Blue Cheese bacon Dip

Ingredients

• 7  bacon slices, chopped
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 2  (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/3  cup  half-and-half
• 4  ounces  crumbled blue cheese
• 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh chives
• 3  tablespoons  chopped walnuts, toasted
• Grape clusters
• Flatbread or assorted crackers

Preparation

Cook chopped bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat 10 minutes or until crisp. Drain bacon, and set aside. Add minced garlic to skillet, and sauté 1 minute.
Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add half-and-half, beating until combined. Stir in bacon, garlic, blue cheese, and chives. Spoon mixture evenly into 4 (1-cup) individual baking dishes.
Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Sprinkle evenly with chopped walnuts, and serve with grape clusters and flatbread or assorted crackers.

Southern Living, DECEMBER 2004

Bacon and Egg Breakfast Empanadas

Ingredients

• 6  ounces  PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 1/2  tablespoons  minced fresh parsley or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
• 3/4  teaspoon  seasoned salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
• 2/3  cup  shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 2  tablespoons  butter
• 5  large eggs, beaten
• 1  (17.3-ounce) can refrigerated jumbo flaky biscuits
• 8  hormel Black Label Bacon Slices, cooked and crumbled
• All Natural PAM Original Cooking Spray
• 1  egg white, lightly beaten
• 1  to 2 teaspoons sesame seeds (optional)
• Assorted fresh fruit (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.
Stir together first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl until blended; stir in cheese.
Melt butter in a 9-inch skillet over medium heat; add eggs, and cook, without stirring, until eggs begin to set on bottom. Draw a spatula across bottom of skillet to form large curds. Continue cooking until eggs are slightly thickened but still moist. (Do not stir constantly.) Remove from heat, and let cool.
Flatten each biscuit into about a 5-inch circle. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over tops of dough circles, leaving 1/2-inch border around edge. Top evenly with scrambled eggs and bacon.
Fold dough circles in half over mixture, pinching edges to seal; place, 2 inches apart, in a 15- x 10-inch jellyroll pan coated with cooking spray. Brush tops evenly with egg white; press sealed edges with tines of a fork. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired.
Bake at 375° for 14 to 16 minutes or until golden brown. Remove empanadas to wire rack, using a spatula. Serve warm and, if desired, with fresh fruit.
Note: Store leftover empanadas, completely cooled, in zip-top plastic bags or wrapped in plastic wrap in refrigerator.

Southern Living

Monkey Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cans Buttermilk Biscuits (the Non-flaky Ones)
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 teaspoons (to 3 Teaspoons) Cinnamon
• 2 sticks Butter
• ½ cups Brown Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.
Next, combine the white sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. (3 teaspoons of cinnamon gives it a fairly strong cinnamon flavor. If you’re not so hot on cinnamon, cut it back to 2 teaspoons.) Dump these into a 1 gallon zip bag and shake to mix evenly.
Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Once all the biscuit quarters are in the bag seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces unstuck from one another and nicely coated with cinnamon-sugar. Spread these nuggets out evenly in the bundt pan.
At this point, you’re going to want to melt the two sticks of butter together with ½ cup of brown sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. This can be light or dark brown sugar. Cook butter/sugar mixture, stirring for a few minutes until the two become one. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep dark brown on top. When its finished cooking, remove it from the oven. If you have the willpower, allow it to cook for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto
PW

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
Printer-Friendly Version
Yield: about 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
¾ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. grated nutmeg
Dash of allspice
½ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1½ cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spices and salt.  Whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Blend in the egg and vanilla.  Beat in the pumpkin puree until well incorporated.  With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Beat in the oats until combined.  With a rubber spatula, fold in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries until evenly mixed.
Drop in small scoops (about 1½-2 tablespoons) onto prepared baking sheets, spaced 2-3 inches apart.  Bake 12-14 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned, rotating the sheets halfway through baking.  Allow to cool on the sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.
Source: slightly adapted from My Baking Addiction

Candied Cinnamon and Sugar Almonds

Candied Cinnamon & Sugar Almonds

from My Kitchen Cafe (www.melskitchencafe.com)

*Makes about 2 cups of candied almonds

1 egg white

1 teaspoon cold water

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups unsalted almonds

½ cup packed light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a large (11X17-inch) rimmed baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. Add the water and vanilla and beat again until stiff. Add the almonds to the mixture and stir gently to coat the almonds with the egg white mixture. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add this mixture to the almonds and stir gently to mix well. Pour the almonds out onto the prepared baking sheet and carefully spread them out into a somewhat even layer. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about an hour, stirring/flipping every 15 minutes, until the almonds look and feel dry. To check to see if the almonds were done, I carefully picked one up in my fingers and when I pressed around it, I didn’t get any wet sugar on my hands. The coating on the almond felt hard and crunchy. Cool completely before serving or packaging

Gingerbread Waffles

Gingerbread Waffles
Printer-Friendly Version

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. grated nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground cloves
4 large eggs
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup milk
½ cup sour cream
3 tbsp. unsulfured molasses
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Whisk to blend.  In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, butter, milk, sour cream and molasses and whisk to blend well.  Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk to combine until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
Preheat a waffle iron.  Fill waffle wells and cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Cook until crisp and golden.  Serve immediately.

Annie's Eats

Spaghetti Pie

Spaghetti Pie (Serves 6)
8 oz Spaghetti, cooked (about 1/2 a package)
2 Large Eggs, whisked
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese, divided
1 Lb Ground Turkey (you could also use ground beef or chicken)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 Tsp Onion Powder
 1 16 Oz Jar Marinara Sauce
1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1/2 Tsp Italian Herbs
1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese, grated
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the cooked spaghetti in a bowl and coat with 1 tbsp of olive oil.
3. Combine the eggs and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese in a bowl. Add mixture to the spaghetti and mix.
4. Place the spaghetti mixture into a greased deep-dish pie plate and spread to make a “pie crust”.
5. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a sauté pan over medium heat and cook the ground turkey, salt, garlic and onion powder for 5 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.
6. Pour the marinara sauce over the meat and stir to combine.
7. In a bowl stir the Ricotta cheese, the remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and Italian herbs to combine.
8. Spread the Ricotta/Parmesan cheese mixture over the pasta, then layer the marinara mixture and finally, top with 1 cup of mozzarella.
9. Place dish on a sheet pan and bake for 30 minutes.
10. Cool, cut into wedges and serve.