Pretzel Salad

After a week of work for both my husband and I, the family is at home together enjoying each other. We have the additional pleasure of having my 5 year old nephew over this weekend. He is a cutie. We have plans to make cupcakes and to see The Lorax in 3-D.

Last night I made Pretzel Salad. This isn't a salad, really, it's a fantastic dessert that uses crushed pretzels as it's crust. There are a plethora of recipes for pretzel salad out there, but I have really had fun with my first two posts, so here is how I made mine.

List of ingredients:
2.5 cups crushed pretzel sticks
3/4 cup butter
12 oz Cool Whip
12 oz cream cheese (sorry I only have 8 oz showing in the picture)
1.5 cups white sugar
1 large package Jell-O of your choice
2 cups water
10 oz berries of your choice

I chose to use raspberries and raspberry Jell-O because my husband just LOVES them, but this can be made with strawberries, blueberries, or really any berry you prefer. There are three layers to our pretzel salad: crust, filling, and topping. All are delectable and complement each other.

You will need a 9X13 pan, an oven preheated to 400 for the crust, and room in the refrigerator for your dessert.

First, make the crust by using about half the bag of pretzels and crushing them. I used a meat hammer to gently break the pretzels in a Pyrex bowl. You don't want all the pretzels crushed to smithereens, try to get your pretzels about 60% crushed well and 40% remaining in small chunks.

Melt the butter and put it in a 9X13 pan.

Pat your pretzels into the butter to make the crust. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Allow the crust to cool.

Now to move onto the filling. Simply mix the Cool Whip, cream cheese and sugar until creamy.

Drop the filling on top of the cooled crust and smooth over, reaching every edge.

Place in refrigerator while you make the topping. Bring to cups of water to a boil and add Jell-O. Put Jell-O in bowl and refrigerate until syrupy. It should still be liquid, but just beginning to stick to the side of your bowl.

Add the berries. If you are using frozen berries, be careful, as the temperature of the berries will set your Jell-O quickly. Spread the Jell-O/berry mixture on top of the filling. Refrigerate until Jell-O sets and serve.

Tasty and simple, just the way I like my food! I hear this is a nice dish for a potluck or picnic type event.

I must be going now to get presentable enough to take the children to the movies. The cupcakes are cooling and we will be frosting them later. I also have a new recipe I am trying in the crock pot. If it turns out well, I will be posting about it later.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Leap Day! It's been a typical Wyoming February. Dreary and dull.

My fabulous husband decided to liven things up with barbequed steak, which we all enjoy quite a lot.  Typically during a barbequed meal, my husband prepares the main entree and I am responsible for the side dishes. Usually I make baked potatoes, and when I'm feeling fancy, twice baked potatoes (woo! Fancy!). I decided on something different this time, and the result is below. These potatoes were a snap to prepare and were a nice change from our usual baked taters.

List of ingredients:
4 potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. You will need about 15 minutes of prep time and 35-40 minutes of baking time.

Combine the parmesan cheese, paprika, and garlic powder into a bowl and set aside. You may also put a bit of salt and pepper into the mix if you like.

Next, scrub those potatoes. After your potato skins are nice and clean, cut the potatoes into wedges and place into a large mixing bowl. Place olive oil over potatoes and toss to coat potatoes in oil.

Now, take your parmesan cheese mixture and use it to coat the potatoes. Toss until covered. If you didn't put salt and pepper in with your parmesan cheese, you will want to do it at this point.

Arrange the potatoes on the baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, turn potatoes over and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until potatoes are soft when poked with a fork, and are a scrumptious golden color.

You will have to imagine a better photo of the finished potatoes. My apologies!! Your potatoes are done! I served mine with my husband's fantastic steak, my oh so easy to make garlic bread, and green beans.

The lighting needs to be improved on these last two pictures. Again, my most sincere apologies, I am new at this and seeing what can be done better every time. This was my daughter's plate. Thankfully I snapped the picture before she slathered ketchup all over her plate to dunk her steak in. Trust me, the steak was plenty delectable without the use of any condiments.

My husband approved heartily of the new side dish. The children both gave these potatoes two thumbs up, which means I will definitely make them again.

The next time I make these potatoes, I may add a dash or two of cayenne pepper to see if they are better with a little zing.

Thanks for stopping by! If you try the potatoes, I hope you like them as much as we did!

Crescent Roll Chicken Casserole

I made a new dish for dinner tonight. Putting it together was fun and I think it was a good recipe to try out on this, my first cooking blog. I don't claim to be any sort of wonderful chef, but I like trying out new recipes and sharing things with others.

If you are looking for a one dish casserole, this is not your pick. It uses a few pots and pans, but deliciousness sometimes calls for that.

Anyway, here we go!

List of ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cooked

2 tubes crescent rolls

4 oz cream cheese (soft)

4 Tbs butter (soft but not melted)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

10.75 oz can cream of chicken soup

2.5 cups cheddar or swiss cheese

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/2 Tbsp seasoned salt

Salt

Pepper

This dish takes about 30 minutes of prep time and 30 minutes to bake. It tasted comfortable, like something you might want to eat on a dreary day.

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare a 13x9 baking dish with oil or cooking spray. I chose to grease and flour my baking dish. Just make it so your delicous dinner won't stick to the pan! This recipe seemed to have 3 parts: 1) Filling, 2) Sauce, and 3) Crescent rolls with filling and sauce. First, I worked on the part that made up the filling. The recipe I used only said "cooked" chicken. I chose to sautee mine after sprinkling on some salt and pepper.

Sauteed chicken

I then chopped the chicken into pieces to add into the yummy filling.

The next step was to combine the softened cream cheese and butter. Blend these together, then add the garlic powder.

Next, add the chicken, seasoned salt, and 1/2 cup of cheese. Stir in.

The picture above is double what you will have. I ended up using too much chicken, so I doubled the cream cheese, butter, garlic and seasoned salt. I put the rest in a plastic container and froze it. When I make this again, I can skip the filling portion of the recipe, which is the most time consuming.

Onto the sauce portion!

In a medium sauce pan, combine the cream of chicken soup, 1/2 cup whipping cream, and 3/4 cup of cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat just until cheese is melted, then remove from heat. Do not boil. This should be a nice creamy consistency.

Spread a thin layer of sauce into your baking dish.

That is all of the sauce portion. Super easy.

Now take your crescent rolls out of the package and unroll. Scoop out about a tablespoon or two of filling and place onto a crescent roll piece.





Place another crescent roll piece on top of the first and press edges together as best you can.

Then, roll up your crescent roll. It will be big and look awkward, but it is full of tastiness! Place your crescent rolls with the seam edge down  in your baking dish.

As you can see, I forgot the instructions with a couple of rolls and had to turn them around.

Nearly finished!  Scoop the sauce evenly onto the crescent rolls and add the remaining cheese to the top. You can use as little or as much cheese as you choose.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

As the dish baked, I made a box of alfredo pasta and some asparagus for side dishes. After time was up, I found this enticing pan of food waiting for me in the oven.

I set it on the table with my side dishes, removed my cherry patterned apron, and called the family to dinner. My husband and two children were pleased with a new dinner choice. The children ate one crescent roll apiece and my husband and I ate one and a half. We have three whole rolls for leftovers. They all voted that I should make this again sometime.

For a better presentation, you could sprinkle paprika on top of the finished dish. This was pointed out by my dear husband, who has an eye for such things, but too late for my picture.

Thanks for reading, and if you try this, enjoy!