Zucchini Parmesan Sliders

These zucchini parmesan sliders will revolutionize your game day snacking this football season.  Since it involves a vegetable you can pretend this is a healthy alternative.  Sure it's breaded, fried, covered with cheese, and on a bun, but it's zucchini! So yea....totally healthy.

Zucchini Parmesan Sliders

Ingredients
1 zucchini, cut into 12 1/2 in rounds
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg
12 dinner rolls
1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella (I just cut slices off a block)
1 cup marinara sauce
12 basil leaves
salt and pepper

1. Get all set up with flour in one bowl, then a bowl for bread crumbs and Parmesan, then one more for the egg, beaten.  Coat the zucchini in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs.
2. Heat some oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and cook zucchini 2-3 minutes on each side.
3. Preheat broiler.  Take the bottom half of your rolls and the top half of the rolls and place them on 2 separate baking sheets.  Top each half with some cheese and sauce.  Put zucchini rounds on the bottom bun.  Place a basil leaf on the top halves.  Place baking sheets under the broiler until cheese is melted.

 These. Were. So. Damn. Good.

Flatbread Crackers

I whipped up a triple batch of these crackers for Christmas gifts for my family this year. I know the idea of making your own crackers might seem a bit far-fetched, but these are really simple to put together.

I used sage for the herb-yness, feel free to use anything you might have on hand. 

 

Flatbread Crackers
From Pinch of Yum

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp herb of choice, I used sage
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 450. In a food processor mix flour, salt, sugar, pepper, herbs, and oil until combined. Pour in water and mix until a dough forms.
2. Remove from food processor and mush dough together to form a ball.  Divide into 4 equal pieces and let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Roll each piece out as thin as possible.  Bake for 4-5 minutes then turn and bake an additional 4-5 minutes. Turn off oven and let crackers hang out in the oven for 2 hours to get nice and crispy. Break into pieces and slather with some cheese and pour yourself a nice glass of wine.

These would be a great way to class up your Super Bowl party next weekend!  Everyone will be impressed you made crackers in your own kitchen.

Sliders

Hollllly shit these sliders guys! These are everything you ever dreamed you could eat a White Castle, but made right on your very home so you know it's actually beef.

Sliders
From Better Recipes

Ingredients
2 lb ground beef, 80/20 ratio
3/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
12 small dinner rolls
American cheese slices, if desired
assorted slider toppings of your choice: ketchup, pickles, etc

1. Preheat oven to 400.  Mix ground beef, onion, bread crumbs, and salt in a bowl. Press into a 13x9 inch pan. Use the tines of a fork to poke a bunch of holes in the meat.
2. Bake for 30 minutes.  Beef will pull away from the pan and there will be lots of fluid in the pan. Place cheese slices on beef, if using and cook a few more minutes until it melts.
3. Cut meat into squares the size of the buns you are using.  Use a slotted spatula to remove sliders from the pan and place on buns.
4. Eat way more than necessary.

*I halved the recipe in an 8x8 pan for 2 of us with some leftovers and it worked out nicely.

You need these. Either as your next dinner or your next game day snack.  However you decide to enjoy them, just don't wait!

Pizza Dogs

I'm sure you have all been drooling (or fighting the nausea) over Pizza Hut's hot dog crusted pizza.  I have been perplexed by it.  It just doesn't make sense to me because the hot dog and the pizza aren't coming together harmoniously.

Here I tried to bring pizza and hot dogs together in one perfectly harmonious bite.

Pizza Dogs

Ingredients
4 hot dogs, cut into 4ths
about an 8th of a block of mozzarella, cut into small rectangles
1 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1 can of crescent rolls
marinara sauce, for dipping

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Unroll crescent rolls and cut into 16 pieces, halving each triangle.
2. Mix oregano and garlic powder in a small bowl.
3. Place a piece of hot dog and a piece of mozzarella onto each small piece of dough. Wrap dough around cheese and dog, closing completely. Dip in oregano and garlic mixture.
4. Cook approximately 15 minutes, until dough is golden brown. Serve with marina sauce.

YES! Eat it Pizza Hut!

Homemade Vegetable Dip

You guys, you can tell Knorr's you don't need them any more.  I did it.  I cracked the vegetable dip code.  After spending endless hours (okay, minutes) searching the net for a copycat recipe, I decided I can do it all on my own!

And I did!

Your next bbq guests can thank me.

Ingredients

2 tbsp diced carrot

1 tbsp diced celery

2 tbsp diced onion

1 bouillon cube, chicken or vegetable

1/2 cup baby spinach, sliced in a chiffonade (thin ribbons)

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp cilantro, optional

black pepper, to taste

1 cup sour cream

1. Place carrot, celery, and onion in a small pan heated with oil.  Mash up the bouillon cube a bit and stir it in with the veggies.

2. When vegetables have softened, stir in spinach until wilted.  Allow mixture to cool.

3. In a bowl mix sour cream, cooled vegetables, cilantro, and pepper to taste. Serve with your favorite dippers.

You know in that vegetable soup packet there is always that rogue pea.  Well, no one has to eat that weird lonely pea any more!

I hope you delight in this small victory as much as I did.

Cheeseburger Goldfish Review

In the past few years Goldfish has been having a field day coming up with new flavors.  This cheeseburger flavor is the latest in their flavor making mania.

I was surprised and impressed with the ability to recreate burger and ketchup in Goldfish form.  When you eat a handful of them they end up tasting just like cheddar, but on their own there is no mistaking the smokey taste of a burger and the tomato-y ketchup flavors.

Should you serve these at your next bbq instead of grilling actual burgers? Probably not.  But they are a fun unique snack to serve up!

Pizza Monkey Bread

This beautiful creature graced the cover of Cook's Country Magazine a few months ago.  Since then it has been staring my down from the coffee table daring me to undertake the recipe.

As with most Cook's Country recipes, there are plenty of steps to follow.  There isn't anything particularly challenging about the steps, but this is definitely more involved than making a regular pizza.  That is meant to just be a heads up, not to frighten you.

Pizza Monkey Bread
From Cook's Country Magazine

Ingredients
2 balls of pizza dough
4 oz pepperoni, sliced
3 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp dried oregano
8 mozzarella sticks

1. Roll out each dough ball into a 10 by 6 inch rectangle onto a floured surface.  Let sit for 15 minutes.
2. Microwave pepperoni for a minute to render it's fat.  Remove pepperoni from its container.  Mix pepperoni juice with olive oil**.  Use  this mixture to grease your bundt pan. Combine Parmesan and oregano in a small bowl.
3.  Roll dough into larger rectangles (18x9 inches).  Starting 2 inches from the long end of the rectangle, line up half of your pepperoni slices. Lay 4 mozzarella sticks on top.  Sprinkle half of the Parmesan mixture alongside mozzarella.  Roll dough tightly, pinching ends to seal.  Repeat with other dough.
4.  Cut each log in half, pinch ends. Cut each half into thirds, pinching the ends.  Place a layer of dough balls into prepared pan.  Brush tops with oil.  Layer remaining balls, brushing with oil each time.  Let rise for 30 minutes.
5.  Cook in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes in pan, 10 minutes more on the serving platter.  Serve with your choice of tomato sauce.

**I am not a fan of pepperoni so I did not flavor my oil with it's rendered fat.  Instead I heated the olive oil with oregano and garlic and used that to brush my dough balls and pan with.  I did put some pepperoni into a few of my dough balls to please my hubby.

Nom-nom-nom!!

Check out that gooey cheesy inside! Yum!

Pizza monkey bread is the perfect dinner in front to the TV meal.  Make sure you have a nice bowl of marinara for dunking!

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

I just wanted to get in a Super Bowl snack before kickoff tonight.  This recipe takes cauliflower and transforms it into a game day snack.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
Adapted from The Lean Clean Eating Machine

Ingredients
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup water*
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 package frozen cauliflower florets, defrosted and patted dry
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup hot sauce
blue cheese dressing for serving

1. Preheat oven to 450. Grease a large sheet pan.
2. Mix flour, water, garlic, and salt in a bowl. Dip cauliflower into batter and place on prepared pan.
3. Cook 10 minutes then flip florets and cook 5 minutes more. Cauliflower should be browned.
4. Melt butter in a bowl or measuring cup.  Mix in hot sauce.  Dip cauliflower into sauce and return to the pan.  Cook for 10 minutes more.
5.  Serve with blue cheese dressing.

*Note: When I used this ratio the batter was very thick, I added a little more water until it reached my desired consistency. You might end up adding 1/4 more water.

I have made these twice already!  They just might be my new favorite appetizer.  So totally healthy too!

Cheesy Corn Dip

This corn dip is loaded up with cheese and bacon, and it looks damn good in my new chip and dip bowl too!

Cheesy Corn Dip
Adapted from Damn Delicious

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled into small pieces
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
8 oz cream cheese
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp chipotle pepper, minced
2 tbsp chives, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients, except for the chives, in a mixing bowl.  Place dip in an 8x8 pan and cook until bubbly, about 20 minutes.  Stir cooked dip, transfer to serving bowl, and garnish with chopped chives. Serve with chips.

You like that fresh chive garnish don't you? Totally in love with my herb garden.

Make this for your next party, it makes plenty for a crowd!

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Salsa

I was given a large bag of heirloom tomatoes from a camper's garden.  After multiple tomato salads, I wanted to do something different.  I also needed a way to eat a whole bunch of tomatoes at once, they weren't looking too good.

And so this salsa was born!

I kept the cherry tomatoes whole and cut the larger tomatoes into chunks to prepare them for roasting.  I also added an small onion.  The vegetables were seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil.

Above you can see the tray after the trip in the oven.  I put everything in the food processor along with some chipotle peppers and fresh cilantro.

Best. Salsa. Ever.

Seriously, I'm not a huge salsa fan, but this was really delicious.  Roasting the tomatoes before was definitely worth the effort.

Chicken Wings

This weekend I said farewell to a TV series that I have spent the past year watching: Cheers. Completing 11 seasons of a show definitely calls for some fanfare.  How to honor a show that takes place in a bar? Bar food of course!

Deep Fried Chicken Wings

Ingredients

2 lb chicken wings

3/4 cup flour

1 tbsp paprika

1 cup hot sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1. Heat deep fryer to 375*.  Pat chicken dry with paper towels.

2. Mix flour and paprika in a pie plate, coat chicken wings in mixture.

3. Heat hot sauce and garlic in a small sauce pan, keep warm while cooking chicken.

4. Cook chicken at 375 for 10 minutes.  Drain on paper towels, toss into hot sauce mixture and serve.

*You can surely cook this in a large heavy pot with lots of oil, but I don't know how much oil you would need to submerge the wings entirely.

I made a Gorgonzola dip to serve with the wings by mixing the cheese and sour cream. There will be extra hot sauce and you can serve that on the side also for some extra spice.

We also had various other bar food staples: french fries, beer nuts, and pretzels. Carrots and celery were also consumed to allow us to feel better about this being dinner.

These wings were perfection.  Cooking them quickly and eating them right after being sauced kept the coating crisp, not soggy.

In case you were wondering, the ending of Cheers really did bring a tear to my eye.  It's a great show, available on Netflix, and comes highly recommended by me.

Apple Cinnamon Granola

Most people probably gave their dads a steak today, or something wrapped in bacon.  I took a different route, homemade granola.  I even made the apple chips my self!  Also, my dad is a vegetarian so bacon-mania was out of the question.

Apple Cinnamon Granola

Ingredients
3 cups oats, not quick cooking
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
apple chips, recipe follows
1/4 cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat oven to 300. Mix oats, sugar, cinnamon, salt, honey, and oil in a large bowl.
2. Spread granola onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes.  Stir granola and cook for 5-10 minutes more, until granola is golden brown.
3. Mix in almonds and apple chips.  Let granola cool at room temperature.  Granola will harden as it cools.  Store in an air tight container.

Apple Chips

Ingredients
1 apple, thinly sliced
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 200.  Place apples on a greased cookie sheet in an even layer and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
2. Cook apples for 2 hours, until crisped.  Crumble to add to granola mix.

This granola is crazy delicious and I can't wait to whip up another batch for myself.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

French Onion Dip

I have a thing about Friday night snacks.  Sometimes I just get some exciting pre-made freezer item, like fried mac and cheese, other times I like to actually cook something up.

So here we are on a night I wanted to "cook" up a snack, but did not want to visit a supermarket on the way home.  That is why we have a super simple and quick dip this Friday.

Onions before, above, and after, below.

French Onion Dip

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 beef bullion cube
1 cup sour cream

1.  Heat oil in a small skillet.  Add onions, bullion cube, salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until onions have softened and browned.  Let cool.
2.  In a small bowl mix sour cream and cooled onion mixture.  Serve with chips, pretzels, and veggies.

People will be really impressed that you made your onion dip from scratch instead of using that Knorr packet stuff.  No one has to know how easy it was to make!

Parmesan Balsamic Chex Mix

Chex mix is a glorious thing.  There are about a zillion recipes online and all can be made in minutes.  Or if you're made of money you can buy a bag at the supermarket.  Seriously, why is Chex mix so costly?  The price per ounce versus any other chip product is outrageous.  Who can afford such luxuries these days?  Not me, so I made my own at home.

Parmesan Balsamic Chex Mix

Ingredients
4 cups Chex cereal, any flavor you desire
5 cups popcorn
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Italian seasoning, I just sprinkled in oregano, basil, and garlic
3 tbsp Parmesan cheese

1. Mix oil, vinegar, and seasonings in a small bowl or measuring cup.  Pour over Chex in a large bowl, gently mix to cover.  Add in popcorn and stir.
2. Microwave 2 minutes, stirring after each minute.  Sprinkle with cheese, microwave another minute.
3. Spread onto a large baking sheet, lined with wax paper to cool.  Store in an airtight container.

Sure it's missing those delicious pumpernickel chips that are so perfect in store bought Chex Mix, but this is whole new ballgame flavor-wise.  It also probably costs half the money for twice the mix.  Can't beat that!

Looking for a sweet Chex Mix?  Check out my red velvet Chex Mix.

Middletown Madness

Soooo a few weeks ago I attended a shindig with an obscene amount of food. Mind you, you may see the photos and think "oh please KTC, I have surely seen greater amounts of food than that."  But let it be known that this food was for 4 girls. 4. girls.

The spread consisted of: tortilla chips, guacamole, buffalo chicken dip, sweet potato fries, pigs in a blanket, salsa, spinach dip bread bowls, ranch dip, onion dip, potato chips, doritos, spinach artichoke dip, bread, and of course, brownies.

My response to all that food:

Another party goers response to all that food "I thought we there was going to be a boy here! How are we going to eat all this food??"

Ok now that we are over the fact that there was a shit ton of food let's get down to business.  My contribution, mini spinach dip bread bowls. These were so easy and really delicious.  I will totally make them for my Super Bowl bash.

I mixed the dip and put the french bread into mini muffin tins.

Here they are making a total mess in the pan

Look how freaking cute these little guys are!

Quick someone have a party I can bring hors devours to so I can make these again!

Happy Birthday Miss Alyss!

Granola bars? For a birthday? Come on KTC you can do better than that.  But! But! They have peanut butter, and toasted almonds, and chocolate chips! Annnd they are practical and who doesn't love practical?  That in a nutshell was my conversation with myself over what to make Miss Alyss for her birthday.

Giada lent me this recipe for peanut butter granola bars.  Yep, 2 Giada recipes in 1 weekend.  I am sorry to say I did not prepare either of her dishes with any sort of cleavage.  I think they still came out well though.

 

Check out the fantastic packaging : )

Happy birthday Alyssa! I hope the curse is officially broken for good!