Macaroni Casserole

So I decided to do one of my own recipes on here, well actually it's my mom's....and with that I'm sure she got it from someone else.  Oh well I have no one to cite for this except my mom.  This was always my favorite meal growing up.  My dad and brother didn't like the cream cheese/sour cream mixture so it was always have the pan just sauce and and cheese and the other half was lathered in the creamy sauce.

So to start it up bring some water to a boil and cook the bow tie pasta.  I'm assuming everyone knows how to make noodles.
Chop up the medium onion and the clove of garlic and put it in a sauce pan with a little oil.  Let it start cooking for a minute before adding in the meat.  I always use ground beef, but turkey tastes really good also.

After the meat has browned pour in the can of tomato sauce and add the oregano. Let it simmer for 20 minutes so all the flavors get absorbed into the sauce.

 Mix the sour cream and cream cheese in a separate bowl until it is creamy.

Now I am assuming the noodles are done.  I usually double this recipe and make it in a cake pan, but it could fit in an 8x8.  Put the noodles on the bottom of the pan and start dropping dollops of the cream cheese/sour cream spread across the pan.  Spread the mixture all over the noodles until it is evenly covered.

Take the meat sauce and pour it evenly over the noodles and do a little spreading to make sure it is even.  Take the cheddar cheese and sprinkle it over the top of the casserole.

Place it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted.

Ingredients
7 oz elbow macaroni
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 1/4 lb ground beef/turkey
1 med chopped onion
1 clove garlic minced
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 tsp oregano
1 cup sour cream
3 oz cream cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

BBQ Bacon Blue Cheese Sliders

Ok honestly everyone needs to check out our best bites. It is my favorite blog ever. So here is another recipe I took from them calle BBQ Bacon Sliders. They are just soo tastey.

Ok so first you need to make some beef pattys.  I don't know anything about barbecueing or making burgers so I just took some ground beef, added some salt and pepper, shaped them into mini pattys and threw them on my George Forman grill.  The rest of the stuff is so good that no one noticed that my burgers weren't super amazing.

 The key is in the this Garlic blue cheese sauce that coats both sides of the bun. Seroiusly so good. Make it...NOW.

1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 c. crumbled blue cheese

Mix all of this and you are pretty much set.
So after you make these beef pattys go aead and add some BBQ sauce.  I coated both sides, because I like lots of BBQ sauce.

The next step is to make some bacon.  That is a whole different tutorial so I am just going to assume you know how to make  bacon.

Now to assemble the burgers
First lay out some dinner rolls cut in half or find some mini burger buns like I did. Then generously spread some of that lovely garlic blue cheese sauce all over the bun...then add some more.  Add a little piece of lettuce (mine are pretty small).

then goahead and add some bacon right on top

This is what you should look like when preparing the sliders :)

Now you add those delicious beef pattys...and then some homemade onion rings (I'll post a tutorial on those eventually...another our best bites recipe ofcourse)

I only put them in a pan because I had to transport them to a potluck I went to.

Go ahead and slather the top bun with more garlic blue cheese sauce and there you have it! Perfection.

Pizza Rolls

So I found these on one of my favorite food blogs Our Best Bites annnnd they looked way too good to pass up.

First step was taking a pillsbury pizza crust and rolling it out on a lightly floured surface.  It should roll out to 8x16. Then cut the dough into about 24 squares. 

Add your favorite toppings.  I used shredded cheese, but I think chunks would be easier.  I put in in some small pepperonis and cheese. The insides shrink up so try to get as much filling as possible.  These turned out a little airy inside because there wasn't enough filling.

My second attempt I used some pineapple, pepperonis, and cheese. Yum!
Next fold the edges up and seal the filling inside.

Put the balls into a greased 8 inch round pan seam down.

Brush olive oil across the top of the balls and sprinkle with garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and italian seasoning.

Stick it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees, or just read the package and follow the directions. Keep an eye on them and take them out when they are golden brown like this...

they will be nice and gooey inside. I ate dipped mine in some marinara sauce and some ranch :)

Senior Day

These are some cupcakes I made for our tennis senior day! It was so much fun!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I found this recipe on the food network from the cupcake wars show and it turned out really well actually!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line mini cupcake or muffin pans with 48 mini cupcake liners or line regular-size cupcake or muffin pans with 24 regular cupcake liners.
In mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt. In another mixing bowl, stir together the eggs and oil. In a mixing cup, mix together the buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla extract and lightly whisk. Gradually add the dry ingredients and buttermilk mixture to the egg mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. We are trying to achieve a dark brown, red cupcake color, so add more cocoa powder, if the red is not deep enough.  Fill the regular-size cupcake liners and bake 20 minutes, or until done. Let the cupcakes cool completely.

 To make the Cream cheese frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 cup or 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Combine the sugar, cream cheese, butter, salt, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and blend for 2 minutes.

Breakfast for dinner

Today I had some friends over and decided to have breakfast for dinner.  I mean who doesn't love breakfast food...with so much stuff to do it's hard to have time to make a really good breakfast.  So on my menu I made some cinnamon rolls, unfortunately from a pillsbury can, a granola and fruit parfait, a crescent roll egg bake from my favorite blog Our Best Bites (check them out), hash browns and mimosas.

So this is my crescent roll egg bake

this originally is supposed to look braided, but since I had to feed four people I had to stuff it extra full.

Ingredients:
4-5 eggs
1/3 cup frozen shredded spinach
6ish turkey sausage links
1/2 an onion
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 can pillsbury crescent rolls

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. First I cut up the onion and the sausage links.  You can use cut up patties too, or even bacon or ham.  Put the onion and sausage and onion in a pan and cook it until the meat is done.
In a separate pan mix the eggs and spinach while scrambling them in  a pan.  I added a tablespoon of milk and salt and pepper, but just make it however you make scrambled eggs.  Once the eggs are almost completely cooked add the onion and sausage mix.  Mix it all together.  Add in the cheese.  Roll the crescent roll dough on a greased pan.  You can roll it on a different surface, but its hard to transfer, so I just did it on the pan.  Once it is rolled out, put the egg mixture in the middle of the dough.  Roll the ends of the dough over and if you want the braided look cut lines down the sides of the dough and fold them in one at a time.  Stick it in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the dough is slightly golden brown.  Let it cool for a couple minutes and serve it by cutting along the lines created in the dough.

I also made these cute little parfaits.  the yogurt ran through the granola, but i still think they turned out ok.

S'more Cupcakes :)

So I have been waiting to try this recipe I found from nibbledish.com and I finally decided to make it today.  I think that it turned out pretty tastey.  I didn't especially like the marshmallow frosting and it was super sticky and hard to work with, so I am not going to put that recipe up.

Ingredients for cupcakes:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar  
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt 
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

 Directions:

1. Combine 1 cup of  the graham cracker crumbs and 1/4 cup of melted butter. Scoop a tablespoon into each cupcake paper, pressing down to cover the bottom. Set aside.
2. Beat 1/2 cup of butter on high speed until soft, about 30 seconds. Add in brown sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each . Set aside.
4. Mix together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
5.  Add milk, vanilla,  and flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat to combine.
6. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter (they should be 2/3 - 3/4 full).
7. Place muffin tins on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for approximately 18-20  minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Remove cupcakes and let it cool down for 20 - 30 minutes.
9. After the cupcakes have cooled, use a knife and cut a hole into the cupcakes (shaped like a cone). Fill with chocolate fudge filling .
10. You might want to keep the top of the cupcake hold to over the fudge so the  frosting doesn't sink in. Mine turned out looking like little mountains, but I think that's better than it sinking in.

Ingredients for fudge fillng:

• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate, cut into pieces
• 1/2 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons milk

Directions:

In a double boiler, mix all ingredients together until fully combined.

cool and fill each cupcake with a spoonful of fudge

use the extra as decoration on top of the cupcake