisquick mix

1/3 cup sugar

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Prep your muffin pan with cooking spray.  In medium bowl, beat milk, oil and egg with wire whisk or fork until blended.  Stir in Bisquick mix and sugar just until moistened.  Spoon batter into muffin cups.

Bake 8-9 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy your bite sized goodness!!!

Appetizers for BUNCO!

Never in my life did I ever think I would be the BUNCO type.  But when you move to a city where you don't know many people, you learn to expand your horizon's.  Thank goodness I did!  BUNCO really is a fun and mindless game and a GREAT way for the ladies to hang out on a Saturday night.

We have LOTS of salmon in our freezer...thank you, Costco...so I decided whatever I made was going to have salmon in it.  I opted for a variation on a smoked salmon cream cheese dip.  Alex and I smoked our own salmon with a stove top smoker my dad gave us.  LOVE this product!  Makes smoking salmon SO EASY!!!!

I have a ravioli maker that REALLY helps out for this dish.  You can do it without this item, but if you are challenged with sealing your 'pillows' like I am, you'll appreciate the ravioli maker.  I got mine at Williams Sonoma a couple of years ago.

Smoked Salmon Dip Pillows
8 oz smoked salmon
8 oz room temperature cream cheese
6 tablespoons green onions
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 egg + an extra egg for an egg wash
1 package frozen puff pastry

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Defrost puff pastry for 30 minutes.

Mix together smoked salmon, cream cheese, green onions heavy cream and egg until well combined and set aside.

Cut puff pastry into three pieces on the fold.  Roll out so it will fit over the ravioli 'pot'.  Fill each 'pot' with the salmon mixture, about a teaspoon in each. 

Roll out another piece of puff pastry for the top of the pillow.  Place the metal ravioli cutter on top and press down until pieces are separated.  You may need a ravioli cutter for this part.

Place pillows on a greased cookie sheet and brush with egg wash.  Cook for 12-14 minutes.  Serve immediately.  

These babies were a HIT at BUNCO!  And I won the most games for the night!  YEAH!!! 

MINI Corn Dogs

Oh yeah! I don't care who you are....you secretly think corn dogs are the bomb! I LOVE corn dogs, but they pack on the fat like nobody's business. I scored a TOTALLY sweet recipe for Bakes Mini Corn Dogs from this month's issue of Food Network Magazine. I wasn't sure what to expect from these babies, but did they deliver! AND they are cute and small...well, the picture in the magazine makes them look cute and small. Mine turned out bulky and huge...but it was my first time and they tasted FABULOUS...so who cares what they looked like, right?

Baked Mini Corn Dogs:
1 cup reduced-fat milk
1 package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and kneading
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
9 reduced fat hot dogs, halved crosswise - I used 3 brats and cut them into 3-4 small pieces
1 large egg, beaten - I omitted this part
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds (optional) - I omitted this too

Warm the milk to about 100 F in a sauce pan; pour into a medium bowl. Spring in the yeast and left soften for about 2 minutes. Stir in the olive oil, brown sugar and corn meal with a wooden spoon. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and cayenne pepper; stir to make a sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Meanwhile, insert a wooden stick or small skewer into each hot dog half about 1 inch deep; set aside. Preheat the oven to 450 F and lightly oil a large backing sheet. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; divide into 18 pieces. With our palms, roll each piece into a 10-inch length. Wrap each piece around a hot dog half, tucking and pressing the edges to seal; place on the baking sheet. Brush the dough-wrapped dogs with the beaten egg; sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired. Bake until golden brown, 15 minutes.

The Food Network magazine also had a suggestion for spicing up your condiments. I added wasabi paste to the mustard to give a FABULOUS kick. Try it out!

Penguins!!!

These little babies are the CUTEST EVER!!!!!!!

In my hiatus from blogging I also stopped looking at food blogs because a lot of foods did not appeal to me. Quite honestly I was too tired by the time I came home from work to do much more than eat and go straight to bed. It is so nice to be in my second trimester!

This week when I got up the effort to start looking at blogs again, Megan's Cooking caught my eye. She made the cutest little penguin appetizers. We are having a couple of friends over for dinner so I thought I would try this recipe out. I was worried it would be really time consuming so I didn't have high expectations. WRONG! These babies are EASY to make and so damn cute!!!!! When they are all bunched up they look like they are keeping their eggs warm.

Penguins:
18 jumbo ripe Black olives
18 small ripe Black olives1
(8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 carrot (about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide)
18 long fresh chives
18 toothpicks

Cut a slit lengthwise from top to bottom in each jumbo olive. Fill each cavity of the jumbo olives with about a teaspoon of cream cheese (I used a knife and pushed the cream cheese in a little at a time through the top hole). This makes the the white stripe in penguins chest.

Cut carrot into 1/4 inch slices, then out of each slice cut a small pie shaped piece. This makes the feet, save the piece you cut out, this will be the beak. In the x slit in the center of each small olive (where the pit was removed) press the small piece of carrot into the hole with the pointed end out. Using a toothpick, stack head ( small olive ), body (large olive) and feet (carrot slice), adjusting so that beak, cream cheese breast and notch in carrot line up. Tie chive around neck for the scarf.

Not only are these little guys cute, they are TASTY! The chive is a requirement. If you don't use it as a scarf, you should chop them up in the cream cheese. Thanks for the idea Megan!!!

Seriously! This is so easy. You have to make these for your next cocktail party.

Crab Cream Cheese Wontons

Alex says I am the only person he knows that can make a meal out of wine and cheese. It's true. I love to get three or four kinds of cheese, a good bottle of wine and munch on crackers. That is what I do when he goes out of town. Tonight I had a hankering for Crab Cream Cheese Wontons. And yes, I made a meal out of them. :)

I scored a SWEET recipe for Crab Cream Cheese Wontons from a co-worker a couple of years ago and it is my FAVORITE. Unfortunately, it calls to fry up the wontons. I am always looking for ways to make my favorite food (appetizers) healthy and happened to stumble on a blog that suggested baking wontons. For the life of me I can't remember which blog I saw it on so I could give them some love.

I will never fry up wontons EVER again.

Crab Cream Cheese Wontons:

Canned Crab

8 oz. cream cheese

Seeded jalapeno, diced - I used a serrano with seeds...it was SPICY!!!

2 green onions, chopped

Ginger, diced

Heat over to 375 F. Add all ingredients to a medium bowl and stir until combined well. Dollop a teaspoon of crab mix in the center of wonton wrapper.Wet the edges of wonton fold over and seal. I keep a little dish of water handy and dip my finer in the water, outlining the edge of the wonton wrapper.You can push the edges up in the shape of a traditional wonton, or you can make whatever shape you care for. When you leave the edges out, they get nice and crispy in the oven. Brush a little olive oil over the tops of the stuffed wonton wrappers and cook for 8-10 minutes. Serve with Dipping Sauce.

Dipping Sauce:

Small can crushed pineapple

1 teaspoon chili garlic oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon minced ginger

Mix all ingredients and simmer until thick.
I HIGHLY recommend using the canned crab you get at Costco, Crowned Price Crab meat. This stuff is the BEST canned crab. They store it in water and it is wrapped up in paper and it really maintains its freshness. I'm not sure what the paper does to keep in the freshness, whatever it is...it works!

These babies ROCKED!!!! I am stoked to have found a healthy way to enjoy one of my favorite appetizers as a main course!