Garlic & Herb Bubble Bread

One of our favorite things about Winter is eating soup!  It's so warm and cozy and full of goodness.  When eating soup at our houses, bread isn't really optional and this Garlic and Herb bubble bread is the perfect companion to a bowl of soup.  

It's a cinch to throw together and our families loved it!  Start by thawing about 20 Rhodes rolls. 

Mix some minced garlic and Italian seasoning into melted butter.

Cut each Rhodes roll in half and dip into the butter mixture.  Place in baking dish.  Cover and let rise.  

Bake until puffy and golden brown.  

Pull apart and dig in!  If you're looking for something extra special, you could stuff each half of roll with a small cube of mozzarella cheese and have a delicious cheesy bread! Enjoy!

Rhodes Garlic & Herb Bubble Bread

Printable Version

Ingredients:

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20 Rhodes dinner rolls

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

⅓ cup butter, melted

¾ teaspoon italian seasoning

½ cup parmesan cheese, optional

Directions:

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Let rolls thaw according to directions on package.  Lightly grease a 9x9 pan.  Combine butter, garlic, and Italian seasoning in a small bowl.  

Cut each roll in half, dip into the butter mixture, and drop into greased pan.  Repeat with all halves.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top, if desired.  

Let rise until doubled (45 minutes to 1 hour).  Bake in a preheated oven at 375 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top and internal temperature is 200.

Spooky Guacamole Bowl

It's October!!!! I can't believe  the year is winding down. We are looking forward to the upcoming holidays! We shared this recipe a few weeks ago on Eighteen25's Spooktacular September series. Check it out for some fun ideas! We love fun and festive food for any holiday, but oftentimes Halloween food can cross a line that makes it a bit unappetizing.   We're all about making fun festive food that doesn't make you cringe! :) 

We like to "spookify" our favorite foods.  So enter Spooky Guac.  [Sidenote: I did come across a Halloween guac recipe called "Guacamoldy", but even that was too much for me to be able to call it that and still eat it.]  Isn't guacamole the perfect party food and the perfect color for a Halloween spread? And the kids think it's totally awesome to have a spider and her web in the guacamole bowl.

We simply used 2 olives to make a quick little edible spider--a little black spider ring (dollar store) would also work great too! For the web, we just piped some sour cream into circles and dragged a toothpick (or chopstick) from the center to the outside edges to get the spider web effect.  You could use any guacamole, but here's the link to our favorite guac recipe.  

It's fun, cute, and festive and doesn't take too much effort--so add it to your Halloween party menu/celebrations!

Here are a few of our other Halloween faves:

Mummy Stromboli | Pumpkin Roll | Spooky 7-layer Dip

Yummy Mummy Dogs

Tootsie Pop Ghosts {in an Egg Carton Graveyard}

Spiderweb Sugar Cookies

Spider PB & Banana Sandwich

Blender Salsa

We have a favorite salsa recipe and we want it to be your favorite, too.  It's ridiculously easy and so addictive.  We have both been making it for years now and we have tweaked the recipe so now we can declare it perfect.  Lu shared the original a couple of years ago, but since we both have made slight changes from the old recipe and we got some new pictures we decided it deserved a new post.  

Declaring it perfect may seem pretty bold, but one taste and you'll understand.  Oh, and did we mention that it uses canned tomatoes? In my opinion, that is one of the best things about this salsa--you can enjoy it all year! Originally I was worried it wouldn't taste as fresh using canned tomatoes, but the cilantro, lime, and jalapeno do an excellent job of making the whole thing taste fresh and I didn't miss dicing all those tomatoes one little bit. 

Just try to plan ahead at least an hour before you want to eat it so that the flavors can get happy before you eat it....although I've never been one to be able to but off my salsa craving for a whole hour!

Blender Salsa

Printable Version

Ingredients:

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1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 cans (10 - 14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with green chiles (Rotel)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 jalapeno, roughly chopped with seeds and membranes removed
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped *
juice of 1/2 lime

Directions:

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In a blender, or blending cup if using an immersion blender, combine Rotel with all ingredients besides diced tomatoes. Blend until smooth or desired consistency is reached. Add in diced tomatoes and pulse a couple of times leaving a little bit of texture. Chill for at least 1 hour to allow flavors to meld. Serve with chips, taquitos, quesadillas, enchiladas or any way your salsa-loving heart desires!

Notes:

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*I don't bother removing the majority of the stems. I know some people use only the leaves though. Just chop off the bottom and give the rest a rough chop before throwing it in the blender.

Recipe Source:

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Adapted from the Pioneer Woman Cooks; Originally shared on landeelu.com

{Our Favorite} Cheeseball

Cheeseballs have been a New Year's Eve tradition in our family for as long as I can remember.  They start appearing at Thanksgiving, at my Grandma's house, and then again at Christmas, and making one final debut for the year on New Years Eve. Are you a cheeseball lover?  I sure am, but especially for this particular recipe. 

What New Year's Eve snack do you have each year? 

I've only tried store-bought cheeseball a few times, I've never been super impressed with them.  The ones I've tried taste like that have easy cheese or something too soft and too fake for me.  This cheeseball is inspired from my Grandma King's recipe.  She has told us she does it a little different each time, so we've tried over the last few years to nail down what we love, and I think we've got it.  

Leesh and I love cheeseball.  We don't live very close - about 10 hours away from each other.  But when we were together right before Christmas you better believe that cheeseball was involved.  We love this cheeseball so much in fact - we might have cleaned off an entire block of cream cheese just by ourselves while we were chatting and snacking after our kiddos were in bed.

The recipe is simple - and comes together in 10 minutes or less.  The blue cheese can be optional but it's what "makes the cheeseball" for us.  We are blue cheese lovers!  Our kiddos even love it!  We serve it with crackers.  I'm a huge fan of Wheat Thins and Triscuits. But it will work on any kind of cracker you love too!

We hope this is something you'll try out for your New Year's Eve party this year.  

Try it and then tell us about it.  We with you a Happy New Year.

Cheeseball

Printable Version {Click Here}
Ingredients:

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2 blocks cream cheese (full or less fat), softened to room temperature

½ cup crumbled blue cheese, more or less to taste (optional, but recommended)

2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon McCormick Bon Appetit seasoning salt blend (see *note* below for substitute) OR 2 tablespoons ranch powder

8 ounces sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated

1 cup nuts, chopped (optional) I prefer pecans or almonds

Directions:

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*Note* - you can use ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon ground celery seed, ½ teaspoon onion powder in place of the McCormick Bon Appetit seasoning salt.

Chop nuts fine and leave in a small plate or dish for rolling the cheeseball in

In a medium size mixing bowl mix the cream cheese, blue cheese, worcestershire sauce, and seasoning of choice together.  Once mixed thoroughly add the shredded cheddar cheese and mix until incorporated. Roll into a ball (I like to wear plastic disposable gloves so I don’t have to clean it all off my hands), and then roll into ball (or you can simply put it in a serving dish without it being a ball) and then roll to coat the outside in the chopped nuts.  If you are going to serve immediately place on a serving dish with crackers.  If you aren’t going to use til later, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge until ready to serve.

Recipe Source:

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Inspired by our Grandma Kathy King’s famous cheeseball.

Creamy Caramel Dip

If you like apples you need this dip in your life.  It is creamy and dreamy and the perfect snack any time of the year.  It couldn't be simpler to make either.  My 3-year-old loves to make this.  He dips his apples in it, but ends up eating it with a spoon most of the time.  It takes only 4 ingredients and you probably already have them on hand.  

I made this last year and we used it to sample lots of different varieties of apples.  Turns out that Honeycrisp apples are our favorites with Gala and Pink Lady tying for second.  I also like a good Granny Smith apple--especially when it's paired with a sweet caramel dip.  I'm not sure why Red Delicious apples even exist--not to mention the fact that they are so widely available. I've never had a delicious one and the texture is weird to me.  Maybe I'm just weird.  What is your favorite variety of apple to munch on? 

 - Leesh

Creamy Caramel Dip

Printable Version

Ingredients:

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8 ounces cream cheese, softened (low-fat works really well here)

½ - ⅔ cup brown sugar--depending on how sweet you like it

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

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Stir ingredients together until well combined.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Serve with sliced apples or any other fruit.  

Notes:

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I like to make sure the cream cheese is really soft so you don’t get lumps in the dip.  I do this by placing it on a plate and microwaving it at 20% power for 30 second intervals until it’s super melty.  

Recipe Source:

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A to Z cookbook for Kids, by Jacque Wick

Bacon Wrapped Lil' Smokies

These little beauties have been seen all over the internet, but I had never seen or heard of them til about a month ago. I went to a bridal shower and they were served buffet style alongside a pleothora of other morsels of goodness. But of all the goodies, these were my favorite! I think I ate at least 8....not so dainty for a bridal shower, I know! But I couldn't help myself!  

Anyhow a week or so ago I asked on our Facebook page if anyone had any specific recipes or kinds of recipes they wanted us to share for planning a Thanksgiving menu. I had a request for appetizers.  Although we don't usually have too many appetizers at our Thanksgiving meal (I'm always saving room for LOTS of pie), I thought these lil' smokies would do the trick for pleasing man, woman, and child! 

These are so simple to make. 3 ingredients, toothpicks and an oven and your set (well I guess a baking sheet would be helpful too!).  The savory little sausage is wrapped in some love (aka bacon) and sprinkled with a little brown sugar. The sugar, flavor of the bacon and sausages is out of this world. I also saw while looking online that some people even glaze with some brown sugar and maple syrup! Sounds divine! I don't think you can mess these up. Just make sure the bacon is cooked through and you'll be drooling from your over satisfied saliva glands not knowing what to do with such goodness! 

These babies would also be fitting at Christmas time, tail gate parties, BBQ's and more! Hey I even had them at a Bridal shower, so they aren't just man lovin' food!  

Enjoy!

Bacon Wrapped Lil' Smokies
Printable Version
Ingredients:
1 pound bacon, cut into thirds or fourths (in about 2 ½ inch lengths)
1 package of Lit’l Smokies (I buy Hillshire Farms brand)
½ cup brown sugar
Round wooden toothpicks

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Cut bacon into about 2 ½ inch strips. Just enough to barely overlap the bacon as it’s wrapped around one wiener.  Wrap each wiener with a strip of bacon and insert a wooden toothpick through the wiener and bacon to hold the bacon in place. Place wrapped wiener on a baking sheet, leaving ½ inch between each wiener. When all of the wieners are wrapped, place a pinch of brown sugar on top of each of them (about ¼-½  teaspoon per each). 

Bake at 325 degrees until brown sugar is dissolved and bacon is cooked through, about 40 minutes.

Serve warm.  To keep warm for serving consider placing them in a crock-pot on low or warm. 

Note:
I’ve also cooked them at 375 for 15 minutes and then turned the oven to 350 for an extra 5 minute and they’ve turned out well this way....speeds up the time, you just want to make sure the bacon is cooked through. The inside of the bacon touching the wiener may not be done as soon as the outer side of the bacon is.

 Recipe Source: Inspired for said Bridal shower above

Mango, Corn, and Black Bean Salsa

With Cinco de Mayo approaching, mangoes are on sale here this week and I can't get enough.  Do I really know much about Cinco de Mayo? No.  But for me, as every holiday is, it is an excuse to have a party and eat yummy food! So to make myself feel a little less guilty for the pigging out that I'm sure I'll do on Saturday, I did a little research.  So, in case you are wondering too, here is a little tidbit on Cinco de Mayo: It is often confused with Mexican Independence day, which is the 16th of September.  Rather, Cinco de Mayo is the anniversary of the Battle of the Puebla, which was fought between the French and the Mexicans in 1862.  The Mexicans were definitely the underdog in the situation.  Their forces were dramatically outnumbered, but they managed to come out on top after only a 4-hour battle.  So there you have it.  The underdogs won and that right there is reason enough for me to celebrate!  

Back to the food...

Mangoes have always been one of my most favorite fruits.  I was trying to think of something to go with some enchiladas that I made and I thought this would be perfect.  And it was.  It totally hit the spot.  I love the freshness, the sweetness, and the color that this salsa added to our meal.  I sometimes struggle with what to serve as a side when we eat Mexican food.  Yesterday we served it with chips, but it also makes a fabulous Latin-style side dish.  Forget the authenticity of rice and beans, this is superb just served as a salad--and easily tossed with a little brown rice or quinoa.  Too bad there were no leftovers...      

 

Mango, Corn, and Black Bean Salsa/Salad
Printable Version


Ingredients: 


2-3 roma tomatoes, diced
1 large mango, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen sweet corn, rinsed
1-15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 green onions, sliced
2 tablespoons lime juice
¼ cup chopped cilantro
½ teaspoon garlic salt
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper


Directions:


Combine all ingredients in bowl.  Refrigerate salsa for at least 3 hours before devouring.   

{Easy Squeezy} Guacamole

I just started liking guacamole in the last few months. I think the reason why is that I've almost always had store bought guacamole, which can be absolutely disgusting.  I was reading the ingredient label on a package of guacamole made by one of our local grocers produce department. There was about 30 ingredients, a lot of which were junk.  I could taste all the junk, and that's why I even looked at the ingredients. 

Anyhow, enough of my blabbing, I am a guacamole snob!

So after years of not being too fond of avocados and thus, guacamole, I've come out of this funk after making my own homemade version that is fresh and tasty (oh, and easy squeezy)!

What I love about this recipe is it is simple, 6 ingredients, and it's really fast!  The best part is the taste (it better be, right?), I absolutely love the lime juice, it give it the perfect kick that keeps me coming back for more.    

We love this on tacos, taco salad, fajitas, burritos, or simply with tortilla chips.  Stay tuned this week for my favorite fajita seasoning recipe and chicken fajita recipe in honor of Cinco de Mayo!   

{Easy Squeezy} Guacamole

PRINTABLE VERSION {CLICK HERE}

Ingredients:

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2 medium avocados, peeled and pitted

½ fresh lime, juiced (more to taste, if desired)

⅛ teaspoon garlic powder

⅛ teaspoon onion powder

⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste) or ⅛ teaspoon taco seasoning

⅛ teaspoon garlic salt

Directions:

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In a small bowl add avocados and mash with a fork to the desired consistency. I like my guacamole pretty smooth.

Add juice from half a lime, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and garlic salt. Mix to incorporate.

Serve with tortilla chips, or have on tacos, taco salad, fajitas, or in 7-layer bean dip, etc.

Recipe Source: Lu, from this site! :)  

Original photo (updated other pictures 4/6/16)

It's fun to see how my food photography has changed.  

 

Cranberry Cream Salad

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving (and Columbus Day)!  It is this time of year that I am so glad I married a Canadian.  Until I started dating my hubby, I never knew that Canucks celebrated Thanksgiving several weeks earlier than we do in the United States.  I guess it makes sense if you think about it--it's colder up north so their harvest season is a bit earlier.  Thankfully, I get to give thanks twice a year with two Thanksgiving dinners!  I'm always looking for reasons to celebrate and eat good food, so even if you aren't Canadian, it would be silly not to take advantage of an excuse to eat turkey.  

This recipe comes from my Aunt Kohnie.  Everything she makes is delicious and this
salad could quite possibly be my favorite thing about Thanksgiving dinner.  It is light, fluffy, and festive and is a perfect side for a turkey dinner (or any potluck for that matter).   I love that is uses fresh cranberries and not canned, or cooked.  I can't wait until November 24th so I can make it again!

Cranberry Cream Salad
Printable Version
1 bag fresh cranberries  (frozen would work too)
1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
1 ½ cups sugar
1 package miniature marshmallows
1 pint whipping cream
Bananas (I used about 4 medium-sized)
Nuts (optional)

Use blender to chop or grind cranberries. You can use a little water or some of the pineapple juice  to help them chop, just drain it afterward.  Add pineapple and sugar to cranberries. Let stand in fridge 4 hours or overnight. Whip whipping cream. Fold in cranberry mixture. Add marshmallows, bananas, and nuts (if desired).


Recipe Source: My Aunt Kohnie

Restaurant Style Salsa

I've had this salsa with 4-5 different meals in the last week. My mom made it for us while we were staying at my parents house. I wanted to eat the whole bowl, but thought I'd better not. I think I could eat it everyday though. After making two batches for a family party on Sunday, I was asked to post this recipe asap. So here it is for all to enjoy!

I've always loved salsa as long as I can remember. I used to hate homemade salsa as a kid, I liked the store bought bottled stuff. I despise that stuff now....really I do. I am all about homemade, canned or fresh it so much better than the store bought bottled kind. I like salsa with a little bit of chip.....I like to heap as much as I possible can and take a bite. I can't fit a whole chip in my mouth (very politely) then I like to dip the same chip again, getting another large helping of salsa. Ummmmm.I could practically drink this. I make salsa soup with the chip crumbs at the end of the bag and eat it with a spoon. I'm obsessed!

This salsa is my new favorite! I love the consistency of it as well as the flavor. It's made with canned whole tomatoes and Rotel tomatoes. All the other ingredients are fresh: garlic, onion (just a little onion-I hate when all you can taste is onion - or when you can taste onion in for daaays cause it gets stuck in your tonsils), cilantro (as much as you please), jalapeno, and lime juice. Obviously you can make it chunky or smooth. I chose to make this batch as smooth as possible. The smooth texture appeals to me more than I thought it would. I've always been a chunky salsa lover, but I think I really am just a salsa lover in general. I hope you love this recipe as much as I do. It's going to be appearing on our table for years to come.

Restaurant Style Salsa
Printable Version
Servings: 12+
Ready in: 10 minutes

1 can (28 Ounce) whole tomatoes with juice
2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (Diced Tomatoes & Green Chiles)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 whole jalapenos (seeds & membranes-unless you really hate spicy), quartered and sliced thin
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup cilantro (more to taste if you are a cilantro lover like me)
The juice from half of a lime

Note: This is a very large batch. Recommend using a 12-cup food processor, or you can process the ingredients in batches and then mix everything together in a large mixing bowl.

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you'd like---chunky or smooth. Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.
Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour, but it is good at room temperature too. Serve with tortilla chips or cheese nachos.

Recipe Source: The Pioneer Woman