A New Twist On Apple Crisp

Holy crap this little experiment turned out well. This would be perfect for a potluck! You'll need a package of puff pastry, some apple compote, brown sugar, ground cloves, ground cinnamon & white sugar. Here's what ya do... thaw the puff pastry and unfold it. Mix about a half a cup of brown sugar with a half teaspoon of ground cloves. Sprinkle some of the mixture onto the middle section of the unfolded pastry. Add a layer of apple compote. Fold one of the empty sections of pastry onto the apples. Add another layer of brown sugar mixture and another layer of compote. Fold the last section over. Sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mixture, bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cut into sections & serve with vanilla ice cream... YUM!

Knock Your Socks Off Chicken, Pesto & Provolone Pasta

I usually don't eat breakfast, because if I don't eat it, I can go till around 1pm before I get too hungry. Today I decided to share a frozen waffle with the kids and was starving by 10am. So I had to figure out what I had in the house to make a meal out of. Payday isn't till tomorrow, so I had to use what I had, which was next to nothing. What I wound up with was nothing short of amazing. I cut 3 chicken breasts into chunks and browned them in a pan with some fresh garlic, dried onion & red pepper. Next I boiled 2 cups of pasta. I had ziti. You can use whatever's handy. When that was done, I drained all but about 10% of the water, and then tossed in about 2 tablespoons of Philadelphia Cream Cheese brand's creamy pesto sauce stuff - it's found next to the cream cheese at the store. Then I tossed in about 1/4 cup heavy cream. I was trying to figure out what else to put into the sauce when I found some bacon that had already been cooked. Bacon is always good. I crumbled a bunch of that up and dumped in way too much. Just kidding. There's no such thing as too much bacon. The sauce was kinda runny, so I went looking for something to thicken it up. I found sliced provolone in the fridge, so I tossed about 4 slices in it. Once that was all gooey and melty, I tossed the chicken into the pot, mixed it all up, and tried a bite. Holy shit that's good stuff! Can't wait to feed it to the family for dinner!

A-Freaking-Mazing Turkey Leftovers Cassarole

Screw turkey sandwiches. This is how I'm handling my thanksgiving leftovers this year. Here's how it started... I have been trying to get more creative with dinner ideas. Ground beef only goes so far really. So this morning at 4am I had a brilliant idea to throw some chicken breasts into my crockpot with a jar of turkey gravy. Yes, I said chicken. But it's only November 9, I haven't cooked my turkey yet. Gimme a break. I knew I wanted to make some sort of stuffing and chicken/turkey cassarole but I had no idea how I was going to do it. After 4 hours on low heat, the chicken & gravy mixture was done. I shredded the chicken, put it back in the crock pot, tossed in some spices, and then let it soak in the gravy for another 20 minutes. In the meantime, I searched the fridge and pantry for ideas. AHA! I had a can of crescent rolls in the fridge, and I suddenly became brillant. Here's how the rest of this went... In a greased 9x9 or 8x8 inch square pan, lay out 4 crescent roll triangles flat on the bottom. They're not going to cover the whole pan by any means. So just lay them in there, spread out is fine. If you have mashed potatoes, spread them on top. I didn't. Sad face. Next, pull the chicken out of the crock pot, but DON'T TOSS THE GRAVY! lay the chicken across the pan on top of the dough. Toss a box of stuffing mix into the crock pot with the leftover gravy stuff. Since the liquid is already hot, the stuffing will fluff right up. Layer it on top of the chicken. Top with the remaining 4 dough triangles. Springle cheese all over the top. Cook at 375 for 20 minutes. Enjoy the taste of absolute heaven. Can you imagine this recipe with your leftover turkey and sides? Oh my....

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins - Coffee Cake Texture

Oh...My....God. These are friggin delicious. Seriously. I found a recipe allrecipes.com for these, and then tweaked it to fit my own tastes. For the original recipe, click here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-cream-cheese-muffins/ First off, it was super confusing to pay attention to what went where in the format I found it in. So let me break it down for ya. Topping: 4 1/2 tablespoons of flour 5 tablespoons of white sugar 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons of butter I'm all about making things easy. And my electric mixer broke. Tear. $2 mixer at Walmart on black friday, you are mine. Put all the topping ingredients in a bowl with the chunk of cold butter on top. Throw the bowl in the microwave until the butter is melted. Stir it all together and put it in the fridge while you make everything else. Filling: 8 ounces of cream cheese 1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar Here's what I did: I put the chunk of cream cheese in a bowl and nuked it in the microwave for about 45 seconds so it got gooey. I don't prepare to cook an hour in advance. I'm frickin busy. Everything comes straight out of the fridge and into my cooking. So if it's supposed to be softened, it goes in the microwave. I don't care what the recipe says. Stir your gooey cream cheese until the lumps are gone. Or use your electric mixer, if yours isn't sadly broken. Add the other ingredients and blend it all together. Set aside. Muffin mix: 2 1/2 cups of flour 2 cups of white sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon of salt 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups canned pureed pumpkin (you can puree your own pumpkin if you want. I don't have time for that shit) 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/3 cup olive oil (I know, OLIVE? Yeah. Just do it.) Throw all that stuff in a big bowl and mix well. It will look like orange puke when you're done. Don't taste it, trust me. Turn the oven on to 375. Why didn't I tell you that in the beginning? Because I always forget to pre-heat. That's why. Line your muffin pan with cupcake cups or grease it if you're genius enough to get stuff out of those damn pans on your own. Fill each cup halfway with the pumpkin mixture. Add a tablespoon full of the cream cheese mixture on top of that. (The original recipe says not to let the cream cheese mix touch the sides of the cups. Uh yeah right.) Just drop it in there and let it go where it wants to. Crumble the topping on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Take a bite. Marvel at the yummy muffin while you do the HOT HOT HOT blowing while the food is already in your mouth technique. Vow to let it cool all the way before you take another bite. Break the vow. Repeat.

Starbucks Iced Pumpkin Spiced Latte Copycat

I friggin LOVE Starbucks but I can't afford that shit every day. So I tried a few things and figured out I can make a near-perfect copy of their iced pumpkin spice latte with 3 ingredients. 1 - you're gonna need some cold-brew coffee, or it won't taste as close. You can ice over your regular brew, but it tastes a little funky. 2 - Coffeemate brand pumpkin spice flavor coffee creamer liquid. They have it in sugar free too, so you don't have to feel like a total fatty. 3 - ice. Brew the coffee. Pour it into your mug or cup , leaving about 1/2 of the cup empty. Dump in as much creamer as you think you're gonna need. You may have to screw this up a few times before you get it just right. You may also hate the taste of pumpkin spice if you fuck it up too much the first time. Fair warning. Start small. Once you've got the right combo of coffee and creamer, dump in some ice, enough to bring the coffee mix to the top of the cup. Bam. Now if you have to be all exact, squirt some whipped cream on the top and sprinkle cinnamon or nutmeg, or whatever the hell they use at Starbucks. Ta-da. You're welcome. And before you send me hate mail, yes I realize you still have to buy stuff in order to make these. But even if you buy the cold-brew from Starbucks to brew at home, between the coffee and the creamer, you're only spending about $15, which will make dozens of iced lattes. So you just outsmarted Starbucks by like $100 if you're a venti junkie like me.

Beer, Bacon & Beef Mac & Cheese

Tonight I took two recipes that I wanted to try, and combined them into one because I wound up changing shit around after my husband whined that he didn't like swedish meatballs and wanted something else. I had already mixed the meat so I had to improvise. What I wound up with was damn tasty. Start out like you're going to make swedish meatballs. I didn't measure anything so I'll ballpark it for you. If you can't approximate shit, you shouldn't be cooking anyway. Meat: 1 lb ground beef 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs 1 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper 1/4 tsp ground pepper 1/4 tsp paprika 1 egg bacon Mix all that in a big bowl and squish the meat around in it until it's pretty consistant. You're gonna have to use your hands. If you can mix shit into ground beef with a spoon before cooking it, you're a friggin genius. Toss that in a pan and brown up the meat. The original recipe called for minced onion too. I didn't have time for that so I tossed some dried minced onion in the pan because I happened to have some in the cabinet. The original recipe also said to cook bacon and then throw that in, but I'm lazy and I hate cooking bacon. So I buy those "real" bacon pieces in the little glass jar in the salad dressing aisle. I threw a bunch of those into the meat and considered the matter closed. Cook some noodles until they're almost done. Does't matter what kind you use. I used Penne because I had it in the pantry. Use whatever you want. Measure out however much you think you're gonna eat. When it's almost ready, drain it and leave it in the strainer in the sink while you work on the sauce. Sauce: 1 egg 1/2 cup sour cream 2 tablespoons soft or melted butter 1/2 bottle of beer 1 tsp ground pepper 1 tsp garlic powder pinch of red pepper (or more if you want your ass to burn later) pinch of paprika 1 cup grated cheese Whisk the egg, butter & sour cream together. Pour half a bottle of beer into the bowl. Mix that in. You can use whatever kind of beer is handy. I had Bud Light, so in it went. Drink the rest of the beer. We do not waste beer. Period. Throw the seasonings in there, but hold off on the cheese. Throw that into a sauce pan on the stove and get it to where it's starting to bubble. Start throwing cheese in a little at a time. You can use whatever kind of cheese you want. More if you like it extra gooey. This was a last minute idea for me, so I tossed in everything I had - which was two sticks of mozzarella string cheese, 2 kraft singles, 2 slices of swiss, and a handfull of that pre-grated and bagged stuff that everybody tells you won't melt right. Yeah it will, if you are cooking it in a sauce. Once all the cheese is melted, throw the noodles back in. Get it all nice and coated, and then throw that ground beef deliciousness on top of it. Mix it all up, grab another beer, and feast. My super picky husband went back for thirds.

Beef Calzone Ring

I wish I could take credit for the ring idea, but I can't. I saw it on pinterest and I wish I could remember who to give the credit to! 2 cans crescent rolls 2/3 pound ground beef veggies of your preference (I use red bell peppers and some onion) 1 cup grated cheese parmesean cheese 1/2 cup cream cheese Brown the meat, and throw in seasonings of your choice, then and add in your veggies. Allow to simmer until the veggies are soft. Drain the fat from the meat and then return to pan. Add the 1/2 of the grated cheese, and all of the parmesean cheese. Mix well over low heat until well blended. Turn off heat. Open both cans of crescent rolls, but keep them in the rectangle form - don't separate into triangles! You should have 8 rectangle sections. Pinch the seams together or shit will leak out everywhere. Form a wreath shape using the rectangles (ON A COOKIE SHEET, you will not want to try to move this later! It's a bitch to do and you'll make a giant mess, just trust me.) leaving about a 3 inch hole in the middle. Make a ring about 3/4 of an inch from the hole all the way around the crescent wreath using your meat mixture. Fold up the edges of your crescent roll wreath around the meat, pinching the ends into the center of the ring. I wind up having to pinch together the gaps in also. Sprinkle the top of the ring with parmesean cheese and the rest of your grated cheese. Bake at 375 for 11-15 minutes until dough appears cooked thoroughly. Let it cool completely before you try to move it! I use two spatulas and a lot of creativity to slide the ring onto a plate!