Pizza Puffs

I recently found a recipe for pizza puffs on Cottage Sisters
They turned out amazing. I made mine in a regular muffin pan instead of a mini pan. I do think I will make them in a mini-muffin pan next time to make them easier for dipping. These would make a wonderful appetizer.
¾ cup flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Pinch of salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes
¾ cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup diced pepperoni
½ cup pizza sauce
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning, salt and red pepper flakes.

Whisk in the milk and egg.

Stir in the mozzarella, Parmesan and pepperoni. Let mixture stand for 10 minutes.

Stir the batter then divide it among the mini-muffin cups.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

Microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through and serve with the puffs for dipping.

Carmel Popcorn

What do you do on a Friday night? Every Friday night we watch a movie and make popcorn. This week we decided to make carmel corn. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. My hero knew of a recipe using a paper bag. It took forever to find a decent recipe. I found one and changed it up a bit.


CARAMEL
1 cup brown sugar (240g)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, 113g)
1/4 cup light corn syrup (79g)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
16 cups popped corn (made at home or purchased pre-popped)
Microwave in bag for 30 seconds, shake, again

1. pop the popcorn, pour in brown grocery bag
2. in a saucepan combine sugar, butter, syrup and salt. Bring to a boil.
3. Boil 3 minutes stirring to keep from over flowing.
4. Pour over popcorn, make sure no ones fingers are in the way. Because I forgot this step my wonderful, amazing, handsome husband has a very sore finger.
5. Shake quickly to evenly coat.
6. Put bag in microwave for 30 seconds, pull out and shake, repeat
7. Pour popcorn onto cookie sheet to cool
8 EAT!!!

Pretzels+kisses+m&m's=YUMMY!

I have seen these all over blog world (is blog world a official phrase now). I think I will make them for all the holidays and not just Christmas.
Take pretzels, these are round but what I saw online were square. Place a unwrapped Hershey Kiss in the center (this is a great way to keep the kids occupied). Bake for 4-6 minutes at 200 degrees. As soon as they come out of the oven place a M&m on the top and chill. I ran out of m&m's so I used crushed candy canes. I think they look more festive with candy canes. I made these for our Sunday noon meal at Church.

Chocolate Chip Cheeseball

Have you ever heard of chocolate chip cheeseball. If not you are in for a amazing treat. The pictures do not do it justice. I normally make this into a ball but I knew I would be traveling. So I just put it in a bowl. The recipe is:
Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

1 pkg. 8oz. Philly cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbs. brown sugar
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
graham crackers, chocolate graham crackers, vanilla wafers or animal crackers.

Beat softened cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until creamy. Add sugars until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Refrigerate for 1 -2 hours. Place into a ball and roll in cookie crumbs or pecans or grahm cracker crumbs. Serve on graham crackers.
I always double this recipe.

Once a month we make cupcakes for the Airmen. This month I wanted to make the hot cocoa cupcakes I see all over blog world. I quickly realized that I did not know how to make the marshmallows stick to the icing. So my amazing husband thought the heat gun would work and it did. This heat has a funny story. I use to make cards and loved it. I loved embossing cards. That was until my heat gun broke. My hero decided to replace it with one that had "more power". This thing could strip wallpaper. Actually, it was probably made to strip wallpaper. I did not get a picture of the final product for some reason.
When I ran out of marshmallows I decided to decorate the rest of them with the leftover oreo's from my oreo fudge.

sugar donut muffins

Sugar Donut Muffins
(from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice)

3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg (I left this out so I could have more freedom later with flavorings)
1/4 c. vegetable oil
3/4 c. milk (low fat is just fine!)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbl. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar (plus 1 tbl. cinnamon if you want cinnamon sugar)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a muffin tin or a mini muffin tin with vegetable spray.
In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and the egg until light in color. It won't take long at all.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Mix it all together.
Add the flour mixture to the egg and sugar blend along with the oil, milk and vanilla extract. mix everything together and divide evenly among the muffin cups, filling each of them 3/4 full. (Should make about 10 normal muffins or 32 mini muffins)
Bake 15-18 minutes for normal muffins or 13-15 minutes for mini muffins. Test doneness with a toothpick.
After the muffins come out, brush them with butter and roll in sugar

Buttermilk:
1 TBSP white vinegar for every cup milk. Works just as well and saves my check book
I saw this recipe on The Domestic Engineer

oatmeal chocolate chip muffins

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 – 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats
1 – 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used melted butter)
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed and divided)
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup nuts(I used walnuts – but pecans would be wonderful also)
1 – 1/4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a medium bowl combine the oatmeal and milk; allow to stand for 15 minutes. Grease or line muffin tin with paper liners.
Stir egg, oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar, chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup nuts into the oat and milk mixture.
In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the oatmeal mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until just moist.
Fill each muffin cup 2/3 fill.
Combine the remaining brown sugar and nuts, sprinkle on top of the muffins.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
I copied this recipe from Melinda at Chocoalte Lady Dishes