Cheesy Shrimp Dip

This dip was a HUGE crowd pleaser.  I multiplied this recipe by five (5!!) for 60 people and they could've kept eating it all night if I hadn't run out.

The recipe originally comes from the Crock Pot Girl.  I didn't modify it too much, but here's how it went...

Ingredients:
2 slices of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
3 medium onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
4 jumbo shrimp, peeled/deveined (I used pre-cooked as well)
1 large Roma tomato, seeded and chopped
3 C Monterey jack cheese shreds (I used a Mexican 4 cheese mix)
1/4+ tsp cayenne pepper
4-8 drops Tabasco sauce
freshly ground black pepper to taste
* Serve with chips or crackers of choice


Directions:
1. Cook bacon until crisp, drain, and crumble.
2. Saute onion and garlic in bacon drippings, drain.
3. Coarsely chop shirmp
4. Transfer all dip ingredients to crock pot
5. Cover and cook on low for 1 hour, occasionally stirring, until cheese is melted.

* If need be, you can thin out the dip with a little milk.

Honey Pepper Bacon Pops

Everyone loves bacon, right?  Every time I host a party, anything wrapped in bacon tends to be my biggest hit.  Even the bigger flops are easily ignored when there's bacon involved.  It's like the magical cure-all at a party.

Even more so when it's just bacon.  ON A STICK.

That's right, kids.  Who needs cake pops when you can have honey pepper bacon pops?!

Ingredients:
24 mini-skewers (about 4", but bigger than a toothpick)
1/2 C honey
1 T soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
16 oz thick cut bacon (cut in half)

Directions:
1. Take pre-cut bacon and lay on a lined broiler sheet.
2. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.
3. While that is cooking, combine honey, soy sauce, five spice, and pepper until smooth and thin.
4. Remove bacon from oven, and skewer the bacon.  Brush both sides of the skewer with the honey  mixture.
5. Bake for 5 more minutes, until nicely crisp.  Remove and serve warm.

Don't mind the darkest edges.  We reheat them in the oven a bit too long.  Still tasted great, though!

Yams with Bleu Cheese and Bacon

This is a relatively simple appetizer that you could customize however you'd like.  The only note is that it needs to be served straight out of the oven.  It cools and becomes greasy quickly.  It reheats well, but you don't want to play with it too much, so you don't interfere with the overall taste and texture.

Ingredients:
3-5 large yams (or sweet potatoes), sliced thinly
Season to taste with: Garlic Salt, Black Pepper, Paprika, and dried Thyme
Olive oil (to lightly coat yams)

For the topping (or substitute at will):
8 oz cooked & crumbled bacon
8 oz Bleu Cheese crumbles
Chives for garnish.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Toss yams in seasonings and olive oil.
Arrange in single layer on prepped baking sheets.
Bake 25-30 minutes until golden or softened.

Remove yams.  Kick up the oven to a low broil.
Top each round with bleu cheese and bacon.
Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Take out, garnish, and serve immediately.

Unfortunately, I don't have a finished product photo of this one, but I promise you that everyone loved them.  One batch makes about 48, depending on how thinly you slice the yams.  I made a double batch and had only about 10 left.

Awesome sauce, for reals!

Bacon Pineapple Shrimp

If you're looking for an easy, EASY appetizer to make, I think I've found it.

{Full disclosure: I hate shrimp.}

It's Bacon Pineapple Shrimp!  It's originally from Rachel Ray, so you know it has to be easy.

 I tried the recipe two different ways.  The first was like my Bacon Wrapped Smokies.  That was easy enough, just dump some brown sugar on it and bake it.

However, that ended up looking like the shrimp on the RR Recipe.

Blah.

So then I took them and threw them into a frying pan, as originally suggested.

I chose pre-cooked shrimp, so I was just cooking it to cook the bacon.  I waited until they were nice and dark, and then served them up.  They looked almost burnt to me, but everyone loved them.

It was the first appetizer of the night I ran out of.  Since I had to serve them as soon as they were done, I didn't get a chance for a final photo, but I know you understand.  You all have amazing imaginations if you've been following me thus far!!

Taste of Sweetness Saturday: Savory Goodness

 Today is super sweet, due to lots of brown sugar, and it's also a coronary waiting in the wings.

Here's the Brown Sugar Smokies recipe, from All Recipes.  It doesn't take a lot.  Wrap the smokies in bacon, hook with toothpick, cover with brown sugar, and then bake at 350 until crisp (about 20 minutes, or so).

Super sweet, and oh so good.  You probably won't have any leftovers of these.

Ever!

Jalapeno Poppers, revisited

The original recipe is here.  Basically you need a can of crescent rolls, 2 jalapenos, some bacon, and a brick of cream cheese.

Cut the crescent rolls into 16 equal (ish) pieces, add a bit of bacon, jalapeno, and cream cheese.  Then, roll them up and place them on a non-stick cookie sheet (or foil, like I did).

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

 This was super simple, and it melted together so nicely.

I hate wasting time actually stuffing peppers, so this is a great alternative, and it's pretty quick.

Zuppa Toscana, just like the Olive Garden's!

 Making soup in the middle of a SoCal 75 degree winter isn't always the favorable option.  However, I was itching to try this recipe, and the temperature kept rising all week.  Finally, I had to cook the ingredients before worrying about freezing the meats and losing out on my momentum, so I finally broke down and made my Zuppa Toscana.

This is a copycat recipe from Olive Garden.  It was pretty simple to make, super filling, and pretty much spot on.  The only difference I made was using 1 qt. of broth and 2 c of water, and not vice versa.  I would have used all low sodium broth, but ran out!   Oh, also?  I threw the bacon back in at the end.  The recipe didn't call for you to do anything with it other than make grease, but I thought "why waste it?"

Sorry, not much to say about this one except for try it, because it's yummy.

Brunch Squares

Any recipe that starts with bacon must be amazing!

Okay, today is another trip down to the brunch-tastic vault.  I can’t help that I’m not always original, but I can help that what I choose to place on my table is delicious, and almost always a crowd pleaser!  Today, we’re also looking at a Pampered Chef recipe for Brunch Squares.  No worries if you can’t read a pdf file, I’m here to give it away for free!

First off, of course, The Ingredients:

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 cups (8 ounces) grated Colby & Monterey Jack cheese blend, divided

1 package (22.5 ounces) frozen hash brown patties, thawed (10 patties)

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

12 eggs

½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper (plus more, optionally)

  8 ounces thickly sliced deli ham (or 1 lb of bacon, cooked and diced)

 4-5 green onions with tops, divided (1 cup sliced)

 3 plum tomatoes (seeded and diced)

First, brush your stoneware bar pan with olive oil to ensure that it’s well seasoned.  You’d hate to have any of this stick behind while serving it up.  Next, crumble your hash brown patties into a single layer on the bottom of the pan.  Usually, I’m a wimp and my fingers freeze during this process, so I dice them with a handy dandy knife and then press them down once they’re in the pan.  Next, top with half of the required cheese; I buy pre-shredded cheese, but you could just grate your own, too.  Bake at 450 for 13-15 minutes, or until the edges are browned and the cheese is melted.

While that’s baking, whip the cream cheese until smooth, then gradually add in the eggs, and black pepper, whisking until smooth again.  I use a hand mixer to speed up the process, but it’s your call.  Then, add in ¾ C of your sliced green onions and your bacon (or ham) to the mixture.  It’s only there for a minute or two, so no worries, I promise.

When the hash browns are ready, remove from oven and let them cool while you’re finishing prepping.  If you’re ready, then go ahead and add your egg/cheese/bacon/onion mix on top.  Use a spatula to make sure everything is evenly spread, and then pop the tray back into the oven for 6-8 minutes.  This time, make sure the egg is set in the center and that the top looks like a cooked egg.  Sounds odd, but color helps!

Remove the pan, top with remaining green onions (1/4 cup), diced tomatoes, and cheese (4oz).  I then return it to the oven for about 2 minutes to heat through and melt the top layer of cheese.  Finally, remove it, cut it, and serve immediately.  Your guests will thank you for it.  While there is a bit of prep, and a lot of little steps to this recipe, it truly is easy, and so good.  It’s everything that makes a breakfast great, and you should give it a try when expecting a few for breakfast.  This makes 12 servings, but depending on your crowd, it’ll comfortably feed 8-10.

I'm not even a tomato fan and I find these delicious!!

Pumpkin *Quiche*

So many good things start with bacon...

Like this Pumpkin Quiche!

Instead of puff pastry, I just used the crescent roll dough sheet and a biscuit cutter to make it muffin pan size!

Mix everything together - with only one egg!  This is where I have to give the speech that this quiche is kind of a "quiche" because it really doesn't contain a lot of the materials that you associate with a quiche.  For example, there's only one egg in the whole thing.

True story.

Well, not quite.  I double the recipe so I used two eggs, but still...

The dough came up about halfway, and then I put a heaping teaspoon of the filling in each cup.  The recipe made 24 this way, which was nice, because I was serving 40, so doubling was perfect for me.

I loaded them into the muffin cups and cooked them at 360 for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges of the dough started to turn golden.

See?  Golden, right?  Easy enough.  Any they were super tasty.  I used a nice smoked Dorset cheese (cheddar like) and it worked out perfectly.

The Joys of Pizza

I'll be the first to admit that I love pizza.  There are tons of ways to prepare it, and it takes a lot to make a truly bad pizza.  Sure, there are ways that aren't preferred, but short of burning it, or choosing your anti-crust, you could probably live with any pizza put in front of you. 

(What?  Anti-crust, you ask?  Oh you know, it's that crust that just turns you off when you're not in the mood for it.  Too deep, too thin, too crispy, too gooey...  Just not what you were expecting.  You get the point.)

Me, I can live with cheap pizza, frozen pizza, fancy pizza, grilled pizza, thick crust, hand tossed, etc., etc.  I have two all time favorites, both from Chicago: Turnabout Pizza in Lemont, and Connie's Pizza on Archer in Chicago.  However, since those are both 2,000 miles away, I find I'll eat just about any type of pizza, any night of the week, and it takes a lot for me not to enjoy it.  A lot.

In any case, when I find a new pizza recipe, I'm usually pretty psyched to try it out.  I was scrolling through Pampered Chef recipes last week, collecting about 20 that I wanted to try (for you, of course, for you).  One was the recipe for Barbecue Bacon Squares.  It took a second for me to recognize this as pizza, even with pizza dough in the recipe.  I think because I was focusing on the "squares" in the title that I didn't recognize this jem for all of its pizza goodness.  I had a few issues along the way, but here's the story...

I started with frying up the bacon.  I cooked it extra-extra crispy.  I figured this had to be the case since it was going to be put in sauce and baked.  I'm not a fan of soggy bacon (ever), and I thought that would be just the thing to throw off the yumminess of the pizza, so I just kept frying.  Then, I put it on some paper towel to cool and harden.  This made it easy-peasy to crumble, and it was outstanding.  Real talk.

Next came the crust.  There are a bunch of recipes for pizza crust, or you can just buy a box mix, or even a pre-made, ready to go crust.  I chose option #3.   Fresh and Easy has a pre-made dough (regular or whole wheat) that you sit out to rest, roll (or toss), and go. Thomas is the king of tossing a crust, so I promptly gave him that job.  I then pre-cooked the dough for about 3 to 5 minutes so it didn't become too soggy with the ingredients.


I had an issue with the rub and the sauce.  Okay, truth be told, two issues.  The first is that I don't own the rub.  The second was that I didn't think there was nearly enough sauce to make this enjoyable.  I made the sauce as suggested in the recipe, and then I added almost twice as much BBQ sauce to give it the rub's flavor and make up for the tiny amount of sauce made from the recipe's proportions.  It was still light on the sauce, but since I think this was originally supposed to be a smaller appetizer, as opposed to a baking sheet sized pizza, I'll forgive them for that.  I also added about a pound of pre-baked chicken (with fajita seasoning) to bulk up the dish's protein quotient, so I needed a little more juice for the swallow-ability quotient.  (Oh, you know what I mean.  No one likes a dry pizza.)

 Then, because we eyeball all things cheese related in this household, I topped it up with about half of a pre-shredded bag of mozzarella. I baked it all for the allotted time, then  threw it under the broiler for about three minutes to get that nicely browned top.  I love the slightly overdone cheese on a pizza.  It gives it that nice crispness that is making me drool again, just to think about it.


Speaking of a nice crispness, I loved having the water chestnuts on the pizza.  I used the whole can, and was pleasantly surprised on how well it complimented the bacon and chicken.  I suppose I could have just gone the extra step and made this more "Hawai'ian," and added pineapple, but it wasn't in the house, so it didn't even cross my mind.  I'd definitely make this dish again.  It was delicious, and it was easy: two huge thumbs up in my book.  There were no leftovers by the end of the evening, but there probably should have been.  Whatever, no regrets, it rocked!

Brunch-tastic! (part one)

We have this issue with our family - over celebration.  For the first six months of every year, it seems as though there is a big celebration every weekend.  Birthdays, anniversaries, mother's day, father's day, MAR10, International Star Wars Day...  You name it, we have a cookout for it.  For this mother's day and my father-in-law's birthday, I thought, why not brunch?  Let's do something a little different.  We just had a huge cookout over Easter weekend, so what better way to highlight a mother's undying love for her progeny than by eating a calorie laden meal that also includes a serving of fruit?  I came up with the breakfast menu, Thomas worked on the lunch, and by our powers combined, we rocked the brunch scene!

You've already seen the cupcakes, so there's no point in dwelling on that, but here's a peek at our entire menu...

 

Starting from the top left (and working around vaguely counter-clockwise): cold meat and cheese platter with a basket of rolls, the maple bacon buttercream topped pancake cupcakes, ham and cheese brunch squares, Mama Gliwa's French Toast Strata, carmalized rosemary pears, asparagus (asparagii?) with a roasted garlic sauce, cold sweet potato salad, grilled rack of lamb, and Edible Arrangement, and a watermelon filled with some yummy punch.

There were 10 of us (plus my 3 year old nephew), and one of the biggest hits was the Ham and Cheese Brunch Squares (thank you, PC).  Even my nephew downed some, and I usually only see him feasting on meat!  It's a little difficult to tell, but the squares were made in the stoneware bar pan.  It not only cooked like a dream, but it cleaned like a dream, too!

 
Now, please note that the Brunch Squares have generous amounts of hash browns, eggs, bacon (we substituted out the ham), cheese, more cheese, and even cream cheese, tomatoes... anything that you consider a staple of breakfast, it's probably in there!  I was a bit dubious about the clean up of the stoneware - after all it is a porous stone, but PC said it wouldn't be a problem.  In fact, since I actually read up on it before hand, it said...

• Hand wash in clear, hot water; rinse and dry thoroughly before storing. NOTE: as soap can flavor foods that are baked in Stoneware, it is important that you do not use soap or detergents to clean your Stoneware or wash in an automatic dishwasher using dishwasher detergent. Follow these steps for general and deep cleaning.

Okay, fair enough.  But what if it gets stained?

Deep Cleaning

• Prepare a baking soda paste by mixing 1/2 cup baking soda with 3 tablespoons water. Apply baking soda paste to desired areas and let sit for 15-20 minutes. Scrape off excess paste using the Nylon Pan Scraper. Rinse and dry thoroughly before storing.

Sweet.  As you can see, I didn't need to deep clean the pan, but no soap?  In this day and age of anti viral/microbal/germythingys, it seemed to me to be a bit much to ask.  I understand you don't want soap to soak into the clay, but to not even grace the pan at all??  I did a little research.  Guess what I found from Rebecca Champlin, who has an MS in Microbiology?  Yeah, I'm going there, so if you're a nerd like me, heads up.  If not, scroll down a bit...

Soap does not sanitize your dishes.  It is simply a releasing agent that allows you to remove the food particles from your dishes easier.  Friction actually does more for removing the bacteria than the soap does.  This is accomplished by rubbing a dish cloth or other cleaning tool over your dishes.  Hot, clear water is the releasing agent for stoneware.  It releases all of the food particles and extra grease from the surface of the stone.  Your pan scraper provides the necessary friction. 

Bacteria need a warm, moist environment to thrive and grow.  That is why it is important to do your dishes as soon as possible to discourage the growth of airborne bacteria on your dishes.  YOU WILL NOT HAVE BACTERIA ON YOUR STONES OR YOUR DISHES IF YOU COOK YOUR FOOD THOROUGHLY. COOKED FOOD DOES NOT CONTAIN BACTERIA!!!!  However, it will grow bacteria if left out too long after cooking it or by not properly storing it in the refrigerator after you finish your meals.  All bacteria known to man are killed at 180 degrees.  Because the stones are porous, the moisture does not stay in them... it dries up very quickly.  If you want to rapidly dry your baking stones, put them in a 200-degree oven for 10 minutes. 

The seasoning on the baking stones (non-stick surface) is caused by the build-up of small amounts of residual oils from your foods. The dark colour of your stones is caused because our stones are made of vitrified clay and the repeated heating and cooling of the stones will darken them.   Our stones have been tested and approved for safe food handling and are acceptable for use in commercial kitchens using the cleaning procedure in the package insert.

Interesting, right?  Love it.  As if I needed more of a reason to believe in this stuff...  So, go ahead, kiddos, dig in.  It's clean, it's easy to clean, and it cooks so nice and evenly that you'll be hooked on the stoneware in no time at all, just like me!

Heads up next time, when I finish going over my part of the bruncheon menu, (and maybe why I also think my new zester is pretty sweet, even if fresh ginger makes me mad...)