Cap'n Crunch French Toast

Jimmy and I saw the Comfort Food episode of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network recently. They spotlighted Baltimore's Blue Moon Café which makes Cap'n Crunch French Toast.

Jimmy thought he'd give it a try. We just did our french toast with eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and sugar and dipped it in the crushed cereal. But here's the recipe if anyone wants to give the fancy version a try.

Cap’n Crunch French Toast
recipe by Melanie Knight- inspired by Blue Moon Café

4 cups Cap’n Crunch original cereal (no Crunch Berries)
10 slices Texas bread (thick sliced bread)
4 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
10 tablespoons butter
Whipped cream for topping
1 pint strawberries
½ pound seedless grapes

Place the cereal in a casserole dish and crunch it into crumbs with the bottom of a glass.

Mix the eggs, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon together and place in a shallow dish. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Take 1 slice of brad, dip both sides in the egg mixture, then coast with the Cap’n Crunch crumbs.

Cook each side 2-3 minutes until light brown. Repeat for the other 9 slices of bread.

Stack 2 French toasts on the center of the plate. Top with a generous helping of whipped cream and strawberries and grapes.

Makes 5 servings

Buckeyes

When one lives in Ohio, there is no choice but to make buckeyes. Plus, peanut butter treats are always a hit at our house (as are peanut butter and jam or honey sandwiches). Ok, on to the recipe.

Buckeye Candy (directly from Nestle.com)

Estimated Times:
Preparation - 10 min | Cooling Time - 1 hrs freezing | Yields - 72 candies (6 dozen total)

The perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate -- a "chocolate lover's" dream come true....

Source:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter, (not all-natural)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, softened
• 3 3/4 cups (16-oz. box) powdered sugar
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Directions:

LINE baking sheets with wax paper.

BEAT peanut butter and butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in powdered sugar until mixture holds together and is moistened. Shape into 1-inch balls; place on prepared baking sheets. Freeze for 1 hour.

MELT morsels and shortening in medium, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute; STIR. Morsels may retain some of their shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals, stirring just until melted.

DIP peanut butter centers into melted chocolate using a toothpick, leaving a small portion of the center uncovered. Shake off excess chocolate and scrape bottom of candy on side of bowl. Return to baking sheets; refrigerate until chocolate is set. Store in covered container in refrigerator.

Beefy Cheese Ball

(totally,directly taken from Armour-star.com)

I never thought I would use horseradish! But this is a very nice cheese ball, and I use the low-fat cream cheese and it's softer, but just as yummy, and easier to spread.

Ingredients

• 1 2.25-oz. jar ARMOUR® STAR SLICED DRIED BEEF, rinsed, finely chopped
• 1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. horseradish
• Assorted crackers

Combine 1/4 cup dried beef, cream cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese and horseradish, blending thoroughly. Refrigerate mixture 15 minutes. Form into a ball and roll in remaining dried beef. Chill thoroughly. Serve as an appetizer with crackers.

If you have never used this beef in a jar before, be sure to remember to rinse with very warm water, then drain before chopping and using in recipes.

makes 1 appetizer ball

Easy Oreo Truffles

Easy OREO Truffles

(totally, directly copied from KraftFoods.com)


What You Need!

1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
2 pkg. (8 squares each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

Make It!

MIX 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and the cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 (1-inch) balls.

DIP balls in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover melted chocolate can be stored in tightly covered container at room temperature and saved for another use.) Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.

REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

Kraft Kitchens Tips
How to Easily Dip Truffles-To easily coat truffles with the melted chocolate, add truffles, in batches, to bowl of melted chocolate. Then use two forks to roll truffles in chocolate until evenly coated. Remove the truffles with forks and allow excess chocolate to drip back into bowl before placing truffles on prepared baking sheet.

Special Extra-Sprinkle truffles with colored sugar or sprinkles in addition to or in place of the cookie crumbs.

How to Soften Cream Cheese-Place completely unwrapped package of cream cheese in microwaveable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 10 sec. or just until softened. Add 15 sec. for each additional package of cream cheese.

Candy Cane Cookies

I saw this recipe on the Food Network recently. Tonight we tried it out. Abe had fun rolling the dough into ropes/snakes. It was a pretty simple recipe that I didn't even mess up. And that's AMAZING!

Candy Cane Cookies by Sandra Lee

Ingredients

1 box sugar cookie mix
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup softened cream cheese
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus additional for surface
Red food coloring
1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a bowl, combine sugar cookie mix, melted butter, egg, cream cheese, and flour; mix together to form dough.

Separate dough into 2 equal portions and place in 2 different bowls. Add red food coloring gradually to 1 bowl of dough, kneading together until desired shade of red is created. To second bowl of uncolored dough, add peppermint extract and knead together.

On a floured work surface, shape each dough into balls and then roll each ball into 1/4-inch-wide ropes, each about 6 inches long. For each cookie, carefully twist some of the red and white ropes of dough together and shape into a candy cane.

Spread candy canes out on cookie sheets and bake on the top shelf of the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool before serving.

Saltine Toffee

Quick, before holiday cooking is done! Last week Trevor and I made a yummy batch of this--it's a funny version of toffee, maybe less rich, certainly less fine.

1 1/2 packages of saltines (not boxes)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cube butter (or margarine, some recipes say)

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with foil then lightly coat with cooking spray.

Lay out saltines neatly (1-2 packages) with no spaces between.

Bring sugar and butter to a boil while stirring over med-high heat. Quickly pour over saltines, covering as many as possible.

Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for a minute. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, spreading evenly after melting.

Put in fridge for 15 minutes or so to set, then break into pieces.

Easy Buttermilk Biscuits

We usually make biscuits out of Bisquick ... but last night I wanted to try a Buttermilk Biscuit recipe. I found the following recipe on allrecipes.com. I liked their idea to roll it out in the pan and then use a pizza cutter to divide it up before you cook. These were easy to make, turned out great, and were even yummy this morning toasted.

Kentucky Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 dash salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the buttermilk.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 2 minutes. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet, roll into a 6x6 inch square, and cut into 12 even sections. Do not separate.

Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center of the square comes out clean. Separate into biscuits, and serve hot.

Tip from a review on allrecipes.com: Freeze the stick of butter and then grate with a box grater. That way the butter stays nice and cold for a nice tender biscuit.

Don't over handle or stir biscuit dough as it will make them tough.