Pull Aparts

This recipe started when I was about 12 years old. It's an adaptation of something taught in home economics during middle school. My family loved it so much when I made it at home that over the years, it became our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.

The idea, that I started a tradition in my family at such a young age, seems weird to me. Granted I haven't hit the 3-0 yet, but still to look back and know that my kids will be eating something I made, kind of freaks me out a little right now.

The ingredients are simple which is probably why after unwrapping all the gifts this is the easiest breakfast, besides a bowl of cereal. As an adult waking up at the crack of dawn doesn't seem appealing anymore. The gifts will still be there at 1pm vs. 6am, sleep is more important at this age in my view. My family is spread throughout most of Pennslyvania and getting home for the holidays can sometimes be very difficult along with timing for logistically opening gifts at the same time.  So this makes the holiday morning a little bit easier.

Recipe

Pre-time: 20 minutes

Servings: 3-5

Ingredients

1 container of Grands biscuits

2 TBSP of brown sugar

4 TBSP of melted butter

2 TBSP of Cinnamon

1/2 container of Pillsbury Icing (I used the cinnamon icing)

Instructions

Set oven to 350 degrees. 

Cut the Grands into cubes, I usually do 4ths. 

Melt butter and mix in brown sugar and cinnamon.

Add Grands to sugar mixture, making sure to coat well. Place in a greased pie pan and place in the oven for 12-18 minutes until desired crispness is reached. The center takes the longest to cook, when removing from oven make sure that the pieces are thoroughly cooked before serving. If the center is not finished place back in the oven for an additional 3-5minutes.

Once fully cooked cover with Icing while still hot. Let cool and serve. Delicious bite size treat for any special occasion with simple ingredients. 

Cheese, Ham & Potato Soup

Digging through my fridge and imagination I found inspiration with a block of Velveeta Cheese and leftover ham.

Christmas ham means plenty of leftovers in my house. It's the one time of year I get to enjoy the deliciously succulent taste of spiral ham, something I look forward to every year.

So with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers still lingering in the fridge I wanted to do something different. Not just the typical sandwich lunch or dinner piled high with leftover meat.

While my family loved the soup I had some critiques who despised the taste and asked me to try again. However, they never explained exactly why they didn't like the soup. But that's what this is all about, trying to learn what works and what doesn't.

Recipe

Pre-time: 20 minutes

Servings: 6-10

Ingredients

2 cups of chopped ham

1/2 cup of chopped sweet onion

1/2 cup of peas

1/2 sliced carrots

2 cut potatoes

1 block of Velveeta cheese

1 TBSP of salt

1/2 TBSP of ground pepper

2 cups of water

Instructions

Heat the crock pot to medium high, place all ingredients into the crock pot for approximately 3-4 hours. Set on low for an additional hour, add salt and pepper for flavoring and serve. It's that easy! 

I put everything into the crock pot & went out for the day. I returned to a delicious tasting meal served with toast. 

Cheesesteak Lasagna

I'm from the burbs of Philly, so naturally the cheesesteak will hit my plate every now & then. There is a general battle throughout the city & burbs about who has the better sandwich. I'm pretty sure many tears and blood have been shed over the fight. So when I was craving a cheesesteak in the fridged temperatures I opted to save my skivvies and dine in. However, there was no bread in the house. I wasn't sure where this was going to go, but the plate turned out pretty good and satisfied the cravings that had been bothering me for days.

Recipe

Pre-time: 30 -45 minutes

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

1/2 package of lasagna noodles

7 strips of Steakumms

1/2 of a green pepper chopped

1/2 white onion chopped

1 cup Swiss cheese

1/2 mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup of milk

1 TBSP of butter

Instructions

Boil noodles until al dente. Pre-heat oven at 375 degrees. 

Place onions and peppers in skillet on medium heat, cook until desired tenderness is achieved. Place Steakumms in skillet with peppers and onions. Cook until meat is brown and crumbled. Remove meat and veggie mixture from skillet.

Take milk and butter in skillet, bring to a boil. Add cheese and continue to stir until mixture is creamy. Add in the meat mixture to cheese sauce.

Take noodles and make one layer at a time alternating noodles and meat mixture until all noodles and filling are used.

Place in over for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Surf n' Turf

I'm an attempted perfectionist. I fall short most times on my attempts, but at least I'm trying. So when it comes to food it's either hit or miss for me. Even in restaurants I either love it or hate it. The summer I graduated college I spent time in Italy studying abroad. Before leaving everyone told me, I would love the food so much I wouldn't want to come home. But when I found little to enjoy everyone started to complain. Honestly it was annoying, I can't help that I know what I like and what I don't. I don't stop myself from trying new food, but I don't give it raving reviews either unless I love it. Or in the trending terms it has to be "food orgasmic". So what I put on my blog is something I truly loved in my cooking. 

Tonight I was lost on what to cook. I was tired of the normal holiday food that's been floating around for the last few weeks and wanted something different. I scoured the cabinets for inspiration, looking for something to inspire me and while I was just about to settle for a box of Rice-A-Roni, I found a few items ready to expire. With near ready to expire products in hand my imagination kicked in as I was not about to let money go to waste. 

I love bruschetta and pesto. These are two items that normally hit my plate at any restaurant I experience. However, a few of my family members aren't so excited about them as me. So I try to avoid making it when cooking for the bunch. However, tonight all I had were a few items I loved ready to expire and a bunch of hungry family members waiting patiently for my brain to make a masterpiece. 

I had a pack of gnocchi, bruschetta chicken spices, and pesto sauce all ready to expire in the next week waiting to be devoured. I decided chicken and gnocchi would be the best concept to a quick dinner for the masses. But I didn't stop there when I found a package of frozen shrimp hanging out in the freezer. Therefore, my chicken and gnocchi quickly turned into surf n' turf with gnocchi. With all the items family members dislike I worried that my meal would be a disaster. But it turned out to be one that required a referee to dividing the last helping. 

Recipe

Pre-time: 30 -45 minutes

Servings: 3-5

Ingredients

10-20 Frozen Shrimp

3 Chicken breast

1 cup of pesto oil

1 TBSP of Salt

1 package of Gnocchi

1 package of McCormick Chicken Bruschetta Mix

1/4 cup of Olive Oil

3/4 cup Heavy Cream

1/4 cup of water

3 TBSP of Butter

1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese

1 handful of Mozerella Cheese

Instructions

Place pot of water on stove and bring to boil. Place Gnocchi in water and let cook for 10 minutes.

Place shrimp in saucepan and add in 4 TBSP of Pesto Oil. Let shrimp cook until pink. 

Put McCormick Mix, in bowl and mix in 3 TBSP of olive oil. Take defrosted chicken breast and rub the olive oil mix onto chicken. Place chicken in a saucepan with a bit of olive oil in the pan. Let the chicken cook for 8-10 minutes on medium-high, turning to cook evenly.

Drain Gnocchi from water and let sit.

Remove the chicken from pan, making sure it's cooked all the way through. In the same saucepan, you just cooked the chicken remove any leftover spices that may have been left in the pan. Add heavy cream, water and butter together until it starts to slightly boil, whisk in the rest of the pesto oil until it's an even mixture. Remove from heat and add in cheese. Mix the cheese in until fully melted. Add the shrimp into sauce and let sit.

Place chicken, shrimp and gnocchi on a plate, serve and enjoy!

Caramelized Onions and Grilled Cheese

Is there a food you go to when your sick? Comfort food as they call it. For some, it's mac 'n cheese others mom's homemade chicken noodle soup. For me, it's mom's grilled cheese sandwiches.

While we are in the middle of the holidays I have found myself down & out which calls for comfort food. So I went straight for the ooey gooey goodness of grilled cheese, but instead of a simple American cheese, bread & butter sandwich like I was used to growing up I opted to "adultized" this sandwich.

I caramelized some onions and threw it in the middle of two different cheeses for this amazingly delicious sandwich. 

Recipe

Pre-time: 15 minutes

Servings: 1

Ingredients

2 slices of Swiss cheese

1 slice of Provolone cheese

2 slices of bread

1/4 cups of chopped sweet onions

1/4 cups of red onions

2 Tbsp of butter

Instructions

Chop your onions and throw them into the skillet on Medium-High with 1 Tbsp of butter. Let them cook until slightly brown. Remove from skillet and set to the side.

Butter bread and place in skillet on medium heat. Place one slice of Swiss cheese on both ends of bread. Add the Provolone cheese to one side and the caramelized onions on the other. When cheese starts to melt combine both sides of the sandwich together and continue to cook on both sides until cheese is fully melted and bread is to desired tenderness. 

Remove from heat, let cool slightly and enjoy!

Do you have a favorite way of making a grilled cheese sandwich? Leave it in the comments below!

Apple Pie

Apples are a staple in my family. Mostly my dad loves them, but I'm finding if cooked right my taste for them is changing.

So over the Thanksgiving holiday I knew that I needed to please the masses with dessert options. Yes, there was the traditional pumpkin pie, but I decided to go for an apple pie as well. I had hopes that this would be as good as a dutch apple pie you can find at any local store, but it was found to be even better.

I'm not sure if the main reason is because it was made with all natural ingredients or from hard work, but none the less everyone loved it over the pumpkin pie which in my house has never happened.

You can find the recipe for the dog biscuits also shown Here!

Recipe

Pre-time: 30 minutes

Servings: 6-8

Ingredients for Crust

You can either buy the pre-made crust of follow the instructions for homemade crust here!

Ingredients For Filling

3-4 medium Granny Smith apples peeled, cored & sliced
3/4 cups of sugar
2 TBSP of flour
3/4 Tsp of cinnamon
1/4 Tsp of ground nutmeg
1/4 Tsp of salt
1 TBSP of lemon juice

Instructions

Pre- heat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and lemon just in a large bowl assuring that the apples are covered well.

Place crust in pie pan, add apple mixture and begin adding a top layer of dough however you would like. I chose to make a basket weave. 

Place in oven for 40-45 minutes. I added a butter wash to the top 10 minutes before removing from the oven. 

Let cool and enjoy!

Homemade Pie Crust

This is a simple pie crust that I found very easy to make & brought back many memories as a kid baking with my mom.

You can reference this anytime you want to make some kind of pie that requires a dough crust just as I do!

Ingredients

2 sticks of cold butter (some may use shortening, but I prefer butter)
3 cups of flour
1 TBSP of salt
1 TBSP of sugar
1/2 cup of water

Instructions

Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. 

Cut up butter and add it to the flour mixture. You can mix this in a food processor or kitchen aid mixer, however I don't have the luxury of either so I went old school by using my hands to mix. Slowly add the water until you get a ball of dough.

Cut dough in half, place one-half on floured surface and begin to roll out with rolling pin. Remember to add flour to your rolling pin as well.

Take the first rolled out piece of dough and place it in your pie pan, there should be extra overlaying the edges to assure that you are able to cover the whole bottom of the pan. You can cut the extra off and add it to your second ball of dough.

Take the second ball of dough and roll it out just as you did the first. This will become your top layer of crust for pies such as apple or cherry. Once rolled out you can cut into strips to make a basket weave top layer or you can cut a hole in the center depending on your preference. 

For apple pie I added 1 TBSP of Cinnamon as well.