PB Cheesball

Ingredients:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar 
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (not all-natural) 
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar 
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter chips
Graham cracker sticks, teddy grahams, and/or apple slices for dipping

Instructions:
Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until blended. 

Spoon onto a large piece of plastic wrap; bring up all four corners and twist tightly forming into a ball shape.

Freeze for 1 hour 30 minutes or until firm enough to keep its shape. Place peanut butter and chocolate chips in flat dish. Remove plastic wrap from ball and roll ball into morsels to completely cover, pressing morsels into the ball if necessary.

Place ball on serving dish; cover and freeze for 2 hours or until almost firm. (Can be made ahead. If frozen overnight, thaw at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.) Serve with graham cracker sticks, teddy grahams, or apple slices for dipping or spreading.

Snickers Popcorn

• 8 quarts air popped corn (about 2 cups of kernels)
• 1 cup salted butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup salted peanuts
• 30 “Fun Size” Snickers bars coarsely chopped
• 3 oz melted semi sweet chocolate (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200°
2. Over medium heat boil butter, brown sugar, salt and corn syrup for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in your baking soda.
4. Pour over your popcorn and stir to coat evenly.
5. Transfer to waxed paper lined counter and sprinkle peanuts on top. Stir until all is coated evenly.
6. Transfer popcorn into a large roasting pan and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and stir in your coarsely chopped Snickers. Return to oven for 3 more minutes so the Snickers begin to melt slightly into the popcorn.
8. Remove from pan and transfer popcorn back to wax paper to cool.
9. Drizzle melted chocolate on top of popcorn if desired.
10. Let set and store in an airtight container.

adapted from Paula Deen’s Caramel Corn

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 1 hour(s) 30 minute(s)

Pizza Bites

 

2

cans (13.8 oz each) Pillsbury refrigerated classic pizza crust

8

oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 48 cubes

48

slices pepperoni (3 oz)

1/4

cup olive or vegetable oil

1 1/2

teaspoons dried Italian seasoning

2

tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1

jar (14 oz) pizza sauce, heated

• 1Heat oven to 400°F. Spray two 9-inch pie pans or one 13x9-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray. Remove dough from both cans. Unroll dough; starting at center, press out each dough rectangle with hands to form 12x8-inch rectangle. Cut each rectangle into 24 squares.
• 2Top each square with cheese cube and pepperoni slice. Wrap dough around filling to completely cover; firmly press edges to seal. Place seam side down with sides touching in sprayed pie pans.
• 3In small bowl, combine oil and Italian seasoning; mix well. Drizzle over filled dough in pans. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
• 4Bake at 400°F. for 16 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm pizza bites with warm pizza sauce.

Cinnamon Caramel Popcorn

12 C popped popcorn (about 1/2 C kernels)*
1 C roughly chopped pecans
1 C brown sugar
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 C Karo syrup (or honey makes a good substitution)
1 stick real butter (1/2 C)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
3 squares almond bark

*You can use air popped or microwave popcorn. If using microwave, anything works, but I prefer a “natural” flavor that’s low in butter and salt.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

Place popcorn and chopped pecans in a large bowl and set aside. And by large bowl, I mean like, twice as big as you think you really need. If you don’t believe me, then maybe you will believe the scorching hot caramel goo that’s splattered all over your hands while you’re stirring in your not-so-big bowl. Just a thought.

Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a big, microwave-safe bowl. Like a 2-quart bowl or Pyrex measuring bowl. Again, use a bowl larger than you think you need to avoid scorching hot caramel goo accidents. It’s really important to incorporate the cinnamon into the brown sugar at this point. For some reason, if you don’t it does crazy things. I don’t know why. Try it and then email Alton Brown and ask him if you really want to know.

Chop butter into chunks and place on top of sugar mixture. Pour corn syrup (or honey) over the top of everything.

Microwave on high for 30 seconds (just to soften the butter a bit) and then stir to combine.

Return to microwave and heat for 2 minutes. Remove and stir and then microwave for 2 minutes more.

By this point it should be nice and bubbly like this.

If it doesn’t quite look like that you can microwave it a little longer, but just beware that if you overcook it, it will reach the hard candy stage and you’ll end up with a giant clump of tasty concrete-like substance with little popcorn pieces stuck to it. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Remove from the microwave and add in vanilla and baking soda.

The vanilla makes it bubble and pop and the baking soda makes it foam up, like this:

 pour it right over the popcorn and pecans. Stir right away, and stir lots. Take too long and the caramel will harden on you. Keep stirring until everything is well coated.

Spread popcorn mixture onto a foil-lined jelly roll pan.

 Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take a piece out and let it cool. “Sample.” If it’s not crunchy enough, bake for another 5 minutes.  When it’s done, give it a final stir and let it cool off for a bit while you melt your almond bark (just nuke it in the microwave according to the package directions) If you want, you can spread out your caramel corn on a clean piece of parchment, waxed paper, or foil. I always do this because sometimes it sticks to the hot foil if I leave it on the original pan. I’m kind of a clean control freak and I like to have it on a nice, fresh surface.

Now, just use a fork and drizzle the melted almond bark over the popcorn mixture.

When it’s hardened (pop it in the fridge to speed that process along) break into chunks and enjoy!

Fruity Popcorn

8 cups popped popcorn
1/4 C butter (that’s half a stick)
3 T light corn syrup (honey is a good substitute)
1/2 C sugar
1 3.5oz box jello, any flavor (not the sugar free kind)

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a jelly roll pan with foil or parchment. If using foil, spray lightly with non-stick spray and set aside. Place popcorn in an extra large mixing bowl.

Place butter and syrup in a sauce pan on medium heat. Stir until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello and stir to combine.

Increase heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat so it just simmers. Continue simmering for 5 minutes.

After the sugar mixture simmers for 5 minutes, immediately pour over popcorn in bowl. Be careful, it’s super hot!! Mix right away and keep stirring so everything gets well coated. Spread mixture onto prepared pan and spread out evenly.

Pop in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes.

Peanut Butter Popcorn

2 bags of Simply Salted (or similar) popcorn (or about 20 cups of popped popcorn)

2 c. honey roasted peanuts

3 c. peanut butter chips (I used Reese’s)*

2/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips *

1 Tbsp. vegetable shortening or oil

* If you want more chocolatey flavor in your popcorn, substitute 1 c. of the peanut butter chips with 1 c. of chocolate chips and then still drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn at the end.

Place the peanuts popped popcorn in a very large bowl. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the peanut butter chips and vegetable oil or shortening and heat for 2-2 1/2 minutes or until smooth, stirring every 30 seconds. Drizzle the melted peanut butter chips over the popcorn and peanuts and toss to combine.

Spread the popcorn onto a wax paper-lined baking sheet. In a Ziploc bag, heat the semi-sweet chocolate chips until just melted and smooth (about 1-1 1/2 minutes, mashing the bag every 20-30 seconds). Cut a small corner in the Ziploc bag and drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn. Allow to stand long enough to become solid (you can transfer the pan to the fridge or freezer to hurry this step along). When done, break the popcorn into small pieces and enjoy!

Sweet and Salty Caramel Snack Mix

6 cups graham cracker cereal (like Honey Grahams)
1 cup honey roasted peanuts
1 cup salted cashews or macadamia nuts--any salted nuts are good
1/2 cup butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup light Karo syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups Pretzel M&Ms or any M&M's you like (about 1 large bag)

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or wax paper and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Toss together the cereal and the nuts in a large bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, and Karo syrup and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it begins to boil. Allow to boil for 2 minutes (3 if you’re at a high elevation) and then remove from heat. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Drizzle the caramel mixture over the cereal/nut mixture and stir quickly to combine. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. When the caramel mixture has cooled but isn’t solid yet (just a few minutes), add the Pretzel M&Ms and toss gently to combine. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Bars

3 T. butter
3 T. creamy peanut butter
30 large marshmallows
6 c. Cap'n Crunch Cereal
1 1/2 c. M&M's

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray, set aside.

In a large pot on the stove melt butter, peanut butter and marshmallows on medium low heat, stirring occasionally. Once mixture is melted and all combined, remove from heat. Add cereal and M&M's quickly and stir quickly to well coat. As the marshmallow mixture cools it will become harder to mix.

Pour into prepared pan. Coat your hands with a little extra butter and press down the mixture into the pan to get it as even as possible. Allow to cool completely and cut into squares.

Cheerio Treats

Cheerio Treats

• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. corn syrup
• 1 c. creamy peanut butter
• 1 t. vanilla
• 5 c. Cheerios (I used Honey Nut Cheerios)

In a large sauce pan, combine sugar and corn syrup. Bring to boil over medium heat.

Allow mixture to boil for one minute and remove from heat.

Add peanut butter and vanilla to mixture and mix until smooth.

Add Cheerios and mix until all coated.

Drop mixture by spoonful onto waxed paper and allow to cool. 

Makes approximately 2 dozen.

Chocolate Covered Popcorn-easy

If you've never tried chocolate covered popcorn, you don't know what you're missing!

This version is quick and easy....

Pop 1 bag of butter flavored popcorn.

Spread the popcorn out on a baking sheet.

Melt 2-3 squares of almond bark or white chocolate in the microwave

Using a fork, drizzle the chocolate all over the popcorn.

Either leave the tray on the table for the chocolate to air dry or pop the tray into the freezer for 2 minutes.

You can make this ahead of time and store it in plastic Ziploc bags.

It's great for gift-giving, too!


MMM!! Delicious!