How do you Rotel?

Everyone knows how to make Rotel (cheese dip). The most simple way is to mix a can of Rotel and Velveeta, and voila. I saw someone ask on Twitter the other night if anyone added anything different to theirs. And trust me, there were a lot of variations!
My dad has always enjoyed cooking and he is the type of cook who likes to experiment. Somewhere along the line, he began making his cheese dip this way, and when I make it, I don’t make it any other way because nothing else tastes as good as this!

In addition to the Velveeta and Rotel, add a can of cheddar cheese soup and a spoonful of sour cream. The sour cream makes it incredible smooth and the cheddar cheese kicks the flavor up. I love to use the spicier Rotel but when little mouths are eating, it’s better to use the mild.

It looks just like regular Rotel, but I PROMISE it tastes much better!!! Give it a try!!!
We made this to use along side Pioneer Woman’s Tequila Lime Chicken. She made it on Saturday’s show and we decided to give it a try. VERY good. Add in the fact that it was super easy, and it’s an even bigger hit!!! You can find the recipe here.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Last week I spent an afternoon with my mom learning how to make the cinnamon rolls we grew up having. She learned from my grandma, who learned from my great-grandma, and so on. I’m going to share the recipe with you.

 

Cinnamon Rolls

 

6 tablespoons Crisco
1 cup milk

 

Heat Crisco and milk on stove top, stirring until the Crisco is melted. Remove from heat and let cool.

 

¾ cups sugar
2 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons salt 
2 packets of yeast, or if you buy in bulk, 2 heaping tablespoons 
4 eggs

 

Add the sugar, water, salt and yeast to a bowl and mix slightly and let sit for yeast to activate. When the mixture looks bubbly, add the cooled Crisco and milk mixture. Sift in flour (no exact measurement… just dump a couple cups in the sifter and add it… & you may need to add more, it just depends on the consistency of the dough) and mix with a spoon until it reaches a cake batter consistency.

 

Then add the 4 eggs and beat with a mixer until fairly smooth. Then continuously sift in more flour until a dough forms (you will be able to use a spoon at first but will have to use hands at the end. And once again, there are no exact measurements. My mom said that she ends up using around 4-5 cups total flour in the first step and this step).

 

Then beat & knead the dough to get out air bubbles and work it into a large ball form.

 

Once all the ingredients have been mixed, pour just a small bit (no measurement again) of oil in a large bowl and place the dough in the bowl. Work the dough around to get it coated with the oil and place the oil covered side face up in the bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise. Once the dough has risen (after a couple hours more or less), knead and punch down. Cover with the towel and let rise again.

 

After the dough has risen a second time, it’s time to form the rolls. Melt some butter (no measurements again! Recognize a pattern?) in a pan and have it melted before you start.  Spray pans with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle flour over your work surface. Using your hand, pull the dough up out of the bowl and use a knife to cut a portion of it off.

 

Spread the dough out on your work surface being careful not to push it down too much, but rather just shape it.

 

Spread your melted butter out over the dough.

 

Then cover with brown sugar.

 

Sprinkle with cinnamon.

 

Roll your dough into a log and then cut off rolls. Place them in the pan, filling your pan. After your pan is filled, let them rise for a bit in the pan.

 

Repeat until all the dough has been used. I think the batch we did made 5 pans of rolls.

Bake at 375 degrees until the tops are a light brown (approximately 15-20 minutes). Remove from oven and let cool.    

Once all the rolls have been baked, mix together powdered sugar, vanilla, and water to form a glaze (and again no measurements, just to taste! the glaze should be slightly runny to allow it to go over the rolls easily). Drizzle over your rolls and voila!

These freeze well and are great to give people around the holidays!

 

Another plus: If you can get the dough made, you can use it for dinner rolls too! My mom often makes up a batch and does a couple pans of dinner rolls and then the rest as cinnamon rolls. Two for the price of one! I’m nervous about trying these on my own but excited to know how!

Recipe Testing via Pinterest

One of everyone’s favorite things to do on Pinterest is drool over all the yummy looking food! Since the beginning of the year we have really attempted to cut down our eating out, thus looking for new and yummy recipes. I thought I’d do a post of some of the recipes we have tried and whether they were hit or misses!

 

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps via Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

 

The flavor of these and the ingredients were very good! However, it was much easier to just make them as quesadillas instead of wraps.

 

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos via gimme some ovenLOVED these! Such good flavor and such an easy, light meal! And cooking in the crock pot – yes please!!!

 

 

 Honey Butter Pork Tenderloin via Momma Hen’s Kitchen This was a hit too.. would have been even better if I hadn’t grabbed the hot pan handle with no oven mitt. OUCH! But the pork was great – serve up with some salad and steamed veggies – great meal!

 

 

Dried Strawberries via The Worldwide Gourmet Oh, I had high hopes for these. And they turned out in a big, fat fail! I have no idea if I did something wrong but they never got dry. So disappointing.

 

Baked Club Pinwheels via Plain Chicken We LOVE these! These are a regular on our dinner rotation now. We only use ham and turkey, or just one of them and they are still so good. And talk about easy. Prep done in about 3 minutes and dinner done in 20.

 

Baked Fried Chicken via Our Life Uncommon This didn’t turn out so well. It never got crispy like the picture. I think part of the problem was that I was trying to cut the calories so I omitted using the 1/2 stick of butter and instead put them on a cookie sheet to bake. I think they would have been good if I’d followed the recipe so we may try again.

 

Seasoned Roasted Potatoes via Iowa Girl Eats Oh this is so good! And so easy! I’ll eat one of these for lunch with some steamed brocooli. It takes a baked potato up a notch without the cheese, sour cream, etc.

 

Skinny Skillet Lasagna via The Realistic Nutritionist All of us liked this a LOT! However, I made a few changes. We just used one can of the diced tomatoes. Also, my family isn’t big fan of the chunky tomatoes so I put it in the food processor and pureed it to a sauce. The only negative was that the noodles didn’t really hold the sauce well so there was a big pile of sauce left. The next we make this, we plan to use some smaller noodles that will help with that problem.

 

Queso Blanco via Pennies on a Platter Can you say yum? This is GOOD. One of our favorite meals is homemade mexican – fajitas, spanish rice and this. I’ve tweaked it a bit – I use more of the jalapenos and omit the diced chiles. I also add a little cayenne pepper for some heat as well as a dash of garlic salt. Zach told me the last time that this is better than what you get at a mexican restaurant!

 

 

And just a few desserts!!

 

 

Caramel Brownies via Annie’s Eats Oh.my.word. Were these ever good! I made them last football season and they were a hit! I even used a brownie mix and they were to die for! RUN and Make them. But make sure you have somewhere to take them!

 

Carmelitas via Lulu the BakerThis was another recipe that disappointed me. I made these for a ffundraise at Ava’s school. For me, they fell a little flat. The picture looked better than they tasted.

 

 

What recipes have you tried and loved?? Or which ones should I avoid????

Cupcake suckers!

Or cake pops if you prefer. Cupcake suckers is what Ava calls them. :) Or I have a friend who refers to them as SOAS. ;)

Anyway, I in no way came up with the concept (duh), but enjoy making them and thought I’d share my tips. I think these are tons easier than just making cake balls. Having them on a stick makes them so much easier to dip.

So, make your cake. You can pick any flavor. I went with funfetti. While it’s still warm, break it up into a bowl. Add your frosting.Mix it all together. I used my Pampered Chef potato masher and it works wonderfully for this! Looks lovely at this point. Once you get to this point, I highly recommend putting it in the refrigerator or freezer. It’s much easier to shape and mold if it’s cold. Then shape it into balls or whatever shape you prefer. I did some Valentine’s shapes in this batch. Once they are shaped, I cover them and put them in the freezer. I let them get good and cold before trying to stick the sticks in and dipping them. They are 10x easier to work with after some time in the freezer. I put the sticks in mine and stick them back in the freezer before starting the dipping process. For the outside coating, you can use vanilla or chocolate almond bark or colored candy melts.Melt your coating per the directions. I add a bit of shortening to mine to smooth it out and make it a little more runny. While that is melting, I set up my workstation. Yes, that is a strainer! I needed something to put them in after dipping to avoid a flat bottom. This works perfectly and it is something most everyone already has on hand!

Ava dipped for me while I took pictures. Just take  your cake pop and swirl it in the melted coating. I also tilt the bowl to help get the bottom covered.   Then add your decorations and stick it in the strainer to dry. This is how Ava’s ended up. I was very impressed! Finished product!!! Normal round ones, hearts, and lips!

These are a fun and easy treat and everyone loves them! They are also great at satisfying a sweet tooth with a small portion! Have fun making yours!!!!