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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Cream cheese stuffed pistachio monkey bread

So that's one heck of a title huh? It's soooo good though. If not a little... Green. Guess who doesn't own a bundt pan. Yeah. Me. So I used my cute little, uh, 8x8 square brownie pan. Lame, I know.

So you start with 15 frozen yeast rolls. Follow the directions and let them rise naturally. None of this quick rise nonsense. Once they've more than doubled in size, rip those babies in half! Yay! Now we have thirty blobs of dough. Yes? Yes. 

Now cut a chilled brick of cream cheese into thirty pieces. Oh yes. 30. Easiest way to do this is to cut the brick into ten even slices and slice each slice into three slices. Slices slices slices! 

Now, flatten each dough ball into a disc. Place a slice of cream cheese on that disc. Cover the cream cheese. Roll back into a ball. Repeat 29 times!

Now take one cup sugar and three teaspoons of ground cinnamon and mix them together. Place this mixture into a bowl or plate. Roll each individual ball of dough into the mixture until it's all coated. Now place these coated dough balls into a greased pan. Once you complete a layer sprinkle two tablespoons of pistachio pudding mix over top of them, as evenly as possible. 

Then take half a stick of melted butter and pour it all over! The dough balls. Not like, on the floor. OR if you're lucky enough to have spray margarine in your fridge like I do, spray each dough ball twice. Yeah that unpleasant green color appeared didn't it? Still super tasty though!

Repeat this process for each layer. I had two. Bake your green blobs of deliciousness for 25 minutes on 350. Now you have all these puffy pull apart gooey tasty blobs that have melted cream cheese in the middle. Mmm! 

So there you have it! An easy snack from my kitchen to your table! 

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Rainbow Cinnamon Rolls

Two blogs in one day? This girl is on fire. Please tell me you sang that. Because I did. Any Alicia Keyes fans? No? Ah well. 

Anywho. We start our cinnamon rolls with the dough. I cheated. Like crazy. Two cups of jiffy baking mix, 4oz cream cheese, five tablespoons sugar and 1/2 cup milk. Oh my good gravy Katelyn it's a sticky horrid mess! Well that's what you get for not reading the directions first! Don't go throwing all that together, it'll be awful, you'll cry. Or be mad and cuss me out. Both maybe.

Start by mixing your cream cheese into the jiffy mix. You'll get a crumbly moist mixture that holds together if you squeeze it but crumbles apart easily. Now add that milk. Oh holy tater tots it's STILL a sticky awful mess?! Why Katelyn why?! Yeah I noticed that it was horrid. So I added flour a tablespoon at a time until my dough came together in a nice soft not at all sticky ball. Took five tablespoons of all purpose flour for me. But I do suggest adding one at a time. 

Got a nice ball of dough? Good! Now flour your work surface and plop it out. Roll it out into a nice rectangle-ish shape. If you absolutely must have it a perfect rectangle go ahead and trim it into one. I did not. Lopsided cinnamon rolls for my family it is! Now take a heaping tablespoon of butter and smear it all over your faux rectangle. This will add ooey gooey later so don't skimp! 

Now sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar as evenly as possible. Now sprinkle 1/8 cup of cinnamon as evenly as possible. Now for the sprinkles. That's the rainbow part. I used rainbow non perils and they're so cute. But I bet rainbow jimmies would be awesome too. About a quarter cup of those. 

Now very carefully roll your rectangle up. Got a nice log? Good now slice it into twelve even pieces. Lay them onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 425 for 16 minutes. 

Could you ice these? Absolutely. I didn't but that doesn't mean you can't. 

So there you have it! A tasty and quick dessert from my kitchen to your table!   


Creamy Crock Pot Golumpki Casserole

I am aware that the picture above is less than appetizing. It's a rather nondescript bowl of reddish glop. But I'm telling you, it's rather delicious. Perhaps you're familiar with cabbage rolls, or as I grew up calling them, golumpkis? For those who aren't, a golumpki is seasoned ground beef, rice and onions held together with an egg, wrapped in a cabbage leaf, covered in a tomato sauce. Bake them until delicious and enjoy. There's parboiling of cabbage, rolling of the cabbage and meat mixture, so much work. Don't get me wrong. It's worth it. Sooooo worth it. They taste so good, you may want to slap your matka! Haha. Polish joke, because golumpkis are Polish? Eh my comedic genius goes ignored.

But in all honesty, I was busy today. And wanted golumpkis. No time for all the prep work. Hmmmm. So I turned to my beloved crockpot and had a lightbulb moment. I put my pound of ground chuck in the crock pot with three cups of beef broth, some garlic powder, dried basil, salt, pepper, onion powder and a tiny bit of chili powder. 

Let that cook for an hour before adding two cups of uncooked rice, a sliced medium sized onion and let that cook for two hours. 

Chop up about two cups of cabbage. I used red cabbage because I had it. Green is just fine though. Add your chopped cabbage into the crock pot and allow to cook for another hour. 

Your casserole is nearly done! Just add in one can of tomato soup, a tablespoon of sugar and four ounces of sour cream. Now sour cream isn't really a traditional part of golumpkis but mmm is it good! Let this cook another ten minutes and boom! A delicious and easy meal from my kitchen to your table!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Thanksgiving Casserole

There are days like today that just bring on the nostalgia. Wake up to a chilly house, a warm snuggly bed and visions of cider and pumpkin doughnuts. It felt like fall when I woke up, which made me think of thanksgiving. 

I didn't have a turkey in the freezer. But that's okay, I had chicken breasts and poultry is poultry right? Eh,well it's close anyways. So how can I make this dish scream Thanksgiving? I scoured my cupboards and moved all my vegetables aside. Hidden in the darkest recesses of my pantry (next to canned sauerkraut and one lonely jar of lima beans) was a can of jellied cranberry sauce. Yes, I eat the can shaped cranberry mystery that those fancy tv chefs seem to abhor. And I LIKE it. Once a year.

So what did I do? Naturally I diced my chicken into bite sized chunks and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. THEN I chopped up half of a can of the jellied cranberry sauce and threw it in with the chicken. Why? Because it melts down and forms a nice sauce. And that's one layer!

Another layer is mashed potatoes. I uh, baked some potatoes and smashed them up with some butter and salt. I also snuck in horseradish when the other members of the household weren't looking. If they don't know it's in there, they don't complain. 

Another layer is creamed corn! I'd like to say I made it, but I didn't, I opened a can. It's just that easy!

The final layer is stuffing. I am proud to say I DID make that. From scratch. With two different kinds of bread. Wheat sandwich bread, because I had it. And about 1/5 of a loaf of pumpernickel. The pumpernickel was a remnant of my crippling spinach dip addiction. But that's another blog. 

I tore up the bread into large chunks and let it sit out for hours, to dry up a bit. To speed up the process, you can always light toast your bread or bake it for half an hour at 200 degrees. While my bread dried out I chopped up some celery and some onion. Nice and small if you please! 

Once your bread is dry, your veggies are diced and your tummy grumbles, it's time to mix the stuffing. To your bread add your veggies, one large egg, one cup of chicken broth, one teaspoon salt, one tablespoon ground sage, one teaspoon garlic powder and two tablespoons bacon crumbles. Mmm bacon crumbles. 

Now to assemble our casserole! Place your mashed potatoes at the bottom of your baking dish, then your creamed corn, then your chicken and finally your stuffing. Bake at 350 degrees until warmed through and your stuffing is all crunchy on top. I love the crunchy part!

There you have it! Another great dish from my kitchen to your table!