Rice Krispies Sushi Treats

The California Grill, on the top floor of Disney's Contemporary resort, used to have this really fun dessert for kids... it was rice krispie treats wrapped in fruit rolls with a gummy worm or swedish fish center. Sushi for dessert! I haven't been to the California Grill in a while, so I'm not sure if these are still on the menu or not... but luckily for me, or my kids anyway, I have the recipe!

These are really fun and easy to make, though a little sticky... ok a LOT sticky (I found that rubbing softened margarine on my hands helped a great deal here), but still no harder than making rice krispie treats in general. I didn't have the gummy worms or swedish fish, so I used regular old fruit snacks for the centers.

Rice Krispies Sushi Treats

8 chewy fruit rolls
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 (10- ounce) package miniature marshmallows
6 cups crisp rice cereal
16 worm-shaped chewy candies or 24 fish-shaped chewy candies


Method:

Unroll fruit rolls, and place, with plastic sheet down, on cutting board (trust me you want to unroll all of them first, as the cereal mixture cools it becomes harder to work with).

Melt butter or margarine in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add marshmallows, stirring until melted; remove from heat. Stir in rice cereal until blended.

Spread about 1/2 cup cereal mixture quickly over each fruit roll, leaving a inch border on 1 long side. Arrange 2 worm-shaped candies or 3 fish-shaped candies lengthwise down center of cereal mixture.

Roll up, starting at side without border. Press to seal securely. Repeat procedure with remaining fruit rolls, cereal mixture,and candies.

Cut each roll into 4 or 5 slices.

Cap'n Crunch Chicken Nuggets

I've always loved the combination of sweet and savory, so when I saw a recipe for Cap'n Crunch chicken I was intrigued. I mean, really... who doesn't like Cap'n Crunch or chicken nuggets? It sounded like a winner to me!

I found the original recipe here and tried them as-is the first time. The kids loved them, but I thought they needed a little more savory to compliment the sweet, so I tweaked them a bit.

These are great for dinner (especially if you have picky kids), or even as an appetizer at a party. I've heard of people baking these as well, though I haven't tried that myself yet, I imagine you could easily spray the coated nuggets with cooking spray or an olive oil mist and bake on a cookie sheet with good results.

Cap'n Crunch Chicken Nuggets

2 cups Cap'n Crunch Cereal
2 cups Rice Krispies
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp black pepper
4-6 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup beer (or soda water if you prefer not to use beer)
canola or peanut oil for frying

Heat 2 inches of oil in a heavy dutch oven or electric fryer to 350º.

Place cereals in a gallon size ziploc bag, press out the air and seal. Crush cereals using a rolling pin or mallot (this is excellent stress relief and/or something fun for the kids to do) until you have fine crumbs. Add in flour and seasonings, shake bag well to mix.

In a small mixing bowl, beat eggs, then add beer and buttermilk.

Trim chicken breasts of all fat and cut into nugget size pieces. Dip each piece in egg mixture, then place in bag with cereal and shake to coat well. Fry in hot oil,6-8 pieces at a time, 3-4 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Drain on paper towels. Serve with honey mustard or green onion honey dip (see below).

Green Onion Honey Dip

1 cup sour cream
1-2 Tbs honey (start with one and add to taste)
3 green onions, white and green parts, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cajun seasoning (or less, to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Ultimate Scalloped Potatoes

Potatoes, butter, garlic, cheese, heavy cream... is there ANYTHING better? This is one of those dishes I treat myself to only once in a while. Not only is it a little time consuming (although not TOO bad if you have a halfway decent mandolin), it's also full of fat and calories, which I guess is why it's SOOO good.

Last week I picked up a spiral sliced ham on sale for easter, but ended up making leg of lamb instead. I saved the ham for today and couldn't think of a better side dish to go with it, besides, I already had the fontina and gruyere cheeses in the fridge needing to be used up.

Ultimate Scalloped Potatoes

1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 tbs butter
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup milk
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced into 1/8" thick rounds
1 cup coarsely grated Gruyere cheese
1 cup coarsely grated Fontina cheese
1 Tbs flour
4 green onions chopped (white and green parts, optional)
salt to taste

Saute garlic and shallots in butter in medium saucepan for 1 minute. Add cream, milk and black pepper, heath through but do not boil.

Mix grated cheeses and flour in medium bowl, until cheese is well coated.

Layer half of potatoes in lightly buttered 2 qt shallow casserole dish. Pour half of cream mixture over potatoes, sprinkle with salt, half of the cheeses and half of the chopped green onion. Repeat layers.

Bake in 350º oven 60 to 70 minutes until top is a deep brown and potatoes are tender.

Note: A Mandolin comes in very handy for this type of dish. If you don't have one, you can certainly use a sharp knife, but you can pick up an inexpensive mandolin for around $20 that will do the trick, there's no need to have the fancy $100 versions.

Asparagus Crab Pasta Salad

This is my go to dish for pot lucks and picnics, and I'm constantly being asked for the recipe. The problem is that I don't really have a recipe. However, I promised a friend I would make an attempt to explain how to make it, and to be honest it's VERY easy, so I'm going to give it a shot.

16 oz box tri-color rotini pasta, cooked
1/2 lb imitation crab, chopped (you can use real crab if you prefer)
1 lb asparagus spears, trimmed and steamed til tender-crisp, then chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Old Bay seasoning
onion salt
garlic salt
pepper

Mix together mayonnaise and seasonings in a large bowl (use the Old Bay, salts and pepper to taste, but make it slightly stronger than you think it should be as the seasonings will be much milder once the other ingredients are mixed in).

Mix in remaining ingredients and chill at least 1 hour before serving.

Empanadas

There are dozens of versions of empanadas out there, and really, the possibilities are endless as far as what you can put in them. Traditional fillings include picadillo, chicken, potatoes, spinach and even fruit, all depending on the region from which they come. My favorite is the cuban empanada, filled with picadillo. You can normally find the "discos", or empanada wrappers in the frozen section with other latin american foods.

These are also a great budget friendly meal, as the recipe uses many ingredients you probably already have around.

Cuban Empanadas

10 emapanada wrappers, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
Canola oil for frying
1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of cumin
8 oz tomato sauce
1 Tbs ketchup
1/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped green olives with pimento


Brown ground beef with onions, peppers and garlic in a large saute pan. Drain. Add remaining ingredients (except oil and wrappers), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally until mixture has thickened. Remove bay leaf and allow to cool slightly.

Heat 2 inches of oil in a large heavy pot to 350ºF.

Lay one empanada wrapper on a plate or cutting board and place about 2 Tbs of picadillo in the center. Fold the empanada wrapper in half over the filling and press edges tightly closed with times of a fork, turn the empanada over and repeat pressing with fork on the other side. Repeat for remaining wrappers.

Carefully drop one or two empanadas in the hot oil and fry 2-3 minutes, turning once, until golden grown and crisp. Drain on paper towels.

Serve with hot sauce if desired.

Serves 5 (2 empanadas per person)

Note: You can probably do 15-20 empanadas with this amount of ground beef, and depending on appetites in your house you may want to go ahead and make the extras. Just keep in mind that they don't reheat all that well, they tend to get soggy. Leftover picadillo can also be served over rice the next day.

Posting Should Resume Shortly

I received a few emails recently wondering if I had dropped off the face of the earth. To be 100% honest, I had no idea anyone actually even read this thing other than a few friends and some family. So thank you for letting me know I was missed :)

To answer the question, I'm still here. I haven't been cooking much over the past few months due to the sudden loss of my husband back in January. I've actually picked up the bad habit of making frozen foods and picking up take out..cooking has seemed like a chore lately, which is very odd for me.

I've resolved to get my butt back in gear and again find the comfort cooking has always given me. Hopefully over the next few weeks you'll see some new recipes here. I'm considering switching gears a little, but I'll let you know more about that once I decide what direction to go in.

Again, thank you for the kind notes, and even just the "hey, where the heck are you's?".

Bacon, Shallot and Garlic Green Beans

I'm pretty lucky. I don't have any trouble getting my kids to eat vegetables, in fact most of the time they'll clean the vegetables off their plates and pick at the meat. Yes, my kids are strange... but in a good way :)

This recipe is a favorite around here and gets made anytime there's leftover bacon (yes, Susan, I said LEFTOVER BACON). Granted, this is not how you want to cook green beans all the time, but it's great for a special occasion... they're easy enough to throw together while you have a roast in the oven and they look and taste impressive.

Bacon, Shallot and Garlic Green Beans

2 lbs fresh green beans, trimmed
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
1 Tbs reserved bacon drippings
2 Tbs butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Cook green beans in boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking.

Heat reserved bacon drippings and butter in a large saute pan on med-low heat. Add shallots and garlic and saute 1 minute, until fragrant. Add green beans, stirring to coat in butter mixture. Cover and cook about 8 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Add in chopped bacon and cook, stirring, another 2-3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bacon Cream Cheese Rolls

Twice a year we have a munchie night, where we don't really have dinner, we just eat junk food. The kids, of course, love this... heck they LIVE for it. They love it so much that they no longer look forward to New Year's Eve for any other reason than that it's munchie night.

To give you an idea of how bad this tradition is for you, this year's menu included bacon and cheese sliders, deep fried chicken wings, baked brie with raspberry preserves, gruyere and fontina fondue, and then these little heart attacks: the bacon cream cheese rolls.

Ok, I know... these are SO 70's, but believe me... they're incredibly addictive. If you've never made these, you really should... at least once.

Bacon Cream Cheese Rolls

1 lb of bacon
8-12 slices Pepperidge Farm Very Thin bread
3 oz cream cheese
toothpicks

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Cut bacon in half lengthwise.

Remove crusts from bread slices and cut each slice into thirds.

Cut cream cheese into small pieces, about 1/2 tsp each.

Lay out bacon slices and place one piece of the bread on each slice, then top with a piece of cream cheese.



Roll each slice and secure with toothpick. Place on cookie sheet about so that the rolls don't touch each other.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, turn and continue baking for another 10-12 minutes until bacon is browned and cooked through.

Sweet Potato and Scallion Latkes

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe, but this time of year is a busy one in our family... so my time is a little more limited than usual. Expect an onslaught of posts after the new year though.

Let me preface this recipe by saying that, in early November, I got to do something awesome. I not only got to meet my favorite chef, Cat Cora, I also got to spend a little time talking with her and her family, watch her prepare one of the recipes from her latest cookbook (Cooking From the Hip), AND sample the food too! As if anything could be better than that, we got to do all of this at Epcot's Food and Wine Festival in Walt Disney World. How all of this came about is a bit of a long story, but let me just say that Ms. Cora is a truly wonderful person who went FAR out of her way for a couple of her fans.

Anyway, I was given a copy of Cooking From the Hip during our visit, and promptly began reading it when we got home. This is one of the many wonderful recipes from the book. I highly recommend the book, the recipes are fun, classy and delicious!

1 pound sweet potatoes, grated (about 2 medium)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup, plus 2 tsp all purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying
3 Tbs chopped fresh chives or scallions for garnish
(Cat also recommends creme fraiche and smoked trout as garnishes)

Grate sweet potatoes using the large holes of a box grater or food processor blade.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, salt and pepper. Add the sweet potatoes and scallions and mix until the potatoes are well coated.

Heat 3-4 Tbs of the oil in a 12 inch non-stick skillet over medium high heat until the oil is hot, but not smoking. Spoon 1 Tbs of the potato mixture into the oil and flatten with a spatula to about 3 inches in diameter. Repeat, adding 2 to 4 more latkes and more oil as needed, but don't crowd the pan. Give yourself room to flip them without breaking any. Reduce heat to medium and cook until golden, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer lateks to a paper towel lined plate to drain and then keep warm in a 300º oven. Add more oil to the pan as needed in between batches.

To serve, sprinkle with chives or scallions, or top with a spoonful or creme fraiche and a chunk of smoked trout.



Many thanks again to Cat Cora, Ashley and the staff at Disney for an awesome day!

Eggplant Parmesan

I'm not a huge fan of Italian food, it's not that I hate it or anything, I just tend to not go out of my way to make or eat it. Eggplant parmesan, however, is a different story, if it's made right, I'm there! I'm not going to lie to you though, making it right is a pain in the behind. If you're up to a little work though, this is a dish that's well worth it.

2 large eggplants, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick
4 eggs, beaten with 1/4 cup milk
all purpose flour
Italian breadcrumbs
oil for frying
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella
spaghetti sauce (use homemade if you can)

Preheat oven to 350º. Preheat oil in deep fryer or deep frying pan to 350º.

Coat each slice of eggplant in flour, then dip in egg mixture and finally coat in breadcrumbs. Allow slices to sit for 10 minutes or so to set coating. Fry slices 4 or 5 at a time until golden brown on each side, about 3-4 minutes total. Remove eggplant to wire wrack set over paper towels.

Coat the bottom of a 13x9" baking dish with a thin layer of spaghetti sauce. Then layer in eggplant slices, 1/3 of the parmesan, some more sauce and 1/3 of the mozarella. Repeat layers 2 more times ending with Mozzarella. Bake at 350º for 40 minutes or until casserole is hot all the way through and cheese is slightly browned on top.