Cooking party-My lasagna muffins

So, as I reported earlier this week, Saturday was my cooking/recipe party.
It went well. We had a lot of fun, and everyone learned a new recipe or two.
I picked lasagna muffins, which tasted delicious! Way easier than making a pan of lasagna too, and easier to warm up.
Here's a pic and the recipe.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Servings: 6 muffins
total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup spaghetti sauce
3/4 pound ground beef
12 Wonton wrappers
8 oz. shredded Mozzarella
3 ox. Parmesan cheese
4 oz. Ricotta cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.
Grease muffin pan
Brown beef - season to taste (or not)
Cut wonton wrappers into circle shapes (you can use a biscuit cutter, glass, or my personal favorite...a cleaned out can)
Reserve 6 Tablespoons each of the Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses for the top of the muffins.
Start layering the muffins. Begin with the wonton wrapper, sprinkle a little parmesan cheese, then ricotta cheese, then Mozzarella. Top with a little ground beef and spaghetti sauce. Use 1-2 Tsp. of all the igredients...depending on your preference and size of your muffin pan.

Repeat layers ending in spaghetti sauce. Top with the reserved cheeses.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges are brown.
Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
Use a knife to loosen the edges, and pop them out.

You can garnish with basil if you're using for appetizers at a party.

That's it! :)

Creamy corn chowder with potatoes and bacon

This is one of those still in progress recipes.
I'm trying to get it to taste like Bully's Cowboy choder..it's so nummy!
But, here is the work in progress.

Ingredients:
10-15 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 an onion, chopped
2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 Cup water
2 Cups milk
3 cans cream corn
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper (to taste)

Directions:

Fry bacon until crisp. Reserve 2-3 Tablespoons drippings. Crumble bacon and set aside.

Saute onion in bacon drippings until tender. Add potatoes and water. Cover (this is important) and simmer 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Stir in milk, corn, salt, and pepper, and 3/4 of the bacon.

Continue to cook, stirring frequently. Thicken with flour when boiling to desired consistency.
Sprinkle remaining bacon on top as a garnish. (I use cheese sometimes too.)

Tonight is the cooking/Recipe party!

I will post pictures tomorrow.
Some of us girls are getting together tonight for a recipe/cooking party.
Should be fun.
The idea is to help out our non-cooking friends, and try a recipe that we haven't tried yet.
The line up so far includes an Orange Julius knock off smoothie, Irish soda bread and either Lasagna cupcakes or pizza monkey bread (I can't decide between the two).
I'll also post last night's dinner tomorrow...which was corn chowder with bacon and potatoes.
It was nummy!
Here's a picture of some of what is to come tomorrow tho :)

Reuben Pizza

I made this about a month ago, but I didn't have this blog up then, so I will post it now.

My husband and I were recently watching "Man Vs. Food" and they were at a pizza place that made specialty pizzas. They were showcasing their Reuben pizza...I thought my husband was going to drool all over himself.
So, I decided to try to make this.
Here's my journey in gourmet pizza making.

I made my homemade pizza dough, (I'm sure I will put up the recipe in due time)...
I then covered the dough to the crust with 1000 Island dressing. I used Kraft, but you can use your favorite if you have one.
I then sprinkled the dressing with caraway seeds (To give the illusion of rye bread taste).
Next, place Swiss cheese  slices in a cross pattern, mine took three slices down and two out. For the corners, fold the slice in half to form a triangle, break and put point in facing the cross shape to fill in the circle.
Next comes the sauerkraut layer. Be generous, as the strong taste will cook off a bit in the oven.
Next comes the Corned Beef layer. I just bought it from the deli, and ripped it into smaller pieces.   
By this time, you should have something that looks like this:

Now, because this is a pizza, and you will need some type of "glue" to hold it all together, cover that baby in mozzarella. I use the finely shredded, because I think it melts better and more evenly...but the regular shredded (or shred yourself) will work just fine too.
Bake at 350 until the cheese is melty and starting to brown.
This was my finished product:

The bread stick experiment

Well, last night I made chicken bacon ranch pasts and a recipe for bread sticks that were supposed to be Olive Garden knock offs.
While they didn't turn out exactly like Olive Gardens, they were still very yummy.
Here is the recipe for the bread sticks:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbs. Sugar
1Tbs. yeast
1Tbs Salt
2 Tbs butter, softened
4-5 Cups flour

Topping:
3 Tbs butter, melted
sea salt
1/4 Tsp garlic powder

Directions:

For the dough, pour the water into a stand mixer with the sugar and yeast. Let that sit for about 10 minutes.
Add salt, butter, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix the dough on low. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, until dough scrapes the sides of the bowl clean.
Mix the dough about 5 minutes on medium speed, until it's soft and easy to work with.

*Note: If you don't have a stand mixer, you can still do this by hand, it's just going to take much longer. The stand mixer just saves you the kneading time. I would say about 15 minutes of kneading if doing by hand.

Roll the dough out to a long log, and cut into 12-14 pieces. Roll those pieces into about 6 inch long snakes.
place on foil lined cookie sheets (you'll need at least 2)

Place in 170 degree oven for about 15 minutes (or let sit at room temperature) until doubled in size (or at least close) Once they are risen, brush them with the melted butter (not the garlic powder butter mix) Bake at 350 degrees about 12-15 minutes, or until golden.

While they are baking, combine the topping. When they are hot out of the oven, brush them with the topping.
*Note* I did this with the first batch...the second batch I brushed with just melted butter, let that dry, then brushed with the topping.

I'll also throw in the recipe for the Chicken bacon ranch pasta, but trust me, I can't give exact measurements as this was a throw together with no recipe thing.

Chicken bacon ranch pasta:

1 box bow tie (or shell) pasta
1 envelope dry ranch mix
Miracle whip (or mayo)
about 6-8 strips of bacon
1/2 a tomato (or can of diced tomatoes)
Chicken breasts-about 2

Boil pasta. While water is boiling, cook chicken. You can fry or bake, it's really your preference.
In large bowl, combine dry ranch mix with enough Miracle Whip (or mayo) to make it creamy and cover all your pasta. You'll have to guesstimate, and taste test until you like the results.

After the mix is to your liking, put in cooked and drained (I sometimes rinse) pasta, and crumble the cooked bacon and dice the cooked chicken. Add all this in.

Carefully stir in the tomato, and you're done.

It's filling, and awesome...at least if you're like me. I love ranch, and I <3 bacon.