Pepperoni Calzones

Last night I made an "emergency meal" from Bisquick. It was a modified, easier version from Betty Crocker's Cheeseburger Calzones. Very easy and very little steps.....

Make dough out of Bisquick mix (stir 2 cups Bisquick mix and 1/2 cup boiling water with fork until dough forms). Divide dough into fourths. On surface sprinkled with Bisquick mix, roll dough pieces in Bisquick mix to coat. Press each piece into 6-inch round, 1/4 inch thick. Spread some spaghetti sauce on the rounds, shredded some cheddar cheese and yopped with pepperoni. Fold dough in half, covering filling. Press edges with tines of fork to seal. On ungreased cookie sheet, place calzones. Brush with beaten egg; sprinkle with sesame seed. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°.

It was so yummy and easy to make. Try it!

Tostones Rellenos Con Camarones

What a fun afternoon! I attempted to make tostones rellenos and what a success!

The original recipe is from http://cafedepuertorico.com/74.html and says:

Ingredients:

Stuffing:

1 Tbsp annatto oil

1 fresh plum tomato, chopped

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 1/2 Tbsp basic recaito

1/2 lb large shrimp, peeled, cleaned, and diced

3 green plantains

1 c corn oil

Directions:

1. Heat the annatto oil in a medium skillet. Add the remaining stuffing ingredients. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the shrimp turn pink. Set aside. Peel the plantains and cut them into 1/2 inch rounds. Prepare as for Traditional Tostones.

2. Place 1 tsp of the shrimp mixture on a tostone. Put another toston on top and secure with a toothpick.

My changes: I couldn't find annatto oil so I just used regular vegetable oil and I only used 1/2 Tbsp. I used one of my fresh tomatoes from my garden. For the shrimp, I bought a small round of cocktail shrimp so I used the cocktail sauce instead of tomato paste. I also only used 2 plantains so it made 19 tostones rellenos. I also threw all the ingredients together because I didn't read the recipe before I started instead of heating the oil before mixing everything else...yes mom, I did a you lol. Also, for my birthday Carlos bought me a tostones rellenos maker so I didn't do the toothpick thing.

I highly recommend you try this Marlene. They came out so yummy! :)

Bon Appetit

Fried Rice and Honey Chicken

Wednesday I was really in the mood for chinese food but I didn't feel like going out. I decided to see what was in my fridge and put stuff together.....it came out delicious!

While plain white rice was cooking in the rice cooker, I cooked chicken breasts with teriyaki sauce and some sazon completo because I'm Cuban. I then cut it up into bite size pieces and put them in a big pot. Next came the eggs. I scrambled 2 eggs with just some salt and put them with the chicken. To the chicken and eggs, I added 4 slices of chopped bacon, about 1 Tbsp minced garlic, 2 Tbsp butter, black pepper, oregano and sesame seeds. When the rice was done I added it to the pot and added soy sauce until it looked like fried rice.

To make the honey chicken, I just drizzled some honey over cut up chicken breasts and coated them in flour. I friend them in a little bit of oil and they were done in a few minutes.

The only problem was that I had some wine while I was cooking so I completely forgot to take pictures. The wine was soooo yummy so it was worth it and at least you all now have the recipe and can make it at home. :)

Bon Appetit!

Banana-Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

(Taken from http://www.bettycrocker.com/)

I now subscribe to the Betty Crocker e-newsletter and have been trying to make time to bake something yummy from their website later. Carlos is going to have boys night tonight so I decided to make dessert for them. I hope it's good because I will not be able to taste it before he leaves, but I am using them as my guinea pigs so I can take this dessert to a bake sale at my job next Tuesday.

Sorry guys, but please be honest.

Here are some pictures of me baking. It was a lot of fun and at least it smells good. :)

Cheeseburgers and Ice Cream

I'm back. Sorry I was gone for so long again....I was very sick and didn't have any energy to cook. I'm finally feeling better and couldn't help myself yesterday and just had to cook. It was very easy and didn't take much effort, but it's something. :)

My parents came over and I had some burgers that I wanted to use up, if not I would have made them from scratch, but they still tasted good. I did make a sauce for them and topped them with bacon. The sauce is from my Food & Wine 2010 cookbook. It was supposed to be a tarragon russian dressing but I didn't have tarragon so I used oregano instead. It is a mix of mayonnaise, ketchup, red wine vinegar, grated onion, parsley, tarragon (oregano), and worcestershire sauce. Very tastey.

I also got anxious waiting for my parents since Carlos hadn't gone home yet and I was bored so I made Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies from Bon Appetit, except I added double chocolate chips and omitted the peanuts because I didn't have. Here's the recipe... http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2009/07/chocolate_chip_and_peanut_blondies Wow were they good!

One more thing...I got the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer and Carlos made me cookies and cream ice cream! My very first homemade ice cream. I'm already looking for more recipes to make more ice cream!

I hope you enjoyed last night's dinner as much as I did!

Until next time...TTFN

Sandwiches and Crepes

Hello again. Sorry for the delay but I've been busy taking care of Carlos; he was sick and now I'm sick so no cooking for me this week. I did cook for my parents last Tuesday and it was better than I expected. Of course I forgot to take pictures again but I will make this again because it was such a success! I made a crescent cristo sandwich loaf, which was from my Pillsbury calendar (January), and crepes from Paula Deen. I will provide the recipe for the cristo since I didn't get it from a website.

Loaf:
2 cans (8 oz each) pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or 2 cans (8 oz each) pillsbury crescent recipe creations seamless dough sheet
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey
6 oz thinly sliced smoked cooked turkey breast
6 oz medium sliced muenster cheese
6 oz thinly sliced cooked ham
1/3 to 1/2 cup smucker's red raspberry preserves

Topping:
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon sesame seed

1. Heat oven to 375F. Separate or cut dough into 4 long rectangles. Place rectangles crosswise on 1 large or 2 small ungreased cookie sheets (rectangles should not touch); if using crescent dough, firmly press perforations to seal. In small bowl, mix butter and 2 tablespoons honey. Brush over dough.
2. Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown; cool 15 minutes.
3. Grease 15 x 10 x 1-inch pan. Carefully place 1 crust on pan. Top evenly with turkey. Place second crust over turkey; top with cheese and ham. Place third crust over ham; spread evenly with preserves. Top with fourth crust; brush top with 2 tablespoons honey. Sprinkle honey with sesame seed.
4. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown and loaf is hot. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 slices.

Trust me, it's a must try!

The crepes recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/crepes-recipe/index.html

You can put any topping on them but for mine I put chocolate ice cream, cool whip, powdered sugar, and mini chocolate chips. Delicious!

Since I won't be cooking this week I will take pictures of my garden and also let you know what's in my kitchen. :)

TTFN

So far this week...

As you may remember, my husband, Carlos, got all 4 of his wisdom teeth extracted last Saturday so I didn't cook food good enough for this blog all week. He is feeling better so I started cooking again Monday. I made penne pasta with meatballs and sausage in red sauce with parmesan cheese. The meatballs weren't anything fancy, just out of the bag from the freezer section in Publix. Everyone loved it though. It was enough for Carlos, me, my in-laws, and sister- and brother-in-law. My niece just ate the meatballs.

Tuesday I made cheese ravioli with red sauce and provolone cheese in the oven. The recipe also called for ground beef but I haven't done the groceries in a while so I didn't have. Either way it was delicious. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this one, but I'm sure I'll make it again since it was so easy.

Today, Wednesday, I won't be cooking. In fact we just ordered Dominos pizza, which I haven't had in a while and love. But I was in the mood to cook so I made lemon thyme bars. Carlos didn't like them because he's not too fond of thyme, but both my in-laws and my brother-in-law liked them (he likes everything I make). Sooooo simple to make. Here is the recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/lemon-thyme-bars-recipe/index.html It's from Giada from food network. I love her show!

I probably won't be cooking for the rest of the week because I won't be doing the groceries until this weekend; tomorrow is one of my best friend's birthday and I have school Friday and Saturday so I don't have time. But I already made my meal plan for the next two weeks and I promise I won't disappoint....very yummy recipes coming this way!

Until then,

Bon Appetit!