You know that typical frozen pizza-thing snack?

Pizza rolls, pizza puffs, pizza something... I don't know. Anyway I've never been too intrigued by them, certainly not enough to buy them anyway. And then I get one of my foodie magazines and notice this Pepperoni Pizza Puffs recipe. Check out the ingredients and looks easy and simple enough. Why not? This could be a fun thing for Gavin to eat too! So I make them last night (with some minor adjustments of course!) and oh my goodness are they good!!! You know what the best part is though? I can make them ahead, freeze them, and reheat in the oven when I'm ready to eat. WAHOO!!! That's what I'm talking about. :D For the original recipe click here. Otherwise my slightly altered version is below:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup milk, whatever you keep on hand
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2-ish ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1/2 cup)
• 2-ish ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1/2 cup)
  
• 3-4 ounces turkey pepperoni, cut into small cubes (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 teaspoon pizza seasoning
  
• 1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil, optional
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced, optional
  

Frozen Assets
Freeze the baked puffs in a single layer on a baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag. To reheat, bake the frozen puffs on a baking sheet in a 350° oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the cheeses, pizza seasoning, and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through, then stir in 1 tablespoon basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the remaining 1 tablespoon basil. Serve the puffs and red pepper slices with the pizza sauce for dipping.

Oh, and another thin you could do? Play up the filling! Got a vegetarian coming to dinner? Make a batch with just red pepper or spinach in it instead of pepperoni. Just be careful you don't go overboard with it though. These are BITES so you really do need to have more flour than filling. ;) Try them! I don't think you'll be disappointed. :)

Easter Menu

So this was the year that Gavin was finally going to get it. His first Easter he wasn't even walking yet. And last year we attempted to "hide" eggs in plain sight but he just didn't understand what was going on. This year though..this was the year. Been really looking forward to it. :)

And with such a monumental occasion, you'd think I'd make the traditional Easter Dinner with the ham and all the trimmings. Yeah not so much. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I like ham. I appreciate ham. I love having ham leftovers to play around with. But I just didn't feel like making a ham. Does that make me a bad person?

I still wanted to do pork though. What's a good, easy pork recipe that doesn't involve any fruit but is simple and inexpensive to make? DING DING DING DING!!! Rosemary Pork Tenderloin. But don't be deceived by the name of the dish, there are a lot of big, bold flavors in this 5-Ingredient dish... Picture this, dijon mustard kicked up with tons of chopped fresh rosemary, gobs of cracked pepper, and garlic. Liberally bathe the pork in this heavenly concoction. But that's not all! After an hour (or three), lay these beauties on a bed of more fresh rosemary and then slather on the bacon. Yeah, I said bacon. (You've got a little drool there you might want to wipe up there. No, right there. Yup, there.) I'm telling you, this is a good one.

Now what am I supposed to make along with this? Potatoes work. But I'm tired of mashed potatoes. And I cannot bake a potato to save my life (seriously, I can't. They're never done when the recipes and timers tell me though should be done). What to do?? Hmmmm....how about Whipped Potato Casserole?

Ingredients

• 5 lbs all-purpose potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups half & half (or milk)
  
• 1 tub (8oz) whipped cream cheese with chives
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350. Coat 13x9x2 pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Place potatoes in a large pot with enough water to cover. Lightly salt and bring to a boil. Lower to simmering; cook for 15-20 minutes or until fork tender. Drain.
3. In a large bowl, mash potatoes with hand mixer. Add butter, half & half, cream cheese, garlic salt and nutmeg. With mixer, beat potatoes on medium-high speed until very smooth. Spoon into prepared dish.
4. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Sprinkle sliced almonds over casserole; bake additional 15 minutes, uncovered, until lightly browned.
5. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Yummy. That's all I'm going to say. Add some simple steamed green beans and Rosemary Bread, which I tossed together in the breadmaker right before church, and you have yourself and pretty dang tasty Easter Dinner. Even without the traditional ham. ;)

Pancakes + Gobs of Cinnamon = Oh, Glory

I get up this morning, I have my quiet time despite Gavin's brief call for me to open his door (no way Jose kiddo. This is MY time!).

It's Saturday morning, the weekend. I want to make pancakes but I'm bored with my recipes. Can't do Rob's fav, buttermilk, because I don't have the key ingredient. I could do whole wheat. They're really good but....meh. I'm bored.

Oh well. Whole wheat it is because nothing else sounds as good. I go onto my AllRecipes account to find the recipe and, right there on the home page, is this oh-so-intriguing recipe for Cinnamon Griddle Cakes. Cinnamon?? Oooo! I'm the girl who, in trying to make pancake mixes taste more homemade would add cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter. So a from-scratch recipe for pancakes where one of my favorite spices is the star ingredient?? OK!! :D

If you want to try the original recipe, click here. Recipe below has my subtle tweaks. ;)


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon (nope, that's not a typo. A whole tablespoon. Just go with it; trust me)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk, plus 1 tbsp
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp honey

Sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In another bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, butter, vanilla and honey. Stir in the flour mixture.
Heat greased griddle (about 350 if you're using electric griddle). Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to ladle batter onto griddle. And yeah, you know how to take it from here, right?

Oh. My. GOSH. Yeah, good. They smell like heaven and taste like glory. YUM!!! I saw a comment on AllRecipes about adding raisins to the batter. I'm thinking maybe some chopped up apple. Apple-Cinnamon pancakes?? *drooooooooooooool*

So as we're sitting around the table inhaling the cakes, I glance outside expecting to see the sun since yesterday was such a bright, shiny day. But alas, it's a typical Winter in Wisconsin day: gray and cold. But you know what? I don't care! These pancakes have not just filled my tummy but left me with all the warm/fuzzy feelings that a healthy dose of cinnamon can leave you with. *sigh* :)

You have got to try these. And if you're a sugar/sweetness junkie, try out the original recipe with the frosting. I have a feeling you won't be disappointed!

New furniture!!!

We finally got grown-up bedroom furniture!! Well, a new bed, headboard and night stands at least. The dressers will be replaced later. ;)

Under-bed storage drawers!! And they're HUUUUUGE!

Yes, there is hidden storage inside the headboard. Hey, when you don't have hardly any closets in your house, you start to explore all the different crazy options to put things. ;)

So, explain this to me...

..because I just don't get it. This Christmas Day terrorist had a syringe in his underwear, which was his explosive devise, correct? He didn't get up to go the bathroom to ignite it, I haven't heard that he got something out of his bag or used a book/magazine. He had it in his underwear, which would be on his person and not in a bag. Have I got all this right so far?

So can someone please explain how all these new, tighter security rules are going to help?? What bearing does no bathroom 1 hour before landing have on what happened Christmas Day? How does not giving me access to the snacks in my purse (a purse that was scanned by security) for my kid prevent future terrorist attacks? The only security response that I see people discussing that is truly in response to what actually happened is this body scan thing. Everything else is ridiculous stupidity that is probably making terrorists overseas wet themselves from laughing so hard.

And would I feel my privacy rights are violated by having a body scan? I don't know. But if my name (whether it's me or someone else who also has my name) is on a threat list somewhere I guess I'd expect to be scanned. Stop going after every single member of the public, even little kids, and take a harder look at the names already tagged as having terrorist ties! THOSE are the people who should go through every last security loop we have at our fingertips!

And let people go to the bathroom for crying out loud you idiot "security" people!!!

I heard this on the radio this afternoon and it never fails to make me tear up. As always, thank you thank you THANK YOU to the brave men and women who risk their lives every single day so that we can still have our Christmas traditions.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. :)

Early to bed, early to rise...

I find it fascinating that so many people are astounded by my rising time. I frequently get teased about the fact that I get up generally at or around 5:00. Why? Why is this so shocking? Am I really that weird (rhetorical question; don't answer it)? What's the difference with my getting up early versus someone else staying up late?

Let's really think about this for a minute. I think that what I do is just the opposite of someone else who stays up until 2:00. For the sake of argument, let's say that 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. are acceptable rising and going-to-bed times. Then I get up 3 hours before this time. Ok...crazy but not really that bigadeal, right? Now what about those who truly come alive when the sun goes down and can't think of sleeping before 2:00 or 3:00? These times are 4-5 hours past my argument's acceptable bedtime! Makes what I do then now quite so nutty? Maybe? Just a twinge? ;)

Let's also think about those people who sleep through morning alarms. They aren't morning people at all and simply aren't physically capable of getting up an earlier. But staying up well past midnight is not a challenge at all. Again, I do the opposite. When nighttime falls, I'm generally worthless I'm so tired. But morning, maybe I'm not too conversational first thing but I'm a helluva lot more productive in the morning.

Why is this so weird? Something to be surprised over or teased? I'm just opposite of a night person! Yet, I get teased and the person who likes to hit bar time for nights a week is pretty much normal. Oh it's not fair... :p