Cheddar Bacon Swirl Rolls

I haven't done a post in a reeeally long time! 

It feels good to be back...I have made SO many recipes in my time being gone, but I haven't taken the time to write down anything...and I have just been to busy  lazy to blog about any of it. My apologies. I have been eating good eats and haven't shared one bit of it.

I don't know how women that have full time jobs, take care of their house, kids, do all these catering events, cook amazing meals AND blog about it.....can do it! I'm just not like that...I wish I was....but I'm learning what I can and can't handle, and it's just not worth overwhelming myself and putting too much on my plate. I'd rather be able to relax and enjoy things more.

One of the things I have been enjoying lately are these rolls.

Warm out of the oven, the rolls are sooo soft, the cheese is so gooey, and the bacon is so bacony.

Also there is butter and garlic in there. Yes, these are easily some of the best rolls I've made or had.

Cheddar Bacon Swirl Rolls
Makes 12-14 rolls

My dinner roll recipe, halved
4 tbsp butter, room temp
1-2 tsp garlic powder
2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 lb. bacon

Make your dough like the recipe says to, except halve it...unless you want a toooon of rolls.
While dough is rising, heat your oven to 425.
Spread bacon on a cookie sheet in a single layer, and bake bacon for 12-15 minutes, until crispy.
Remove from pan with a spatula, and allow to drain on paper towls.
After dough has risen for one hour, roll it out on a lightly floured surface, into a rectangle.
With the long side paralell to you, spread the butter all over the surface and sprinkle with garlic powder.
Sprinkle cheese evenly over the butter. I like mine extra cheesy, so I would do 3 cups.
Crumble bacon evenly all over cheese.
Tightly roll up dough.
You should have a long, skinny roll of dough.
With a dough cutter, or a large, sharp knife, cut dough log into about 2 inch sections.
Place each cut section into a greased 9x13" pan, swirl side up.
Allow rolls to rise another hour, before baking for 18-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Fried Dough Balls

I have always been afraid of frying things for whatever reason... I think cause it just seemed scary working with hot oil and stuff. But now that I have done it a few times and have the hang of it I want to fry everything and can't stop thinking about different things to try frying.

These were an experiment yesterday that turned out quite fabulously! My uncle and husband were working at our house when I fed these to them, and they were both RAVING about them. I won't lie, they were pretty tasty.

And by pretty tasty, I mean amazing! And SO so easy!
They would be perfect for breakfast. Who doesn't love fried cinnamon sugar things for breakfast?

Cinnamon Roll Fried Dough Balls
Yield:12

1 cup AP flour
1/8 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 TBSP. butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
Oil- For frying

Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
Cut butter into chunks and keep cutting with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Add buttermilk and mix just until combined. You may need to add a bit more buttermilk- the dough should be pretty moist.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and need 5 times.
Press into a 1/2" disc with your hands...NOT a rolling pin.
Moisten surface of dough with water using your hands so the cinnamon and sugar will stick well.

Cinnamon sugar filling:
(these are approximate measurements cause I didn't actually measure)

1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Liberally sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture all over surface of the dough. I used all mine...Basically the more you use, the yummier these things will be!
Tightly roll up dough and slice into 1/2" slices.
With your hand, press down on each disc so it doesn't fall apart when you pick it up to dry it.

Heat oil to around 375.
Drop 3-4 dough balls/sices in at a time and fry until golden brown on each side.

Glaze:
2 Tbsp. melted butter
2 Cups powered sugar
3 Tbsp. milk (more may be needed)

While they're still warm, glaze with a generous amount of glaze and eat!

Chocolate Chip Butterfinger Bars with Peanut Butter Frosting

75% off  halloween candy, anyone?

Usually the week after halloween, the only candy left over that they mark down to 50 and 75% off is all the gross, cheap, fruit stuff. You know, like smarties...and other gross things. I can't think of any other ones they have. But they're not chocolatey so they're not good.

When you have bags and bags of candy in your cupboard, it's impossible to not go crazy with insane combinations of sugary-ness.

Lately I've been doing really well with not having dessert always in the house, and keeping stocked up on plenty of fruit and veggies instead. It's a love hate thing....I love sugar, but I feel SO much better not always eating it. It's amazing how much better you feel when you feed your body clean, whole food! 

That being said- I will never ever ever ever give up my sweets. Ever.

So this is for your inner fat kid.

Chocolate Chip Butterfinger Bars with Peanut Butter Frosting
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
about 16-18 fun sized butterfinger bars, roughly chopped
2 Cup chocolate chips


Pre-heat oven to 350.
In an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar.
Add in vanilla and eggs an mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Turn off mixer and all at once add flour, baking soda and salt.
Mix just until combined, and add in butterfingers and chocolate chips, mixing until everything is mixed together well.
Press into a 9x13" pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. NO LONGER!
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting
2 Sticks Butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
5-6 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter and PB til smooth, scrape sides of bowl and one cup at a time, add in powdered sugar.
Frost cooled bars.

Chocolate Ganache 
2 cups chocolate chips
1/4 Cup cream
In a small saucepan over low heat melt chocolate with cream just before it is smooth. Turn off heat and keep stirring until smooth.
Spread over frosting layer.

Sprinkle with additional chopped butterfinger bars, if desired.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Snickers Stuffed Brownies

Hurricanes tend to ruin a lot of plans...
Unfortunately, weather doesn't seem to care about our plans, and we have to roll with the punches. My heart really does go out to everyone who lost their homes and neighborhoods in the storm. I can't even begin to imagine the heartache that comes with losing your home. For a lot of people, the houses they lost were ones they had grown up in, or raised their families in.
I hope that's a loss I never have to experience.

I know houses are just material things, but there are so many memories built into a home. It's more than a building, but a refuge. That place you can't wait to get back to after a hard day, or a long vacation; that place that family gathers for holidays and football games and many great meals, and fun times are shared.

Remember to take time to pray for those families that are hurting.

On a lighter note, I am in a dilemma because of this storm.

Trick or treating was supposed to be this past monday. But, because of the storm, it was cancelled until November 4th.

NOVEMBER 4TH!!!!

Do you have any idea how much candy I have in my kitchen right now, waiting for cute little kids to snatch it up?!

Tons.

And now, I have to have it in my kitchen for another 4 days. And I have to try to not eat it.

Obviously, resisting completely is......well, impossible.
So I've been sneaking a few here and there.

And tomorrow is the day after Halloween  so everything will be 50% off......I''ll just replenish then.

But I made brownies with some of the snickers that have been taunting me and they were some of the best brownies me and my husband EVER had!!!!!

Peanut Butter Snickers Stuffed Brownies
Pre-heat oven to 350

-1 Box of your favorite brownie mix, or THIS recipe doubled, which is what I used!
-1 cup smooth peanut butter
-27-30 mini snickers bars
-1 cup milk chocolate chips

Line and an 8x8" baking dish with wax paper or tinfoil, and lightly grease.
Prepare your brownie batter.
Spread half of the batter into prepared dish.

Place unwrapped (duh) snickers close together onto first layer of brownie batter.

In a microwave safe bowl, heat up peanut butter at 30 second intervals, stirring well until smooth and liquid.

Pour peanut butter evenly, all over snickers.

Carefully pour and spread the other half of your brownie batter over snickers and peanut butter layer.

Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Immedeately spread chocolate chips all over the top and let melt for a couple minutes before
spreading around melted chocolate smooth all over the top.

Allow to completely cool before removing tin foil or paper from pan and cutting into squares!
Enjoy these babies!

Toasted Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ugh, I know. Chocolate chip cookies. How much more boring can we get?!?!

I feel ya.

In my world, people that make chocolate chip cookies and brownies are missing out on the joy of all the amazingness of the millions of amazing wonderful, delicious, creative cookies and and bars that there are to experience in life.

Buuuut, sometimes, you don't feel like being creative or crazy.

And a classic cookie makes you happy.

Today, that's what I was feeling- except when you throw in the toasted pecans it really takes these cookies to the next level! We had some friends over today that were absolutely raving about these! 

And I kill myself to come up with crazy concotions................why???

These  cookies are soft, chewy and loaded to the max with chocolate and chunks- everything a cookie ought to be. Trust me.

Toasted Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups toasted pecans, chopped
• 3 cups chocolate chunks/chips
• 2 1/2 cups AP flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

In an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugars for one minute on high.

Add in vanilla and eggs, mixing well.

Add in flour, baking soda and salt all at once, mixing just until combined. 

Mix in pecans and chocolate chips/chunk, just until combined.

Form small golf ball sized cookie dough balls with your hands and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes.

Let cool for 2 minutes then remove from cookie sheet to a wire cooling rack.

EAT.

Antipasto Bake

I made this last week for dinner....Now remember, it's just me and my husband and our 14 month old daughter...

This stuff didn't even last 24 hours.

We LOVED it! 

I've been doing this new rating system thing, where I ask my husband what he thinks of our meals on a scale of 1-10. This way I know if I should waste my time making the dish again or just throw it in the trash....I don't usually have a thick enough skin for these types of things, but I figured I would give it a try anyways.

This antipasto stuff was a 9.

Meaning it was pretty great..............I HIGHLY suggest you make this for your man. If I have learned nothing else since I have been cooking for my husband, it's that men love simple food. With a lot of meat. And cheese. They don't care how it's made- so long as it's hearty and flavory.

Antipasto Bake
adapted from tidy-mom

2 cans crescent dinner rolls
1/4 lb. thinly sliced ham
1/4-1/2 lb. provolone cheese
1/4 lb. swiss cheese
1/4 thin sliced salami
1/4 lb. pepperoni
3 eggs
4 tbsp. parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. black pepper

• Pre-heat oven to 350.
• Layer 1 can crescent rolls in a greased 9x13" pan. 
• Layer the meats and cheese on the dough.
• Beat the eggs, parmesan cheese and pepper, and evenly pour 3/4 of the mixture over the meat and cheese.
• Place the second layer of dough over everything, and with your hand spread the remaining egg and cheese mixture over the the crescent dough.
• Cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 25 minutes.
• Remove foil, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until dough is puffy, risen, and golden brown!

Enjoy! You will love this and your husband will love it even more! :)

Mini Pecan Pie Chocolate Chip Muffins

WARNING: Don't be deceived by this super boring looking picture!!!!

These are anything but! Like pecan pie? You will swoon for these!

I saw these last week on Tasty Kitchen, and loved their simplicity. But of course I had to add chocolate....just a little. Chocolate + pecans = <3

6 ingredients.

One bowl.

A mini muffin pan.

That is all! You won't even believe how amazing these are and how they taste just like a mini pecan pie!!!

Also, I have this thing against corn syrup, and you can't pay me enough to touch the stuff.
These have none of it!

Amen!

Eat them warm out of the oven, please, and thank me later.

Mini Pecan Pie Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from cindydlynn atTasty Kitchen
Yield: 32 mini muffins

Pre-heat oven to 350.

1 Cup chopped pecans
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 -1 cup chocolate chips

Mix together pecans, brown sugar and flour.
In an electric mixer, beat eggs with melted butter on high for 1 minute.
Pour n pecan/sugar/flour mixture.
Mix until combined, and add in chocolate chips.
Grease your muffin tin very well.
Fill each muffin mold 2/3.
Bake for 15 minutes.

Allow to sit in pan for 5 minutes before gently removing with a butter knife.
Eat!

Soft Pumpkin Pudding Cookies

I can't even tell you all how excited I am about these cookies.
Finding a pumpkin cookie recipe that is soft and chewy, not cakey, is basically impossible.

Until now!!!

This morning I had a baking spree (rainy days call for these sorts of things), and the idea hit me like a big DUH. Why don't I make a pudding cookie, and use the 14 boxes of pumpkin pudding in my cupboard for the pumpkin flavor?! Makes sense, right?!?!

Oh my gosh you guys....

Today, I win at life...Or at least cookie making.

Soft Pumpkin Pudding Cookies
1 Cup butter, softened
1 Cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 packages (3.4 oz) pumpkin spice instant pudding mix
4 cups AP flour
4 tsp. baking powder
4 tsp. pumpkin pie pice
2 tsp. cinnamon

1 Cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 350.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, oil and both sugars together on high for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.
Add in eggs, vanilla and pudding, and beat for another minute.
Add in the flour, baking powder and spices and mix until combined.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon.
Scoop heaping tablespoon sized balls of dough and roll in your hands.
Cover completetly in cinnamon sugar mixture.
Place on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Bake for 10 minutes.

Lett cool for 2 minutes before removing to a plate.
Enjoy!

Better than you-know-what-cake

There are a lot of versions of this cake all over the place. And I have been wanting chocolate cake for awhile....and this just takes chocolate cake to the next level. I mean, chocolate that is drenched in SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK and CARAMEL SAUCE?! ah, yum.

My husband loved this cake. Last night he kept going to the fridge and used almost all of our forks in the drawer cause he couldn't get enough of it, and kept telling himself he would just have one more bite...

So, I'm not sure if it's better than *ahem*....but it's pretty dang amazing - and easy...

Better Than You-Know-What-Cake

• Your favorite chocolate cake recipe or mix
• 1, 7 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 recipe for homemade caramel sauce 
• 1, 16 oz container Cool Whip
• 4 Large Twix candy bars, chopped (heath or butterfinger are awesome, too!)
• 1 Cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 Cup mini chocolate chips melted with 1 TBSP. butter (for drizzling)

Bake your cake.

As soon as it comes out of the oven, poke holes all over with a fork. The more holes the better!

Pour the sweetened condensed milk aaall over the cake.

Immediately pour the caramel sauce over that.

Allow cake to completely cool, for at least 2 hours. This will torture you.

Spread cool whip evenly over the top.

Sprinkle chopped candy bars and chocolate chips evenly over the cool whip.

Drizzle melted chocolate all over cake...and eat!

It's even better the next day! I hope you enjoy this like we did!

Gingersnap Pumpkin Truffles

I have been working on getting this post up for about 5 days now.




My inspiration is gone, I have nothing that I want to write about. Actually, that's a lie- I have a lot to write about, but if I wrote about the men dragging dirt in and out of my house doing construction, and how my yard looks like a dug up dump pit, I would just sound really whiny and negative, and I realize you come here to see and read about food. Not to hear me complain.

On a happy note though, the whole pool house renovation thing we're doing will be done in 1 month, and my good friend Sarah and her husband (who is also my cousin) will be moving and it's going to be the most fun thing in the land to have them living in our backyard! Yay! Personally, I'm excited to have them back there as sort of a security system. Cause we all know when people break in to houses they go to the back of the house where no one will see them. But if they try that move here, chances are sarah and Drew (her husband) will see them...so those robbers don't really stand a chance. Also our new backyard dwellers  have cats. And cats are scary...


I made these truffles last week and they were a huge hit, they taste like fall, and they have pumpkin hershey kisses coating them. Which in my opinion, there is almost nothing better then pumpkin hershey kisses.

So........here's the recipe.

P.S: this makes a toooon of truffles, so feel free to cut the recipe in half, I won't be offended.

Gingersnap Pumpkin Truffles
For the dough:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark molasses
2 cups flour
1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
Milk (enough to make a dough consistency)

1 Bag Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses, unwrapped
2 Tbsp. shortening

In an electric mixer, whip together the butter and sugar, until smooth, light and fluffy.
Stir in molasses and mix well.
All at once, add in flour and all 4 spices.
Mix til it comes together, and add milk as needed to form a soft dough that is roll-able.
Roll into 1 inch balls, and place on a wax paper lined plate or cookie sheet.
Freeze for 10 minutes. This will help make the coating set faster.

Meanwhile, place all your unwrapped kisses in a microwave safe bowl, along with shortening.
Heat for 30 seconds.
Stir well.
Do another 30 seconds and stir very well until smooth. You should only have to heat it up twice. Maaaaybe 3 times if your microwave is weak, but be careful. Overheating the kisses is a crime, here.

With a fork, dip each dough ball in the pumpkin deliciousness, completely coat, and remove with the fork allowing excess to drip off. Place back on wax paper.

If you want, you can double dunk the truffles so you have a thicker pumpkin coating, which is what I did.

Keep in refrigerator!

YUM. ENJOY!