Creamy Bacon Crescents

I made these to take to my good friend Mindi's for a get-together.  Super Easy to make & yummy!

Ingredients:
3 cans of Crescent Rolls, 8count (I used Garlic Butter Crescents)
1 lb. of Bacon
2 - 8oz Pkgs. Cream Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375'.  

Put both packages of Cream Cheese into a bowl, to soften while cooking bacon.  Cook the bacon till crispy, pat oil off with Paper Towels.  Crumble or tear bacon into small pieces.  Add crumbled bacon to the cream cheese & mix thoroughly with spoon.  I added some seasoning to the cream cheese as well.

Roll out Crescent dough, slice each triangle in half long ways.  Each can will make 16 snacks.

Place a teaspoon of Cream Cheese Mixture at the wide end of each crescent and roll till u get to the skinny tip. Place each roll onto cookie sheet.  I was able to get 16 on a small cookie sheet.

Bake for 11-13min, until golden brown.

*you don't need to worry about cheese sticking out slight from sides, the dough will poof up slightly around it.

* I do 99% of my cooking in my Toaster Oven & CrockPot, I very  rarely use my regular oven.  Most of the time I do not preheat.  So for these I set my Toaster Oven to the Bake setting and put them on for 15min without preheating.  Came out perfect!

Cooking a pumpkin from scratch

UPDATED: 11/2/12

     

The first Jack-o-lantern was from 4 years ago & the 2nd one is from this year.

We usually wait until the day before Halloween to buy our pumpkin & then carve it.  We don't put it outside until Halloween night & then the next day or two after I cook it.  This is how I spent a good part of my day today.  I'm warning you... it is quite a process, but it is so worth the fresh pumpkin in the end.  So here's my process:

When I cut the pumpkin up I make sure to cut off the edges that were carved because they get a little dried out.  I also throw away the top & bottom parts where the stem is.  I cut it into large chunks & then with my sharp knife I scrape the "strings" off the inside as much as possible.

Add the pumpkin chunks to a large pot, fill with water, cover with a lid & bring the water to a boil.  Once it comes to a boil turn the temperature down to a medium-high level for about 35 minutes.

Then drain the water & run cool water over the chunks until they are cool enough to handle.  As you can see from my picture I filled the bowl with cold water, but the cool water got warm very quickly so I dumped it out & had to fill it again, so it's probably more effective to just run the water over the chunks in a colander. 

Once it is cool enough to handle, use your sharp knife to peel the skin off of all of the pieces.

Then mash the pumpkin, just like you would mashed potatoes, but make sure to get all the lumps out.  After I used my masher I then used a fork to make sure there were no chunks left at all.  You may see a little water in the pumpkin & that's ok, just leave it there.  

If you don't plan to use the pumpkin right away, then measure it out & put it in ziploc freezer bags.  I measure out 1.5 cups because that's how much I use to make 2 pumpkin pies so it's already ready to just dump into the bowl when you're ready to make your pie.

 

I actually cook the seeds too.  I wash all the "brains" off of them & then spread them out on a cookie sheet & salt them. They are a yummy, nutritious snack.  

I've never tried these, but here's a recipe for cinnamon-sugar pumpkin seeds.  You can also plant your seeds to grow your own pumpkin (I've never tried this either, although it sounds like something I'd like to do).

Check out my mother-in-law's recipe for Pumpkin Pie.  I've made these every year since the year 2000, when my in-laws left on their mission for our church & my mil wasn't here to bake them that year.  I had to call her & get her recipe because after you've had a homemade (from scratch) pumpkin pie, you can't go back (at least I can't).

Iva's Pumpkin Pie

Iva's Homemade Pumpkin Pie

(really it's mine, but it's my mother-in-law's recipe)

1 c. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. of each of the following: salt, all spice, nutmeg & ginger

2 eggs, beaten

1-1/2 c. pumpkin (this is not the canned stuff, this is the real thing)

1-2/3 c. evaporated milk (tall can)

Mix all ingredients well. Fill crust half-way. Bake at 425 for 10 min. Then turn down to 350 & bake for another 40 min. more. You can see from my picture that these pies look very different from the "canned" ones. That's because these don't have all the preservatives in them & these are much more yummy!!! Enjoy!
This recipe makes 2 pies!

Note: I use the Shar's recipe for the crust (see post below). This is the yummiest crust I've ever had & it's very simple to make.

Crispy Chicken Tortilla Rollups

These looked so great when I saw them, that I had to share.  Head over to The Weekend Gourmet for the Recipe!  I plan to make them very soon!  She also has a recipe for Avocado Sauce which is made with Greek Yogurt!

Carrot Fries

I was making a Roast, Potatoes & Carrots for dinner tonight & as I was peeling the carrots.  Hubby says "hey those would be great fried" pointing at the top peels I was going to throw away.  So I threw the top layer away & peeled most of 2 carrots for him to experiment with in our deep fryer.  They were pretty thin, he just slightly salted them & they were so super yummy!  There were only a few but I devoured them to fast to think about a picture.  They came out looking like curly fries.  I will post a Good Picture when Darin makes a nice batch of them.

 These are ways you can cut them before frying.  Also make sure you blot them dry before putting them in the oil.