Festive Cranberry Spread

The Misson:
To create a different but fantastic appetizer to take to my Mother-in-Law's house for Thanksgiving lunch. I knew that other people were bringing desserts, so I figured I'd make something different. I'm a huge fan of cranberries, and they're so pretty and festive during the holidays, so when I ran across the recipe for a spread, it sounded like the perfect option.

The Ingredients:

• 1 package - 8 oz - cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp orange zest
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
• Crackers for serving - I used Townhouse
  

The Instructions:
In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, orange juice, sugar, orange zest, and cinnamon until fluffy. Stir in the cranberries and pecans. Refrigerate overnight (the flavors will have time to blend together nicely that way). Garnish as desired. As you can see, I left a few pecans and cranberries un-chopped so I could use them for garnishing as well as leaving a small handful unmixed in order to sprinkle them on top. The orange curls added a nice touch, too.

The Results:
It turned out prettier than I thought it would. And though I had some serious problems zesting the orange, I was lucky enough to have two tangerines on hand, so I tried them instead and met with success. They made for pretty curls as well.

The Reviews:
As always, my husband refused to try it because he hates cream cheese. If possible, I sample my food before I serve it, just to make sure that it didn't turn out to be a complete disaster. This was so good that I almost didn't take it with us. I could've eaten the whole bowl myself. I received some very nice complements on it from the other guests as well.

Raspberry Baked Brie

The Misson:

Make Raspberry Baked Brie as found in one of my older cookbooks. I never made it at Easter, so I already had all of the ingredients. It looked tasty and seemed elegant, so I figured it would be perfect for my sister's Bridal Shower.

The Ingredients:

• 1 can (8 oz) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 1 round (8 oz) Brie cheese
• 1 Tbsp seedless raspberry jam
• 1/4 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 egg, beaten
• assorted crackers or slices of French Baguette
  

The Instructions:

Unroll the crescent rolls and separate into two 6" squares. Place one square on a cookie sheet and press on the seams to seal. Place the round of brie in the center of the square and top with the jam and the fresh raspberries. On each corner of the remaining square of dough, use a small cookie cutter to cut out a shape and set aside the shape. Take the dough square and place it ontop of the brie round, folding the corners of the dough under. Fold the bottom layer of dough up around the top layer and pinch to seal. Brush with the beaten egg. Place the cut out shapes on the top and brush them with the egg. Bake the brie in a 350*F oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet and place on serving plate. Cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm with water crackers or sliced french baguette.

The Result:

The brie turned out a bit browner on top than I would've liked. I also think that my cookie cutter was too big. If I use this in the future, I'll go buy a teeny tiny cookie cutter (perhaps in the shape of a flower or a heart). I honestly wasn't really thrilled with baking the brie in the crescent roll dough. I'm going to add a "brie bowl" to my Christmas list this year, so I can just bake it with the rasperries by itself and skip the bread part.

The Reviews:

Everyone said that it tasted good and that it looked very pretty. So it wasn't a complete failure, but only half of the brie was eaten. I left it with Mom to finish off.

Sausage Balls

The Mission:

Add one more item to the Bridal Shower menu... something a little more hearty and "male friendly" since my Dad and Husband would be scarfing leftovers later. So I started flipping through recipe books, taking suggestions, and checking around online and found these. I figured they fit the bill quite nicely for being a heartier appetizer. And they looked fun and easy to make.

The Ingredients:

• 1 (12 oz) package of extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 lb pork sausage (mild or spicy - your choice)
• 2 cups Bisquick baking mix
• 1-2 dashes of hot sauce
  

The Instructions:

Let the sausage come to room temperature before making. I've been told that this step is very, very important and that the balls will turn out dry if you mix them with cold sausage. I have not tested this theory, since I didn't want to have a dry appetizer. Maybe sometime I will try just to see what the difference is. Anyway - mix together the room temperature sausage, the grated cheese, the bisquick, and the hot sauce. I've found that it's easiest to just mix it by hand in a large mixing bowl. Shape bits of the sausage into tablespoon sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 375*F oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until balls are hot and golden brown. Serve warm.

The Results:

I thought that they turned out fantastic. The recipe made about 60 sausage balls for me, and I found that it was a perfect amount. Since I was cooking them at my parent's house I wasn't using my own things, so I will make the following changes when I make them at home: first I will use a bigger mixing bowl to mix up the ingredients. It was difficult to do in a smaller bowl. I will also line the cookie sheets with foil so there will be no clean up. I love to cook and bake and entertain, but sometimes the amount of cleanup gets overwhelming!

The Reviews:

The ladies who attended the shower thought that they were fantastic. Dad really liked them, and my husband ate all of the leftovers. Then he went to the store to buy more ingredients so I can make more this week. So apparently these were a big hit! He wants me to make them for our next big cook-out as well. I'm very pleased with this recipe!

Heather's Deviled Eggs

The Mission:

Learn how to make my sister's recipe for deviled eggs. She has never written it down, and I'm not very good with making things up. Heck - I'd never even made hard boiled eggs before, so this was going to be a big first for me! Because things got crazy over the weekend, I ended up not really helping her, but just listened to her instructions while she made them. All of the ingredients are approximate. She usually makes it to taste and appearance, so feel free to adjust everything to your own personal taste!

The Ingredients:

• 12 hard boiled eggs
• 6 Tbsp mayo
• 9 tsp dijon mustard
• 6 tsp worchestire sauce
• paprika for sprinkling

The Instructions:

First you need to hard boil all of the eggs. I handled this completely on my own. I pricked the top of the raw eggs and set them in a medium saucepan. I then poured enough water in the pan to completely cover the eggs. I brought that to a full, rolling boil for 10 minutes. I then placed the eggs in a separate bowl and doused them with cold water so they would be cold and ready for Heather when she got to my house. The first thing she did was peel the shell off each egg, then slice each egg in half (lenthwise) and scooped the yolk out into a medium mixing bowl. She then added in the mayo, mustard and worchestire sauce to the yolks by sight, giving me approximate measurements so I could write them down for future use. She mixed all the ingredients together until smooth, filled the hollow eggs, sprinkled with paprika, and served! It seemed very easy.

The Results:

They looked good. They tasted good. People ate them. I'd say that they turned out really well. Of course, I can't take any credit for them at all. I just boiled the eggs. That was it. I'm excited to try them on my own sometime, though.

The Reviews:

Other than my family, people said they were good but "different." Apparently my sister's recipe for deviled eggs isn't the standard or typical. Who knew! I wasn't serving them to people who were huge fans of deviled eggs anyway, so the reviews weren't rave, but I thought they tasted yummy :) Thanks, Heather!!

Muenster Bread

The Mission: Make "Muenster Bread" as found in an old Taste of Home's Blue-Ribbon Recipes booklet by my best friend Mark. I decided to add this to the Easter Dinner menu in order to get as many reviews as possible (and feed it to Mark who will be attending).

The Ingredients:

• 2 packages (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk (110* to 115*F)
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 1/4 to 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 4 cups (1 lb) shredded Muenster cheese
• 1 egg white, beaten

The Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in milk. add butter, sugar, salt, and 2 cups of the flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a sof dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. In a large bowl, beat egg and yolk; stir in cheese. Punch dough down; roll into a 16" circle. Place in a greased 9" round cake pan, letting the dough drape over the edges. Spoon the cheese mixture into center of the dough. Gather dough up over filling in 1 1/2" pleats. Gently squeeze pleats together at top and twist to make a top knot. Allow to rise 10-15 minutes. Brush loaf with egg white. Bake in a preheated, 375*F oven for 45-50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

The Result:

Well, the bread got a little brown on the top instead of staying a nice golden color, but I'll go ahead and blame that on my cheap oven. haha. I didn't take my time and make nice, even pleats, so the loaf looked a little funky, too. But it tasted fantastic!

The Reviews:

Everyone who tried a piece really liked it. My family and my in-laws all tried a piece and were raving about it. My husband - who wasn't really sure about the muenster part of it - seemed rather impressed. I think this bread is definitely worth baking again. I am adding it to my repetoire for entertaining.

"Crack Dip"

The Mission:
Make a delicious dip to please the crowd at an impromptu party held at my house. The perfect time to try the famous (or infamous) "Crack Dip." I'd had the dip once before at a friend's house, and she graciously provided me with the recipe. She's awesome :)

The Ingredients:

• 2 (8 oz each) packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup of Ranch (or Bleu Cheese) salad dressing
• 2 cups of chicken - finely diced or shredded (you can also use canned chicken)
• 3/4 cup of Frank's buffalo hot sauce
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

The Instructions:

In an oven safe dish, stir the cream cheese until it's smooth and creamy. Mix in the ranch (or bleu cheese) dressing and hot sauce, stir until smooth. Stir in the chicken and the cheddar cheese. Bake in a 350*F oven for 30 minutes or until dip is hot. Serve with tortilla chips - I found that the scoops or strips were exceptionally awesome with this.

The Results:

mmmmm - very good. I didn't stir the cream cheese until it was completely smooth, figuring that it would melt in the oven and get creamy enough. wrong. So I ended up with some little chunks of cream cheese in the dip - which didn't taste bad at all, it just wans't as smooth as I wanted. I made the dip using Ranch dressing, but I think next time I'll try Bleu Cheese and see how that turns out. I used the Frank's buffalo hot sauce because that is what was recommended to me - I think it's super tasty, but I'm sure that you could substitute your own favorite sauce. I served the dip in a glass bowl that I kept refilling from the bowl I baked it in (I didn't want any burn accidents) - that seemed to work out quite well, since I kept the original dish in the oven to keep the remaining crack dip warm.

The Reviews:

Let's see..... Everyone except my husband tried the dip. He's not a fan of cream cheese, or ranch, so he passed. But everyone kept telling him that he was seriously missing out. I had one friend who must have told me a dozen times "This is really good." haha. The dip went over extremely well. I had saved a little bit on the side to share with my favorite coworker and my parents - good thing, too, since the party-goers scraped the bowl clean! My coworker LOVED it, and so did my parents. This is definitely a recipe I'll make over and over again!

Amazing White Trash Puff Balls

The Mission: Ingredient Challenge #4 - CREAM CHEESE!

I wanted to try something new that involved cream cheese in addition to falling back on my reliable favorite. So I used recipezaar.com to find something fun. And an recipe that includes "white trash" in the title, I knew I had to click on it. Hooray that it sounded delicious.

The Ingredients:

• 1 (8 oz) package of sliced pepperoni
• 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
• 2 packages refridgerated crescent dinner rolls

The Instructions:

Dice the pepperoni into teeny tiny pieces. Combine with the softened cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl until blended thoroughly. Set aside. Unroll the crescent roll triangles. Take each triangle and cut into thirds so you have three small triangles. Using your fingers (I found it easier than a rolling pin) flatten out each triangle until it's half as thick as originally. Plop about 1 to 2 Tbsp of the cream cheese/pepperoni mixture onto the flattened triangle. Pinch the sides of the dough up around the cheese mixture and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Continue this process until all the crescent roll dough is used up. Bake puffs in a preheated oven at the temperature and time that's specified on the crescent roll package. (Every brand seems to vary). Remove from oven and let cool a little bit before eating - a burned tongue is no fun!

The Results:

The thinner the dough is, the better. I attempted using a rolling pin, but it was kind of a pain, so I went back to smushing the dough flatter with my fingers. I was also having some issues with my crescent roll dough being weird. Next time I guess I won't buy generic. It seemed to fall apart a lot when trying to unroll it. I had a bit of filling left over (probably because I wasn't putting enough in the balls - but I was afraid of spillage, so I was skimpy. Next time I will not skimp!

The Reviews:

My husband does not like cream cheese, so he didn't care for them. But he did try, which is all I ask. Friend Mark loved them, as did my parents. Dad agreed with me that the thinner the dough, the better. Mom thinks that I should try making them with mozarella cheese instead of the cream cheese next time. I might take her up on that suggestion. All in all, it's a good recipe, easy to make, and received good reviews.

Garlic Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms

The Mission: Ingredient Challenge #3 - MUSHROOMS
I don't usually care for mushrooms. I don't mind them in somethings, but as a general rule, they just aren't my favorite. Something must be wrong with me. But I'm learning. So when mushrooms were suggested as our third ingredient challenge, I knew I'd have to turn somewhere for help. And what better place to turn than recipezaar? So I looked up mushroom recipes by the highest rating and came across this yummy looking appetizer. It just so happened that I had some left over ricotta cheese that needed to be used up. So it was perfect. The only thing I actually needed to purchase was the mushrooms.



The Ingredients:

• 7 large white mushrooms, stems removed
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3-4 Tbsp part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese - divided

The Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350*F. Clean the mushrooms and remove the stems. Chop the stems. Heat olive oil in a small saute pan, add chopped mushroom stems and saute for 3 minutes. Add the crushed garlic, salt, and pepper and saute for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly in a small mixing bowl. After the mushroom mixture has cooled, add ricotta cheese and 2 Tbsp of the grated parmesan. Mix well and then fill the mushroom caps with the cheese mixture. Place mushrooms on a greased cookie sheet. (I greased up some aluminum foil on a cookie sheet so I'd have less mess to clean up.) Sprinkle remaining parmesan cheese on the stuffed mushrooms and then bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm.

The Result:

Oh.My.God. I am soooo glad I doubled this recipe, because these mushrooms are to die for. Seriously. And I don't even like mushrooms. I served them to my husband and Friend Mark. My husband loves mushrooms and I think he ate most of them. Mark isn't a big fan of mushrooms, but I think he managed to eat at least three before the disappeared. I had a little bit of extra filling left over and I just baked it in a glass dish. It was so tasty. I would HIGHLY recommend making at least a double batch.

The Reviews:

Well - my husband loved them. I loved them. Mark loved them. This recipe is fantastic. They will be on the menu for my sister's bridal shower and I'm trying to come up with an excuse to host another party where appetizers will be needed. Definitely give these a try!