Garlic Bread Christmas Tree Pull Apart

Anytime we have Italian food for dinner, Nate wants some sort of bread. I had some Rhode's rolls in the freezer so I used them to make this bread concoction last night.

Ingredients:
16 Rhode's rolls
2-3 Tbsp. butter, melted
garlic bread seasoning

Preparation:
Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Spray with a little bit of non-stick spray. Lay out the rolls in a Christmas tree shape. One for the trunk, then a row of 5, then a row of 4, then a row of 3, then a row of 2, and then one for the top. Don't place the rolls right next to each other, leave a little room between to allow for rising. Cover with some saran wrap that you've sprayed with a little non-stick spray so it doesn't stick to the top of the rolls. Let rise for 3-4 hours. Once risen, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic bread seasoning. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy warm!

Thanksgiving Turkey

This year for Thanksgiving Nate and I were in charge of cooking the turkey, stuffing, and pies. So I've cooked a turkey twice before and they've both been good, but this turkey was definitely my best. It was so moist and tender and had a golden brown skin too. Nate's dad even told me it was the most moist turkey breast he's ever had. This is the way I'm cooking my turkeys from now on. I loosely followed some ideas from Saveur and I want to write them down so I can refer to them again. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 (21 lb.) turkey, thawed and neck and giblets removed
3 Tbsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. poultry seasoning (I used McCormick's GrillMates chicken rub)
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper (I used Lawry's seasoned pepper)
2 tsp. A1 garlic and herb seasoning
Reynold's turkey roasting bags

Preparation:
Rinse and thoroughly dry turkey. Place turkey inside a roasting bag. Stir all seasonings together in a small bowl. Now rub the turkey with the seasoning mixture, on top of the skin. Be sure to use it all and get all parts of the turkey, including some inside the cavity. Seal up the oven bag and refrigerate the seasoned turkey for 24-36 hours (we did 36 hours). Essentially rub the turkey with seasoning Tuesday night and then cook it Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning. When you're ready to cook your turkey, remove it from the fridge and let it sit on the counter for an hour before baking. Rinse off all the seasoning from the turkey and dry thoroughly. Get another roasting bag, add 1 Tbsp. of flour and shake throughout the new bag. Now remove the turkey from the old bag an place it in the new floured bag. Seal up. Bake in a roasting pan at 350 degrees F for 3-3 1/12 hours. Mine was done right at the 3 hour mark. To check for doneness use a meat thermometer and check the deepest part of the thigh without touching bone for a temp of 180 degrees F, and the deepest part of the breast without touching bone for a temp of 170 degrees F. Cut the bag off the turkey and tent with tinfoil. Let the turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving. Serve hot with your favorite side dishes!

Creamy Crock Pot Hot Chocolate

I made this recipe as part of our Family Home Evening last night. It's become a tradition when we're with Nate's family at the holidays that Nate and I make a hot chocolate buffet. I branched out and tried this new recipe last night and it was a hit with everyone. Now I don't like hot chocolate but this made the kitchen smell divine while it cooked! We'll definitely be making this again. I saw the idea here. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
6 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups of chocolate chips (we used milk chocolate chips, they're Nate's favorite)

Preparation:
Combine all the ingredients in the crock pot and stir. Place the lid on and cook on low for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. You want it to cook until the mixture is nice and hot and all the chocolate chips are melted. Stir before serving and top with your favorite hot chocolate toppings!

Pumpkin Shaped Rolls

This is one idea from Pinterest that actually turned out! I've tried several recipes I've seen on Pinterest that have been a big let-down. This idea comes from Thistlewood Farms. They are so easy to make and would be great for Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Rhode's rolls
egg
green Sour Patch Kids or whole pecans cut into thirds for the stems

Preparation:
Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Place the rolls on the pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours. Uncover rolls and use a sharp knife to cut 7-8 sections into the rolls, leaving the middle intact. Now press a hole into the center of each roll to make room for your stems. Recover the rolls with plastic wrap and let rise for another 1-2 hours. After finished thawing/rising make sure there is still an indent for your stem and if needed, press again. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush egg wash over tops of rolls (I forgot to do this and they still turned out great). Bake rolls for 13-17 minutes or until golden brown. Insert stems into center indents of rolls. Serve.

Halloween Slush Punch

I saw this punch idea over at Six Sisters' Stuff and thought it would be a perfect Halloween punch. The citrus flavor is nice and refreshing and stirring the sherbet in the cups gives it a great slushy consistency. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 (12 oz.) can orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 (2 liter) bottle sprite zero, chilled
1 (46 oz.) can pineapple juice, chilled
1 quart orange sherbet

Preparation:
In a large punch bowl, combine orange juice concentrate, soda and pineapple juice. Top with scoops of sherbet and serve with spoons. Stir in sherbet to make it nice and slushy.

Bunny Buns

You know how I love a good festive recipe! These are no exception. I knew I had to make these in time for Easter. They come from the Rhodes webiste and they turned out great. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
12 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed but not risen (I used the Texas sized rolls)

Preparation:
Cut a small piece off of one roll for a tail. Roll remaining piece into a 12-inch rope with pointed ends. Twist top of rope together. Place on a large sprayed baking sheet and pull pointed ends apart for ears. Roll small cut off piece into a ball for the tail and add on top of the bottom loop. Repeat with remaining rolls. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap and allow to rise 30-45 minutes. Remove wrap and bake at 350°F 15-20 minutes or until a faint golden brown. We had them fresh out the oven, yum!

Brigadeiros - Brazilian Chocolate Balls

Nate ate these at Christmastime while living in Brazil. He tells me they make these brigadeiros all the time for holidays. To keep the festive spirit I decided it was high time I made them! Nate loved them. He already wants another batch made for New Year's Eve. I saw this recipe at Mmm...Cafe but I found this video to be really helpful for the technique of making these treats. Add these to your holiday dessert table.

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. heavy cream
2 (14 oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk
3 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
chocolate sprinkles (I had a 10 oz. container and used the majority of it)

Preparation:
Bring butter, cream, and milk to a boil in a 4-qt. saucepan over medium heat. It's important to use this size of pan. You want a nice large surface area of heat. If you use a smaller saucepan your mixture will take forever to get to the right consistency. Add chocolate and cocoa powder, and reduce heat to a low/medium-low; cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is the consistency of thick thick batter. This is where watching the video comes in handy. You want to be able to drag your spoon across the bottom of the pan and have the chocolate take a sec to fill in. You want to be able to get a scoop on your spatula, turn it upside down in the air and have it take a sec to fall of the spatula. This will take at least 15 minutes, perhaps longer. Be sure and stir constantly, taking care to scrape the sides and bottom of your sauce pan. Nate and I took turns stirring. Once it's at the right consistency, transfer to a bowl and let cool. Chill in the refrigerator until set. I let mine set in the bottom of a 9x13" glass dish for a bit over an hour. When you're ready to shape, take a little bit of butter and rub on the palm of your hands. Using a tablespoon, portion out fudge and roll into balls. Roll each ball in chocolate sprinkles until evenly coated. Chill until ready to serve.

This made about 50 brigadeiros.

Snowflake Rolls

This is such a fun and festive way to dress up regular old dinner rolls. Anything holiday makes me happy! I love being to make an everyday dinner just a bit more special. I saw the idea online today at Plain Chicken just in time to get my rolls defrosting for dinner. I was so glad! I got better at the snowflakes the more I made them, I think next time I make them they'll look a lot better. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
12 Rhodes frozen bread roll dough
4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp hot water
1/4 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Preparation:
Lightly spray a round 9" cake pan with cooking spray. Arrange 12 rolls in the pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size. Mine usually take 3.5-4 hours. Combine flour, butter, hot water and garlic powder. Transfer to piping bag fitted with #4 tip. I don't have a piping bag so I just used a sandwich sized ziploc bag and snipped the corner. Pipe snowflake design on top of each roll. One finished piping, put the rolls in the fridge while the oven heats to 350 degrees F. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the rolls are a nice golden brown and cooked through.

Next time I will pipe the snowflakes a little thinner so they turn out a bit better looking.

Acorn Donut Holes

I saw these online last year and I'm so glad I remembered to make them this year! Definitely just a fun little fall treat. Super easy and would probably be fun for kids.

Ingredients:
glazed donut holes
chocolate frosting
chocolate sprinkles
pretzel pieces

Preparation:
Warm the frosting so it's nice and smooth. Dip the top portion of the donut holes into the frosting and then into the sprinkles. Insert a little piece of broken pretzel into the top as a stem. Enjoy!

Halloween Stuffed Peppers

Happy Halloween! Here's an easy dinner idea to celebrate, Halloween stuffed bell peppers. I would have preferred to make these with orange bell peppers to be more fitting, but the green peppers looked best at the store. You could use this same idea but change up the filling. I've seen people fill them with spaghetti and then the jack o'lantern faces have noodles coming out of them. Enjoy, and have a fun and safe Halloween!

Ingredients:
1 box prepared Zatarain's dirty rice mix* (you'll need a pound of ground beef and some water to make it)
bell peppers (you'll need as many as you have people to serve)
shredded cheese, optional

Preparation:
While the dirty rice is cooking, prep your peppers. Slice of the tops and scoop out all the seed and membranes from the pepper. Carve a jack o'lantern face into side of the pepper with a paring knife. If you like your peppers nice and crunchy you don't need to boil them. If you like them more tender you're going to want to boil them for just 3-4 minutes. I don't stress about cooking the tops because we don't eat the tops. Fill your prepared peppers with some dirty rice mix. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of cooking add some shredded cheese to the tops and finish baking. Serve warm and enjoy your festive dinner!


*We love Zatarain's mixes in our house. Our two favorites are the dirty rice mix and the yellow rice mix. I always have them on hand. The dirty rice is such a great go-to meal when you have limited time or aren't really in the mood to cook.

Sloppy Joe Jack O'Lanterns

Halloween is so close! Nate is a big fan of Halloween and I love getting to decorate and make festive food. Last night's dinner was no exception. It's a simple idea that makes dinner much more fun, and they tasted great too! I saw the idea over at Plain Chicken but I changed up the filling for our preferences. These would also be fun with a taco meat filling or some simple pizza ingredients (sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni). Try this for a fun dinner before trick-or-treating!

Ingredients:
sloppy joe meat (I used this recipe and we used about 2/3 of it)
8 count tube of refrigerated biscuits, the layered kind (I used Pillsbury)
shredded cheddar cheese, optional

Preparation:
Separate each biscuit into two layers. Flatten each layer into a circle. Lay out half the circle onto a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Spoon sloppy joe filling in the center of the circles on the baking sheet. Also add some shredded cheese if you like. Use a sharp paring knife and cut out jack o'lantern faces on the remaining circles. Using the scraps from the face cut outs make stems for your pumpkins. Place a stem on each sloppy joe circle then top with a jack o'lantern face. Carefully pinch and seal up all the sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-16 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with a nice green salad and enjoy!

Nate's Favorite Holiday Treat - Dipped Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels

No holiday season would be complete without me making these pretzels for Nate. I've made them three times in the last two weeks. Nate wants them made for every party we go to, for neighbor gifts, I'm even making a batch tomorrow for Nate to take with him to work. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as Nate does!

Ingredients:
1 bag tiny twist pretzels
1 package vanilla flavored almond bark (or you could use white chocolate)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
5 Tbsp. butter

Preparation:
Chop all the almond bark into small pieces. Melt about a third of the bark over a double boiler, stirring frequently. Once melted and smooth dip 1/2 the pretzel into the bark and then set on a wax paper lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the pretzels are finished, adding more almond bark to double boiler as needed, and continue to stir frequently. I usually get about 5 trays worth of pretzels from one bag. While pretzels are drying combine cinnamon and sugar and mix well. Place one tray worth of dipped pretzels into a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Pour in 1 Tbsp. melted butter and then sprinkle 2 tsp. of cinnamon sugar mix over pretzels. Close up bag and shake to evenly coat pretzels. Once coated pour pretzels out onto some wax paper, spread out and let cool/dry. Repeat with remaining trays of pretzels. I let my pretzels sit for about an hour and then they can be packaged and put away.

I should mention that if you are short on time you can simply go straight to the cinnamon sugar and butter coating. Let those dry and then drizzle the melted bark over the coated pretzels. Much quicker, but I think the original method looks better.

Gingerbread Truffles

Nate's cute Aunt Kathleen had all the girls over last Friday for the annual chocolate dipping party. One of the treats I brought to dip was gingerbread truffles. I found the idea over at Sing For Your Supper, and I followed her instructions exactly.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup boiling water
1 package almond bark or white candy coating
1 8-oz. block cream cheese, at room temperature
nutmeg, for garnish (I didn't garnish mine)

Preparation:
Mix together the butter and sugar, then add the egg and molassess, mixing well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, spices, soda and salt, then add to wet mixture. Stir to combine, then add the boiling water and mix. Pour batter into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until springy. Let cool completely.
When cake is completely cooled, crumble into the bowl of a stand mixer (you could also use a hand mixer for this; even your hands!) and add in the cream cheese. Mix until the cake and cream cheese is totally combined. Roll out into walnut-sized balls and place on a sheet pan lined with wax paper. Chill for 1 hour.
Melt the almond bark in the microwave in 1 minute increments, stirring in between, until it is completely smooth. Dip the balls in one at a time (I use a toothpick for this) and coat with the almond bark. Set on a sheet of wax paper and sprinkle with nutmeg. Allow to harden completely. At this point you can serve immediately or freeze for later use.



Here are the links to the other two treats I made Oreo Truffles and Peanut Butter Balls.

Spaghetti and Meatball Eyes with Breadstick Bones

If you know my husband pretty well, you know he loves Halloween. I've seen several festive dishes around blog land and this is a fun and easy dinner. I saw this idea over at one of my favorite recipe blogs, Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Enjoy!

Spaghetti and Meatball Eyes
Simply use some sliced olives on top of your meatballs to make the eyeballs. I just used some frozen meatballs and this dinner was so easy!

Breadstick Bones
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups warm water
1 Tbsp. instant yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
3 ½ cups flour
½ tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. butter, melted (for the baking sheet)

Preparation:
Mix all ingredients (except melted butter) in a large bowl or electric mixer and knead for three minutes. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread melted butter onto an 11X17-inch baking sheet. Roll out the breadstick dough about 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick and cut into strips with a pizza cutter. Fold strips in half and tie knots at both ends and place on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with garlic salt, herbs of choice (I used my most favorite garlic bread seasoning) and parmesan cheese. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes. Bake 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees until golden brown.