Pizza Phyllo Packets

I was running low on groceries and scraping around for something to fix a starving teenager. I had the ingredients for pizza, but nothing for the crust. I remembered that I had phyllo dough in the freezer.

2 cups of cheese, I used Colby/Jack

1 cup spaghetti sauce

1 pkg pepperoni, chopped

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

1 pkg Phyllo Dough Sheets

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Follow the directions on the phyllo dough to thaw and arrange sheets. Lay out one sheet of dough and brush with melted butter or lightly spray with oil. Repeat two more times. 

Mix all the ingredients, except dough, stirring til mixed.

Cut dough in half with a pizza cutter.

Spoon 2 tbsp of mixture at one end.

 Fold the end over forming a triangle... keep folding corner to corner.

 Tuck the end in on the last fold.

Arrange on a baking sheet covered in foil

and lightly sprayed with oil.

Lightly spray with packet. Bake for 20 minutes,

or until golden brown.

 OOPS! Well, maybe I can save them...

Well... they taste pretty good.

Brown Rice

This is the recipe that I use on Wednesdays for my church crowd. It feeds about 30 people per pan. I use 2" deep buffet pans. I have had a lot of people  ask how to make this much at one time. It's a good recipe when you are preparing for a reunion or church social. If you want to make a 13X9 pan, split the recipe in half.

Brown Rice for a Crowd

2 sticks Butter

1 Onion, sliced

6 cups Rice

4 cans sliced Mushrooms, with liquid

4 cans Beef Broth

4 cans Beef Consommé

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sauté onions in butter and put in shallow buffet pan. Stir in rice, and liquids. Add mushrooms and liquid. Cover and bake for 1 hour or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Voodoo Egg Rolls

I saw a picture of Voodoo Egg Rolls for the first time the other day on Serving Houma's Facebook Page. They offer an amazing service. For restaurants in their area that don't deliver, they'll order for you, go pick it up and deliver it to you! What a wonderful service especially for those house bound individuals! Anyway, I contacted them and told them that I wasn't asking for a recipe, because I knew that only delivered, but could they describe the rolls to me. Their picture looked so good, and they were very nice to describe them for me. To me, they sounded like a Louisiana version of the lobster rolls that Red Lobster used to sell... just kicked up with some good andouille sausage! I had worked for a long time to try and replicate the Lobster Rolls, so I figured I'd try my hand at these Voodoo Egg Rolls! I'm not sure if these taste anything like the ones in Houma, La, but they were VERY good!!! The hubby gave them a thumbs up... because his mouth was too full to talk! LOL

Voodoo Egg Rolls

1 1/2 cups Crawfish Tails, chopped or shrimp
2 tsp Old Bay Seasoning

1 tsp Butter
1/4 cup Onion, minced
3 cloves Garlic, minced
3/4 cup Andouille Sausage, cut in a small dice
4 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 1/2 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1 cup corn

1/2 block of Cream Cheese (4 oz, room temp)
12 Egg Roll Wrappers

In a large bowl, add crawfish and seasonings.

I didn't have the crawfish this time, so I substituted shrimp.

I'll try the crawfish next time!

In a skillet, saute onions and garlic in butter and Worcestershire 

sauce, 

until tender. Add crawfish and sausage.

Saute for 2-3 minutes.

Dump back into the large bowl to cool.

Mix cheeses and corn until well mixed.

Add to the cooled meat mixture.

Put an egg roll wrapper on a dry surface.

Place 2 tablespoons or so of the filling mixture

in the middle of the wrapper.

Fold the top down...

 Tuck the bottom in a little and fold over the sides...

 Fold in the other side... Notice the small white bowl?

It has water in it...

Wet the top edge with a water on your fingertip

and roll toward the end. The water will seal the edges.

 Press to seal.

 Fry rolls at 375 degrees until golden, about 2 minutes.

My plate...

The Hubby's plate!

Potato Salad

Potato Salad... or as we say in the South... Tater Salad is a must for any gathering, picnic, church social, pot luck, etc. This is also another recipe that I NEVER measure! It's always by look and taste. That being said, I try to come up with recipes for those of you that comment that you NEED a recipe. LOL

Here is what I came up with... try this recipe, and as always, taste and adjust until it's just right for you! :-)


6 potatoes, boiled, peeled and cubed
4 eggs, boiled and peeled
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish*
pinch of salt 
fresh ground black pepper

Cut eggs in half and remove yolks and place. Chop egg whites and place in a large bowl with the cubed potatoes. Mash yolks with fork then stir in mayonnaise, mustard, pickle and salt and pepper. Add the mayonnaise mixture to the potatoes and eggs. Stir all ingredients together well. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

* If you don't like the bits of pickle in the potato salad, or if you have a little one that doesn't like pickle, just add 1 tsp of sweet pickle juice from the relish jar. They will never know. I do this for my church crowd, and they always tell me that they love it! Onion is also optional. If you like the flavor, but not chunks of onion, grate the onion and add about a teaspoon to the salad.

Greek Chicken and Poatoes

This recipe is so delicious! The lemon and spices and herbs make my house smell so good! This is so simple, but it can make you look like a master chef in the kitchen. The key is to use the Cavender's Greek Seasoning and a whole chicken cut into pieces with the skin ON! Please don't use skinless or it will dry out. If your diet dictates that you can not have the skin, you probably should not be eating a dish that calls for half a cup of oil. OR! Maybe you can forego the diet for one meal! It is so worth the guilt.

Greek Chicken and Potatoes

• 1/2 cup butter, room temp

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped

• Cavender's Greek Seasoning
• 2 lemons, juiced or 1/4 cup juice

• 1 (4 pound) chicken, cut into pieces

• 4 or 5 baking potatoes, cubed
• 1 large onion, cut into thick slices
• 2 lemons, sliced thin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix the butter, garlic, 1 tbsp Cavender's and lemon juice. Loosen the skin from the meat with your fingers or with the handle of a spoon. Be careful not to break the skin. Loosen as much as you can even down the legs. Place a scoop of the butter mixture under the skin and rub down, spreading the butter under the skin. Repeat this process until the butter is covering the entire chicken. Dust chicken with Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Place the potatoes, onions and some of the lemon slices in a 13X9 casserole dish. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkle the Greek Seasoning over the potato mixture. Place chicken on top of potatoes and onion. 

Bake uncovered for an hour and a half 

or until chicken is golden brown and potatoes are tender.

**********

Also great with leg quarters!

Southern Style Green Beans

Usually in the South, when you see green beans on the holiday table, they are in the form of a casserole. You know the one... cream of mushroom soup with the crunchy french onion topping. I never liked the french onion stuff. I changed the casserole to a cheese topping with the cracker and butter crunchy topping, but it seems that my kids kind of skip over the casserole. When I serve them plain, just heated through with salt and pepper, they don't get much attention either. Sooo, this time I dumped them in the crockpot and let them simmer all morning. These turned out to be the best green beans I've ever fixed! (I would have used fresh beans, but I didn't have any available. Use fresh whenever you can.)

2 family-size cans Green Beans, with juice
4 slices Bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
2 tbsp of reserved Bacon Grease
2 beef bouillon cubes or 2 tsp beef bouillon granules
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Kosher Salt

Combine the above ingredients in a crockpot and set on medium. Simmer beans for 2 or 3 hours or until the beans take in the flavor of the seasonings. The juices will darken as they cook down. This juice is awesome with a chunk of cornbread!

Cornbread Pudding

After my hubby's Grandmother passed away, two different churches in the family brought food over to her house which is a tradition in the South. One of the dishes that was most talked about was the Cornbread Pudding. My daughter-in-law asked me about it, and asked if I could get her the recipe. I decided it was the perfect recipe to share here! It is an awesome casserole!

Cornbread Pudding

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 can cream-style corn

1 stick of butter, melted

1 package Jiffy cornbread mix

Salt and Pepper, to taste

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Stir in cornbread mix and seasonings. Pour into a greased 13X9 baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center. Serve warm. 

BBQ Baby Back Ribs

When I went to shop for a catering job, I notice that my local Piggly Wiggly grocery store had Baby Back Ribs on sale for $2.99 per pound. Here, that is an awesome deal. I actually bought 3 slabs of them. I've also been looking at a dry rub and finally decided to try it. I usually just use my house blend of salt, pepper and garlic, but this dry rub has caught my eye several times. I tend to stay away from spice blends that are loaded with paprika because to me, it makes them bitter. This blend has paprika, but it is very well balanced. The flavors blend very well, and none stands out to strong. Willie's Hog Dust is a very good dry rub for these ribs! I heard that the manager of The Pig uses it on his steaks every time he grills out! I'm sold!

1 slab of Baby Back Ribs
Willie's Hog Dust

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. I cut the ribs in half and heavily dusted the ribs with Willie's Hog Dust. Place them on a grill pan or a rack in a pan.

I cooked them for an hour 

and turned the pan for them to cook even. 

I cooked them for about 2 more hours.

Sauce:

1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp butter
1 cup ketsup
1/4 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Texas Pete hot sauce
2 tbsp worchestershire sauce

Saute onion and garlic in butter in a large pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes. Remove ribs from oven and slather heavily with sauce. Increase the heat to 300 degrees and return them to the oven for about 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and created a sticky glaze on the ribs. (Be careful not to let the sauce burn!)

Done!

This one has a sweet yet spicy rib sauce...

 This one has Daddy's BBQ Sauce...

 Potato Wedges on the Side...

This is when I remembered that 

I hadn't taken a picture of the finished ribs! LOL

Pizza Dip

My son loves all things pizza, so I made this dip. It was perfect for him. I served it with bread sticks, but you could serve it with crackers or chips. The full recipe is at the bottom of this post.

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, and cheese until smooth.

Spread in the bottom of an oven proof dish.

I used a jarred spaghetti sauce and added hamburger.

Sprinkle with bacon and add mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper.

Add pepperoni and a little Colby Jack cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 or 20 minutes.

I used canned biscuit dough and shaped them into bread sticks.

YUMMY!

Pizza Dip Recipe

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

3/4 cup finely shredded Colby Jack cheese blend, divided

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

12 slices pepperoni
Crumbled bacon (2 slices)

1/4 lb hamburger cooked and crumbled

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a bowl combine spaghetti sauce, garlic, onion, basil, salt and pepper. Set pizza sauce aside.

In another bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream and 1/2 cup of Colby Jack cheese.  Mix well until combined.

Spread cream cheese mixture in an even layer in a baking dish. Pour blended pizza sauce over cream cheese mixture and evenly distribute with spatula. Add hamburger and bacon.

Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese over pizza sauce. Top pizza dip with pepperoni. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of Colby Jack cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

Serve with Breadsticks.