Mozzerella and Tomato Focaccia

I love homemade bread but unfortunately I don't make it very often, like maybe only once or twice a year! Another food blog I follow, see here, makes a lot of homemade bread (she's where I got the yummy Pretzel Bread). Kathleen now sells her homemade creations and every time I see picture of those delightful carbs I cannot stop thinking about them and craving fresh homemade bread!!

I love focaccia bread so this mozzarella and tomato bread was on the top of my list. I think it looks like a pizza but it's so much more hearty and filling! This is perfect for winter time and will go great with some warm winter soup.

Mozzarella and Tomato Focaccia Bread
(adapted from Allrecipes.com)

• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 Tbsp fresh chopped basil
• 5 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
• 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Topping

• 1 Tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
• 1 Tbsp fresh chopped basil
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 small-medium tomato
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Dissolve honey in the warm water in a large bowl, then sprinkle yeast over the top. Let stand for 5 minutes until the yeast softens and begins to foam. Stir in 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil, onions, and 5 cups of flour until the dough comes together. Knead on a well floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 415 degrees F 
3. Place dough onto oiled 9x13in baking pan, and flatten to cover the whole pan evenly. Use the tips of your fingers to make indentations all over the dough spaced about 1 inch apart. Drizzle the focaccia with 3 tablespoons olive oil, then sprinkle rosemary, basil's, Parmesan cheese, tomato, mozzarella cheese, and remaining 1 tablespoon of kosher salt over the top. Let rise for 10 minutes
4. Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes until golden brown.

sausage dip

This one was a complete surprise. I read how good this dip was but have been pretty hestitate about making it because honestly, how good can sausage and cream cheese be?? But I was dead wrong. I swear this is highly addicting! And it's another super easy recipe with only 4 ingredients. It was a huge hit served with Fritos Scoops.  

 

Spicy Sausage Dip

1 (16 ounce) package pork sausage
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained
2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese; room temperature
hot sauce to taste ( I used Sriracha)

Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium heat until evenly browned and no longer pink. Drain. Reduce heat to low, and stir in the tomatoes and cream cheese until evenly blended. Cook just until heated through. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Dip

This tastes just like pumpkin cheesecake and takes minutes to make. Plus it has only three main ingredients and you can play around with the rest. I found many different recipes but liked this one mainly because I already had everything in my pantry and refrigerator. Once I made it I did make a few changes and added what I thought would taste best. It turned out creamy, sweet and delicious. Dip ginger snaps into it for a major crowd-pleasing dessert! I loved dipping green apples, the sweet dip and tart apples went really great together.

Pumpkin Dip

1 c. granulated sugar, sifted
2 (8oz.) cream cheese blocks, softened
15 oz. pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Mix cream cheese and pumpkin together until well blended. Add sugar, cinnamon, ginger and pumpkin pie spice, mix until well combined. Refrigerate at least one hour. Serve with ginger snaps, graham crackers, Nilla wafers, or fruit for dipping.

Rocky Road Popcorn

I'm a bit behind on a few new posts that have been patiently waiting for me to finally finish them from all the craziness these last two weeks.....time to play catch up ;)

I'm a huge fan of popcorn. Caramel corn. Cheddar Cheese. White cheddar. Loaded with butter. Or just plain stove top with salt.  Should I go on? I am obsessed with the homemade caramel corn I made last winter, found here. I've been looking forward to trying something new that you can't go buy at the store. Plus homemade is always better! This Rocky Road popcorn is the best of both worlds, salty 'n sweet and it's just as addicting at the caramel corn is.    

 Rocky road popcorn

Adapted from recipes by “Mouse Potato” and foodchannel.com

• 1 cup popping corn, popped
• 1 to 2 cups almonds (I used peanuts)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter
• ¼ cup light corn syrup
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2½ cups miniature marshmallows, divided
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 250˚F. Spread popped popcorn on a greased baking sheet, and sprinkle with the almonds.
2. In a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt, and stir constantly until the mixture begins to boil.
3. Stop stirring and let the mixture boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Add 1½ cups of the marshmallows and stir until melted. Stir in vanilla. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn mixture; stir until well coated.
5. Bake popcorn and nuts for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove popcorn from oven and let cool.
6. Put chocolate chips into a large heatproof bowl set over, but not touching, a pot of simmering water, and stir until melted.
7. Add a few scoops of popcorn and nuts to the bowl of melted chocolate, and stir until coated. Then add a couple more scoops, and stir some more. Repeat until about half the batch of popcorn is coated in chocolate.
8. Pluck the popcorn pieces from the chocolate with tongs and spread them out on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of marshmallows over the chocolate-coated popcorn, and let cool.
9. When the chocolate has hardened, mix the chocolate-marshmallow-coated popcorn with the rest of the candied popcorn in a large bowl for serving. Store in an airtight container.

Prayers Please

Hello My Dear Readers,

If you could please keep my family in your thought right now. My grandfather had a massive stroke yesterday in which he was taken to the Waterloo hospital and then flown to the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City. He is currently in ICU. Although he is in great hands in Iowa City and has a lot of family and friends rallying around him, the more thoughts and prayers would be much appreciated!

Thank you!!

Safari Birthday

A few weeks ago I made Drake a smash cake for his One Year pictures, here. This past weekend was his 1st birthday party in which he had a Safari Themed party. This being my first jungle/safari theme I had no idea what to do or where to begin. Luckily Drake's mother included this link to all the party supplies she was going to use which gave me my inspiration. I wanted to make all the safari animals....

The beginning of my animals

Starting to come together

They actually look like animals!

And it all comes together :) 

A 2 layer 10-inch marble cake with chocolate ganache filling and vanilla buttercream

I love how it turned out! The safari animals turned out better than I pictured.

We have lions, tigers, zebras, giraffes, elephants, and monkeys!

The smash cake

Birthday cupcakes for all of little Drake's friends...I'd say my handwriting is starting to improve (at least on the cupcakes!)

Happy 1st Birthday Drake!

Hope you had a wonderful party and enjoyed your cake.