Italian Sandwich Squares....

Friday night I made Italian Sandwich Squares. Got the basic idea from a cookbook saying to make pizza squares using pepperoni and cheese. I decided I wanted something a bit more grown up so. I'm taking the basic idea and making a bunch of changes.

Here's the ingredients:
1 cans of garlic butter crescent roll dough
1 can of regular crescent roll dough
1/4 pound each of Hard Salami, Pepperoni and Black Forest Ham
1/8 pound each of Muenster and Provolone cheese
1 egg, beaten and add a tablespoon of water
1/8 cup of pesto


First, roll out the garlic crescent roll dough on a cookie sheet (greased) and yes, all in one piece. You have to pinch the edges and make sure all the seams are mostly sealed. Then bake it for about 8 to 9 minutes at 375. Let it cool a bit. 10-15 minutes.

Next, start layering.I started with the pepperoni, but any order is good. Layer pepperoni, then brush it with the pesto. Put a layer of salami, provolone, ham then the muenster cheese.Take the other can of the dough and lay it over the top, again sealing the seams. Then brush it with an egg wash and bake it for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

It Doesn't Have to be Fancy to be Good..

I have come to realize that the majority of people think that if you're "cooking" it means something time consuming and fancy. That is NOT the case. You can take the simplest of ingredients and make a really good meal. For example, last night we had chili dogs, mac & cheese, veggies and dip, and watermelon. For dessert, I made a almost chocolate cheesecake pie. There was nothing that difficult and everyone enjoyed it. You can spice up a box of mac & cheese with different veggies, peppers or as my brother-in-law said "hot sauce". Another idea is after boiling the dogs, crisp them up in a skillet. Only takes a few extra minutes but oh so good.

OK, so now you are wondering how I made the almost chocolate cheesecake pie, right? It was a "make it up while I wandered the store" recipe. It needs a few tweaks but was pretty good. I took 2 small boxes of Sugar-Free Jello Cheesecake Pudding (http://www.kraftbrands.com/jello/products/pudding/fat-free-sugar-free-instant-pudding/) and mixed them with 2 cups of cold milk, let it set for a whole minute while it thickened up, then folded in a tub of Chocolate Cool Whip(http://www.kraftbrands.com/coolwhip/products/product-detail.aspx?productcode=4300000946). Then I dumped it in a graham cracker crust (http://www.readycrust.com/) and stuck it in the fridge to chill. It was really good. I think that next time I might try folding in some of that new Creamy Philadelphia Cream Cheese (http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/products/Pages/philadelphia-original.aspx) to see what that tastes like.

Planning on grilling burgers and making homemade fries and beer battered onion rings for Sunday, so I gotta go to the store for buttermilk. I have found the best way to do onion rings is to slice them up and let them soak in buttermilk for at least 4 to 6 hours (overnight is best) before cooking them. There is something about the buttermilk that makes the batter stick better. I normally use a couple of cups of seasoned flour and a beer for the batter. I season the flour with Emeril's Essence (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-essence-recipe/index.html) and salt and pepper. Always a hit and very hard to get to the table.

The secret to making crispy home-made fries is double frying them. You can do homemade potato chips this way too. Just put them in for a couple of minutes. They will look greasy and limp but don't worry, they will come out great. Do all your potatoes then go back and put them back in the fryer a second time, cooking them until they are golden brown. They are so good this way. If you are doing chips it takes a lot of time since  you need to put them in one by one. But I'm telling you now, it's worth it. And don't forget to salt them as soon as they come out of the fryer. Not sure what else we'll try this weekend, have some thinking to do.

Cooking is Fun!

I love to cook! Here are some of the basics that everyone should remember.

Plan Ahead! Planning ahead is a big part of cooking. You need to make sure you have all your ingredients ahead of time.

New Ideas! Getting ideas can be simple but not always. You should always have staples available so if plans change, you can change with them. Remember if you change your dinner plans, it's not the end of the world. You can get an idea from walking down the aisle at the grocery store, a cook book, or a commercial off the TV. Doesn't matter where the idea is from, use it if it sounds good.

Don't make it harder than it really is! Cooking doesn't have to be hard. Anyone can learn to cook, you just have to be patience and ask questions if you don't know.Don't ever be afraid to try something new.

Point in case, I wanted to try to make risotto but I thought it would be soo hard, so I put it off. I mean I watched Chef Ramsey yell at those chefs about messing his up on Hell's Kitchen so I thought it was going to be a real challenge. Guess what, it's not as hard as it looks. I understand perfectly why he was yelling. I mean if I, an untrained home cook, can do it. They should never have a problem making it.

Find a good recipe, it doesn't have to be original. If it's the first time you're going to try making something, get a good starter recipe.  After you make it according to the recipe, then make some changes. Don't expect it to go exactly how the recipe says for time either. I tried Rachel Ray's Wild Mushroom (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/wild-mushroom-risotto-recipe/index.html) and Emeril's 3 Cheese Risottos (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-three-cheese-risotto-recipe/index.html). Both are delicious but it took me more time to cook both than what the recipes said. I now make them with different cheeses and more of them but the basics I keep.

Always remember, there's always pb&j if things go totally crazy!