Cream Cheese Olive Penguins

cream-cheese-olive-penguin-appetizers-recipe

These penguins are coming to add a little more fun to your New Year’s Eve party. Or any other party, of course.

I promise that these appetizers will be a big hit and your guests will love them!

Who could just say no to such cuteness?

I couldn’t. That’s for sure.

In addition, these cuties are ridiculously easy to prepare. All you need is some olives, a carrot, cream cheese, and a few minutes of your time. That’s it!

To make them more fancy, you can add a little garlic salt or herbs in the cream cheese. That would be amazing!

Here’s the step-by-step recipe…

Chicken Roulade Stuffed with Ham, Cheese, and Peppers

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

This roulade, which by the way is just another word for a roll, is devilishly good.

There are countless variations of chicken roulades, in fact. They can be stuffed with basically anything you can imagine. Well, not anything maybe (chocolate chicken roulade might be a little too funky, I guess), but still there are many ingredients that just work perfectly in that lovely rolled up wonder.

Spinach, bacon, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, shallots – these are just some of the ideas, and the list goes on.

 

What I love about chicken roulades is how cute they look. This is one of those dinners that will elicit a lot of oohs and wows.

And you know what?

They really are easy to make!

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step picturesHere’s what we need.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

1. First, preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C).

2. Place the chicken breast into a Ziploc bag (or between two sheets of plastic wrap).

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

3. Beat the chicken breast with a meat mallet until about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thin.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

This is the ham I had on hand.

It’s beyond yummy!

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

4. Place two slices of ham lengthwise along middle of the breast.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

5. Then place two thin slices of the cheese over the ham.

I use Edam cheese in this recipe. You can, of course, use any kind you like.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

Blue cheese.

My true love.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

6. Now divide the blue cheese into three equal parts and arrange one third crosswise at the near end of the breast.

We are starting to create the center of our roulade here.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

These are red peppers.

I had some pickled ones in my fridge.

Yum!

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

7. If you are using fresh red pepper then place two thin slices over the blue cheese.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

8. And two green pepper slices over the red ones.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

9. Roll the chicken roulade from one end to form a cylinder, securing the seam with a couple of toothpicks.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

10. Secure the ends as well.

We definitely want to keep those flavorful juices inside.

11. Repeat the process for each of the two remaining chicken breasts.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

12. Brush a baking pan with some olive oil and place the roulades inside, the seam side down.

(Tip: You can sear the rolls in a hot oiled pan before putting them into the baking pan – about 2 minutes from each side. That will help keep the juice inside the roll while baking.)

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

13. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil with salt.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

14. And brush the roulades with the oil mixture.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

15. Place in the oven and bake (at 400 °F – 200 °C) for 30 minutes.

There will be a little juice in the pan when your remove the roulades from the oven.

Keep it please, it’s precious.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

16. Remove the roulades from the pan and let them rest for 5 minutes before doing anything else.

 

17. Then remove the toothpicks and slice the roulades crosswise into 1/2 inch (1 1/2 cm) rounds.

Then sit down for awhile and feast your eyes on that cute structure you’ve just created.

 

chicken roll stuffed with ham, cheese, and peppers, recipe with step by step pictures

When serving these cuties, pour a little of that precious and flavorful sauce from the pan over them. That will make them even more moist and delicious.

You can serve these roulades warm with toasts.

Or, to create a more satisfying dish, serve them with mashed potatoes.

 

And most importantly, ENJOY, dear friends!

 

(This recipe takes about 1 hour to prepare and makes 3 servings.)

Bacon and Cheese Biscuits

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe

I’d love to reveal a little secret about our monkey household of two.

We love biscuits! All sorts of them!

Unbelievable, huh?

 

Biscuits are especially enjoyed by the male monkey over here.

You should see his smile each time he finds out they are in the oven.

It’s the widest and most content smile I’ve ever seen.

And when the biscuits are done my boyfriend immediately grabs his plate of at least fourteen and hurries to watch his favorite sitcoms.

I love to make biscuits because somehow they make the world a perfect place.

They are magical.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

Here are the ingredients.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

And here’s the bacon.

It’s a crucial part of the magic.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

1. To make your own Bacon and Cheese Biscuits, first preheat the oven to 390 °F (200 °C).

 

2. Then slice the bacon thinly.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

3. In a large pan, fry the bacon over moderate heat until crisp.

This will take a couple of minutes.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

4. When beautifully crispy, remove the bacon from the pan and crumble it finely.

5. Grab the cheese and grate it.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

Just like this.

This is a lot of cheese.

 

The cheese mostly will constitute the flavor of your biscuits. So choose the one you really like.

It’s completely up to you.

I used Leerdammer. Next time I’ll try Cheddar, I think.

It’s fun because the biscuits can be different every time.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

6. Now we need a large bowl.

Using a pastry cutter (or just a fork), combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper and butter until crumbs form.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

7. Stir in the grated cheese and the bacon.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

8. Then add the milk…

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

9. …and stir together just until the dry ingredients are well moistened.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

10. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and make a Halloween face out of it.

Sorry.

What I really mean is that now you should knead the dough 4 – 5 times.

To make the biscuits perfectly soft, the trick is not to over-knead the dough.
bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

11. Roll it out to about 1/2 inch (1 cm) thickness.

When it gets sticky use some flour to make the job easier.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

12. Cut out rounds using a 2-inch (5 cm) cutter.

Pat the scraps together, re-roll them and cut out some more rounds.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

13. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Arrange your biscuits on the sheet about 1/2 inch (2.5 cm) apart.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

14. And bake them for about 15 minutes.

bacon and cheese biscuits recipe with step by step pictures

These are so yummy.

Enjoy, dear friends!

 

This recipe makes about 36 biscuits.

(The recipe was adapted from LeitesCulinaria.com.)

Garlic Cheese Bread with Olives

There’s been a lot of fun in my kitchen this week.

Of course, I will show you all the creations in the upcoming posts.

Among the things that I have made or plan to make this week there’s garlic bread, cauliflower casserole, orange-vanilla popsicles, strawberry cheesecake and also a special surprise that has something to do with Friday’s GIVEAWAY.

So stay tuned!

And now back to the ‘Garlic Cheese Bread’.

Have you ever tried making your own garlic cheese bread?

Well, you definitely need to give it a try.

It’s the best thing ever!

Because it’s easy.

And it has a magical ability to make your soul happy!

And because when you make it you’ll get rewarded by a wonderful crispy piece of fragrant and flavorful heaven.

Need I say anything more?

Please, have a look at how I made this finger-licking treat…

These are the ingredients I used.

The olives and oregano are optional but if you use them you’ll be glad you’ve done so.

First, you need two loaves of French bread.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Split the loaves in half lengthwise.

3. Now peel and chop the garlic cloves finely.

4. Place the garlic into a bowl, add the olive oil…

5. … and mix.

I love garlic!

Have I told you that once I almost killed my brother-in-law with the amount of garlic I’d served him for dinner?

These are the olives I used.

You can use any kind of olives you like – I decided to go for the ones with sweet pepper inside.

Just because I liked the way they looked.

6. Slice the olives.

This is dried oregano trying to look its best for the picture.

7. Grate the cheese.

Again, use any kind you like. Edam, Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Parmesan.

Or use all of them.

See? I’m so liberal when it comes to cooking – no strict rules really. To me it’s all about having fun and about the current content of the fridge. Because that’s what’s really important, right? To empty the fridge.

8. Now that we have prepared everything we can start taking care of the bread loaves.

Line a larger baking sheet with parchment paper and place the loaves onto it – cut side up.
9. Spread 1/4 of the garlic/oil mixture over each bread.

10. Scatter the olives over the top.

11. And sprinkle generously with the cheese and the oregano.

12. Then pop the baking sheet into the oven for about 10 minutes.

13. Remove the loaves from the oven and cut them into smaller pieces…

… and enjoy…


… and enjoy!

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