Friday Night Bites: Cook Crook Created Sausage and Cheese Wonton Cups

Planning a get together for the Big Game? My family is having a ton of people over for Sunday and since we are providing the main dishes and asking people to bring their favorite sides, I am excited to see what people come up with.

Do need an appetizer for your Super get together? Try these sausage and cheese wonton cups. We had friends over for the NFC and AFC Championship games and I was looking for a fun finger food to make. I had just bought a package of wonton wrappers and was originally going to just make Chinese dumplings. However, I had come across a Bob Evans recipe for wonton sausage cups. The idea of turning the wontons into crunchy little vessels to hold yummy filling, sounded like a great idea. What didn’t sound great was the recipe which included a lot of cheese and Ranch dressing. Seriously ranch and cheese and sausage? I am sure some of you out here have had these and think they are delicious but I was not game for it.

Instead, I looked around my kitchen, found a pound of ground Italian sausage and a container of chive and onion cream cheese and thought that would make a much better filling! I followed the instructions from the original recipe on how to make the wonton cups. Spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray and carefully push in a wonton wrapper into each well, making a fluted cup.

Into a 375 oven they go for about 5 minutes…just until they brown slightly. Remove them and allow them to cool. If you are like me and just own one mini-muffin pan you will have to repeat this step several times! In the end you will have a ton of fillable cups.

Next brown and crumble the sausage, drain it and allow it to cool slightly.

Add the tub of cream cheese, and mix well:

Next fill each cup with the filling.

Place back into the oven for about 8 minutes…again carefully watching for the right amount of browning.

Voila, pretty and tasty appetizers.

Both my husband and step-daughter went CRAZY over these. I originally intended to only make half the package of wontons but their pre-game snacking required the rest of the package get used.

I am excited to try different meat and cheese combinations…just no ranch thanks!

Friday Night Bites: Driscoll's Moments Cooking Demonstration

Tonight I am excited to be joining my first virtual cooking/tasting event! Driscoll's berries is using social media to host a live cooking demonstration with Chef Rick Rodgers of Williams-Sonoma and Bon-Appetit fame.  In preparation and support of the event I am preparing the Brie with Honeyed Raspberries and Pistachios. I am sure it won't look as beautiful as the picture as the photo Driscoll's provided, but I have no doubt it will be delicious. You can register for the event at www.driscollsmoments.com and Tweet tonight's hashtag #DriscollsMoments. Below is the recipe for the brie and hope to Tweet you later!

Holiday Warm Brie with Honeyed Raspberries and Pistachios

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Servings: 4 to 6

Number of Ingredients: 7

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shelled pistachios

1 wheel (13.3 ounces) ripe Brie, box reserved, top rind sliced off,

cheese chilled

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 package (6 ounces or 1 1/4 cups) Driscoll’s Raspberries

Water crackers or baguette slices for serving

Preheat the oven to 350˙F. Spread the pistachios on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring

occasionally, until lightly toasted and fragrant, about 10 minutes.

Transfer to a plate.

Place Brie, in its box, on baking sheet. Bake until warm and the top

is softened, but not until cheese is oozing, about 15 minutes.

Transfer cheese in box to serving platter.

Stir honey, vinegar, and rosemary in a medium skillet over medium

heat just until warm. Add raspberries and pistachios and gently fold

in with a rubber spatula.

Pour raspberry mixture over warm cheese. Serve at once, with the

crackers for spreading.

Friday Night Bites: Recipe Re-Do - Turkey Burgers

It takes me a while to "finish" a recipe. Even when I find something I (and the family) really like, I still tweak it a bit each time I make it until it either becomes second nature or the recipe is at the best place possible with no other substitutions or changes needed. Take the turkey burgers I made with the kids for instance. They were delicious but I knew I could make a few changes here and there. Rachel Ray's recipe calls for red peppers but this time I used green and I upped the cumin and chili powder quotient a bit since no one shies away from spicy. I also changed how I cooked them:

For me, the grill pan made a huge difference versus the non-stick skillet Rachel suggests. I used some super thick cut bacon this time around (baked in the oven of course!) and I made sure to use the family's favorite cheese. We added grapes and some sweet potato fries:

Eaten in a flash. My step-daughter prefers turkey burgers to regular burgers now and the flavor and moistness of these burgers make them a good choice for even the current non-turkey burger lover.

Happy Friday everyone! Hope your weekend is full of yummy food!

Friday Night Bites: Fall Pork Roast

I am still kicking myself that I didn't take a picture of the finished product but here is the before of my little 2.5 pound boneless pork roast nestled in the crock-pot of goodness.

You can see the freshly pitted dates and onions and the fresh rosemary. What you can't see is the cored, peeled and sliced yellow delicious apples. To this I also added 1 cup of chicken broth, 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon of cloves, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of allspice. It just sounded good together so in it went.

At the end of the work day I came home to a house smelling of Fall! The pork was tender and flavorful and the other ingredients made a delicious warm compote. At the end of dinner, I strained the remaining solids in the pot and stored the liquid for later use...I am thinking it will snazz up my ever faithful crock-pot pork barbecue!

Friday Night Bites: Easy Homemade Pizza

Some nights, especially Fridays I purposely plan for an easy meal using a mix of pre-made and fresh ingredients. One particular Friday, it was just me and the 4 year-old at home because my husband was out and I had "homemade pizza" on the menu (not to be confused with when I put "pizza" on the menu meaning we are hitting our favorite local pizzeria!). My son, like most little kids does love pizza, but it's all cheese or nothing at this point in his preschooler existence. So what's a mom to do? Do what they do at the pizzeria...make it a partial pizza!

I had some store bought tomato sauce on hand as well as pizza dough from my grocer's deli section. I also had al fresco chicken sausages on hand (as I do a lot I suppose), this time the roasted pepper and asiago flavor. the great thing for me with those sausages is that they are precooked and super easy to slice. I also had some grape tomatoes on hand and finished everything with some sprinkled Italian seasoning:

Notice I left about a quarter of the pizza "plain" just for my little guy! Topped with cheese and baked int he oven at 475 degrees for 10-15 minutes and the result:

I have always used the wheat pizza dough and really like the taste and texture. The only change it really needs is the use of a pizza stone or pan. I try and mitigate the soft bottom crust issue by baking my pizza first on my cookie sheet and then removing it and finish baking it directly on the oven rack. Then the next logical step is for me to start making my own dough....which is something I am working up to and can't wait to share!

Friday Night Bites: MacGyver Night Recipe

Last night was MacGyver night at my house…no, not a DVD marathon (although I secretly wouldn’t mine owning the whole series!) but a night in which I simply put “pork” on the menu and I needed to come up with something. I have discussed my MacGyvering before and how it has become a big part of how I prepare dishes and end up coming up with new recipes. On this night, I am little late with the grocery shopping so my “fresh” options were severely limited but since I had thawed from the freezer about a 2 pound package of boneless pork chops due to the menu, I had that as my main protein.

A quick review of the cabinets and freezer and a dish was born. Say hello to pan fried teriyaki chops with jasmine rice and sautéed garlic spinach!

It took on half bottle of Lawry’s 30-minute marinade (teriyaki flavor), flour, olive oil, 2 table spoons of butter, 2 cloves of garlic, half a bag of frozen chopped spinach and 1 package of Uncle Ben’s 90 second rice.


For the record going forward if I am ever preparing a simple side dish of spinach, I will now ALWAYS prepare it sautéed in a pan! In this case, after I fried the pork, I used the reserved  hot oil, added the butter and garlic and then cooked the spinach until hot. Added a little salt and pepper and I could have sworn it was like the same dish I prepare using fresh leaves!

Have you had a MacGyver moment? Share with The Cook Crook!

Friday Night Bites: Labor Day Weekend Recipes

Labor Day weekend is upon us! And many of us will probably be grilling:

Check out these links with recipes and grilling ideas for your Labor Day holiday weekend!

Paula Deen Great Grilling Recipes

All Recipes Best BBQ Recipes

Cooking light Backyard Smoker Recipes

We are having a BBQ and attending another so I'll have lots to share on the other side of the holiday! Enjoy your weekend!