Make A Big Hit At Any Party!: Cheesy Sausage Cream Cheese Crescents

*Photo Taken By Karla Everett

Thank You Karla!

I thought I would share this recipe for you since a fellow cooking friend posted her photo onto my recipe.  She made them for a party and they were a huge hit!  I saw her beautiful photo and just thought it needed to be shared with all of you.

These great nibbles are so great for snacking or an appetizer, well I could just eat them anytime of day or night.  The great taste of Pilsbury's Crescent rolls and the creamy cheesy sausage filling is sure to satisfy anyone.  Best of all it's QUICK & EASY!

Here is the recipe to share with you!

Sausage Cream Cheese Croissants
16 ounces Bulk Sausage cooked, and crumbled (any flavor)
8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
2 cans Refrigerated Crescent Rolls
1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese (or any cheese)

Mix sausage and cream cheese together and shredded cheese if you'd like. Separate rolls into triangles. Cut eat triangle in half lengthwise. Scoop a heaping tablespoon onto each roll and roll up. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

PS:  Thank You Karla!

Happy New Year!
Annamaria

SOMETHING SWANKY

Onion Straws

These are so good, crispy onion goodness. These are great on sandwiches, appetizer or as a side dish. I love dipping them into ketchup or ranch dressing. They are so great fresh and still a little warm. The best thing about them is that they are so easy to make.

1 large Onion
2 cups Buttermilk
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Salt
1/4-1/2 Tbsp Cayenne Pepper
1-2 qt Oil for frying
Black Pepper to taste

Slice onion very thin. Place in a baking dish and cover with buttermilk and soak for at least an hour.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Heat Oil in pan to about 375 degrees.

Grab a handful of onions, throw into the flour mixture, tap to shake off excess, and push into hot oil. Fry for a few minutes and remove when golden brown. Repeat steps til all onions have all been fried.

Happy Eats,
Annamaria

Taralli, The Italian Pretzel

A fellow blogger, Marcellina of Marcellina in Cucina posted some Ethnic type of pretzels and they reminded me of the Italian Pretzel called Taralli. There are different kinds of Taralli, one savory and one more on the sweet side. I have eaten so many of these pretzels that are usually made by my Aunts or my Godmother. We've had them at weddings, showers, snacking actually just about everywhere. They are crisp and peppery as well as the taste of caraway seeds. Some Italians make them without caraway seeds but some use both pepper and caraway. I've eaten so many of these because they become addicting, you just keep eating them and eating them. I love them and they are great to snack on. I remember going to my Godparent's house and my Godmother would have a basket of freshly made Taralli. So I share this recipe with you. This is a great recipe and the only thing that is time consuming is forming the pretzels. But eventually you'll get the hang of it. This is a recipe for the savory ones and a good amount to start off with. This is the version that is primarily used in Southern Italy especially in the Puglia region which my city Bari is in.

*I hope you try them Marcellina! =)

Savory Italian Taralli

1/2 cup warm water
1/2 Tbsp dry white wine
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbspn. ground black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil, extra virgin
dashes of fennel seeds (optional)

Sift flour, salt and black pepper onto large bowl.

Make a well in the center and add olive oil & use hands to mix, add dry white wine. Blend together and gradually form dough ball. Knead for about 5 minutes until soft dough ball forms & items are incorporated.

Place in bowl that has been coated very lightly olive oil.  Just a teaspoon.  Let dough rest.  Prepare surface to roll.

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Break off small pieces of dough and roll into ropes about 6 inches long. Form a ring and pinch edges together.

Fill a large saucepan half full of water; bring to a boil. Drop taralli into water and boil for 1 minute until rings float to top, move them off the bottom if they stick. Remove from water, they are done being boiled when they float, then transfer to dry on a sheet of parchment paper letting both sides dry.

Brush with olive oil and bake 350 degrees on parchment paper lined cookie sheets, turning a few times during baking until light to medium golden brown and crisp. 12-15 minutes. Let pretzels cool and store in an air tight container.

Buon Appetito!
Annamaria

Panzarotti Pugliese (Italian Fried Pizzas)

This recipe is a staple in our region of Italy. The Puglia region. My family lives in Bari and Mola Di Bari which is a southern coastal city off the Adriatic. Panzarotti later introduced to Northern Italy in the 1940's by Agostino Luini.

*If you ever get a chance to go to Italy, the Puglia Region is beautiful and visit Trulli!

I love Bari!

Sometimes this was a whole family event, everyone stuffing their own pockets. We would have these many times a year but definitely on New Years Eve. But honestly we get cravings and we have to make these and can't wait until the holiday. We just recently made them for Fourth of July. They are so good, filled with your favorite pizza toppings, I have even made Manwich ones with shredded cheddar and sweet ones with pie fillings (and yes I've done Nutella and bananas)(if my mom knew I did that with the pie fillings she'd probably hit me with a dish towel). You can get really creative, but the original panzerotti feature, sauce and cheese and then whatever else you like, our family would do capers, pepperoni, ground meat sauce with cheese, cooked sausage, and my dad of course with his anchovies and ham. The stuffing possibilities are endless! You can make your own pizza dough or buy it and make as many as you want! Also making them small would make great appetizers. This is one of my favorite foods!

When we got to my mom's on Fourth of July she already had the assembly going and her homemade dough made. My daughter insisted that she wanted to help so I thought this was a great opportunity to have her hands get dirty and her head into the kitchen. Getting lessons of Italian cooking to the 3rd generation. This was Sofia happily rolling the dough on our square wood plank that is about 30 years old. We always roll out our dough on it and we always work on this board when working with any type of dough or pastry.

Depending how many Panzarotti you want to make depends on how much dough you make. My mom will make up to 5 pounds of dough, some for the Panzarotti, Focaccia or Bread. She always makes lots of Panzarotti because she cooks like she has The Army to feed. But 1-2 pounds is good for a big dinner because usually you only eat these for dinner with nothing else. They are filling. What is also great is that you can freeze them before you fry them (I would separate them between sheets of deli paper so they don't stick and then you would defrost them before frying or if you have leftovers, they last a good couple days if they last that long.

The person who was most importantly missing was my Dad. He would always be sitting at the table rolling, filling and of course critiquing our way of doing the panzarotti. My Dad though is now in Heaven but my mom and I couldn't help but talk about him while doing the Panzerotti. We had some great laughs and would say things that he would say to us while we assemble them. It was sad and nice at the same time. Keepin the memory of him alive. This recipe is extra special for our family because of him.

So here is the Panzarotti Recipe, I hope you love them and enjoy them as much as our family and friends do.

Panzarotti

Ingredients:
1 lb of Fresh Pizza Dough or Frozen and Thawed Pizza Dough
Pasta Sauce (your own or store bought)
Mozzarella cheese or any cheese you like.

Fillings: (which are endless)

Pepperoni
Cooked Italian Sausage
Ground Beef, Cooked and Drained of Fat
Capers
Prepared Sloppy Joe and Shredded Cheddar
Shredded Cheese
Ricotta Cheese
Veggies: Mushrooms, Olives, Peppers, Onions, Banana Peppers, etc...
Chicken
Ham & Shredded Swiss Cheese
Mexican Fillings

This is basically a pizza that has been folded over and fried, well kind of... It's way better!

Take a piece of dough the size of a tennis ball and flatten it with a rolling pin into a flat and round shape on lightly floured surface. The thickness of the dough should be no more than 1/4 of an inch.

Place your favorite fillings at the center of the dough, do not over stuff. We usually start with a tablespoon of sauce with mozzarella cheese, then add what we want additionally (meats and vegetables).

Fold the dough over the filling and close it in the shape of 1/2 moon. Press down the outer edges of the dough to completely seal the panzerotti. Make sure to seal well or the will open in frying process. Prepare all of them before starting frying process.

Fry in hot olive oil till they are golden brown (you'll have to flip sides while frying, I would use salad tongs to do this, drain on paper towels and serve when you have fried them all. Be careful not to burn your mouth, you will grown impatient and want to eat one right away!! Buon Appetito!

Buona Notte,
Annamaria

Crescent Sausage Cheese Calzone

When I was a kid my Godmother always made this calzone using crescent rolls. She would pinch the perforated together to make a sheet of the crescent dough and then fill it with this sausage mixture. It was so good it seemed you could eat the whole thing yourself. My Godmother is a great cook and I always saw her cook when I was there. It seemed that was what she always did. As soon as my Godfather came home from his construction job he would get ready to dinner. It was all ready when he would come home. He would be so tanned almost red because of the sun in the summer months. He was the darkest Italian man I ever knew. We all had to chip in to set the table and we would all sit down for dinner. My Godfather always at the head of the table like every other Italian father. I have so many memories of eating dinner at my Godparents and sitting with my Godsisters and Godbrother. I could honestly say it was my second family. My Godparents truly lived up to the role of real Godparents. Well my Godmother always showed me how she cooked. She's from Northern Italy in a city called Bologna (bo loan ya) not (bo loan nee). That's the correct pronunciation. So her style of cooking was very different than my mom's cooking because my family is from Southern Italy in a city called Bari, Italy. Probably the 2 most influential women in my love of cooking, baking and food in general. They are the strongest Italian women I know.

So onto this one dish my Godmother would make. Like I said it's a little bit of an Americanized Italian Calzone. I never knew how my Godmother came about making this and I really don't care because it is so good.

Now Pillsbury makes crescent dough without perforations. Which makes making this calzone easier and prevent the filling from oozing out of the perforations if you didn't pinch them right. So I buy the Pillsbury Recipe Creations Crescent Dough. You will want to buy 2.

Here is a pic of their product:

How you want to do this recipe is first make the filling. You buy the bulk pork sausage, I always buy Bob Evans sausage.

Preheat oven to 350'F.
Unroll dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets, gently stretching dough on each side.

In a skillet brown sausage until no longer pink and in crumbles. Add in garlic and mix around for about a 2 minutes.

Turn off heat and add to sausage, romano cheese, then mix around, then add 1 cup shredded mozzarella/pizza cheese blend and mix around. I add 8 ounces of cream cheese and mix until incorporated.

Split sausage and cheese mixture in half and place in middle of crescent dough leaving 1 inch untouched at ends, sprinkle on top of sausage mixture 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella/pizza cheese blend.

Scoot over calzone to lay 2nd. sheet of crescent dough and do the same steps. (This will allow you to bake both on the same sheet at the same time.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown as pictured below. Let calzones set for about 10 minutes. Then cut with a sharp knife into strips and serve! You can serve with marinara sauce but these are so good by themselves and make a great party snack!

Sausage Cheese Calzone

2 package refrigerated crescent rolls (in sheet form called recipe creations from pillsbury)
1 lb bulk sausage
1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
2 cups shredded mozzarella or pizza cheese blend
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature (optional)
1/4 cups freshly grated Pecorino Romano and/or Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 350'F.

Unroll dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets, gently stretching dough on each side.

In a skillet brown sausage until no longer pink and in crumbles. Add in garlic and mix around for about a 2 minutes.

Turn off heat and add to sausage, romano cheese, then mix around, then add 1 cup shredded mozzarella/pizza cheese blend and mix around.

Add in cream cheese in about 1 ounce pats so that it will be easier to mix and coat the sausage.

Split sausage and cheese mixture in half and place in middle of crescent dough leaving 1 inch untouched at ends, sprinkle on top of sausage mixture 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella/pizza cheese blend

Take one side of dough and stretch over meat mixture and do the same with other side of dough carefully not to rip dough. Fold open edges up and flip calzone over so that the double layer of dough is on bottom. (This will guarantee the dough to fully cook.)

Scoot over calzone to lay 2nd. sheet of crescent dough and do the same steps. (This will allow you to bake both on the same sheet at the same time.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown as pictured above. Let calzones set for about 10 minutes. Then cut with a sharp knife into strips and serve! You can serve with marinara sauce but these are so good by themselves and make a great party snack!

This is so easy to make and it's delicious. I hope to get your feedback if you ever make it.

Buon Appetito!

XOXO,
Annamaria