Bacon and Cheese Crescents

Cream cheese is almost a staple in this house.  I use it for many things, but icing is the main reason I have cream cheese in the fridge at almost any time.  When I went shopping at Sam's not long ago I got the Sam's version of cream cheese.  Not really thinking at the time just how much that was.  Yesterday with my husband working a long day at work.  I pulled out my cream cheese cookbook and started to look through it to see if there was some kind of supper item I could make that would use cream cheese.  I had not flipped through too many pages when I found something that looked really good.  I supposed anything would have looked good since I had not had lunch yet.  

The basic recipe was very similar to the stuffed mushrooms that we make and I know how good that is.  The only difference was it was stuffed into a crescent instead of a mushroom.  So, see the versatility here.  If you like the basic recipe you could use it so many ways.  But be careful, you may find that cream cheese becomes a staple in your fridge as well.  

The basic recipe idea is:

Basically soften the cream cheese.  Cook several strips of bacon til crisp enough to crumble.  Finely chop some onion and garlic.  (if stuffing mushrooms I always break the stems off and chop them as well) Saute the onion, garlic and mushrooms if you use them in the drippings left from the bacon.  

Add the bacon and onion mixture to the cream cheese and mix.  When stuffing mushrooms I add bread crumbs to this mix but since I was wrapping this with the crescent I did not add the bread crumbs.  I also added some yellow cheese, chopped baby spinach, salt, and Mrs. Dash seasoning.  Mix all this together well.  

Take a can of crescent rolls, this will take 2 cans.  I did not have the crescent rolls so I made the buttery rolls recipe from earlier and made my own crescent shaped wraps.  Cut each crescent in half lengthways.  Place about a teaspoon on the the larger end of each crescent and roll up.  Place point side down on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 15 - 20 minutes.  

You can always taste the mixture to make sure it has enough seasonings or the right seasonings for your taste.  

If you use this for stuffing mushrooms then the mixture fits into the cup of the mushroom.  You can then bake these or microwave them for a few minutes.  We do not have a microwave so I bake them for about 20 minutes.  We also use the larger Portabello mushrooms and they need to bake a little longer than the smaller ones.  

The larger mushrooms make a good dinner by themselves while the smaller ones are great appetizers at a party. 

I hope you try this for yourself and let me know what you may have changed with the recipe.  I would love to try it.  

My daughter even stuffed chicken breasts with the mixture recipe and baked them.  She said that it was out of this world.  I have not had the opportunity to try it myself as yet.  You may have other suggestions.  Lets try them together and see.  Maybe one day we could put a cook book together.  :)

Happy cooking.

Almost Free For You Today, Two For One

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted anything to my baking blog.  Not that I have not baked anything, for that is not true.  My dear husband would be long gone if that were the case.  :)  But it seems everything I have baked as of late has been reruns of everything else I have done.  There has been one exception

My youngest daughter is getting married in May and is using the colors of the rainbow as her color.  Being her mother and loving cake decorating as I do..... Yes, you can guess it.  I get to make the cake.  We came up making the cake rainbow colors and  icing white with some rainbow swirls on it.  So, being the type of person I am I decided to experiment with this.  There is no way I want to wait until the last minute and find out my idea will not work exactly the way I envisioned (not on a wedding cake).

My first attempt put the batter from a white cake recipe into the pans and then swirling the food color.  NO!  Do not try it this way.  While there were rainbow colors, it was not a solid color and the white was too visible.  I want the cake to be a solid color.  Next time I will mix the colors in a bowl then add them to the pan.

The decoration on the cake turned out no better.  I used a plastic decorating bag, which would be fine with icing, but I found it does not work well with food color.  I think the easiest way to get several colors of icing in the bag and keep them several colors and not one big ugly one would be to paint a strip of color along the side of the bag.  This does not work with the plastic bag.  The color and plastic separates like oil and water.  The color does not come out as clearly and consistently as I would like.  Will have to try this with a cloth or paper bag.  I know it works in paper bags.  

Jimmy took this (in my opinion) ugly monstrosity to work with him and shared with his fellow employees.

At least now I know what I do not like and will have to try this again and find something I do like...I know how I will work the batter, but not sure about the decoration.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I had made peanut butter cookies the other day and several days later I made chocolate ones.  I found Jimmy spreading peanut butter on them and it was good.  We thought that mixing the two batters may make a pretty good cookie.  Yesterday Jimmy had to work an exceptionally long day, so I took advantage of the extra time and made both peanut butter and chocolate cookie dough.

I used a regular peanut butter recipe and made Cringle Cookies.  No variations in either recipe.  The peanut butter dough is stiffer than the chocolate.  I rolled some peanut butter dough out on the counter and spread the chocolate over the peanut butter like icing on a cake.  Then rolled up the peanut butter like a jelly roll.  I cut slices and placed on a cookie sheet and baked.  Then when the timer went off I was busy and could not get to the oven that second, so I forgot about them for several minutes more.  :)  (a nightmare to me, but heaven for Jimmy).  When I pulled them out of the oven they were more crisp than I like and would consider burned.  This combination was really good.  Not quite like a Reeses but well worth the effort to try again.

I only made one pan and put the rest of the dough in the fridge to set.  Today I will bake some more of these.  Jimmy says they are his favorite cookie so far.  I have to admit they were quite yummy.  This time some will have to come out of the oven a little more gooey so I can really make a correct determination of their yumminess.

Stay tuned for the next item on the menu..... Bacon and cheese crescents.