I do many things, but when I'm doing what I love – it is cooking! Welcome to my happy place filled with all things delicious!
One of the kiddos wanted waffles for breakfast Sunday – so, waffles is what she got.
To make the waffles, we use the same batter as when we make pancakes – take a look at the post for my banana pancakes. For these waffles, just leave the bananas and cinnamon.
Then, just add in the amount of chocolate chips and walnuts you want (or any variation thereof) and you’re good to go. Cook the waffles in your waffle iron, per the instructions and serve with butter and syrup, if desired.
I mentioned a few posts back that I like to keep puff pastry on hand. The kind I buy has two sheets in the package. I used one sheet to make these cinnamon rolls. The other sheet was used to make something delicious and savory!
I started by letting the pastry thaw out, until I could easily unfold it and roll it out a little bit. Once the pastry was ready, I decided on what I would use in my rolls – prosciutto, Swiss gruyere cheese and gouda cheese. I found these three ingredients at my local Aldi’s.
I started by layering on the prosciutto until the puff pastry was covered side to side, almost touching the edges.
I then sprinkled on the cheeses. I didn’t measure, but I would guess that I used between 1/4 – 1/3 cup of each cheese, give or take.
I then rolled the pastry up into somewhat of a log and then cut into 8 rolls. I then placed them on parchment paper, on a baking sheet.
They were baked in a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes (until they were golden brown).
The flakiness of the pastry, coupled with the savory cheeses and prosciutto were a great combination.
These would make great appetizers for your holiday gathering (or even just a snack). They would also be great for brunch! They reheated nicely, as well.
What’s not to love about cinnamon rolls?? We love them in our house – and we don’t mind popping open a store bought can of them, they are delicious. But, I decided that I wanted to make some myself. Now, I didn’t want to roll out dough – at least not this time – so I decided to use store bought puff pastry. So, I guess they are ‘semi-homemade’ – but, so delicious!!
Puff pastry is something that I’ve started keeping on hand – there is just so much that you can do with it. I started by letting the puff pastry thaw, until I could open it up (it comes folded in thirds) and roll it out just a bit.
Then I just sprinkled on brown sugar, cinnamon and a little bit of white sugar. I just eyeballed it and added as much as ‘looked right’ to me.
Then I rolled the pastry up, being sure to not let any of the sugar and cinnamon fall out, into kind of a log.
One sheet of pastry dough easily makes 8 cinnamon rolls. To ensure that I got the rolls the same size, I started by cutting the log in half, then cut the 2 halves into half again. Eight perfectly sized cinnamon rolls!
I put the rolls onto a baking pan (on parchment paper, for easier clean up).
I baked the rolls in the oven, at 400 degrees, for about 15 – 20 minutes (until the rolls are golden brown).
Cinnamon rolls aren’t complete without a glaze! While the rolls were baking, I made a simple glaze using confectioners sugar and heavy cream. Yum!
After the rolls were done, I slathered on the delicious glaze!
They are best served warm, right out of the oven, but even reheated (or even cold) – they are still good.
I’m thinking that these cinnamon rolls may be our Christmas morning breakfast!!
I’ve talked about the Alouette Smokey Jalapeno cheese before – I used it when I made shrimp and grits, using it. This stuff is good!
I was looking for something quick, and kind of snacky (Is that a word? If it isn’t, it should be!), for lunch. I decided to use some of the wontons I had on hand and I had just picked up some of the Alouette Smokey Jalapeno cheese – it seemed like a match made in heaven.
I was just making these for me, for lunch – but, they would make a perfect appetizer, if you wanted to make a bunch of them. I decided to make 6 wontons (but accidentally took 7 out of the pack – 7 it is!).
I put about a tsp of the cheese in each wonton.
I wasn’t quite sure how to close them up – the first one, I just folded over into a triangle, but wasn’t quite sold on it. Then I decided to pinch the corners together, kind of like crab rangoon appetizers that I’ve had at Chinese restaurants. To close them up, just put a little bit of water where I was punching the wontons together.
I could have fried them – but, I decided to do them in the oven. In order to make them a little crispy, I did spray them with avocado spray.
I baked them in a 400 degree oven, for 15 minutes, on parchment paper. They were perfectly crispy!
Even the bottom of them were browned, since my avocado spray went on a little heavier than intended and I made sure to rub the wontons on the overspray – getting avocado oil on the bottom.
This was super easy – and now I want to do it with different Alouette cheeses!!
Refrigerated pie dough is so useful – chicken pot pies (my family loves them – you can check out my recipe here), regular pies and even small hand pies. It seems like I always have some in my refrigerator.
This is the pie crust that I used. Honestly, I really prefer the Great Value (Wal-Mart brand) pie crust, but this one was expiring before the Great Value one I had – so I used this one. You need to let it sit out a while, so that it is easier to work with.
Once the dough was a little less cold, I was able to unroll it and it was ready to use. I just used a cup to cut circles of dough (they were about 3 inch rounds). Using a pastry roller, I rolled them out a little bit.
I decided to make a fruit pie (using the Peach Jam that I’ve used before – you can see where I used it to make a Peach and Apple Tart, here). In addition to that, I decided to do a peanut butter and chocolate one (one of my daughters doesn’t care for fruit pies).
For the peach, I used maybe 1 tsp of the jam. And, for the peanut butter and chocolate – I just used a little (maybe 1 tsp, as well) creamy peanut butter and a few chocolate chips.
I just folded over the dough and crimped them edges with a fork. I sprayed a little bit of avocado oil over the top of each pie.
I baked them in a 450 degree oven, for about 15 minutes. For the second batch, I reduced it to 10 minutes as I think that 15 minutes was a little too long and they pie crust got a little too crisp for my tastes.
After they came out of the oven, I just sifted some powdered sugar over them. An easy little dessert or snack!
Michelle Can Cook! 