Hopefully you caught my recent post with some amazing recipes from Cinco de Mayo, available here. I accidentally omitted the queso recipe that my good friend Charity is asked to bring to Every. Single. Gathering. Yes, it’s that good!!!!
~Connie Kaye
If that title didn’t catch your eye, I bet the picture below will:
This is the coolest cast iron skillet appetizer creation, and it’s delish and easy to make! I went pretty much by the recipe on round 1, then of course changed it up a bit for round 2. Cutting the rolls in 1/2 before placing them in the skillet will provide more dipping power and don’t be afraid of the pepper flakes! Next time I’m going to add a little more parmesan. I guarantee you that this dish won’t have any leftovers. I hope you give it a whirl – super easy and be sure to hop on over to meet Tara @newmexicomilkmaid
Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Saturday!
~Connie Kaye
Green Chile Queso:
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp red chile pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 cup romano, parmesan, and asiago cheese blend, shredded (or Italian blend)
1/4 cup sour cream
8 oz cream cheese
14 oz artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 cup green chiles, drained
Salt, pepper, garlic salt to taste
*Place 12 frozen Rhodes dinner rolls around the outside of the skillet. Recommend to cut them in half, but either way works. Cover and let thaw and rise at room temperature for 3-5 hours.
*Preheat oven to 375°.
*Using a hand mixer, mix queso ingredients until well combined. After the rolls have risen, add cheese mixture to the center of the skillet.
*Combine the melted butter and herbs. Brush butter, herb mixture over the top of the rolls. Sprinkle with additional cheese.
*Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° for the final 10 minutes as rolls will get to brown.
Use rolls, tortilla chips, steak cubes, veggies, or just your finger to dip queso!
Hi I’m Kari West, from rural Girard, and I am hijacking Connie Kaye’s Kitchen Blog this week. I am going to share a recipe for some of the most versatile, yet easiest yeast bread dough you will ever make and turn into a family favorite breakfast of homemade sausage and cheese rolls. (This recipe is a copy cat inspired by Johnson’s Daylight Donuts in Fort Scott.)
I met Connie nearly 20 years ago when working in Fort Scott, and she introduced me to these tasty little treats.
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
1 Batch of Best Ever Dough
1 lb of Sausage (I like to use Hillshire Farms Polish Sausage or Beef)
Cheese (Velveeta, Pepper Jack, Gouda, all work well)
Milk to baste the rolls.
A little preview of what’s to come:
Bread Dough:
1 c. Warm Milk
1 TBSP Instant Dry Yeast
2 TBSP Sugar
1 TSP Salt
3 TBSP Softened Butter
1 Egg
3 c. All Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Vanilla
A couple of pro-tips: Preheat your oven to 125 degrees. (Trust me on this one.) And I use my stand mixer to do the heavy lifting.
So let’s get started:
In the mixer bowl, combine warm milk, yeast, sugar, salt, butter and eggs. Add in the flour and use your dough hook to mix at a low speed. Once the flour starts to incorporate, increase to medium speed.
The dough mixture should be tacky, but not stick to your hands. It should be soft. You can add a little more flour if needed. Transfer the dough to lightly greased mixing bowl. (I use my Grandma Antonetti’s Bread Crock.) Cover loosely with Press & Seal or wax paper. Shut OFF oven. Place covered bowl in warm oven for 1 hour to rise. The dough will double in size.
While it is rising, lightly grease a baking sheet. Use this time to cut sausage into quarters lengthwise, and cheese to match. (Really anything you want to stuff in them.) When your hour is up, take the dough out of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
On a generously floured surface, punch and dump the dough. Use rolling pin to roll into a 12 inch x 18 inch rectangle. Rolled dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into squares (I use a pizza cutter), place cheese, sausage and bring ends together, and then roll the other pinching the seams to keep the cheese in the roll during baking. Place on baking sheet and brush with milk or melted butter. (At this point, you can add jalapeños on top, Everything but Bagel seasoning, etc.)
Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Serve with your choice of dipping sauce. (We like Jalapeno Ranch or Spicy Mustard). This same dough can be used to make a basic loaf of bread, chop into small pieces for Monkey Bread, Cinnamon Rolls, or roll thin and par-bake for Pizza Crust.
Thank you to my good friend Kari for dropping by this week. Give these a whirl (printable recipe below) — so amazing, and for more scratch made favorites or life on the farm, follow her on Instagram and Facebook @CustomCreationsbyK
And before you go, follow me for more good food and fun!
~Connie Kaye
Preheat oven to 125 degrees. Combine first 6 ingredients and add in the flour. Use your dough hook if you are using a stand mixer at low speed. Once the flour starts to incorporate, increase to medium speed. The dough mixture should be tacky, but not stick to your hands. It should be soft, and add a little more flour if needed. Transfer the dough to lightly greased mixing bowl and cover loosely with Press & Seal or wax paper.
Shut OFF the oven, and place covered bowl in warm oven for 1 hour to rise (the dough should double in size). While it is rising, lightly grease a baking sheet. Use this time to cut sausage into quarters lengthwise, and cheese to match.
When your hour is up, take the dough out of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a generously floured surface, punch and dump the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll into a 12 inch x 18 inch rectangle. Rolled dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into squares (pizza cutter works amazing), place cheese, sausage and bring ends together, and then roll the other pinching the seams to keep the cheese in the roll during baking. Place on baking sheet and brush with milk or melted butter, and add whatever you wish to the top (or nothing…). Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Serve with dipping sauce if desired.
Those two little words got your attention, didn’t they?? Well if they didn’t, try BACON candy!
I met Danielle (Diva Q) at the American Royal BBQ Contest last fall, and even sort of broke my way into the Traeger tent to get a pic snapped with her. (Pinned here: https://twitter.com/ConnieBeene1) I promptly put this recipe book on my Christmas list:
I made a couple of edits to the original recipe, cuz that’s what I always do, and I’m sharing it below. We made more today to share at work, but in actuality, not sure it’ll make it that far. Words of caution….super easy to burn it on the smoker (or grill), so keep it low and check it often. Diva’s original recipe says to use chipotle powder, but take it easy, because it’s POTENT! We used this on the batch today, and it came out delish also :
Mix it up a bit with your favorite spices — after all, it’s BACON!! Thanks for stopping by, and for more deliciousness delivered to your Inbox, click the Follow button! Enjoy!
~Connie Kaye
Place the pan on the grill (approx 350 degrees) and grill until the bacon has absorbed the brown sugar and is crispy, about 1 hour. Remove the bacon from the pan and place in a single layer on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Set aside at room temperature until the surface of the bacon is dry, or close to it. If you have any left at this point (doubtful), refrigerate in an airtight container with parchment paper between the layers and use within 1 week.
Anybody else glad it’s football 🏈 season besides me? My fantasy team isn’t going to win me millions but sure am glad to have #KSU back (and seriously kicking it, BTW) and the CHIEFS!!
I grabbed some more hatch chiles so roasted them this morning before the 90 degree weather showed up.
Put ’em on the grill until they’re really charred and then place in ziploc bag, seal it for about 30 minutes and the steam will help the skins come off. Remove skin and seeds, and they freeze well. They are sweet and great in tortilla rollups and a quick internet search will reveal many good recipe ideas!
I also smoked a piece of salmon with just these two spices:
Apologies for no pic, it came off the smoker and then with cream cheese on Ritz crackers for lunch. It was amaze sauce and so easy peasy. I will do that again soon! Also marinated a flank steak and smoked it. Sooo many things you can do with it – eat as is, fajitas, steak quesadillas, and we even got a call at a KCBS contest this year with steak and shrimp tacos in the Cooks Choice category.
Speaking of KCBS, got to meet this star yesterday at the American Royal BBQ – Diva Q is the bomb!!
Hope everyone has a fantastic Sunday and week!
~Connie Kaye
ok, don’t run away immediately. I gotta admit, these aren’t my complete faves, but the hubs likes them, and they’re similar to a deli here in town, famous for their pickles and chili.
I personally like my Sweet and Spicy Pickles but he brewed these up today so I thought I’d share. At our recent fall party, they were gone, like wildfire! Super easy to make and you can adjust the horseradish to your liking.
Enjoy this beautiful fall weather, and those Kansas City Chiefs, who are on fire also!!!!
~Connie Kaye
46 oz. jar whole dill pickles
1 C. Sugar
2/3 C. white vinegar
1/2 C. water
1/2 C. horseradish
Drain juice from pickles and slice to your liking. Bring sugar, vinegar and water to boil, let cool. Place pickles back in jar, and add horseradish and cooled mixture. Shake the livin’ tar out of it, repeatedly. Refrigerate, flipping jar occasionally to continue mixing ingredients.
As I watch it raining ice/snowing outside, it makes me sad to think of all the children who anticipated hunting for Easter eggs today, and all the people who devote so much time and effort to organize those events.
We are trying something on the smoker today — smoking a chuck roast that will turn into burnt ends. I found on the WWW that it has several names, one being Poor Mans Burnt Ends. However, there is nothing cheap about buying beef chuck roast. Anyway, we’ll see how this turns out, and will let you know (and share the recipe, if it works out). However, in the meantime, I wanted to try something that I thought my roommate would like for lunch. Here in the midwest, we love everything with gravy, and one delish meat item that goes with gravy is chicken fried steak. I made steak strips or fingers using beef cube steak, and whipped up some quick homemade gravy to dunk them in. Well, it was a hit, and I’ll be doing this again.
Note that the flour is really seasoned which is key, and I actually cut the steak into strips before it was completely thawed which made it a little easier.
Hope you have a wonderful Easter, and thanks for spending some of your Sunday with me!
~Connie Kaye
Ingredients for for steak fingers:
Ingredients for gravy:
DIRECTIONS
Not sure I’ve ever made anything with wonton wrappers, but my maiden voyage occurred to try these snacks for a recent KC CHIEFS! game. You’ll find them in the produce section and about a zillion come in the package. Mix 5 simple ingredients, and ta da! Delicious! And, you can adjust the heat according to your liking by the amount of jalapenos you include.
Recipe below, and I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. Here’s to 2018!
~Connie Kaye
12 wonton wrappers
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sour cream
12 oz. bacon cooked & crumbled (reserve 2 Tbsp.)
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese (reserve 2 Tbsp.)
2-3 jalapeños seeded and chopped (*for a spicier version, do not remove all the seeds)
Set oven to 350 degrees, and spray muffin pan with cooking spray.
Place a wonton wrapper in each muffin cup and bake for 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool slightly.
n a medium-sized bowl, stir together cream cheese, sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese, and diced jalapeños. Spoon filling into wonton cups, then sprinkle with reserved bacon and cheese.
Return to oven and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes, until wontons are golden brown and cheese is melted.
Food Network magazine recently featured a BBQ spiced nuts recipe so we thought we might give it a whirl for the holidays. WOW That’s all I got! I finally put a dish of them away or nobody else is going to experience these delish morsels. And, the best part is that they are super easy.
Note that there are a couple of different types of paprika — we didn’t have those, just a spanish paprika that we use to make barbeque rub, and just used one total tablespoon although the recipe calls for 2.
This would also be great to gift to friends and family. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
~Connie Kaye
NUTS
1.5 cups pecans
1.5 cups honey-roasted peanuts
1 cup salted roasted almonds
SPICE MIX
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tbsp smoked paprika (we just used 1 tbsp regular paprika, and it really isn’t spicy)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Whisk 1 egg white in a large bowl until frothy. Add the nuts and stir until evenly coated. Add the spice mix and toss to coat. Spread the nuts in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until toasted and just dry, about 25 minutes.
Let the nuts cool completely on the baking sheet (they will crisp as they cool). Break up any clusters.
In a very random conversation last week at work, my friend shared that she had made a frittata with leftover spaghetti (no sauce, mind you). I replied “I always make too much and throw it out”. Laura is with us today to share a super easy, economical and delicious way to use that leftover spaghetti (who doesn’t cook too much)???
Meet Laura
She found that this frittata is a great way to use up left-over spaghetti, and her family of three ate the whole thing and asked for it again the next night. I plan to try it soon, but I think I’ll have to mix it up with a few different meats cuz I live with Mr. All Meat Pizza – you could use browned sausage, canadian bacon, ham, etc. If you do try one of these alternatives to the bacon that Laura used, we would love for you to come back and comment below!
Step 1 involves chopping up the cooked spaghetti:
Step 2 – whisk the eggs and milk, and adding the yummy (bacon and cheese) ingredients:
The Final Frittata!
I could most definitely snarf a piece of that right now! I’m sharing Laura’s recipe below, and hope that you enjoy as I certainly plan to! Thanks for dropping by to get in on Laura’s quick weeknight meal!
~Connie Kaye
6 eggs
1 ½ cups cut-up cooked spaghetti
2 slices of chopped cooked bacon
1 cup of shredded cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 9 inch round pie plate with non-stick cooking oil.
Whisk the six eggs in a separate bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Laura added a Zesty no-salt substitute to give it a little more flavor without adding additional salt.
Stir in the 2 slices of pre-cooked bacon, ½ cup of shredded cheese and chopped spaghetti. (Laura used the Mexican four cheese blend because that is what she had on hand and wanted to use up.)
Pour the blended items into the pie plate and sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup of cheese. Bake for 30 min. or until center is set.
Cooking up good food and welcoming you into my kitchen
Connie Kaye's Kitchen 