Alphabet Cheesy Crackers:

From: www.splendidmissm@blogspot.com



Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (188 grams)
2 cups extra sharp cheddar, grated (about six ounces)
1/4 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
a stick of butter at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon of chili pepper. It doesn’t make them spicy at all, it just adds depth of flavor.


Place all of your ingredients into a large bowl, along with a few grinds of black pepper. It’s best to grate the cheese yourself because the pre-grated stuff they sell at the grocery store is coated in cornstarch and that will throw off the consistency of your final product. I also like to grate my own Parmesan because it’s better quality and tastes better than the pre-grated kind. Just for goodness sakes, don’t ever use the powdered stuff in the green can.

Don't skip the chili powder!!  It gives it a great flavor

I used a pastry blender to start to bring everything together. Once it started to clean the sides of the bowl, I switched to my hand and made sure it was mixed well.

Separate into two halves, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. If you want to be like me, you can forget about it completely (whoops!) and leave it overnight too, it’s okay. Just let them sit on the counter for about half an hour before you attempt to roll them.

These are my alphabet cookie cutters.  Each letter is about an inch tall.  Try some using holiday shapes too! 

Roll out your cracker dough to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8 inch thick. These cutters are really tiny, so there is a bit of a learning curve to them. If you dip them in flour before each cut, it helps. Also, if a cracker gets stuck inside the cutter, just hold it about 1/4 inch above your cookie sheet and gently poke it loose with a toothpick. You can use a thin, flexible metal spatula to lift the ones that stay put from your rolling surface.

Place your crackers either on a parchment lined baking sheet or one lined with a Silpat. Be sure to leave a little bit of room between them because they will puff slightly while baking. Bake at 325 degrees for eleven minutes and then allow to cool completely on the pan before removing.

Confession time – Sometimes I only do one pan worth of alphabet crackers.  For the remaining dough, I simply take a pizza cutter (or in this case, a fondant cutter/embosser) and cut the dough into plain squares before baking. They taste just as good and take a fraction of the time that the letters do. I store them in these Burken jars from Ikea and it keeps them fresh for quite a while!

Pizza Pop-up

From: http://www.thissoutherngirlsnest.blogspot.com/

Ingredients:
1 can of refrigerated biscuits

1 can of pizza sauce
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
Your choice of Pizza toppings

Instructions:
Cut biscuits into pieces (about 4 pieces per biscuit)
Stir in pizza sauce, 1 cup of mozzarella and pizza toppings
Add to baking dish (8x8)
Add 1 cup of mozzarella

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes {mine ended up baking for 35 minutes to get the biscuits completely done}

Slider-Style Mini Burgers

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 (1.25 ounce) envelope onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 24 dinner rolls, split (King Hawaiian Sweet Dinner Rolls)
• 1/2 cup sliced pickles (optional)

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.

• Mix together the ground beef and onion soup mix in a large skillet; cook and stir over medium-high heat until the beef is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink. Drain and discard any excess grease. Remove from heat. Stir the mayonnaise and Cheddar cheese into the ground beef mixture.

• Lay the bottoms of the dinner rolls on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the cheese and beef mixture on the bottom half of each roll. Replace the tops. Cover with another sheet of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray.

• Bake in the preheated oven until the burgers are heated through and cheese melts, about 30 minutes. Serve with sliced pickles.

**You can just slice the tops off the rolls all at once and spread the beef mixture on the "bottoms". Make sure to spray the foil with Pam so they don't stick. I also don't put them on a cookie sheet, just wrap the whole thing in foil and pop in the oven, this prevents the bottoms from burning against the hot cookie sheet and keeps the buns soft. Make sure to drain the grease and let the beef mixture cool a bit before adding mayo and cheese so it doesn't separate and get too oily.
***I add a special butter sauce to the top, borrowed from another great recipe. Here it is: 2 tbsp minced onion flakes, 1 tbsp worchestershire sauce, 1 tbsp Dijon or Spicey Mustard (not the regular yellow), 1/2 cup melted butter. You melt these together and brush ontop of the buns just before you put in the oven to bake.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup white sugar - or 1/2 white and 1/4 brown
• 1 egg

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

• Combine ingredients and drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Let cool. Recipe doesn't make very many, so you could double recipe as you desire.

Calories: 394
Total Fat: 22.5g
Cholesterol: 35mg

Divine! These are the best peanut butter cookies! I've made it this way and also with 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Either way these are soo peanut buttery and rich.
I have also added 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp baking soda.
Use Splenda, egg and a splash of Pure Vanilla. I didn't flatten the first batch (got the idea from the reviews that they spread) well, those first ones were ball cookies! Next 3 batches I did the fork dipped in Splenda thing, and the results were delightful.

Super-Delicious Zuppa Toscana (Soup)

• 1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
• 1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 slices bacon,  crumble
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 5 (13.75 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 6 potato, thinly sliced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 bunch fresh spinach, tough stems removed

• Cook the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

• Cook the bacon in the same Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain, leaving a few tablespoons of drippings with the bacon in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

• Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven with the bacon and onion mixture; bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream and the cooked sausage; heat through. Mix the spinach into the soup just before serving.

Calories: 555
Total Fat: 32.7g
Cholesterol: 99mg

Tips:  Use kale instead of spinach (the famous restaurant uses kale). I also added 1 teaspoon of fennel as I think that it is crucial to the flavor of the soup. My Italian sausage was hot enough without the added red pepper, also. Still, I think this recipe is pretty forgiving and you can add or subtract to your taste.
Instead of heavy cream I use milk with about 3 tbsp cornstarch.

This soup freezes great, too!
You can substitute cauliflower for the potatoes for a lower carb diet and it is just as delicious.

Foil DInner Tips

Foil Dinner Tips


With summer winding down I thought I would share a thing or two we have learned about foil dinners and how to make them the very best.



• Line the foil with a leaf of cabbage to keep your dinner from burning.

• Use tater tots instead of plain potatoes to cook faster and add more flavor

• Ingredients we like to use: Hamburger patty, tater tots, onion, any other veggie we have around (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Zucchini, carrots, snow or sugar snap peas, etc)

• Add onion to flavor even if you don't like to eat it

• Add salt and pepper over the whole thing

• Use two layers of regular foil or one layer of heavy duty, roll the edges to form a pouch.

• If customizing the dinners to people's preferences, use a sharpie to mark with initials

There's nothing like unwrapping a pouch full of fire cooked goodness just when the air starts to get a little cool at night.

Cupcakes

FROM:  http://www.makeit-loveit.com/

different things you can do with them.

Buttercream or fondant? Filling or glaze? Blue or yellow?

So many options. Ok.........I might like cupcakes a little too much!

Not to mention the cute liners you can get these days.

Like these. Too cute, right?

There are a few tips that work for me that I want to share.

I am going to show you how I add a jam filling to cupcakes.

How to put a buttercream swirl on your cupcakes.

Also how to put fondant on your cupcakes.

Here are some of the supplies:

1. Buttercream --see recipe below

2. Piping bags

3. Jam

4. Piping tips

Many of you have asked for my buttercream recipe.

I haven't ever included it because I do not use my own recipe. I use the Wilton recipe.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
• 2-4 tablespoons milk

Cream shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla and milk. Add sugar, 2 cups at a time. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored for 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.

YIELD: 3 cups

Jam Filled Cupcakes

Bake cupcakes.

Cut tip off of piping bag and drop filling tip into the bag and fill the bag with any type of jam you like. Insert the tip halfway into the cupcake and squeeze a small amount of jam into the cupcake.

**Tip- you can use any type of filling you want.

Now you have a sweet fruit surprise in your cupcake.

Topping your cupcakes with a buttercream swirl.

First lets talk about putting buttercream into a piping bag.

Fold the bag back and spoon in the buttercream. Then fold the bag back into place and twist the top of the bag until the buttercream comes out of the end. This way you don't get buttercream on the outside of the bag while filling.

To put a swirl of frosting on a cupcake, use a 1M tip.

When making the swirl, start by squeezing a small amount of buttercream on top of the cupcake to make a frosting base. Then make a swirl around that base, then another swirl around the base. Then one more swirl will go on top of the base. When you get to the top, stop squeezing and lift straight up. You should have the base and three swirls around the cupcake.

Don't they look ready for a party?

Fondant Covered Cupcakes

Bake your cupcakes and then frost them with a layer of buttercream.

**TIP- -If your cupcakes ended up baking flat (without a dome on top), make a dome with the buttercream. Just make it thicker in the middle.

Roll out your fondant and cut out a circle that fits the top of your cupcake.

I used the smallest circle cutter from the same set I used in the Flag Cake post.

Place the circle of fondant on top of your cupcake and work it with your fingers to smooth it out and get it to fit to the edges.

Now add your decorations.

I just piped a dot border and cut out fondant flowers for the top.