Dinner Rolls....With Cake Mix!

Wouldn't it be nice if I could maybe cut something even remotely even?  Below is a photo I took of Cake Mix Dinner Rolls from Mommy's Kitchen Cafe while I was waiting for them to rise.

Hello one little tiny crescent roll!

On a good day, I can't cut or draw a straight line without a ruler.  In fact, for bake sales, I have been known to whip out a ruler to get things presentable.  Even then, it looks I like I didn't use a ruler.  So thinking I could divide a circle into 10 equal parts was probably expecting a bit too much.  Next time I'll divide the circle of dough into 8 parts.  Halving something is slightly less challenging.  Slightly.

Here's what the finished rolls look like.  At least what they look like after you take a big piggie chomp out of it.  In my defense, I wanted to show you the nice fluffy interior of the crescent rolls.  (And my messy kitchen counter.)

I loved how soft this dough was.  I don't know if it was the cake mix, or the fact that I decided to knead the dough by hand.  After the dough had risen it was like a little bread dough pillow.  Perfect for taking a nap in.  (Although, I think my family would have frowned on that.)

So why in the world would I knead this dough by hand when I have a swanky wondiferous stand mixer that could do the kneading for me?  The recipe didn't say how long to knead the dough and I was afraid of over kneading it. (Which, I am realizing, is what I've been doing when making bread sticks.) I didn't want chewy little crescent rocks.  I wanted fluffy pillows of goodness.  Which is exactly what I got.

The rolls themselves are slightly sweet.  Someone compared them to Hawaiian Rolls, but I don't feel like that is an accurate description.  I had some Hawaiian bread not too long ago, and I think it is much too easy to say any slightly sweet dinner roll tastes like Hawaiian bread.  Let's just say this is a different kind of light and airy sweet-ish sort of taste that works for a dinner roll.

I didn't taste the cake mix at all in the rolls.  Just the hint of sweetness.  I'm slowly becoming aware of the chemically taste in a lot of the pre-packaged foods out there (particularly Hamburger Helper.)  Thankfully, cake mix is not on that list.  I think cake mix is awesome and these rolls are just one more example that my opinion is right. Yay cake mix!



Cake Mix Dinner Yeast Rolls from Mommy's Kitchen Cafe
1 - (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
1 1/2 - cups warm water (110F)
3 1/4 - cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
1 - 9 oz package Jiffy yellow cake mix or 1 1/4 cups of a standard 18.5 oz yellow cake mix
1/4 - cup margarine, melted + additional butter to brush on baked rolls

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 min. Stir in flour and cake mix. Beat until dough is smooth. Add some flour on counter and knead any additional flour to  dough. Knead until it is not sticky anymore. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hr.

Lightly grease 2sheets. Deflate dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces and form into rounds. Let rest for 5 min and then roll into 12" circles. Brush melted margarine onto circles. Cut each circle into 10 wedges (or 8 if you are spatially challenged like me.) Roll up wedges, beginning at wide end.

Place on prepared baking sheets. Make sure you put the pointy seam down or they will puff up wonky, and not crescent like at all.  Cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with baking spray. Let rise until doubled, about 25 min. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F . Bake 12-15 min, or until golden brown. Brush with additional butter when done.

Pepperoni Roll Ups

These were so good we ate the entire batch before I could snap a picture. These babies have taken the internet by storm.  If you've been under a rock, and have no idea what I'm talking about, head over to Dinner with the Donnels for a great picture of the pepperoni roll ups .

You really don't need a picture to figure out how to make them. These guys are easier than hot dog roll ups to assemble!

1.) Separate crescent roll dough into triangles.
2.) place 4-5 pepperoni slices on the side of the triangle opposite the point.
3.)Cut a stick of string cheese in half and place it on top of the pepperoni.
4.)Roll the dough up around the cheese and pepperoni.
5.)Bake for 12-15 minutes. 
6.)Serve with marinara (I just used sauce from a jar) or ranch dressing.

 Blockette told me she likes this even better than regular pizza!  Woah.  Is that even possible???? 

Bubble Up Pizza

We really love pizza in this house, but we hardly ever have it. Why? Cause I am mean. And lazy. And cheap.  Usually, I just buy the Tombstone brand when it goes on sale.  They have this garlic bread version that costs the same as the regular crust. The crust is thicker on the garlic bread version so we eat less of it.  A regular frozen pizza feeds us for one meal, but the garlic bread from Tombstone feeds the three of us with enough leftovers to feed one grown up and a kid the next day.

But sadly, there haven't been good pizza sales lately. So no pizza for us.  I've also been too lazy to make dough from scratch.  I don't know why...it's not like it's any harder than making any other type of bread.  Laaaay-zeeee.  That's me.

Then I saw this recipe for bubble up pizza over at the awesome blog, Plain Chicken.  And guess what?  Biscuits were so cheap at the store they were practically giving them away.  Well, we've overcome all the obstacles that were preventing us from having pizza. Cheap? Check.  Easier than scratch? Check.  Mom meanness eradicated? Well, not so much, but we'll just pretend that since I made pizza I'm not so much of a mean mommy.

I had Blockette help me make this meal, with a lot more complaining than I expected at first.  The original task I set before her was to  quarter the biscuits with a butter knife. For some reason she didn't want to actually touch the biscuits.  I mean they were slimy and doughy.  Amidst her whining I started rolling the quartered biscuits into balls.  Then Blockette wanted to do that.  She wanted to do that very badly.

This was confusing to me. Wouldn't rolling the biscuits into balls involve her touching the dough a whole lot more than when she was quartering them?  Apparently I fail at understanding the logic of a six year old because she LOVED rolling the dough into balls.  OK.  Whatever works right?

I used lots and lots of cheese on this pizza, probably 3 cups.   I just hate it when there is more sauce than cheese, don't you?  Viva la queso! I also used whole package (the small one that is around 3-4 oz) of pepperoni.  It was Blockette's job to put the pepperoni on the pizza.  We decided that it would be best to put half under the cheese and half over the cheese.  That way some of the pepperoni would be soft and some would be crispy.

There was just shy of 2 cups of spaghetti sauce that I had found earlier in the week in the back of the freezer, so I used that for the sauce.  It had onions, garlic, red peppers, carrots, mushrooms, sausage and zucchini in it.  I also sprinkled on some extra Italian seasoning at Blockette's request.  Since the pizza was absolutely loaded down with cheese and pepperoni, Blockette didn't catch that she was eating hidden veggies, namely mushrooms.  I love when a sneaky plan comes together.

This pizza probably cost slightly more than the frozen variety, but we got to customize our toppings.  If the Tombstone pizza had as much cheese and meat on it as the Bubble Up Pizza did,  they would have charged double at the grocery store.  This pizza served the 3 of us for 2 meals, so it stretched just a tiny bit more than it's frozen counterpart. 

Finally, there is no comparison when it comes to aroma.  Any pizza, frozen or fresh, smells awesome while it is baking. The fresh pizza, just smells so much better.  Our whole house was filled with the scent of pizza and you can't really put a price on that.  I'll definitely be making this recipe again.

Bubble Up Pizza from Plain Chicken
2 cans (12oz) golden layer buttermilk biscuits
1 jar (15oz) pizza sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese
your favorite pizza toppings - cooked sausage, turkey pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut biscuits into quarters and place in medium bowl. Toss biscuits with pizza sauce. Add pizza topping and half of the cheese. Toss until well blended. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Pour biscuit mixture into pan and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, or until biscuits are done.

Cheater Pesto Breadsticks

While Blockette was at soccer practice the other day, I was trying to rack my brain for a way to spruce up the leftover spaghetti we were going to be eating for dinner. Then I remembered this recipe for pesto bread sticks from The other side of 50.

I had jared pesto and crescent roll dough in the back of the fridge. It was fate! All I did was flatten out the dough into one long sheet. Then I covered half of the dough with pesto, and folded the dough over so the non pesto side was covering the pesto. After that, I grabbed the pizza cutter and cut the dough into 8 strips. I gave them a few twists before putting them on the baking sheet. I followed the baking time and temp that was on the crescent roll package.

The original recipe says to add sun dried tomatoes. I didn't have any on hand. I'm sure they'd make a tasty addition. I bet you could add cheese or even olives. Of course, I didn't have anything like that on hand. They were really tasty with just the pesto.

The breadsticks rejuvinated the leftovers enough so no one complained about eating leftovers. Mission accomlished. Just beware, with all the garlic in the pesto, your family may take turns stinking each other out!

Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole

This is another one of those ugly but good recipes. I like that you can see all the different layers through the side of the dish. That's about the only nice thing about this photo.

I had a bit of difficulty with Taste and Tell's Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the recipe. The recipe was great, my ability to make sure I have everything I need before I start making something is not.

My first mistake was not having the proper size baking dish. The recipe calls for a deep dish pie pan. I only have the regular kind. So I used this lovely gold baking dish. Doesn't it look like it is from the 70's? (I got it second hand so it probably is.) Any food photographer will tell you the more yellow tones in a food picture the more appealing it is. NOT! (I'll use any excuse to justify a bad food picture.) Anyhow, the circumference of the dish was smaller than a pie dish so I had to overlap the crescents to get them to fit. That's why the top looks so bumpy.

Mistake number two came when I grabbed the container of sour cream and realized Mrblocko used a nice big dollop on his chili he took to work that morning. I opened the sour cream to discover only a scant 1/4 cup remained. The recipe called for 1/2 cup. I think the casserole still tasted fine, but the cheese wasn't as gooey as it should have been. This may have worked in my favor because Blockette does not like gooey cheese. Hopefully, she will grow out of that. There is something terribly wrong about not liking gooey cheese.

The third mistake came when I realized we were still out of Parmesan. I guess that's what happens when you don't buy any at the grocery store. It doesn't magically restock itself in your fridge. Yet again, I substituted Parmesan from the *GASP!* green jar. Please forgive me. You know what? It wasn't that bad. The top didn't brown up as nicely as it could have, but it was OK in the taste department. I think mixing the parm with melted butter reduced the powdery grittiness you usually get from the green jarred stuff. It would have been better with the real thing though.

I don't know if this was a mistake, but I used reduced fat crescent rolls. For some reason the reduced fat turn out more doughy than flaky. I prefer the flaky version. (You are what you eat right?) The next time I make this I'll remember to use the original crescent rolls, or at the very least bake the dish longer if I use the reduced fat.

Blockette said she didn't like this dish and begged me not to make it again. She ate all of what I put in front of her, so I'm guessing she was just saying that to be contrary. Shocking! I know!! A three year old being contrary. What is this world coming to? Too bad for her, she has been over ruled. I will make this again. Mrblocko and I both liked the casserole and it was super easy to throw together. Although, for some reason Mrblocko thought this was a Mexican dish and put hot sauce all over it. What is wrong with that boy? Sometimes he is sooooo broken!!!


Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole from Taste and Tell
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup tomato pasta sauce
6 oz. (1 1/2 cups) shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (8-oz.) can Pillsbury® Recipe Creations (Or Crescent Dinner Rolls)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Heat oven to 375°F. In large skillet, cook ground beef and onion over med for 8-10 min til beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain. Stir in pasta sauce; cook til heated. Meanwhile, in med bowl, combine mozzarella and sour cream; mix well. Pour hot beef mixt into ungreased 9 1/2 or 10" glass deep-dish pie pan or 11×7"(2-quart) glass baking dish. Spoon cheese mix over beef mix. Unroll dough over cheese mix. In small bowl, mix Parmesan and butter. Spread evenly over dough. Bake at 375°F 18-25 min til deep golden brown.

Ribs and garlic twist rolls

Memorial day we had spare ribs for dinner. My knowledge of ribs is diddly squat. I know that country ribs are meatier and don't come in a slab. That's it. Usually we buy the precooked Lloyds ribs, but they don't always carry them at the store. This time Mrblocko wanted to try grilling a real slab of ribs. The spare ribs were ridiculously on sale this week, so why not give it a go.

The original plan was to cook the ribs in the crock pot, then char them on the grill. We were going to visit family in the morning and in doing the math, we realized if we put them in the crock pot before we left, we'd be eating dinner way early and if we put them in when we got home, we'd be eating in the middle of the night. So we changed plans and cooked them for an hour and a half in the oven before slapping them on the grill. This worked out quite well as the day turned out to be a bit chilly and the oven warmed the kitchen nicely.

Since I don't know anything about ribs, I don't know if spare ribs are normally this huge. Compared to the Lloyd's ribs these guys looked like something on the Flintstones. Mrblocko only ate 3 ribs and he normally downs a full half slab.

Blockette was very excited that we were eating the ribs of a pig. You know there are lots of kids out there who get squeamish when they find out meat actually comes from a real live animal. Not this kid. We talked about bones and ribs and pigs all through the meal. There is a girl from Sunday school who's grandparents (who also go to our church) own a pig farm. We also talked about how they feed and care for the pigs so they can get big and fat so we can eat them. She thought that was fascinating.

Oh, the 2 round things on the plate are garlic cheese twists. Can't forget about them. They are made from crescent roll dough. Fun and super easy.

Garlic Butter Cheddar Cheese Twists from Liesl's Confection Dissection
1 package of reduced fat crescent rolls
1 tablespoon butter, melted
garlic salt
cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray a muffin pan with pam. Separate crescent rolls into 4 squares, which is 2 crescent rolls together. Press the part of the square that has the perforation (where you would separate them) together. You don't want to dough to come apart when you twist it. Cut each square into thirds longways. Then take one of the thirds and twist it up, tucking one end underneath so it doesn't come apart. Place into the greased muffin pan. Continue process until you have finished all the twists. Combine melted butter with a couple dashes of garlic salt. Brush the tops of the twists with the garlic butter mixture. Sprinkle tops of twists with cheddar cheese.Place in oven and bake 10-12 minutes til nice and golden.

Taco Pockets

I think I've had a revelation as to why pictures on other people's blogs look so nice, (aside from the fact that they are better photographers,) they actually take time to plate the food in a visually appealing way. Well, I was just too hungry last night to even make a lame attempt. I got this recipe from Taste of Home where they are called Taco Crescents.

When I told Blockette I was going to make Taco Crescents for dinner she wrinkled her nose and said, "I don't like Taco Crescents." As I assembled this dish I scrambled for a way to convince her that she should at least try some of the "new" dinner. I thought to myself, they look sort of like a pocket. Blockette loves pockets. I bet she would eat this if I told her it was a Taco Pocket. Heh...I was right. I even got her to eat black olives, something she usually spits out. As she was eating a Pocket she asked me what the black "stuff" was. I replied as nonchalantly as I could, "Oh, that's just part of the taco." Several bites later she tells me, "Mommy, I like this black taco part."

I would make these again. They were a little tricky to roll up without having the ground beef fall out. If I had been thinking I would have pressed 2 crescent triangles into a rectangle. However, the crescents were perfect size for Blockette to eat without making a mess. Had I made them into rectangles, they would have been stuffed fuller. I would be willing to bet most of the meat would have wound up on the floor instead of in Blockette's belly.

It will be interesting to see how these fare as leftovers. Cold crescent rolls aren't nearly as tasty as the ones fresh from the oven.

Taco Pockets from Taste of Home
3/4 pound ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 package (1-1/4-ounces) taco seasoning
1 can (4-1/4-ounces) chopped ripe olives, drained
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tubes (8-ounces) tubes refrigerated crescent rolls

In large skillet, cook beef and onion til meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in taco seasoning and olives; set aside to cool. Add eggs and cheese. Unroll crescent roll dough and separate into triangles. Place triangles on an ungreased sheet. Place 2 T meat mix onto each triangle. Roll and shape into crescents. Bake at 375° for 10-15 min til lightly browned. 8 servings.