West Virginia Pepperoni Rolls

I've mentioned in the past that when it comes to food in West Virginia, about 80% falls into one of four categories:

1. Buscuits
2. Hot Dogs (dressed with chili and slaw)
3. fried
4. pulled pork BBQ

The other 20% consists mostly of football game type foods (College football is a way of life here) and pepperoni rolls. You can literally find pepperoni rolls in every gas station checkout, they are that popular. In this house they are literally consumed by the fistful, I make them 24-36 at a time and they rarely last more than two days.

West Virginia Pepperoni Rolls

You Need:
-Bag of frozen yeast dinner rolls (I use just regular Kroger brand)
-bag of pepperoni (I prefer hormel)
-block of mozerella

Step One:

Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray and place frozen rolls as you would cookies leaving space for growth (I fit 12 per sheet) spray plastic wrap with cooking spray, cover rolls, and allow them to thaw/rise for 2 hours.

Step Two:
cut the block of cheese into 24 equal pieces and sandwich between pepperoni (I use 3 pepperoni on each side with a total of 6 pepperoni in each roll)

Step Three:
press the pepperoni/cheese sandwiches into the center of the thawed roll and fold the dough up and around until it is completely encased. 

Step Four:
place rolls back on the cookie sheet and recover with plastic wrap and allow to rise again 

 

once they have puffed up nicely (usually a couple hours) pop them into the oven according to instructions on the roll package.

 

once the rolls are cooled store them in a gallon size ziplock bag.

ENJOY!

What's For Dinner- Tuesday- Potato Soup

CAUTION: The recipe you are about to read is so good you may find yourself making highly inappropriate 'MMMMMMMMM's' at the dinner table....you've been warned.


What's For Dinner- Tuesday

Potato Soup

You Need:

-1 bag southern style diced hash browns

-1 8oz block of cream cheese (softened)

-1 can cream of chicken soup

-32 oz chicken broth

-onion powder

-original Mrs. Dash

-salt

You can make this on the stovetop or in the crockpot, just depends on what time frame you are looking at, on the stovetop this can be made in less than an hour, or if you are looking for something to throw in the crock to cook all day that works as well, its very versatile.

Step One:

Put softened cream cheese and 1 cup of broth in a microwave safe bowl, microwave in one minute increments wisking together until cream cheese is nicely melting and integrating with broth. (Doesnt have to be lump free, just wanted to get it started)

Step Two:

Break up the hash browns so you don't have a huge potato block and pour them directly into the crock pot. Add cream cheese mixture,cream of chicken soup,chicken broth, one teaspoon onion powder and two teaspoons Mrs. Dash and salt to taste (I added about 1/2 teaspoon). Stir ingredients together, cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6, if you are making on the stovetop bring to boil stirring occasionally until thickening occurs and potatoes are soft.  You can add an array of items to this soup, dress it any way you like or eat it plain...you will not be disappointed.

 ENJOY!

 

What's For Dinner-Monday- Baked Cheddar Ranch Chicken & SIMPLE Southern Style Green Beans

Confession:
I am a neglector of blogs....a blog neglector...that is what I am...but NO MORE! I am going to attempt to post a blog everyday. Right here, right now, I pledge to be that annoying person at dinner who cannot touch her food until she has taken a picture.

What's For Dinner -Monday

Baked Cheddar Ranch Chicken Tenders & Simple Southern Style Green Beans

This dinner was 50% intentional, 50% serendipity and 100% yummy! I got the idea for the chicken from one of my FAVORITE blogs, Plain Chicken. My recipe is a slightly altered version of her Crispy Cheddar Chicken Tenders. If you have not yet checked out the Plain Chicken blog, do yourself a favor and do so, you will not be disappointed. Her recipe yields more of a fully breaded chicken tender, I was going for more of a southern pan fried look.

Baked Cheddar Ranch Chicken Tenders

You Need
2 lbs chicken tenders
1/2 sleeve Ritz Crackers
1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 envelope Ranch dressing mix
2 cups milk

 PREP: 
Pour 2 cups milk into a large ziplock and marinade the tenders the morning you plan to cook, let them marinade all day, this little milk bath will make your chicken super moist!

 Step One:
Preheat oven to 400.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine crackers, cheese, and Ranch mix.  Pulse until you have fine crumbs.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

 Step Two:
Remove chicken from milk marinade and place on a foil lined baking pan.

 Step Three:
Liberally sprinkle cheesy coating over tenders and bake for 12-15 minutes.

 I attribute this next recipe to pure unadulterated serendipity. After I made the chicken I was left with half a packet of ranch dressing mix, not wanting to waste it I decided to throw it into the side dish and that is when magic happened. I ended up with southern style green beans (you know, the kind that you cook with a ham hock all day and add a billion things to including vinegar) in less than 2 minutes.


Simple Southern Style Green Beans

You Need
2 cans cut green beans
1/2 envelope ranch dressing mix
1/2 bag bacon crumbles (NOT the crunchy bacos, the real bacon crumbles, I use Oscar Mayer)

Step One:
Drain green beans leaving approx. 1 tbsp liquid and pour into microwavable bowl.

Step Two: 
Add bacon and ranch mix, stir and microwave for two minutes.

THAT'S IT ! These beans were a hit! Not to mention these taste like authentic Southern Style green beans that have been slaved over!

Finished off our "waste not, want not" meal by using up some leftover hotdog buns, popped those in an 8X8 baking dish, spritzed the tops with some I cant believe its not butter spray and popped them into the oven (still at 400 from chicken) for about two minutes..TA-DA..."fresh" rolls!