Every Sunday from the hours of 1 to 11 pm boys take over my living room for a full day of football watching.  It’s great, really.  (Insert sarcasm.)  🙂

I made these buffalo chicken “cupcakes” one Sunday and they turned out to great! They’re easy to put together and full of flavor! Enjoy!

Ingredients: 

• Cooking spray
• Phyllo dough
• 2 cups cooked chicken
• 1/4 cup ranch dressing
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup hot sauce (I used Franks Red Hot)
• Shredded parmesan cheese

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

2. Lay a stack of 5 sheets of phyllo dough on a flat surface. Spray between each sheet of phyllo with cooking spray or brush with melted butter. Use a knife to cut 5 by 5-inch squares. Take stacked cut squares and fit into muffin cups.

3.  Bake phyllo dough for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove and cool completely.

4.  In medium pot add cooked chicken, ranch dressing, sour cream and hot sauce.  Heat thoroughly.  Add to cooled phyllo dough cups.  Tope with a punch of shredded parmesan cheese.

What’s your favorite way to eat a potato?  I love french fries, oh! and mashed potatoes and now… I love twice baked potatoes.  Clearly, it’s a tough decision when it comes to picking my favorite potato.  So many options, I don’t do well with this many options!

This recipe turned out great!  I  made it as a side dish one night for diner, but  they would also serve as a great appetizer if you use smaller potatoes!

I hope everyone’s having a fabulous weekend!

Ingredients:

• 4 large baking potatoes
• 6 slices bacon
• 4 tablespoons margarine (or butter)
• 1 cup light sour cream
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 green onion chopped

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake potatoes in preheated oven for 1 hour. (You could also just microwave the potatoes for a faster option.  3 minutes/potato.  Just make sure you poke holes in the potatoes first so that they don’t explode… been there, done that.)

2.  While potatoes are cooking, in a large skillet cook bacon over medium-high heat. Once cooked, crumble bacon and set aside.

3.  Once potatoes are tender, remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so. Slice potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides of the potatoes in to a bowl.  Leave a bit of the potato in the skin so that it can help hold the shape.

4. Add sour cream, milk, margarine, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup of cheese, and 1/2 the green onions to the potatoes in the bowl.  Mix with a hand mixer until well blended and creamy.

5. Scoop the mixture back in to the potato skins.  Top each with the remaining cheese, green onions, and bacon.

6. Place back in oven on 350 degrees for 15 -20 minutes.

Source: Grumpy’s Honeybunch

A couple of weeks ago a few girls from school were coming over for some wine and cheese.  I had some brie in the fridge so I decided to whip this up real quick.  I figured, Who doesn’t love ooey gooey cheese? This was my first time doing anything special with brie and I have to say… I’m in love.

It’s so quick and easy and I promise your guests will love it. I got the recipe idea from simplyrecipes.com.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to snag an “after” pic.  I think we all got a little excited and started digging in right away!

Ingredients: 

• 1 large sheet of puff pastry dough or 1 tube of refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 1 round or wedge of Brie cheese (do not remove rind)
• Raspberry Jam, or other sweet jam
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water

Instructions: 

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2 On a stick-free cookie sheet, lay out the puff pastry or the crescent rolls flat; put brie round or wedge on top.

2 Spread jam on brie, fold dough over top, cutting off excess dough

3.  Beat egg and water together.  Brush pastry with egg.

4.  Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes, pastry should be golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Image from simplyrecipes.com