GAMEDAY: Charleston Cheese Dip

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 - 8oz package cream cheese, softened

1 - cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 - cup grated Monterey jack cheese

2 - green onions, finely chopped

Dash of cayenne pepper

8 - Ritz crackers, crushed

8 - slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix the mayonnaise, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Monterey jack cheese, green onions and cayenne pepper. Transfer the mixture to a shallow baking dish.

Top mixture with cracker crumbs and bake for 15 minutes, or until heated through. Remove the pan from the oven and top with the bacon. Serve immediately with corn chips, bagel chips or crackers.

Tortilla Ham & Cheese Pinwheels

Here's a recipe that tastes great and is pretty easy to make. Enjoy!

2 - packages (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 - packet (.04 oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

6 - flour tortillas (12 in), room temperature

1 - package (12 ounces) thin deli sliced ham

10 - slices Swiss cheese

1 - cup shredded cheddar cheese or Colby jack

1 - 2.25 oz can chopped black olives

Mix cream cheese and dry salad dressing together. Spread mixture on each tortilla. Drain the sliced olives and set aside. Place two slices of ham on top of the cream cheese mixture. Add sliced Swiss cheese and sprinkle on shredded cheddar cheese and olives. Roll up tortillas tightly. Just like you would for cinnamon rolls. Chill at least 2 hours or overnight. Cut rolls into 1 inch slices. Makes 3 - 4 dozen pinwheels 

GAMEDAY: Pizza Roll

This looks so good and I can't wait to try it myself!

Ingredients

1 1/2 – 2 cups shredded low-fat, part skim mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup – shredded parmigiano reggiano cheese (Not the stuff in the green Kraft can!) 

Sliced pepperoni (quantity depends on how much pepperoni you like) 

1 can of Pillsbury French bread dough (DO NOT use the pizza dough in a can, as it yields tougher   crust.)
One jar of pizza sauce, or homemade sauce of your choosing
Olive oil
Garlic powder and dried oregano (Most of the time I prefer fresh herbs, but there are times and places where dried works better and this is one of them.)
Flour

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit   

Dust your clean counter top with flour. Once you’ve popped open your can of bread dough, you’ll see there is a small seam on the roll. Gently pull open that seam and unroll the dough.

Lightly brush about a tablespoon, tablespoon and half of olive oil over the dough. If you do not have a pastry brush, use your clean hands to massage the oil over the dough. (You washed your hands, didn’t you, mister?)

Cover the dough with a layer of pepperoni. (If you are like me, you might have already eaten half the pack just working towards this step. With luck, you still have enough left for this project.)

Now, I just put the pepperoni on uncooked, but the person who taught me this recipe would microwave the pepperoni between paper towels for a minute to pre-cook it and get rid of some of the excess oil. Depending on how much you drink you might want that oil, so I leave that decision up to you.

Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese evenly over the pepperoni, followed by a little of the parmigiano reggiano. 1 1/2 cups will be more than enough, but since packages of shredded cheese come in 2 cup sizes, I will not judge if you use the whole bag.

Give a couple of shakes of the garlic powder to the top. Be sure to crush the dried oregano between your fingers before putting it on the loaf as to release the oils from the leaves. (This also makes for smaller pieces that are less likely to get caught in your teeth.)

Carefully roll the dough back up, thinner end to wider end. (When you unroll the dough, you will notice one end is wider than the other. Why this is, I do not know, but it seals the loaf better to roll from skinny to fat.)

Crimp the ends together and place on your baking sheet. (Save yourself some clean-up time later by lining your pan with either parchment paper or foil. Halftime is for worrying about why the offensive line isn’t doing a better job blocking, not dishes.) Brush with a small amount of olive oil.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The oven will get quite hot, so do not let over-eager pizza loafers sit like this for too long lest they burn their noses.

                              The pizza loaf should take on this golden brown color when done.

 Let cool for a few minutes, then slice into 1-2 inch wide sections.

Serve with pizza sauce of your choosing. (Although I generally enjoy my slices plain.)

Rattlesnake Eggs

My sister found this recipe and shared it with me. Now when she first told me the name (before I knew any of the ingredients) I thought it sounded gross lol! But they are so good, and addicting! You can make them for breakfast or as an appetizer.

Ingredients:
8 ounce(s) of Original Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Softened
2 Packages Refrigerated Crescent Roll Dough (8 oz each)
16 ounce(s) of Pork Breakfast Sausage

Directions:
Break up the breakfast sausage into a medium size skillet. On medium heat cook the sausage until brown and cooked through completely. Drain sausage and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine the softened philadelphia cream cheese and the drained breakfast sausage. Mix together until combined. This should be pretty simple since your cream cheese is softened and your sausage is still warm. Open both cans of crescent roll dough. Unroll and seperate into triangles. You will have 16 individual triangles. Spoon one heaping tablespoon of cream cheese mixture onto each crescent roll. Roll up each crescent roll starting from the widest part to the point. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Place in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, bake until the crescent rolls are golden brown and cook through. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, remove and serve.

GAMEDAY: Cheese Dip

I know I'm a little late with my first gameday recipe, but I'll try to make sure I'm on time from now on. Let's start out with Cheese Dip. My mom taught me how to do this:

1 lb. Ground Beef
1 lb. Sausage (hot OR mild)
1 lb. Velveeta Cheese
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 can Rotel
1/2 Onion, chopped (optional)


1. Brown ground beef and sausage and drain (can cook together if you'd like).
2. While meat is cooking, cut Velveeta into small cubes.
3. Combine meat, Rotel, onion and soup in 2 quart size pan (heat on medium-low).
4. Gradually add in cheese.
5. Stir frequently until cheese is melted and warm.

Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

Note: You may also use a crock pot if you'd like. You can keep it warm all day! And also you can substitute the sausage and beef with ground turkey or any ground meat you like!If you don't want too much meat, try just adding a pound (total) or so of whichever meat you want, just whatever suits your tastes.