Pretzel Bites

Okay these pretzels from The Slow Roasted Italian are the BOMB! They were unbelievably easy to make but have the quality of "mall pretzel bites.......but BETTER!" (as said by my kids) They don't feel or taste like you just cut up some dough and put them in the oven. They are amazing! My only regret is that I only made one batch. It was enough for our family of 4 ( and a half if you count the little guy who hate maybe 3 and then focused on his chips), but we all were kind of sad that they were gone so I would have loved to have some leftovers! Oh, the best part? You don't need to wait for the dough to rise.

I read a few recipes for pretzel bites and read through comments. I saw a lot of people complaining of their second or third batches coming out with a really bitter taste to them. Everyone seemed to conclude that it must have been because they put their pretzel bites into the baking soda bath, baked them in the oven, and then put the next round of pretzel bites into the baking soda bath (rather than having all of the bites in the baking soda bath without long waiting times between more being added into the bath).

So, in my directions I have you getting all of your pretzel bites in and out of the baking soda bath before you bake any of the them. They all turned out great, so who knows if waiting to put in other batches later on causes a bitter taste.

What you will need:

• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 C warm milk (110*-120*)
• 2 T honey or sugar
• 3 1/4 C flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 C baking soda
• 8 quart pot of water
• 1 egg, beaten with 2 tsp. cold water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450*
• Warm your milk up and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer
• Sprinkle the yeast into the milk
• Add the sugar to feed the yeast
• Let the yeast get nice and foamy, about ten minutes
• Once the yeast is ready, add in the salt and mix together with the paddle attachment
• Add in the flour, one cup at a time. You want the dough to be tacky but not sticky. (I ended up with 3 cups and 3 tablespoons)
• Once your dough is ready, replace the paddle attachment with a dough hook and knead for about 3 minutes
• While that's kneading, spray your counter top lightly with some non stick spray. Using flour will make the dough too difficult to work with
• Turn your dough out onto the counter and divide (I just used a pizza cutter) into quarters. 
• Start boiling your 8 quart pot of water
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with non stick spray, set aside.
• Beat one egg with 2 tsp cold water, set aside
• Grab one of the dough quarters and divide that piece into 4 more pieces
• Roll out each of those 4 pieces gently until you can cut at least 4 pretzel bite size pieces from it
• Continue on with the rest of the dough, you should end up with at least 64 pretzel bites
• Carefully add the baking soda into the boiling water
• Dump a bunch of the pretzel bites into the boiling water and let it sit for about 20 seconds
• Remove with a spatula or slotted spoon of some kind and place onto the baking sheet
• Do this with all of the pretzel bites until they have all been in the baking soda bath 
• Brush pretzel bites with egg wash and add kosher salt
• Bake for about 15 minutes (mine were done after 10)

Mini Pizza Pops

So these were originally Mini Deep Dish Pizza's using muffin tins, but I didn't love the idea of my kids biting into a cup of pizza sauce. So we made them like this and called them pizza pops cause they could just pop'em in their mouth.

Their texture is perfect! They crisp up nicely on the bottom and kind of curl up a tad around the edges. Needless to say my kids went crazy for them! Using just 1 tortilla, I got 12 mini's out of it so each of my girls got to make 6. It was the perfect after school snack. It actually filled them up enough and I didn't hear any requests for snacks before dinner! That's pretty darn huge ;).

What you will need: 

• Tortilla's
• Pizza sauce
• Mozzerella cheese
• Mini pepperoni's
• Any other pizza toppings you like

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425*
• Cut circles out of a tortilla, whatever size you like, though the mini's are pretty darn cute
• Add your pizza sauce, cheese and toppings
• Lay mini's down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet
• Bake for about 10 minutes 

Olive Garden Bread Sticks Copycat

My family is no stranger to the Olive Garden. My husband worked there off and on for 8 years, including working as the culinary assistant. So he gave me a few pointers on these bread sticks, but part of it just wasn't going to happen (drenching them in "well it's not really butter....I think it's worse than margarine. It melts at room temperature so they just paint it on until it's completely saturated"), and some wasn't possible (being shipped to my doorstep so I can just pop them in the oven).

I feel like the flavor of these were super spot on and extremely delicious. They were all eaten in a few minutes! The texture was mostly there, but I think I kneaded my dough too long by accident so they weren't as soft! I also didn't portion out  or "roll" the dough at all. I chose a much easier way, which turned out to work perfect! So I'll write the recipe the way it originally is from Cooking Classy , but I'll include my notes at the bottom, too :).

PS- most of my pictures for the next few months will be sad to look at. I don't have any special lighting so once it's dark so early, I'm working with dark natural light and bright awkward artificial light. So it is what it is!

What you will need:

• 1 C + 2 T warm water
• 1 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 T sugar, divided
• 3-3 1/4 C flour*
• 1 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3 T vegetable oil
• salt*
• 2 T butter
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder*

Directions:

•  Using the whisk attachment (or just a whisk yourself), whisk together the warm water and yeast with 1/2 tsp sugar until the years is dissolved
• Let that sit for a good 10 minutes until it's nice and frothy
• Add in the reamining sugar (1 T+ 2 1/2 tsp)
• Add in the salt
• Add in the vegetable oil and, using the paddle attachment, blend until just combined
• Add in 1 1/2 C of the flour and blend until just combined
• Switch to the dough hook and add the last 1 1/2 C of flour while the dough hook kneads the dough until the dough is pulling away from the sides, smooth and elastic (still slightly sticky), adding in up to another 1/4 c of flour if needed*
• Place ball of dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap to raise in a warm setting for about 1 1/2 hours
• Pinch down risen dough
• Divide dough into 12 equal pieces (2 oz. each by weight)*
• Roll each piece into a 9" rope*
• Place each rope onto a buttered baking sheet
• Cover and let them raise again for another hour
• Preheat oven to 425*
• Bake for 11-13 minutes*
• Run the end of a stick of butter over the top of the bread sticks straight out of the oven
• Sprinkle on the salt and garlic powder

My notes-
*It says you can add up to 1/4 C more of flour, but I found that after the initial 3 C it was plenty
*I would reccomend not using regular table salt. Something a big bigger or more crunchy is nice. I just used some Kosher salt with a tad bigger
*I didn't measure out the salt or the garlic powder, I just sprinkled them on until it looked right
*Instead of portioning everything out, I rolled out the dough into a large square. Using a pizza cutter, I trimmed off the edges so I had a nice straight sided square. After that I cut strips into the dough with the pizza cutter horizontally, and then one slice down the middle vertically, so I had strips of dough.
I put them on the baking sheet and kind of sculpted the ends just a little so they were a bit more "round" but it's not necessary. They'll still come out round once they've baked!
*Since my bread sticks were a little shorter, they were done after 8 minutes and I turned the broiler on the for the last few seconds to get the golden brown look

Cheddar Jalapeno Bread (3 Ingredients)

This stuff is crazy and addicting. My brother and sister in law made it years and years and years ago. My husband and I got a random craving for it the other day but no real memory of how to make it. We're pretty sure we got it right?! Because it was delicious.

My husband swears its perfect match is dipping it in bleu cheese dressing. I swear its Ranch. Either way, there's a match made in heaven here for all of you! It's so easy. Practically fool Proof!

What you will need:

• 1 loaf Rhodes Frozen bread dough, thawed
• 1 can diced jalapeno's & some of the juice
• Grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 375* once the dough is thawed
• Roll out the dough. I'm not really sure what shape we ended up with before we started piling things on
• Dump the cheddar cheese on the dough
• Sprinkle the diced jalapeno's all over the dough
• Drizzle some of the jalapeno juice over everything
• Then just use your hands and roll it all together until everything is mixed in and you have some kind of ball type shape of a loaf
• Sprinkle the bottom of a baking dish with some more grated cheese
• Place the dough ball on top of the cheese
• Bake for about 20 minutes
• Let it sit for 10 minutes or so before slicing in
• DIP IN RANCH! OR BLEU CHEESE! OR BOTH! But only if you don't want to stop eating it

Garlic Bread (Garlic Butter)

A while back I wanted garlic bread but didn't want to go to the store to get some of that pre-made stuff you stick in the oven to warm up. But rubbing some raw garlic all over a piece of toast didn't sound great either (yeah, that's literally what I heard one time....on the FOOD NETWORK. WHAT?). I told myself to just suck it up and figure something out.

I took a pretty simple approach to the whole thing but really wanted the flavors to stand out. What I came up with is extremely fool proof and I have been using it on EVERYTHING. Including the Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks. I used it for my Baked Salmon and added in some other seasonings with some lemon juice. It's just so nice to have this recipe on hand!

What you will need:

• 1/2 tsp. butter
• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• Any seasonings you'd like. A safe bet would be some thyme or rosemary

Directions:

• Grate the garlic into the 1/2 tsp of butter while it's warming up in a pan
• When the butter is melted and the garlic has swam around for a tiny minute, pour (and scrape every last bit of the butter/garlic along with it) into a small bowl with the softened 1/2 stick of butter
• Mix in any seasonings you like
• Spread over bread slices
• Bake at 375 for about 10-15 minutes

Chicken Strips

Have you ever been to Texas Roadhouse and wondered how they get their chicken strips to be all bumpy (or anywhere with bumpy chicken strips for that matter)? Cause I have. I love them! I've finally found a way using my trusty Pioneer Woman!

What you will need:

• Chicken tenderloins (I think I made around 20 and the flour/buttermilk called for was still plenty for that amount)
• Buttermilk ( 1 1/2 C to soak the tenders and another 1/2 C or so for later)
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 2 T spices of your choice (original calls for 2-3 tsp Lawry's Seasoning Salt. We're a little freaky about flavor so we dumped in Lawry's, a Butt Rub and some Creole)
• Enough oil to fill about an inch in a large cast Iron skillet or fryer of your choice

Directions:

• In a large bowl, soak the tenders in 1 1/2 C buttermilk for 20-25 minutes. It breaks down the chicken and makes 'em all nice and tendery
• Meanwhile, in a 9x13" baking dish, dump 1 1/2 C flour and slowly drizzle in 1/2 C of buttermilk all around the flour while you do whisking motions with a fork. It will make some of the flour clumpy. You want it to be so that there's an even amount of dry flour and clumpy flour throughout the baking dish (IMPORTANT: You really want to use the 9x13" baking dish for this. I tried to use a bowl and it was much much harder!)
• When the chicken tenders have soaked, start heating up your oil (you want it to around 375*)
• Plop a few chicken tenders into the flour mixture and coat them. They will have clumps on them. You want this!
• Place the chicken to the side like on a baking sheet or somewhere for them to sit while you're frying them up
• Place a few at a time into the oil to fry each side (about 1 1/2 minutes per side)
• Done!

Hawaiian Ham & Swiss Sliders

My brother and sister in law made these once and they were so good I couldn't get them off my mind. Then they made them again during Christmas time and I was reminded that I must make them. I'm not sure the exact recipe they used, but I found this similar one!

I browned mine a little extra because I like things that way. Sometimes I actually think the words, "it tastes almost burned...it's so delicious." And that's what I did her. I kept looking at them thinking they could go just a little bit longer when in reality you can totally take them out when the recipe says to :).

One thing I would recommend, is you can go ahead and make these ahead of time and keep them in the fridge until you're ready to bake them! I had these planned for dinner on a pretty busy day, so I put them together before I left and only had to wait 10 minutes for them to bake when we all got home.

Also, be careful when you're opening your poppy seeds. Let's just say I'll be finding poppy seeds all over my kitchen for weeks.

What you will need:

• 24 slices deli honey ham
• 6 slices swiss cheese
• 1 T poppy seeds
• 1 1/2 T dijon mustard
• 1/2 C butter melted
• 1 T onion powder
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Mayo
• 2 pkgs. KINGS HAWAIIAN Original Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls (yeah I just used rolls from the bakery and they were delicious)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix poppy seeds, dijon mustard, butter, onion powder and Worcestershire sauce in small bowl, set aside
• Slice rolls open and spread mayo on one side
• Add ham and swiss cheese
• Place the sandwiches into a baking dish so they are all close together
• Pour sauce over the tops of the rolls and cover with foil
• Let sit for 10 minutes
• Bake in the oven for another 10 minutes
• Remove the foil and bake another 2 minutes so the tops browned and crisp

Veggie Dip & Superbowl Food

For a girl that grew up with the Superbowl landing on my birthday or on the day I was wanting to celebrate my birthday, I'm surprisingly not very bitter towards the whole thing ;).

My first memory of a superbowl was when I was about 7. My Mom took my brother and I to Albertsons and let us get whatever treats we wanted. The vision I have stuck in my memory is of my brother and I dumping out all our treats onto his bed with the superbowl on the TV in his room. So of course I associate the superbowl with delicious things now.

I haven't shared this recipe before, and it's usually because it's all eaten before I can take a picture of it. But it is the PERFECT recipe to have ready to go for any get together, especially the super bowl! It is the best veggie dip I have ever had. Ever...ever ever ever. It's not thin and runny, or lumpy and goopy. It's the perfect texture (and believe me, I am a complete psychopath about texture).

I will mention that this is hard for me to actually make. The smell of cream cheese literally makes me gag. Once it's all made though it's absolutely delicious and I couldn't care less about cream cheese being in it.

Keep scrolling, cause I'm sharing a list of foods I'll be making for game day at the bottom!

What you will need:

• 1 1/4 C sour cream
• 1 C cream cheese, softened
• 5 T Ranch dressing mix (or more to taste)

Directions:

• Using a kitchen-aid or hand mixer, combine the sour cream and cream cheese until blended well and is formed into a nice creamy but firm texture
• Add in the ranch little by little and taste as you go. I prefer a more extreme ranch flavor whereas my husband could do without quite as much :).

This year I've invited some family&friends to my house for the superbowl. So I get to make whatever the heck I want! So, aside from all the chips, desserts, veggies/dip and soda, here's what's on the menu-

1. Football Cheese Dip
I mean...it's called football cheese dip. And the best cheese dip I've ever had. WIN!

2. Meatballs
Been making these for years. It's straight from my grandma's cookbook. You'll love it!

3. Crack Bread
Go ahead and get creative with this one. Throw on whatever the heck you like!

And of course you can't forget DINNER....

4. My BBQ Root Beer Pulled Pork sandwiches
I still claim that this is the best bbq root beer recipe.

5. Fresh Basil and Pepperoni Tortellini Salad
Honestly this will be eaten throughout the game because I can't keep it away once I've made it. It is soooo goooood. 

6. Corn on the Cob
Who can even have bbq sandwiches without corn on the cob?

Football Cheese Dip

Ever have one of those days where you commit to taking dinner over to a friend and then the next day you get super sick? Yyyyeah I basically just pawned off all my responsibilities to someone else to take dinner over so as not to spread germs. I hate spreading germs. Don't believe me? Click this.

Luckily I have a wonderful man that I was able to dictate and make him do all the chopping and assembling so my friend wouldn't have to do too much aside from dumping things into a crock pot before she took it over.

I told you that for a reason. Once in a great while, I will decide to do a dinner that is basically Football Food Night. Dips, wings, chips, salsa, meatballs...yeah. And since today the thought of trying to put together a real meal was starting to legit look like this...

(Image Source)

...It was going to be one of those days. Football Food? That looks more like this...

(Image source)

I whipped up one of my very very favorite cheese dips that I tried at a football party a few years ago (what the what? Have I lived here that long for reals?....That really was a few years ago) that my amazing talented friend Christine made. Totally swiped this recipe right off her recipe blog. I've made it numerous times since then so I figured I ought to share it with everyone I know! It's amazing!

Oh, and don't forget to check out my meatball sauce recipe! It is the best I've ever had, straight up from my Grandma's cookbook, so you should probably get on that.

Okay I swear I'm not doing drugs, but does that cheese dip bowl look like it's floating to anyone? I guess I could say the same for the plate of chips in the back. They're both floating. Just picture me saying the words, "those are floating, man..." in my really tired, sick voice in a bit of a daze from medicine. You're never going to forget this cheese dip now, are you?!

What you will need:

• 1 package Mexican Velveeta Cheese
• 1 jar of your favorite salsa (I use Picante brand)
• 1 can Cream of mushroom soup
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 lb. ground sausage

Directions:

• Brown ground sausage
• Slowly warm up the cheese being careful not to burn
• Add in salsa, soup, onion and mix well
• Add in sausage last and combine all together
• Either serve immediately or transfer to a crock pot and keep it warm until it's time to serve

Chicken Milanese

I'm in a bit of a hurry but before getting to the recipe I really just want to shove the fact that this is so freaking good in your face. It is so good I can't explain it. Maybe it's because it's paired up with the Peperoncini Cream Cheese Spread. I don't know what it is exactly, but it's the best. Try it TONIGHT. Please do, you won't be disappointed at all. This is a made up recipe so if it isn't how you normally do your chicken milanese, get over it and just eat the stuff. It's awesome.

I prefer to cube up the chicken and put it on top of toasted french bread and the spread and eat it open faced. But, you could turn it into a sandwich, or not even bother cubing it and turn it into a sandwich if you wanted. I was thinking this might even be an excellent appetizer if you used those small baguette slices and toasted them with the spread and the chicken on top. I would not socialize at any party where this was an appetizer. I'd be in the corner eating the entire time.

What you will need:

• 3 chicken breasts, fat trimmed
• Oil
• 1- 1/2 C panko bread crumbs
• 1 T Creole seasoning
• 3 eggs, lightly beat

Directions:

• Heat about 1/2" of oil in a large skillet to 375 degrees
• Pound the chicken down to about 1/2"
• Season both sides of each chicken breast with creole seasoning
• Dredge the chicken breast in the eggs
• Coat the chicken breast in the panko bread crumbs
• Fry the chicken about 7-8 minutes on each side until chicken has reached above 165 degrees
• Put in the oven at 375 degrees for about 5-10 minutes*

*This step is optional, but it tends to give the breading on the chicken an added "crunch."

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hummus

Being someone that had never tried hummus in her life, I guess I thought my first time trying it should be homemade...and not a recipe that was the "standard" hummus recipe. I feel like it was a smart move though! I watched Guy Fierri make it, but he didn't give any measurements and it wasn't on the website so I kind of went with whatever I thought he did. I'm getting more comfortable with trusting myself in the kitchen with new recipes! Playing around with a recipe for a food I'd never had before? Just go with it :).

One other quick note is that almost all recipe's call for canned chickpeas. Alton Brown said to soak them in the crock pot for 5-6 hours with baking soda an some other stuff to ensure a creamy hummus. I went ahead and got both canned and dried. I used canned for this recipe (pressed for time) and will try soaking dried next time!

What you will need-

*Again, these measurements are mostly my own. I'm not totally sure how much Guy used but guessed based on what things looked like.*

• 1-2 cans chickpeas, drained and dried
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/2 C minced red onion (not sure if he put this in there, but I think I saw it sitting in this food processor before he added the chickpeas so I threw some in!)
• 1 jalapeno, sliced
• 2 adobo chili's in adobo sauce (Just happened to have a couple cans of these on hand. I think he used two? He may have only used one, I used two)
• 1 1/2 tsp. Paprika
• 1 Roasted bell pepper, sliced*

Directions:

• Using a blender or food processor (I finally have a good food processor YAY!), blend chickpeas, garlic, onion and jalapeno.
• Add in the adobo chili's and paprika and blend
• Add in some olive oil if needed
• Add in the red pepper and blend, adding in olive oil until you reach your desired consistency
• Garnish with olive oil and paprika (I think..)

* You can buy jarred roasted red bell peppers. I've used jarred for my Roasted Red Pepper and Basil Sauce. This time I roasted my own. This is the roasting method I use-

• set your oven to Broil
• Place the red pepper in an 8x8 baking dish 
• Roast for about 10 minutes. Once the side facing up is blackening and bubbly rotate it to the next side. 
• After all sides are roasted, place the pepper in a brown bag to let the pepper "sweat" and cool for handling (about 10 minutes)
• Peel the blackened skin off of the pepper and cut in half to de-seed

Sun Dried Tomato Dip

What you will need:

• 2 (8 oz. packages) cream cheese, softened
• 2 C mayonnaise
• 1/4 C finely chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jar (7oz.) oil packed sun dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
• 2/3 C roasted sweet red peppers, chopped
• 2 C shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese
• 2 C shredded Italian Cheese blend
• 1 C shredded Parmesan cheese, divided

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
• Grease a 13x9 baking dish
• In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, onion, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, red peppers, Mozzarella cheese, Italian cheese and 3/4 C of the Parmesan cheese
• Pour mixture into 13x9 and spread evenly
• Bake uncovered for 22 minutes or until edges are bubbly and lightly browned

I lightly toasted some baguette bread slices to spread the dip onto. You can use different bread slices or crackers.

Crack Bread

My sister in law made this for me once and I got a little obsessed. I've tried it a few different ways and you can too, but these are the basics of how I like it.

You will need:

• 1/4 C. melted butter
• 1 T ranch dressing mix
• 1 round sourdough bread loaf (I buy mine at Albertsons and I've used different kinds of bread but the sourdough tastes better for some reason even though I don't like sourdough bread in general)
• 1 C. grated cheese
• 1 T bacon bits (I put these on half of mine)

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
• Line a baking dish with tin foil and place your sourdough bread ontop of it
• Using a bread knife, slice your bread into a "grid," starting by cutting vertically first, then horizontally across the vertical lines-

• Using your hands, try and spread apart the newly formed bread squares to separate it a little and set the bread in/on your baking dish
• In a small bowl with the melted butter, mix in the ranch dressing mix
• Pour the mixture inside the bread first, then use the rest to coat the top of the bread and add bacon bits if desired-

• Bake the bread at 350 degrees for 15 minutes
• Grate your cheese while the bread is baking
• Pull out the bread and put the grated cheese in the crevases and a layer of cheese ontop. I added a little mozerella cheese I had leftover from this recipe as well.
• Place the bread back into the oven for an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted how you prefer

**I've been wanting to try this with Garlic oil and various seasonings rather than butter and ranch mix but haven't tried yet! I love recipe's that you can build on wherever your imagination takes you!**

Meatball Sauce

How the heck does anyone even get an appetizing picture of meatballs? It didn't help that I took this after about 10 of the meatballs were already eaten. But you get the idea, right? You'll looove this meatball sauce. Promise!

Typically, I don't make my own meatballs, but I will add a simple recipe you can use to make some easy ones you can elaborate on.

Meatballs
What you will need:

• 2 lbs. beef
• 1 c. seasoned breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• Salt and Pepper

Sauce
What you will need:

• 1 C. Kraft Original BBQ Sauce
• 1/2 C. Grape Jelly
• 1/2 C. Dijon Mustard
• 2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce (use Kikkoman brand if you're nervsou about gluten. They are "technically" gluten free but have come out with a gluten free version)
• 1/2 C. Heinz Chili Sauce

Meatballs
Directions:

• Shape into balls
• Roll in the palm of your hand
• Cook in Olive Oil until browned
• Mix with Meatball sauce

OR

Directions:

• Use one bag frozen meatballs
• Put meatballs into crockpot while you make your sauce

Meatball Sauce
Directions:

• Mix BBQ Sauce, Dijon Mustard, Soy Sauce, Chili Sauce and Grape Jelly into bowl
• Pour over meatballs in crockpot
• Let cook for about 2 hours