Super Easy Use-It-Up Pizza Burgers

I hate that you never have enough burgers to use up the buns in a package of hamburger buns. Plus I can only eat so many sloppy joes in two days and deal with drooling dogs at the grill with burgers. I hate tossing burger buns into the waste bin, it just seems so wasteful to buy 8 buns for 4 burgers. 

I needed to come up with something quick and I realized that I had leftover tomato sauce in the freezer and grated cheese in the fridge (and since when do I not have cheese in my fridge? I LOVE CHEESE). 

My mouth was starting to water as I put these together. I had made sauce with red wine... it smelled extra great to me after a long day in the sun, biking, playing, cleaning, etc...

And the cheese. I should have put more cheese on top so they were extra gooey.

And baked. Crispy bread, hot sauce, melty cheesy goodness.

Pizza Burgers (sort of)

2 - 4 hamburger buns split in half

2 cups pizza sauce, leftover spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce

2 cups of grated cheese - I use an Italian blend or a cheddar jack blend

And pizza toppings of your choice (I didn't feel like anything other than cheese)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Put bun halves on baking sheet.

Top each half with sauce.

Then top with cheese and all other pizza toppings you want!

Bake for 10-13 minutes or until cheese is melty and buns are nice and crispy.

Serve with a salad.

Garlic Bread Not From a Package

Garlic bread is a tricky, tricky beast to make. Not only do you want it garlicky and buttery, but if it's too garlicky then it just doesn't taste quite right. And you don't want to eat it. You may keep vampires away though.

And so I learned how to make garlic bread from the master. My mom. I NEVER KNEW you could buy packaged garlic bread until I met Bimmer Man. For 18 years I believed that garlic bread was always homemade. ALWAYS. And so I make garlic bread on special occasions and whenever there's a french bread sale at the bakery.

So, let's get this show on the road and show you how to make buttery garlicky french bread.

Melt butter in a pan, I dunno how much, maybe half a stick? Maybe less? Slop in some garlic - about 2 tablespoons. Let everything melt together but don't let it bubble or anything. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Or 425 or whatever it's already set at. No biggie.

Slice your bread while the butter and garlic melt together. And then for the fun part. Take each slice of bread and dip it into the pan of butter and garlic and place onto a sheet of tinfoil . DIP ONLY ONE SIDE. NOT TWO SIDES, JUST ONE. And then keep going.

There. You've got yourself a load of garlic bread. Now wrap up the tinfoil and shove it into the oven for about 15 minutes. It will be nice, warm, melty, buttery, garlicky and delicious. Don't even think about pouring that buttery garlic mix over the bread, it will be too sloppy to slop up the juices of whatever you're eating with it.

Enjoy!

Mixed Berry Muffins

Mixed Berry Muffins from Oprah

Servings: Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups fresh berries , such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries or sliced strawberries, or a combination.

Directions

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F. Lightly butter twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups or place paper muffin cups in the muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine and make a well in the center. In another medium bowl, whisk the milk, oil and eggs. Mix well and pour into the well. Stir just until blended. Fold in the berries. Spoon equal amounts of the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about three-fourths full.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and serve warm or cool on a wire rack.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins

 I was having issues this weekend finding a recipe that I could use. I wanted a cream cheese batter - not cream cheese in the middle or plopped on top. And when this girl wants a cream cheese batter, this girl will do pretty much anything to find a recipe that's easily adapted to CREAM CHEESE.

Adapted from this Best Blueberry Muffins Recipe

Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins

• 1/2 cup butter or 1/2 cup margarine, at room temp 
• 1 package of cream cheese 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries or 2 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Heat oven to 375°.
2. Grease 18 regular-size muffin cups (or 12 large size muffins).
3. In bowl or stand mixer, mix butter until creamy. Add sugar and cream cheese and beat until pale and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each.
5. Beat in vanilla, baking powder and salt.
6. Add in half of flour then half of milk into batter; repeat.
7. Fold in blueberries.
8. Spoon into muffin cups.
9. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and springy to touch.

And I'd like to link up to Lisa's Sweets For a Saturday #10

Honey Wheat Bread

Yum. Yum. I LOVE the smell of fresh bread.
Yum. So here's the crack which would've been avoided had I slashed the top. Oops. Oh, well, just gives me a reason to eat it! Also, I'd add in a pan full of water to the oven to keep the bread moist but give the crust some crunch.

 Honey Wheat Bread (found HERE on AllRecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 5 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add honey, and stir well. Mix in whole wheat flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Work all-purpose flour in gradually. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for at least 10 to 15 minutes. When dough is smooth and elastic, place it in a well oiled bowl. Turn it several times in the bowl to coat the surface of the dough, and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
2. Punch down the dough. Shape into two loaves, and place into two well greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise until dough is 1 to 1 1/2 inches above pans.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

More Live Blogging - Bread

ARGH.

You know that crevice in the middle of your loaf of bread from the store?

Yeah, well, I forgot to make that slit. So I just opened the oven and one half of it totally cracked. Oops, hopefully it'll still fit in the toaster for tomorrow's breakfast.

DANG.

See, so disorganized and so not working out very well! ARGH.

Live Blogging - Honey Wheat Bread

Equals me, waiting for Honey Wheat Bread dough to rise. Again.

I've already been to Half Price Books and Sam's Club for beer. Now it might be about 45 minutes for the dough to rise above the edge of the pan.

Oh, and I only have one loaf pan. Go figure, Ms. Disorganized... So half the dough is in the refrigerator for baking tomorrow.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Sorry, everything is kind of approximate since I've been making homemade pizza for so long. So, here goes:

2 cups regular all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp oregano
3 tbsp olive oil, plus more for coating bowl for dough to rise
1 cup warm water
1 package instant yeast
1 tbsp honey or sugar (I prefer honey)

I proof the yeast in the water, then add all other ingredients except flour. Stir to combine.

Then, add flour 1/2 at a time, alternating with the whole wheat. Obviously the regular flour will be last. Stir with a wooden spoon until nice and sticky, then knead for 10 minutes.

If using a stand mixer, use level 2 for 10 minutes.

Put in a tall bowl to rise in a warm spot covered with a damp towel for one hour.

Cut dough in half, and either make two pizzas or put the half in the fridge for tomorrow.

Shape the dough with your fingers, don't use a rolling pin otherwise you won't be happy with the results, trust me, it took me awhile to figure that out!

Then, cover with damp dishtowel while you gather your pizza ingredients and let it sit for another 15 - 20 minutes, whatever. You can put away dishes in the dishwasher.

Pile on the ingredients and put it on your preheated pizza stone in a 425 degree oven for 12 - 18 minutes.

Voila! Pizza!

Grown-Up Gouda Grilled (Ok, Baked) Cheese Sandwiches

Bimmer Man tells me that I don't make grilled cheese sandwiches correctly.

And I don't.

I bake them.

On the magical pizza stone. In the oven.

Oh, yes, that's right. I BAKE MY GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES.

So I guess they're not really grilled, right?

Ok, so ready?

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees - I use a pizza stone so make sure the pizza stone is preheating in the oven too.

Put the sammies together (butter or margerinize the outside, cheese on the inside... you know... like a regular grilled cheese...). BUT, I used Gouda. It's nice and stinky. With a bit of mozzarella.

Now, I have something to confess. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MATCH CHEESES. I just like cheese so I throw together whatever I happen to have in the fridge that melts well together. Gouda melts pretty well with mozzarella, so why not? It's better than the processed cheese, which I cannot for the life of me actually call real cheese.

And um, well, put the sandwiches into the oven for 6 minutes.

Flip.

Bake for 5 minutes.

And then they're done.

I made tomato soup to go along with my stinky cheese sammie.

Happy Thursday!

My Best Impression of Sandra Lee

Green Onion Cornbread Muffins:

Box of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin Mix
2 tablespoons of chopped green onions

Instructions:

Follow instructions on corn muffin mix, add green onions to batter before pouring in muffin cups.

Seriously, you can laugh now!

Happy Friday!

Oh, what should I make with the overripe bananas in the picture?

Challah Bread

I love bread.
I love carbs.
But mostly the smell of freshly baked bread in the neighborhood. This was super easy! Trust me!

I followed the recipe from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and amazingly it was awesome.

Unfortunately I'm lazy and I don't want to type up the recipe though (but it can be googled!).

I did swap out 1 cup of AP flour for wheat flour though and it was still delicious.

Which brings me to my next project - finding a good wheat bread to make for sandwiches.

Pumpkin Bread

It's that time of year. The magical pumpkin time of year when all of a sudden Libby's brand starts leaving it off the shelf in random areas of the country. Well, never fear. I have 6 cans of pumpkin and I have no idea what to do with them.

Pumpkin bread is only the start. Maybe pancakes? Cheesecake? Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting? (Er, um, I don't really work in a place with more than 2 people, so if you volunteer yourself, I may make pumpkin muffins and send them to you. Or, if you live in Minneapolis, I will drop them off at your work. Seriously. I'll make you a cake.)
I love the smell of spices too. Yum. They just make it seem like fall!
Here's the secret ingredient. Seriously. Use it.
And the color of pumpkin is amazing!
And then it tastes like Heaven with just a little butter. Er, um, margarine in my case. Shed's Spread Country Crock with Calcium. In any case there's several different recipes for pumpkin bread. I loved the spices of this one so I had to try it!

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

from Allrecipes.com

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Enjoy!!!

You know in the Springtime, chocolate doesn't sound as good as fresh fruit. Last night I walked to the grocery store (Um, yeah, I really am that eco-friendly) and was studying all the fresh fruit. Lo and behold, there were way too many people in the fruit section of Kroger.

If you can't tell, I'm a little claustrophobic in spaces with too many people. I do not do well in crowds. So I used frozen raspberries. But not a problem, they still turned out great! This is definitely a recipe to make if you have berries in your yard - I'd do this again with blueberries, blackberries or even strawberries!
Yum... The batter smelled SO good. I can't even tell you how much it smelled like Spring. It's one of those things that fruit does to me. It makes me feel like warm weather is approaching. And it's a great feeling!

Raspberry-Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield

2 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin)

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (5 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add sugar; beat until fluffy. Add vanilla, egg whites, and egg; beat well.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and buttermilk to cream cheese mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Gently fold in raspberries and walnuts.

Place 24 foil cup liners in muffin cups. Spoon batter evenly into liners. Bake at 350° 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pans; cool on a wire rack.

Cooking Light, JUNE 2003

And by the way - Check out Joelen's Blog and her Tasty Tools blogging events because this recipe has been entered into the Stand Mixer one!

The Beast Makes Bread: Part 2

Roll the out, then roll it up like you would cinnamon rolls.
Let it rest for another hour.
Make an egg wash...
Oh - look... farm fresh eggs! Anyway, make the egg wash, brush over the loaves and sprinkle with oatmeal...
And fresh bread.

The Beast Makes Bread: Part 1

The Organized McTatty, meet The Beast. The Beast, meet The Organized McTatty. Thank you, tax refund. Thank you.
What's my first recipe? Well, Honey Oat Bread from the Kitchen Aid Mixer booklet.
What you'll need. Flour, honey, butter, water, eggs, yeast, oatmeal. And salt.
Um, I don't have any other oatmeal, so we'll see how this works. Thank you, Sam's Club. I always knew that you're huge variety box "original-oatmeal-that-no-one-likes" would come in handy.
Quick tip: When pouring something sticky into a measuring cup, first spray with Pam.
Works like a charm!
Yeah. Oatmeal. So I eat it every day at work... Whatever.. It's all I have in the house!
While the honey, butter and water heat on the stove, mix the dry ingredients for 15 seconds.
Oh - it's so pretty!
Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. Knead for a few minutes.
And then let rise...

TO BE CONTINUED....

Do You Remember the Bread Dipping???

Oh, yes - we dip the bread!

But as I was perusing Amazon (one of my daily doses of sanity in my disorganized world), I noticed something that I had never seen before. Ok, I have at Italian restaurants and places like Willams-Sonoma, but never before on Amazon.

Instant gratification.

Dipping Seasoning Spices

For $18.51 it's a variety pack of 3 different mixes.

This is way too good to pass up! A glass of wine, sitting outside with some bread and olive oil... that's the summer life!

Bagels: Take 2

Finally. I got bagels.
I also used bread flour instead of regular all purpose flour.
And I only made 10 bagels instead of 12 so that way they'd be bigger.
Yum! And look at my make-shift baking rack... Pretty funny, right? Don't worry - I ordered actual baker's racks so no more of this crap!
And - here's the MONSTER!!! He still likes to hang out in the kitchen while I bake (well, until I use the food processor!).
And after baking. Only for 25 minutes at 400 degrees - nice and chewy on the inside with a great crust on the outside.
Yum...
Oh man... I'll have to make different batches of bagels every week after this!

Enjoy!