Easiest Halloween Party "recipe" ever....

This is easier than it looks, if that's even possible, like, I suppose you could do it in more than the 30 seconds I spent & make it a little more "pretty" ;) - this is 2 bags of organic carrots at .79 per bag- peeled and chopped into sticks and 2 cans of olives (that were 2 for $1) drained & rinsed.
We are talkin $3 total here people. Plus $4 on a big tub of Trader Joe's Hummus Dip (my favorite)- boom. Big, festive pumpkin face party plate for under $10!! HOORAY!

Lil'Mummy Dudes~ Halloween Party Recipes

Sweet Life Kitchen had the pleasure of catering a super spectacular Halloween party in 2009 and we keept it creepy and crypt-tastic with some really easy, fun treats like these lil'dudes. This is certianly not my invention, I've seen hotdogs wrapped in crescent roll strips as a favorite kids dinner on Halloween. This was a cocktail party, so I needed to cocktail size this classic kids comfort food and make it party perfect. Nate helped by using a pizza roller to quickly make mummy wrapping strips out of Pillsbury Crescent Creations, and then we made like some ancient egyptians and wrapped these lil'smokies up!! I also had the sheer JOY of using my eddible marker for the first time and giving these little guys some lil'eyes~

Makes about 45
1 package "Lil'Smoky" Cocktail weenies
2-3 packages Pillsbury Crescent Creations

Preheat oven to 375.
Cover a baking sheet with foil and use a pizza slicer to cut the crescent creations into thin strips
Wrap each cocktail weenie with a strip of crescent dough.
Bake about 15 minutes per batch, until crescent is puffy and golden
Dot on some eyes with an edible marker if you wanna!

Cemetary Spinach Dip~ Halloween Party Recipes

Time to get ready for Halloween! Tune in for all kinds of party recipes that I've made time and time again- easy, inexpensive ways to get in the spooky-spirit!

If you are planning a party this year or bringing a dish to one- here is my all time favorite Halloween dip. I love this because because it's a great centerpiece for a GIANT VEGGIE PLATE, which helps balance all that sugar from the trick-or-treating loot!!

This is just a very basic spinach dip that I've made and posted about before with a few dashes of green food dye for extra grody-factor to celebrate the spookiness of Halloween.
Last year I added the carrot fingers, which are an easy and awesome way to add creepy to your table...attach a little almond slice finger nail using a dab of cream cheese~ BOO!

You can easily double this recipe depending on how many guys & ghouls you have coming to your shin-dig...

Serves 20

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 16 oz. container sour cream
• 1 1.8 oz) package dry leek soup mix
• 1 8 oz. can water chestnuts, drained and minced
• 2 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• Fresh cracked black pepper (just a bit to taste)
• Green food dye- for swampy spookieness

Mix all of the above ingredients in a large bowl and add the food dye until it is the desired color of swampy green. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours to overnight. Serve with  veggies like celery, carrots & bell peppers, tomatoes......

Angel Food Cupcakes

With all the heavy eating we had planned for the 4th of July weekend, I struggled to think of something that would be sweet and desserty at the end of the day with out being too heavy...so I thought angel food cake would be light and still substantial enough for our sweet tooth after a long day of bike riding in the sunshine...

I came across The Cupcakery Blog , where Wendy had highlighted the Angel Food Cake recipe from the Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook, which was, as promised, easy to prepare.

We are talking MAJOR egg whites here...2 cups, which is about 14 eggs worth...Wendy suggests just purchasing the carton of egg whites (which I didn't do this time, but that would make it even easier, so I will do this next time...)



This made 24 mini cupcakes and 12 regular size…

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
14 egg whites (2 cups)
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 375° degrees and line the muffin tins with paper wrappers.
In a medium bowl, combine flour with one cup of the sugar. Sift these together three separate times. ( I am pretty sure this is essential, so you will need a sifter for this recipe…) Set the sifted whatnot aside and put remaining sugar in a separate cup for later use.
Pour the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer and use the whisk attachment, mix on lowest setting for about 1 minute. Then add cream of tartar, vanilla and salt.
After another minute of beating, turn the mixer to medium speed and gradually add the 1/2 cup of remaining sugar. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula after all the sugar is added. Resume beating until the whites are stiff but moist. (This should take about 5 minutes.)Transfer the egg whites to a large bowl. Sift the flour-sugar mixture over the whites and gently fold until all the dry ingredients are mixed in. Using a ladle, fill the cupcake liners about ½ full, or a little less than ½ full.
Bake about 8-10 minutes, but not any longer to prevent the bottoms from burning.
Cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
I made these and took them (un-frosted) with a big bowl of fresh strawberries and a container of Cool Whip to our HB 4th of July gathering at Jeff & Lia’s and they made a great late night (meaning 9pm) sweet treat!

Cold Wild Rice Salad w/ Grapes

Ok, where has this been all my life!? It was H...O...T, HOT!! so I wanted to make us some cold yummy side dishes to accompany the bison meatballs that I made to tote to the Hollywood Bowl. I pretty much used items I had on-hand and made this "salad"...

Serves 6

1 box of long grain wild rice, prepared- but with low sodium chicken broth instead of water, olive oil (not butter), you can toss the "packet o' seasonings" it comes with, you won't need that- set cooked rice aside to cool.

Dressing~ (you'll have leftovers, so plan on a salad later in the week when you make this :o)
About 3 Large spoon fulls of Hosin Sauce
A small (like tip of a butter knife) spoon full of Chinese Hot Mustard
Rice Vinegar, Sesame Oil and Low Sodium Soy Sauce (just kept adding bits of each until the taste & texture were right)
A dash of sesame seeds
Whisk with fork until all ingredients are well combined

Green grapes- washed & cut in half (I just kept adding till I knew I'd get a grape half in almost every bite!)

A few handfuls of slivered almonds

Toss the cool rice, grapes and almonds together in a large bowl and slowly drizzle about 1/2 (maybe a bit more if needed) of the dressing over the rice and continue lightly tossing (and tasting) until all ingredients are incorporated.

Summer Broccoli Salad

Cool, easy-peasy summer salad. I made this for the Hollywood Bowl excursion we recently took and LOVE this at picnics. It's no Mama-Corrado Pasta Salad (coming soon to rock your world..) but this is an AWESOME salad for big fun stuff where people come to eat (you know, everything that happens in the summer...bon fires, concerts, picnics, etc.) I certainly did not invent this, it is an old school staple that I love. After buying some at Whole Foods recently I made it from my memory of how that tasted.

This is a somewhat "wingin-it" type of recipe, so taste and adjust and taste and adjust and you will be just fine...

Serves 6-10 people
4-6 cups broccoli crowns chopped into bite sized pieces
6-8 pieces of bacon, cooked- cooled- crumbled
1 c mayonnaise
3-4 T white vinegar
2-4 T sugar
a few handfuls of sunflower seeds
1/2-2/3 cups chopped sweet white onion
a few handfuls of crazins (or raisins, or golden raisins- I mucho prefer crazins)
Sprinkle of ground sea salt and some fresh black pepper to taste

In small bowl whisk together the mayo, sugar and vinegar~ set aside. In a BIG bowl toss the broccoli, bacon, crazins, onions & sunflower seeds. Pour the mayo/vinegar/sugar over the broccoli and add salt & pepper to taste. Toss it up and refrigerate at least a few hours, or overnight is even better!

Housewarming Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I am not so much "boxed cake mix" type of gal. Don't get me wrong, I do use it, eat it and use it as a base for other fun stuff. My homie Naomi LOVES Funfeti...and there is only one Funfeti, even if you bust it out "from scratch", we're sure it's still good, but it's not actual FUNFETI unless it has the Doughboy on the box.
She recently moved into a new place and made us all a KICKASS Carribean-Style-Thanksgiving FEAST of a party. I was going to be making guac, but should have gone to farmers market because the grocery avacados were not buneo.



After a memory jogging convo with my mother, I can inform you that this is OLD SCHOOL. We used to make these together (how can anyone wonder how I ended up loving creative food) when my sister & I were little. I thought these would be fun twist on her favorite cake mix, and decided to bring these to the gathering...I was a little nervous because once they were made and gorgeous, I had to get them from my apartment to Naomi's with out dropin the cones!




Fortunately Nate hooked up a brilliant tote using a disposable cookie sheet and 4 plastic cups...we cut holes in the cookie sheet and he taped 4 plastic cups to the bottom...I should have snapped a pic of it, but could draw it for you in a pinch~

This made 12 Ice Cream Cone cupcakes and about 20 mini cupcakes
What you'll need
1 box o Funfeti cake mix (plus the eggs and oil required by said cake mix)
12 ice cream cones
paper cupcake liners for the cupcakes
1 container of FUNFETI frosting
Sprinkles!!

Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners (12 regular size and about 20 mini, so prep both pans...)
Preheat oven & make cake according to pacakge...how mellow is this recipe so far??
Fill the cupcake liners about 1/2 full of cake batter and on the 12 full size cups tip an ice cream cone, upside down (BOTTOMS UP!!) into the batter..on the minis just fill em about half full...if you can find mini-ice-cream-cones...then by all means cone them ALL!
Bake according to package for cupcakes, and let cool for about an hour on a cooling rack, with the cones still bottoms up. When they are cool, flip them so they are standing up and peel the paper liners off the cupcakes. Frost with funfeti frosting and decorate like crazy with sprinkles!!

Glorious Salad~ inspried by Kelle

We always had a garden in our back yard while I was growing up. I am really looking forward to a living situation where we have more than just a teeny little patio so we can do some gardening of our own! Someday... Anyhow, salad was a very common accompaniment to anything we were eating (or grilling, more specifically) during the summer time. My parents would make what we liked to cal "Glorious Salad"...I believe I've talked about this before, because there is just salad and there's Glorious Salad, and there is a big difference!!

A few months back one of our favorite couples invited a group of us over for a Thursday night dinner...They were servin up the best tri-tip you've ever had with homemade herb butter and a salad that was seriously off the chain. I brought the BLACKBERRY KEY LIME TART (coming soon...) and we were all so full we had just enough energy for one round of Apples to Apples after our indulgence fest.

Since a few of the invited guests couldn't make it that night, we decided to do it again the following month on a Thursday at our place. Nate and I made poison cru, flank steak and insisted that Kelle bring her amazing salad (which she made with fresh strawberries that time!!) This month it is the third consecutive month our little group has met up for dinner, this time at Brian's house, and Kelle & Manos are in GREECE!! So what of the salad??! We could not do our dinner with out it!! I hesitantly volunteered, not sure if my version of Kelle's awesome salad could live up to our expectations, but I have to say, she would've been proud!

Kelle Salad
Serves 10

1 large container organic mixed greens (this comes in a plastic box at my market)
3 large, ripe avacados
2 giant handfulls slivered blanched almonds
6oz herbed goat cheese
2 tomatoes
2 handfulls of dried cranberries

Dressing
2 lemons
Olive oil
Salt

I mixed up the dressing first (you want a jar or bottle with a secure lid). Add the juice of 2 lemons and a few pinches of Kosher salt, then add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of oilve oil and SHIMMY SHAKE THAT BAD BOY until it is totally combined...give it a taste and if it is knock-you-on-your-tush lemon still, you could add a bit more olive oil to mellow it out..just mess with it a bit, until you are lovin' it. Set aside.

Rinse the greens and pat dry with paper towel, then toss them into a BIGASS bowl. Line the tray of your toaster oven (or normal oven, use a cookie sheet) with foil and spread the almonds out on it. I put them in the toaster oven at 350 for about 7 minutes...maybe a bit longer~ you want them golden brown, deep golden color is key to the brilliant flavor!
While the almonds are toasting, dice up the avocado, tomato and goat cheese (lil' bite size pieces of each of those items) and sprinkle over the salad...give it a few tosses to start incorporating the ingredients. Add the crazins, then the almonds and toss the salad well to fully incorporate EVERYTHING glorious. The almonds will melt the cheese a bit- which is AWESOME. Give the dressing another strong furious shake and pour over salad, toss it again, then I like to add fresh cracked black pepper individually to each serving! GLORIOUS INDEED.

Shayne's Perfectly Chocolatey Birthday Best Cake Ever...

Gooey dulce de leche filling combined with intense chocolate cake, frosted with a combo of Cool Whip and cream cheese, topped with mini chocolate chips and toffee bits. Really, that can not NOT be delicious, right?! Right. It's awesome!!
This is the marriage of two pretty famous recipes that is truly exceptional. I first made this back in 2007 for Naomi's birthday, and per Shayne's request, made it for her b-day party...

Shayne's Perfectly Chocolatey Birthday Best Cake Ever.
Serves 12

2 C. Sugar
1 3/4 C. Flour
3/4 C. Hershey's Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
2 Eggs
1 C. Milk
1/2 C. Oil
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 C. Cup Boiling Water
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Jar of Caramel (Ice Cream Topping)

1 container of Cool Whip & 8oz softened cream cheese for frosting
1 C. Heath Toffee Bits & Mini Chocolate Chips for topping



Prepare a 15 cup bundt pan by spraying with baking spray (with flour).
Pre-heat oven to 350, and sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix in eggs one at a time, add milk, oil, vanilla, mix well. Add Boiling water and mix. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in the pan, then cool 10 minutes on wire wrack- transfer to plate covered in wax paper.
Mix milk and caramel in a bowl.
Using a straw poke holes evenly spaced in the cake and using a spoon fill the holes and pour over the cake until it soaks in, I usually don't quite use it all...about 3/4 of the mix does the trick..then, let the cake cool completely.
In a large bowl combine softened cream cheese and thawed Cool Whip, & frost cake, top with Heath toffee bits & mini chocolate chips!

Mango Flank Steak Tacos

This was an improv dinner that turned out better than I could have imagined. The steak was amazing, this marinade rocks the heezie.
We made this after work and work-out and still ate before 8pm, it was fabulous. This will be a go-to recipe for us from now on, easy to make in large scale for get togethers too!!

Mango Flank Steak Tacos
By Beth & Nate
Serves 4

1 lb flank steak
1 mango
1 lime
1 tomato
1/4 red onion
Fresh cilantro
Kosher salt
Soy sauce
1-2 T fresh grated ginger
garlic powder
crushed red pepper


Chop the mango into little cubes, toss them in a medium sized bowl...put the flank steak in a freezer bag and throw the mango core and a a few of the mango cubes. Add soy sauce, a lil less than 1/4 cup, ginger a few dashes of garlic powder, the juice of 1/2 a lime and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Seal the bag and massage it all together- let marinate 30min-1hour.
Dice up the tomato, onion and cilantro and toss with the mango. Add a pinch of salt and juice of 1/2 a lime. Toss together, cover & refrigerate 1 hour or more.
Grill marinated flank steak on medium heat for about 3 minutes each side...longer if you prefer medium to well meat. Take the meat off, add tortillias and grill for about 1-2 minutes. Add steak to tortilla, top with salsa and additional onion or cilantro if you'd like~ YUM!! Amazing taco heaven.

Cocktail Latkes

These are a fabulous, and relativity in expensive appetizer for a party or a holiday dinner.
I made these "cocktail-sized" (using about 1 T. of the potato mixture per latke) and following that method this makes about 80-something latkes
You can always make them more traditional-sized and that would probably produce 1/3 as many.

I've made these a few times before and this is my recipe...it is a bit time consuming (when you are making a whole bunch of them!) but totally worth it. These are served with homemade apple sauce & sour cream~



8 medium-large Idaho baking potatoes
1 cup matzo meal
7 eggs
Salt
Onion powder
1 1/4 shredded sweet white onion



Wash & peel the potatoes, then grate (I get out a giant bowl and fill it with ice water, the potatoes sit in that while waiting to be grated)...I used the larger grater blade on my food processor. Immediately after shredding soak the potatoes in cold/ ice cold water, rinsing with clean cold water until the water is clear and shredded potatoes are clean and white.
Press as much of the water out as possible using your hand and some paper towel. Lay a piece of wax paper over a cookie sheet and place several layers of paper towel on that.
Dump the potatoes out onto the cookie sheet and press a few layers of paper towels on top, a few times to remove as much of the water as possible. You can also strain them quickly with a cheese cloth to get additional moisture out.
Shred the onion, squeeze the liquid out as much as possible.
In a small bowl whisk the eggs
In a LARGE bowl combine the shredded potato, the onion, the eggs, the matzo meal, onion powder and salt, mix well.

Heat just enough oil to keep the bottom of the pan covered on medium low heat for about 5 minutes. Drop the potato mixture into the heated oil (I did about a tablespoon at a time), then press to flaten a bit. Fry about 4-5 minutes on each side (until golden) and set on paper towel to cool. Serve warm or room temprature with some applesauce and sour cream.

These can be made up to two weeks ahead and frozen. I buy some good sturdy disposable plastic storage (the "oven ware" is a great size), line it with wax paper and then add a layer of cooled latkes, topped with a layer of wax paper...and so on, like lasagna I cover the top with press-n-seal to keep it really well locked in.

To re-heat...
Pre-heat oven to 350
Cover a baking sheet with foil, spread latkes over the foil, cook for about 7 minutes or until hot!

Eggnog Brownie bites

I love brownies bites- easy, peasy portable lil'desserts that are always party-perfect.
These are my Holiday version, served for our 2008 Cocktail/Ugly Sweater Party (I am obviously a bit behind with my blog updating...)
Anyhow, these were just plain ole brownie bites on the bottom, but topped with a egnogg frosting that I sometimes use on gingerbread cookies~




Brownie Bites
For the brownie batter I use MY BROWNIE RECIPE (HERE)http://tinyurl.com/df8a7n, but in a pinch 2 boxes of brownie mix can be used to whip these up quick!

Grease a mini-muffin tin and preheat the oven to 350. Follow brownie recipe for a double batch, this should be enough for 4 batches using a 24 muffin mini-muffin tin.
Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full with brownie batter (brownies will rise, so just a bit over halfway.) Bake about 7 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Eggnog Frosting
1 1/4 c butter, softened
4 T. Eggnog (the thicker and spice-y-er the better
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tsp spiced rum
2 1/2 c powdered confectioners sugar

Combine all ingredients in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream the butter, add eggnog & rum. Continue to mix on medium and slowly add powdered sugar & nutmeg. Whip until the frosting comes together and forms stiff peaks.
Frost cooled brownie bites and dust with nutmeg.

Goat Cheese Bites

I made a variation of these last year for our holiday sweater party and think that you pretty much can't miss with fig & goat cheese!
These are a simple and beautiful appetizer that freezes well and can be made ahead, and heated up as the party moves along! I love the fig preserves at the holidays- but these are great with marmalade or other preserves to reflect different seasons.



Makes 60-70
12 oz goat cheese
8 oz softened cream cheese
one egg
3 boxes of frozen puff pastry
2 jars of fig preserves

Let the puff pastry thaw on the counter. Using a hand mixer combine the goat cheese, cream cheese & egg. Using a small biscuit cutter (about the size of a silver dollar) cut circles out of the puff pastry sheets...place a circle of puff pastry in a greased mini-muffin tin, add a scoop of cheese mix, top with a dollop of fig preserves. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until cheese and puff pastry is golden.
You can freeze these and then just re-heat them at party time! :O)

Halloween Candy Corn Cupcakes

Dear lord, HOW CUTE ARE THESE CUPCAKES?!?! There are two ways to do this, with a yummy homemade white cake recipe- like THIS ONE from Dorie Greenspan...or go full blown short-cut style and do it up with boxed cake mix.
These were a bit time consuming, due to the freezing step and the fact that I only had one mini-muffin tin and one regular muffin-tin, but I made some in each size for kicks.
These are great to take to work, school or a party around Halloween, they are as yummy as they are guuuuuud-lookin'!

I made these on a week night since I took them to a Halloween party (which fell on a Friday this year) so here is the method with boxed cake mix...

1 box of yellow cake mix (prepare batter according to package directions, w/ oil, eggs and water)
yellow & red Food dye
White or Cream Cheese Frosting
Candy Corn for decoration...

Prepare the cake mix batter and divide it into two bowls....add about 10 drops of yellow to one bowl of the batter and 15 drops each of yellow & red to the other...you can continue adding even drops of red & yellow to the "orange" half of the batter until it is a light pumpkin hue.
Grease a mini muffin tin and fill each cup about 1/4 of the way with the yellow batter. Freeze the tray for 10 minutes. Fill the cups an additional 1/4 of the way full with the orange batter & bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a rack and frost with white frosting, top with a candy corn!

~This recipe was inspired by a booklet I flipped through in the grocery check out line, I apologize that I can not remember which one, but I literally read it in halfa'second and put it together from what I remembered!!~

Swampy Spinach Dip~ Halloween Party Recipes

This was another Halloween party treat, there is no real slime involved! This is a very basic recipe for a cold spinach dip, with a little green food dye, helping to bring a little veggie love to the fiesta. I served this with bread, carrots, celery and red bell peppers... I would make this again with out the dye (swampyness) because it was a really great dip!! I know this is a few weeks late, but I'm feeling pretty productive getting it up before Thanksgiving! More Halloween fun to come!!

This recipe is courtesy of All Recipes, click the link for the original recipe.

Here's my "Swampy Party" version...
Serves 30-40
1 1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 16 oz. container sour cream
2 1.8 oz) package dry leek soup mix
1 8 oz. can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
3 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
Fresh cracked black pepper (just a bit to taste)
Green food dye- for swampy spookieness

Mix all of the above ingredients in a large bowl and add the food dye until it is the desired color of swampy green. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours to overnight. Serve with chopped Italian bread & veggies like celery, carrots & bell peppers~

Turkey Sliders with Apple & Swiss

Every once in a while there is a Thursday night college football game that we all RACE home from work to watch, and this meal was perfect for one of those nights! The game started at 6pm and we were having 8 people over, so since I get off work at 5 and have a 30 minute drive, this needed to be something easy, yummy and that would count as dinner for everyone.
These Turkey Burgers combined with the mini-baked taters (coming soon) were perfect, and totally reasonable budget-wise!

Makes 8 Mini Burgers

Kings Hawaiian wheat buns
1 lb lean or extra lean ground turkey
1 Apple, cored and chopped
1/4 sweet white onion chopped
1/3 cups Bread crumbs
1 T. Worstecire sauce
pepper, salt, garlic powder to taste
Swiss cheese

In a medium bowl, using your hands, combine the turkey, apple, onion, bread crumbs, worstecire sauce, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Form 8 small patties.
Grill over medium-high heat for about 7 minutes per side, flipping once or twice.
Add Swiss & turn off heat, put buns on the grill to toast close grill and let cheese melt & buns toast.

Super Sunday Jalapeno Poppers

Ok, I think you can tell I've got a big ole crush on appetizers. I think that's my official favorite thing to make, apps, tapas, snacks and bites, I love 'em. Cocktail munchies, foot ball nosh, it's all good in this hood~ and these are a perfect testament to the finest of snacky-tapasy-bites; breaded, fried jalapeno poppers! This is a combo of two recipes that I've had written down so long ago I'm not so sure where they came from...the bacon was a last minute addition since I still had some left from the previous week's CHEESY BACON DIP, and think these were fabulous, but would be awesome with out the bacon too!



makes about 50 poppers

12 med-large jalapeno peppers, with seeds and most of membrane removed, cut lengthwise in half, then cross-wise in half so each pepper makes 4 bite-sized bites.

filling~
1 8 oz brick of cream cheese softened to room temp
1/2 cup shredded jalapeno jack cheese
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
black pepper
pinch of kosher salt
4-8 pieces of bacon, cooked, most grease removed, cooled, and chopped up.

Bread crumbs
Flour
Cayenne pepper* optional
milk
hot sauce* optional...

*(only if you want these to be SPICY)

oil for frying

In a large bowl mix together all the "filling" ingredients. Using a butter knife (or your fingers, which is what I did) add about 1 Tablespoon of filling to the inside of each jalapeno 1/4. Fill a small bowl with bread crumbs and cayenne pepper (about 1/8 tsp). Put about 1/3 cup of flour in another small bowl, and in a 3rd bowl, pour about 1/3 cup milk, add a few dashes of hot sauce for spicy-factor!

Cover a cookie sheet with wax paper. Take the stuffed jalapenos and dip them first in the milk, then the flour, then set on the cookie sheet. Let them "set" for about 7-10 minutes. Then give em another super quick dip in the milk, then coat with bread crumbs, place the bread-crumbed poppers back on the cookie sheet to chill out again for about 7 minutes. (I did not do this next step, but will next time after doing some searching online and reading more recipes like this one...)Repeat the milk & bread crumb step a second time to REALLY coat these puppies, meanwhile heating about 1-2 inches of frying oil in a large pot or pan (deep enough for the oil and so you don't get burned!)
Using a slotted spoon or one of those cool wire-basket-on-a-stick things that is made for stuff like this (that of course I do not have) gently lower the poppers into the hot oil and fry for about 3 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a plate or cookie sheet covered in paper towel to let cool and to sop up excess oil.

Grown-Up-Pigs-In-A-Blanket (Pillsbury Recipe Creations)

It is football season again, and we headed down to the Coliseum on a cloudy drizzly Saturday determined to get in some pre-game tailgating, a few Saturdays ago. I am sure some of you living in other areas, outside of Southern California may not realize what the big deal about a little drizzle would be, but here people can get a little freaky over some mist. Thankfully, it turned out to be a great day- the air got a little damp in the third quarter, but it was all good.
I made these with the Pillsbury Recipe creations~ super, super easy and a great tailgating snack!



1 package Pillsbury Recipe Creations
1 package fully cooked chicken apple sausage (should be at the regular grocery store or Trader Joes)
Herb'd goat cheese, at room temp
toothpicks (wooden)

Pre heat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with foil.
Chop the sausage into bite-sized bits. Roll out the recipe creations and cut into 4-5 strips long-ways, then cut across to make about 30 + little squares. Using a butter knife, add a bit of goat cheese to a piece of sausage and wrap the dough around it using the toothpick to hold it sealed in place.
place the wrapped sausages on the baking sheet and bake 25-25 minutes or until crescent dough is golden.
Cool and serve~

Our Fabulous Ginger Wings

These are my go-to un-buffalo-wing. They are fabulous for football watching afternoons, tailgates and any kind of party, really. They are baked, not fried and could not be easier to make.

I made these for a tailgate before a USC game- I baked them in a disposable roasting pan, then transferred them to a cool clean roasting pan- covered in foil to transport to the game!



Wings~
About 3-4 lbs Chicken Wings, cut in half~ tips cut off

Marinade/ Sauce~
1/2 C low sodium soy sauce
1/2 C water
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 C rice vinegar
3 T grated fresh ginger
3 T Garlic Chili Paste
3 T chopped green onion
2 T toasted sesame seeds

Place prepared wings in Ziploc bag and pour half of sauce into bag, reserve other 1/2(about 1 cup) Marinate 2 hours or more in the refrigerator.
Spray a foil lined roasting pan with non-stick spray. Lay wings in the pan pour the sauce from Ziploc into pan. Cook at 350 for 40 - 45 minutes on one side basting frequently, flip over and bake/ baste an additional 25 minutes. Turn off oven let sit 10 minutes. Boil remaining sauce 6-8 minutes on high and reduce heat to thicken… pour thickened sauce and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds & serve.

Nicole's Famous CRACKers

A co-worker brought these lil'devils in to work a while back and I (our whole office) LOVED them!!! It is a super easy, super budget-friendly, great-take-to-a-party treat, so (with Nicole's permission) I had to share~

We re-named them CRACKers because, as you will find, these are completely addictive and I DARE you to only eat one!

THANK YOU NICOLE for letting me post this for everyone to enjoy!

What you'll need~
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
a package of saltine crackers
chocolate chips
any nuts chopped or crushed (pictured with almonds, MY FAVORITE!)

Preheat the oven to 400. Get a cookie sheet out, cover with foil and lay crackers out all over the cookie sheet. Take the stick of butter and brown sugar and melt together in a small pot over medium heat don't stir until it is all melted!!, now wait for the sugar/butter to caramelize (you will notice big bubbles)- once that happens, remove the pan from the heat and use a spoon to drizzle the caramelly goodness all over the crackers. Then sprinkle the crushed nuts on top.
Bake for 5-7 minutes. Take the crackers out and IMMEDIATELY sprinkle the chocolate chips over them, then transfer off the cookie sheet to cool before the chocolate chips re-harden.