Bubble Pizza

I'd seen Bubble Pizza floating around the interwebs and it's been on my list of 'things to make' for a little while now.

I needed something to feed my pack of teens, plus Jon & me on Friday night. I also didn't want to spend a fortune on it. Then I remembered Bubble Pizza.



Bubble Pizza
2 (12 oz) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 (14 oz) jar of pizza sauce (Or your own homemade pizza sauce)
1 lb ground Italian sausage, cooked & drained
1/4 lb sliced pepperoni
1/4 lb bacon, cooked drained & diced (microwave bacon is perfect for this)
1 1/2 - 2 C shredded mozzarella/provolone cheese blend
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400F.
Grease a 13 x 9 baking dish.
Open canned biscuits and cut each uncooked biscuit into 4 pieces and put them into a large bowl. Toss with pizza sauce until well coated. Add sausage, pepperoni and bacon and mix well. Pour into greased baking dish. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake at 400F for 20 - 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cut up the biscuits in to quarters and place in a large bowl.


Add pizza sauce


Toss until well coated


Stir in the cooked sausage, bacon and pepperoni


Ok... that's not very pretty, but pour it into the greased baking dish and bake 20 - 25 minutes.

I missed the timer and this was a little more cooked than intended. But I like my pizza cooked well anyway!


I made the Meat Lovers version


And I made one with Pepperoni & Pepperonicinis


I'll be honest with you. The dinner reviews were kinda mixed. No one disliked it. I think one or two kids did like it. But everyone mostly thought it was just ok. I was a little disappointed, because it sounded like a fun easy dinner. And it DOES feed a lot! I doubled the recipe to make two different kinds, but we had about a full pan left, between the two of them. And my crew can really roll through pizza! So this really does feed a lot. One pan will definitely satisfy 4 teens & 2 adults.

But the good news is, it's an awesome room temperature leftover! So much tastier that way!

If I knew I had a swarm of hungry teens descending on the house later, this is definitely something I'd make ahead and cut into squares for their arrival.

So there ya go. Not a fail... and it made a very nice comeback as a leftover!

Sausage Balls

Hey! Happy New Year!!!

I hope your holidays were merry!

At my Gingerbread House Decorating Party, the activity itself took up an overwhelming majority of horizontal surface in my small house.

You might have noticed that I LOVE to feed people. There's no way I would invite people over without serving food & beverages; but this time, there would definitely not be any place for anyone to actually sit to eat. So I decided to serve only appetizers that could be eaten from a napkin or a toothpick.

Jeannie's Little Quiches would be perfect... hmmm... but little time for making all the little ones, since I procrastinated the menu until the very last minute. So I made her quiche in a 13x9 pan and cut it into little squares. Totally do-able on a napkin. Plus some dips... some olives/cornichons/onions/marinated mushrooms... what else?

Ah!! Sausage Balls!!

Growing up, every Christmas Eve was open house at our house. Our family and friends would come and go all evening. I can remember Auntie Louie and Uncle Bert (titles earned by being close friends to my parents) teasing my sister and I that we should get to bed so Santa would come...

Oh wait... sorry for the detour...

Sausage Balls... my mom made Sausage Balls for our Christmas Eve open house. I don't know if she made them every year or only once or twice. But they stand out in my mind. When something from my youth stands out so prominently like that, I get a little afraid that the recreation of it can never live up to my memory; but the Sausage Balls did not disappoint!

It's a 3 ingredient recipe, courtesy of Bisquick!



Sausage Balls
2 C Bisquick
10 oz Cheddar Cheese, shredded
1 lb Sausage

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix all ingredients until very well combined. Form into 1.5 inch balls.
Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
Enjoy!

This is all you need.


You can use whatever sausage you like. I went with Sweet Italian.

Mix all ingredients until very well combined.

The best tool for this is your hands.



Roll them into balls.


Bake on trays for 20 minutes at 350F.


That's it!


Why did I wait so long to make these?? They were so easy and so delicious!!

They totally lived up to my memory!

Ugh... I'm sitting at my desk, typing this, I had a Lean Cuisine for lunch, I'm looking at an apple... and all I want is some Sausage Balls!!

These were definitely a hit!! Bobby LOVED them. They disappeared quickly! I'll definitely be making them again soon. Super Bowl's coming up, they'd be PERFECT for that!!

If you loved these from your past or are just learning about them today, I highly suggest you give them a try!

Brats in Beer with Sauerkraut

Grill season is in full swing. What's your favorite thing to grill?

I can never choose. Anytime I fire up the coals, the kids usually want burgers & dogs. But I usually want to grill some chicken or steak or veggies or pork or shrimp... See my problem? I can't choose!! So typically, the minimum that ends up on my grill is burgers & dogs, plus at least one other protein.

One Jon's often requested grilled foods is Brats.


I didn't grow up eating these and honestly, I'm not a big fan. I'm not really sure how or why I started making them like this.

But Jon & our friends seem to really like them!

Brats in Beer with Sauerkraut
Brats
Sauerkraut, mostly drained
Beer
Onion, sliced
salt & pepper
Sausage Rolls (nice ones!)
Mustard (the good stuff!!)
Mayo (if you like)

Make a bed of sauerkraut in the bottom of a grill-safe pan.
Top with some sliced onions, then brats.
Top brats with more sauerkraut & sliced onions.
Sprinkle with a little salt & pepper.
Cover with beer.
Let that rest in the fridge for awhile (until the coals are ready)
Put the pan on the grill. If the beer is boiling too much... move it to a cooler part of the grill, so it doesn't totally boil off. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Pull the brats out of the sauerkraut and place them on the grill to get some nice grill marks on them. Serve them in a sausage roll that has really good mustard and mayo in it... add some of the sauerkraut & onions and enjoy!



I like to use little foil loaf pans for this. They each hold two brats plus kraut nicely.




Ok... looks like I added the beer before topping with kraut... but in hindsight... adding the beer last would be better!




Now to get the coals ready.

That's Jon's job. I hate to do it and I'm not very good at it. It takes me forever!

Coals are ready... on to the grill they go!


They are sharing the grill with some Ranch Turkey Burgers.

Steamy...


Ok... ready for some grill marks.

I moved them to the other grill... because that's where I had room!


One opened up a bit...


Time to get the sausage rolls ready.

Jon prefers Mr. Mustard for his brats... and he like mayo too.








That's it! Ready to eat!


That probably would have looked a little better cut in half! But I assure you... if you love brats... you'll love them like this!

Dying for Lasagna!

I was on the phone with my sister on Father's Day and asked her what they were doing for dinner. Apparently they had a meat sauce cooked up for a lasagna that never got cooked, so even though it was wicked hot, they were making lasagna.

As soon as she said that... I wanted some! I would have gone to her house for dinner, but it's a 10 hour drive.

So I just kept craving it.

But even though it was wicked hot here too, I couldn't hold out for cooler weather.

I wanted lasagna! I was able to wait almost a week before I made some!

There's no specific recipe for this. None of the amounts are exact.

I imagine it's pretty much how my mom made it.



Lasagna
1 box lasagna noodles
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 lb Italian sausage (I used both hot and sweet)
24 oz ricotta cheese
3 - 4 C shredded provolone & mozzarella cheese
1/2 - 1 C shredded asiago/parmesan/romano cheese blend
1 egg
a couple palm fulls of Italian seasoning
1 medium onion, diced
several cloves of garlic, minced
salt & pepper
6 - 8 C Spaghetti Sauce, your favorite recipe or prepared sauce

Brown ground beef & sausage in a pan with onions & garlic. Drain off fat, add a palmful of Italian seasoning and some salt & pepper to taste; add spaghetti sauce and simmer.

While that's simmering, boil lasagna noodles according to the directions on the box, rinse in cold water.

In a bowl, combine ricotta, provolone & mozzarella (reserve 1 - 2 C provolone/mozzarella), asiago/parmesan/romano cheese blend, egg, a palmful of Italian seasoning and some salt & pepper. Combine well.

Now the noodles, meat sauce and cheese mixture are all ready to be assembled.

Reserve 1 - 2 cups of meat sauce. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a lasagna pan. Top that with a single, overlapping layer of noodles. Then evenly spread half of the meat sauce over the noodles. Next evenly spread half of the cheese mixtures over the meat sauce. Top with another layer of of overlapping noodles and repeat. When you get to the top layer of noodles, cover with reserved sauce and reserved cheese. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Let stand for 15 - 20 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!!

So that's the jist of it.

Now when I was making this lasagna, I was totally yackin' on the phone with my sister. I was VERY excited because I found out that my schedule WILL allow me to attend my cousin Annie's wedding in August. Unfortunately Jon's schedule isn't going to allow him to go with me, but Tawny & Bobby will definitely go too. In addition to that, my cousin Charlie will be there WITH his daughter Nadia! I was VERY VERY excited! Can't wait to go to the wedding, can't wait to see Charlie, can't wait to finally meet his beautiful daughter in person, can't wait to see everyone who will be at Annie's wedding!

Sooo... excited and blabbering on the phone equals not paying too much attention to what I'm doing in the kitchen!

I was taking pictures, but totally forgot the onion and garlic with the meat.

So brown up the sausage & beef, with onions & garlic.
(Wanna add peppers or olives? Go for it! Toss in whatever you like!)

Drain and add sauce. I used canned sauce this time.


At this point I realized I forgot the onion & garlic, so I added onion & garlic powder with the Italian seasoning.


Let that simmer.

Boil your noodles according to the directions and don't forget to add salt to the water!

Mix up your cheeses!




Rinse the noodles in cold water.


Time to assemble!







Now into a 350F degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Pull it out of the oven and let it rest for at least 15 - 20 minutes. If you cut it too soon, the pieces will slide apart.



Take that time to throw some garlic bread in the oven and toss a big garden salad!

Now it's dinner time!!

Mmmmmm.... big meaty cheeses pieces of lasagna!




Jon likes it even better the next day.




Four minutes in the microwave and it's time for wicked good leftovers!


Sometimes it's worth being in a wicked hot kitchen when you just have to have some lasagna!!