Pretzelmaker at home!

Pretzelmaker is my very favorite mall food.
THIS is a darn close imitation, and can be made at home!
(which I'm sure is JUST what I need...hahaha!)
I intended to take pictures of the process but um...that didn't happen. Then I didn't get a picture of the finished product either! They were devoured much too quickly! 

These are about to be boiled...!

....I'll add pictures the next time I make it! hee hee!
Until then, here's my husband's tip. We made salted pretzel bites, parmesan pretzel bites and cinnamon/sugar pretzel bites, as per each of our personal orders, lol. The first pan he brushed with butter and salted...but we were on our way out the door and wanted our pretzels to go with us. We put them in brown paper lunch sacks to go. So for the other flavors, he brushed them with butter, put them in the sack and sprinkled the parmesan or the cinnamon/sugar straight into the bag and shook it up! Ready to go and soooo yummy!

Make your own Quiznos!

Once again, friends to the rescue, when it comes to dinner ideas!
A while ago, my friend told me about this idea she'd done for dinner. I asked her to email me the exact instructions, and then we gave it a try this past week. Here's what she said:

Just got some french bread. Cut it in half. Piled one half high with turkey from the deli and the other side I put probably a half pound of Muenster cheese and half pound of provolone. (I know, LOTS of cheese)

Then I had my oven on about 400 or so, maybe 425 and stuck them on the same cookie sheet, like two open faced sandwiches (does that make sense) and toasted them until the cheese looked melted and then I switched it to broil for about 3 minutes, until the cheese starts to bubble.

After it's been out of the oven just long enough I flip the cheese side onto the turkey side, the turkey side will fall apart if you try to flip that.

I got the french bread and deli turkey and deli ham...and I used the shredded cheeses we had in the house - cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan. Here's how mine turned out:

 and then I cut it into 3rds, (only 3 of us home that night) served it with apples (and lettuce...) and there was dinner!

A twist on french toast!

Here is another recipe from THIS website. This one is easy to find, click on step two and every single time I've visited, this is the first recipe shown! Its called Croissant French Toast. The recipe says you can use a loaf of french bread instead of croissants, and that's what I did - mostly because French Bread is cheaper!

So here's the process....

 and the finished product...

the edits...

I added an egg because the first egg cracked somehow inside the box so I hurried and flipped the box over the bowl and think I got about half an egg... so I had 3 and a half, lol. I left out the sauce because I was totally out of berries. *sniff... That extra half an egg had a LOT of batter left over and I really hate to throw away food so I ended up making 9 bread "sandwiches", instead of the four croissants it says. So all the berries went inside the sandwiches! LOL!
Also, if I make it again, I will half the butter/oil they cooked in. Or use a large electric skillet instead of my frying pan. That was waaay too much.

and the mixed reviews....
I thought it was just fine. It would be super tasty with whipped cream, like when I get berry covered waffles at the diner? lol. And I bet it would have been dreamy with the sauce.
Both of my kids told me it smelled "amazing" and "like heavenly deliciousness" but when they started eating, thought the berries were too sour and the sandwiches were yucky. sad!

My husband thought it was a "good different", and pretty much felt exactly how I did about it.
So if you're looking for a new idea, its worth a try! But no one in my family is going to request it often.

Key Lime Cheesecake

I have mentioned time and again that my husband is an amazing cook. And that he spoils me. My birthday was this week and he happened to see some Key Lime juice at the store the week before, so he made me a Key Lime cheesecake for my birthday cake! YUM!

The recipe he used came from allrecipes.com, and we printed it in July of 2006. So since I don't know if you can still find it, I'm just going to type the recipe and instructions here.

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tbsp butter, melted
24 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 eggs
1 tbsp grated lime zest
2/3 cup key lime juice

Combine graham cracker crumbs with butter or margarine. Press into bottom and partially up sides of 9 inch springform pan. Refrigerate.
In a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer, the cream cheese, sugar, lime peel and cornstarch until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, blending just until smooth. Add key lime juice with mixer on low. Finish mixing by hand. Do not over beat or cake will crack during baking. Pour batter into prepared crust.
Bake at 300 degrees F for 55-65 minutes, or until set. To minimize cracking, place a shallow pan half full of hot water on lower rack during baking.
Turn oven off, and let cheesecake stand in over 30 minutes with the door open at least 4 inches. Remove from oven. Refrigerate cake overnight and up to 3 days.

He even whipped up his own sauce to balance the tartness of the lime! In a mug he mixed some homemade strawberry jam with a little water, a little butter and a little milk, heated in the microwave and mixed with a spoon til smooth. It made maybe 1/3 cup worth of this syrup, and it really is the perfect complement to the cake.
Pretty sure my husband is the best! *grin!

A different lasagna!

I have now entered the world of Pinterest, have you? That is how I found THIS new dinner idea!

We used ground beef instead of chicken becuase we have more beef right now, lol. It was not a hit, but it was okay. It needed more flavor....but maybe feta is a super flavorful cheese? I used shredded mozzarella in place of the feta. My husband thought it needed salt in the mix, but that's not in the recipe. I used my own spaghetti sauce instead of Prego... I'm not sure what we should have done, lol, but it was filling and reasonably nutritious.

If you make it with chicken and feta, let me know how it turns out! :)

Cheesy Bread!

When we have Italian food we like to have cheesy bread on the side. Kinda like they make at pizza places. This is what ours looks like

and here's what we do...
My husband mixes cubed margarine, minced garlic, garlic powder and garlic bread sprinkle (could use garlic salt) and some parmesan cheese.
He spreads that onto halves of a loaf of french bread, then tops it with mozzarella cheese and sticks it under the broiler for a minute or two.