Churros

This is one I was way excited for and for the first time, with the crescent roll recipes, was somewhat disappointed. There's just no substituting a real churro. (Oh, how I would love a churro right now.)

Ingredients
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 can crescent rolls
2 tbsp melted butter

Heat oven to 375. In small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon, set aside. Unroll dough, separate into 4 rectangles. Press each into 6x4 rectangle, perssing perforations to seal. Brush tops of 2 rectangles with melted butter; sprinkle with about half of the sugar mixture. Top each with remaining rectangle. Press edges lightly. Brush tops with melted butter.

With sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut each rectangle stack lengthwise into 6 strips. Twist each strip 3 times; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Brush tops with any remaining butter; sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture.

The only thing I didn't do, was I didn't use all the butter and sugar mixture. That might've been just enough to pusht the sugary flavor up a notch and put this one in my good graces. Everyone else still liked it, so maybe I'm biased because I love real churros. Since I can't have them here, I suppose this is a decent substitute. These are still yummy and tasty. Don't be ruined by my bias. :)

Crispy Deli Wraps

These came out so good! They were awesome! Also an appetizer. I was pretty excited for these guys and rightfully so. I'm glad I doubled the recipe. I could've tripled it and maybe had some leftover. They were great.

Ingredients
1 box (9 oz) frozen spinach
2 cups Bugles corn snacks (I'm sure other corn chips would do, I imagine. I did use Bugles.)
1/4 cup butter, melted
16 thin slices cooked ham or turkey (I used both)
4 sticks mozzarella string cheese
1 can crescent rolls

Dipping Sauce
1/3 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing (I used mayo)
1/3 cup Dijon mustard (mine was just plain jain mustard)
1/3 cup honey

Heat oven to 375. Remove spinach from container; place in colander. Rinse with warm water until thawed; drain well. Squeeze spinach dry with paper towel; divide evenly into 4 portions. Set aside. Meanwhile, place corn snacks in plastic bac; seal. Crush with rolling pin until crushed fine. Pour into shallow dish or plate. In another shallow dish or pie plate, place melted butter; set aside. Unroll dough; separate into 4 rectangles. Press each into 6x4 rectangle; firmly pressing perforations to seal. (I didn't make mine any particular size, but just used the rectangle in whatever size it came out as.) Arrange ham or turkey in 4 stacks. Top each stack with 1 portion of spinach, spreading spinach evenly over ham. Place 1 stick of cheese on one short side of spinach-topped ham. Roll up each stack. Place 1 filled ham roll on one long side of each dough rectangle. Fold sides of dough up over ham and roll to opposite long side; press edge and ends to seal and completely cover ham roll. Roll each in butter, then in crushed corn snacks to coat. Place seam side down on cookie sheet. Bake 20-28 minutes or until deep golden brown. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix all sauce ingredients with wire whisk. Serve warm wraps with the sauce for dipping.

These came out great. One of the eaters even let me know that they do not like spinach, but enjoyed them. After reading the directions thoroughly, I realize I constructed mine wrong. I would be sure to follow the instructions. It will just turn out the best possible way. Ours still tasted great, but the construction could've been easier if I'd followed the instructions. So read them well and then enjoy, because they're really yummy!

Waffled Pizza Dippers

This was fun. I did it more for a child-food experiment. Joseph ate them pretty easily, although he didn't really dip them, which for me is the whole point. Anyway, it was a success and they were pretty good.

Ingredients
7 oz. (1 ¾ cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese (1 oz.)
½ tsp dried basil leaves
½ tsp dried oregano leaves
2 cans crescent dinner rolls
1 jar pizza sauce
32 small slices pepperoni

Heat waffle maker on medium-high setting. In medium bowl, mix both cheese, basil and oregano; set aside. In 1 ½ quart saucepan, heat pizza sauce over low heat, stirring occasionally, until hot. Place in small serving bowl. Unroll both cans of dough onto work surface. Separate each crosswise, making 4 rectangles; firmly press perforations to seal. Place 1 dough rectangle on bottom surface of heated waffle maker, being careful not to open up perforations. Quickly sprinkle 1 cup cheese mixture evenly on top of dough. Place 16 slices of pepperoni evenly over cheese mixture. Top with another dough rectangle; close waffle maker. Bake 2 to 3 minutes or until sandwich is golden brown. With pancake turner, remove from waffle maker; cool before cutting. Serve with warm sauce.

I didn't get the amount of cheese or pepperoni listed in the recipe, but used it all more or less. It definitely needs the sauce. At least for me, being used to pizza. Joseph ate it without, which I didn't find as good. But for a version of pizza, it is very easy to eat hands on and I'm sure kids would enjoy the fun waffle-ness of it. And for "homemade pizza" it is pretty easy. I'm sure you could easily alter the ingredients a touch to add other toppings, like canadian bacon, mushrooms or olives.

Crescent Burritos

These came out great. We made them bigger than the original recipe because we were worried they'd be too small. I think they would've been okay. They turned out gigantic. Anyways, it's a great recipe no matter what size you make them. (I doubled this recipe because otherwise it doesn't make very many. They're kind of small, so you'll want more than one. But if you wanted to you could half it.)

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef (You could easily use turkey.)
½ onion, chopped
1 pckg taco seasoning
1 cup water
1 can refried beans (I like black beans. I think they're a bit better for you than refried beans. Just drain them first and smash them up a bit.)
4 cans crescent rolls
1 cup salsa
8 slices American cheese
1 cup sour cream
½ cup sliced olives

Heat oven to 350. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. In 10-inch nonstick skillet, cook ground beef and onion over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix and water. Reduce heat to medium; cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until water has evaporated. Remove from heat; stir in beans. Separate dough into 16 triangles. (4 per can) Firmly press perforations to seal. Spoon about 2 tbsp beef mixture and 1 tbsp of salsa onto each rectangle; spread across one half of rectangle. Fold rectangle in half and pinch edges to seal. Place on cookie sheet. Bake 18 to 23 minutes or until golden brown. Top each burrito with cheese; bake 2 to 3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Serve garnished with sour cream and olives.

This is half a burrito. They were huge. Really. When you're making them, don't worry if you think they'll certainly explode while they're cooking. And don't worry if they look really small. (if you do the original 1/2 lb version.) When they cook, they expand and the crescent roll seals off all the areas where you think it'll leak. That was my experience anyway. And I didn't bother putting them back in the oven to melt the cheese. It melted just fine when they were fresh from the oven.

Cinnamon Crescents aka Cinnamon Rolls

These are amazing. They have all the goodness of cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls in one tasty treat. I've tried to make modifications to make them a bit bigger, or do a double batch, but so far my efforts have been thwarted. However, I haven't given up and will get it right one day. For now, here's the basic recipe.

Ingredients
2 can crescent rolls
½ cup butter, softened
8 tsp granulated sugar
4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk or apple juice

Heat oven to 375. Separate dough into 4 rectangles ( 2 long rectangles per can). Firmly press perforations to seal. Spread 2 tbsp butter evenly over each dough rectangle. In small bowl, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over rectangles. (I don't do this. I simply sprinkle generously with my cinnamon and sugar sprinkler, from the "cinnamon sugar tip".) Starting with short side of each rectangle, roll up. With serrated knife, cut each roll into 3 slices. Place slices in ungreased 8 or 9 inch square pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Drizzle icing over rolls. Serve warm.

I originally intended to make these on Halloween, but forgot. Nonetheless, in honor of Halloween being the night before, I made these orange. Sort of like little cinnamon and sugar jack o'lanterns.

 
So easy and yummy. Definitely worth it.

Chicken Pillows

Here's another recipe courtesy of Jared and Anita. We had it at their place before we moved out and I had to have the recipe. It was surprisingly simple to make and we really enjoyed it. I must add that Joseph ate it without a single protest. That's always a good sign!

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 box cream cheese
2 garlic cloves or equivalent garlic powder
1/2 purple or sweet onion
Salt and Pepper
3 cans crescent rolls
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
3 tbs butter
1/3 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown chicken in medium skillet with 1/2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat until cooked throughout. Remove from pan and chop finely with food chopper. Return to heated pan and add remaining 1/2 tbsp olive oil, finely chopped onion and pressed garlic or garlic powder. Heat over medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and place in medium mixing bowl. While the mixture is still hot, mix in entire box of cream cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Each tube of rolls will yield two pillows. Unroll the rolls. Where the dough is diagonally perforated, overlap the dough slightly and reattach it by pressing it together. So take the two triangles, and make a rectangle. You should end up with 4 rectangles from each tube. It's best to have it on the baking sheet before you start assembling. It's not easy to move after you put them together. Place about a 1/3 cup of the goodness on top and in the center of one of the rectangles. "Cap" it with another rectangle by laying it on top of the mixture and pressing the edges together. Brush each pillow with melted butter and sprinkle on the bread crumbs. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. While they're baking, prepare the soup using milk (like making tomato soup.) Spread the soup on the pillows once you serve them on the plates.