Crescent Puffs, One Recipe, Five Dishes

Buffalo Chicken Crescent Puffs

I know I haven't posted my food up here for a few weeks, but I'm back!
The inspiration for this appetizer dinner was a recipe found browsing on Pillsbury.com for Buffalo Chicken Crescent Puffs.  These delicious morsels are cream cheese, buffalo sauce, shredded chicken, and bleu cheese, stuffed in crescent dough, rolled in bread crumbs and baked.  Naturally I changed it a bit, didn't have any bleu cheese, so I used feta I had in the fridge, and did egg dip instead of butter.  These were so good!  Little crunch on the outside, perfectly spicy and creamy, only thing I would have changed would be more chicken, or bigger chunks.

So I got to thinking these would be a good delivery mode for a whole bunch of fillings.  Since it was conference weekend (yes, I know that was almost three weeks ago), I decided to have a crescent puff meal with "L".  I thought all of them turned out WONDERFUL!

Breakfast Puffs

For breakfast we did scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese.  Rolled these in melted butter and baked til golden.

Chicken Ceasar Puffs

First lunch course was shredded (cooked) chicken, parmesan cheese, bacon, and ceasar dressing.  Rolled in butter and then parmesan cheese.  I think these would do better with a bread crumb coating for crunch.

Pizza Puffs

Second course, diced pepperoni and pizza cheese mix.  I think next time I will add a little sauce to the filling to round it out.  These got washed in butter and rolled in parm cheese too.

Apple Cinnamon Rounds

Finally, dessert!  Diced apple, brown sugar, and cinnamon made a great filling.  THen rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar.  We paired these with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  (Sticking up is my sugar art from the melted sugar on the silpat, which reminds me, if you are using a regular cookie sheet for any of these, line it with foil, they may leak a little.) 






We ran out of crescent dough before we could do the s'mores ones we had planned, fluff and a bit if chocolate inside and Nilla wafer crumbs outside... yummmm... I am looking forward to doing those soon!

Put the Lime with the Coconut, Mix It Up!

At work the other day we were talking about cupcakes.  I love shows like Cupcake Wars, all the inventive flavors just make my mouth water.  All the talk about cupcakes really made me want to try to make some "fancy flavors".  I decided to make a variety of Lime and Coconut combinations.

I made the Lime Cupcakes from this recipe.   I made just the cupcake recipe, without the food coloring.  I'm known for my little "oops" moments in the kitchen.  My big one that day was curdling my milk on accident.  I had already measured my fresh lime juice, when I measured my milk into the same cup.  I just mixed it in the way the recipe said to add the milk.  As the recipe says the batter looks a little separated, the batter looks a little grainy. After filling my wells, the remainder of the batter sat for 20 minutes, I beat it again and the next batch was much smoother. If you taste the batter, it won't really taste very lime.  After the cupcakes bake, the essential oils released by the lime zest make a very delicious sweet lime flavor.

Second step, make Coconut Cupcakes, using this recipe.  I didn't have cake flour, so I googled and replaced 2 tbsp of flour with cornstarch per cup of flour.  I also don't have a sifter so I sift with a colander and a bowl. This is VERY thick batter, the stiff egg whites smooth it out.  The egg whites cause this to bake up very fluffy.  Make sure you don't over fill the cupcake wells, they get huge.

(Of course, I used my Demarle, so easy to rinse out and have ready for the next batch.)

Recipes 3 and 4 were, for coconut frosting and lime glaze.  The lime glaze is 1 T melted butter, 1 C powdered sugar, then add lime juice until you have the consistency you want.
I combined both cupcakes with both toppings.  I only have pictures of the lime cupcakes topped.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the lime glaze.  I can't wait to have it on ice cream, it is now in my favorite food discoveries and it is so easy!

I brought them to work and everybody said they were really yummy.  I think they were being honest :)  I loved doing something new!  Hope you all try it!
I am looking forward to trying new ones that will go with change of the seasons.  I'm thinking Snickerdoodle and Apple Pie for the fall cupcakes?

An Easy Change in My Menu, 30 Min Stromboli

About a month ago I found a great website, You've Got Supper, that emails a weekly menu.  I can edit the menu, add or take away recipes from their recipe book, and print an organized grocery list.  I can mark recipes as favorites once I have tried them too.  That is where I get all my new exciting recipes lately.  Tonight was one of them, Stromboli.  I originally was planing on doing chicken and potato curry, but "L" came over for dinner and the season finale of "Covert Affairs".  Curry is not really in her palette.  So I looked on my menu and found the stromboli.  The recipe calls for mozzarella and ham, I decided I wanted swiss when shopping, and "L" doesn't like deli ham, so we did Swiss and Pepperoni.  With the pop'n'fresh French bread, and two other main ingredients, this literally took 5 minutes to put together and only 25 to bake.  It was crispy and golden on the outside and soft on the inside.  It reminds me of a pizza braid my Aunt "J" makes.  I thought it would be good with lots of combos, cheddar, chicken, and broccoli; roasted red peppers and onions with pepperoni; lots of yummy combinations possible.  This would be great as a last minute treat for a party!

Eggroll Wrappers, Not Just for Eggrolls?

Egg roll wrappers/skins

Last night's post mention egg roll wrappers in passing.  I love these things!  The wrappers are really thin sheets of pasta.  I have heard you can make them at home but they are difficult with a kitchen pasta machine, and extremely difficult by hand.  (Have you rolled normal pasta dough by hand? It is very hard!)  I originally bought these to make my Mexican Egg rolls.  I had some leftover sheets and noticed a recipe on the back for... Cannelloni?!  Boil water, drop sheets in for a minute, place ricotta filling on edge, roll, cover in sauce, and bake for 20 minutes?!?!?!  I tried it!  Super easy super yummy cannelloni that I can make on my lunch break, (microwave for 5 to 10 minutes is another time saver).  That success sold me on the wonderful little guys.  I keep them on hand, always.  Leftover chicken and vegetables?  Make a broth, add the chicken, veggies, and sliced wrappers... instant home made chicken noodle soup.  I love lasagne, but to be frank lasagne noodles are a pain, even the no-boil kind.  So on a whim I decided to try the egg roll wrappers.  Everything in lasagne is pre-cooked, so you are only "marrying" all the flavors.  I layered my wrappers into individual servings of lasagne (Demarle is awesome).  They came out light, almost fluffy, without the starchiness of regular noodles.  Another score for the wrappers!  As I was looking online today for other recipes for my wrappers I came across a recipe using them to make cups.  Baked longer if re-baking (filled with custard) or shorter is filled with cold filling (taco salad).  My goal is to make a few of these recipes in the near future.  I'll post them when I try them.

A couple tips to keep in mind:

While assembling the egg rolls, keep the stack of wrappers moist by covering them with a damp towel. You can seal the rolls with a "glue" made with cornstarch and water. Store them in the refrigerator or freezer, but let them come to room temperature before using.

24 Hours and 3 Delicious Recipes

First off, I made some great food for dinner tonight!  BBQ Pork Ribs...  I was supposed to do them on the grill but I didn"t quite manage it.  First, a rub of brown sugar, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, peper, and Dollar Tree Memphis Seasoning (LOVE this stuff).  I sifted it, rubbing the powder onto the ribs and dumping the clumps into a jar.  The jar then had worchestershire sauce and BBQ sauce mixed in.  All the flavors "married" in their respective positions for about three hours.  Since I didn't have a big enough oven dish for the ribs, I cut the slab in half.  I put each half in a Demarle round (meatier side down), and covered them with half the sauce.  Into the 375 oven for 1.25 hours (covered with the silpat) then flipped over, covered with the remaining sauce and left uncovered for 20 minutes more.  They were so much better than on the grill, since I have a tendency to overcook on the grill.  They were flavorful, moist, sweet with a little kick.  And clean up was a cinch, 5 minutes with warm water and mild detergent, no scrubbing at all!!!  Can't tell you how much I love my Demarle.

Second, I made Cranberry Twist relish for lunch.  My mom always makes this in the fall.  I found cranberries in my freezer when i moved, so I decided to make some today.  My mom uses an orange and a bit of sugar to balance the cranberries, but my one orange is supposed to be used for a recipe this week.  Luckily I had a Califonia pink grapefuit.  No need for adding the zest of the rind to my twist version.  I ate it all, so refreshing, sweet yet tangy.  Tastes like CT.

Third, last night "L" and I made my Mexican Eggrolls for quick meals, they are great in the freezer, healthier than frozen burritos.  Simmer, covered, two chicken breast in a cup of chunky salsa for about 20 minutes.  I put them in frozen and whole, when i see they have thawed a little I cut them up into small chunks.  Then shred the chicken, add a can of black beans (rinsed), simmer for 5 minutes.  Add frozen corn to the mix until it look right (I know it isn't specific but some people like more or less corn).  Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes uncovered.  If drain off any excess liquid.  I save mine because it is great base for leftover mexican soup for lunch the next day.  You can simmer the liquid all off, but that can overcook your corn.  Then take out your package of eggroll wrappers.  Paint all four edges with egg wash or oil.  Place 2-3 tablespoons of mixture in the wrap and roll up like a burrito or the back of the package has eggroll rolling instructions.  Bake until golden brown.  Obviously I use my silpat, but if using a cookie sheet line it with foil, sometimes they leak a little.  I allow them to cool for an hour on the counter then freeze them in portions.  We eat them on a bed of lettuce with salsa, sour cream, and cheese!

P.S. I bought tumeric and curry last week! So excited to try them out this week!