Pizza Party Dip

Pizza dip!  Who ever heard of such a thing?  I hadn’t until recently, but apparently it is a thing and it is delicious.  Cheese dip meets pizza in this fun and tasty treat!  Be all the rage at your next gathering with this fairly simple and easy to make dish.  Rage on!

Ingredients

1. .5 lbs. Ground Pork Sausage
2. 15 oz. Can pizza Sauce
3. 2 8 0z. Cream Cheese, Softened
4. 1 Cup Mozzarella, Finely Shredded
5. 1/2 Cup Parmesan, Finely Shredded
6. 7 oz. Pepperoni Slices
7. 1 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning
8. 1 Tbsp. Granulated Sugar
9. 1/2 tsp. Salt
10. 1 clove Garlic, Minced
11. Vegetable Shortening or Pan Spray

This recipe makes 2 9 inch pie pans of dip.

Quick Directions

1. Pan fry sausage with garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Dice or mince 1/2 of the pepperoni and add to sausage mixture.
3. Drain grease and cool.
4. Cut softened cream cheese into cubes and whip smooth in mixer or by hand.
5. Mix in 1 Tbsp. Italian season, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 Tbsp. sugar.
6. Grease 2 9 inch pie pan with vegetable oil or pan spray.
7. Place half of the cream cheese mixture into each pan.
8. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan over cream cheese.
9. Cover cheese with pizza sauce, half of the can in each.
10. Put half the sausage mixture into each pan.
11. Cover with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
12. Place pepperoni slices on top.
13. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is golden brown on top.
14. Serve with chips, breadsticks, or garlic bread.
15. Enjoy!

Detailed Directions

Alright, lets get this tasty treat made!  Start by frying the ground sausage.  Add in a clove of minced garlic and sprinkle some salt and pepper in there while it is cooking.  If you need to, add a small amount of olive oil to keep the meat from sticking to the pan.  While that is going, chop up about half of the pepperoni and go ahead and add it in.

Once the sausage is fully cooked(160 for ground pork products!) skim out as much grease as you can.  Or if you really want to get more out, put the meat into a strainer and let it drain for awhile.  Once done, set aside the mixture to cool.


While that is cooling, get the cream cheese cut into cubes.  Make sure that the cream cheese is softened, or simple put, set on the counter for a bit to slowly warm it up and make it easier to work with.


I used my mixer to mix it smooth and add the seasonings in, but if you don’t have one you can use a hand mixer or use your manual mixer.  I did recently use a potato masher to mix cream cheese and sour cream together.  Though it wasn’t the best mix, it was a lot easier using the masher over a hand whisk.

Regardless of which route you go, you just want a nice smooth mix with the sugar, salt, and Italian seasoning fairly well mixed in.  If you don’t allow the cream cheese to soften, it will make this chore much harder than it needs to be!


Next get your 9 inch pie pans greased up.  I just rubbed a little bit of vegetable shortening in there but cooking spray such work fine as well.  Just enough to make sure it is all lubed up is all you need here.  If you don’t have a pie pan, I think a regular cake pan would work ok but it won’t look as pretty.


Split the cream cheese mixture into each pan.  Simpler said then done, but it doesn’t have to be perfect as it will be covered up and nobody will know.






Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan over the cream cheese.  As much or as little as you want.  I just went with a nice covering.








 Follow that up with pizza sauce…no I didn’t forget to take a picture before putting the sausage mixture on…half of the can on each.







 Cover sauce with the sausage mixture.  You can of course put in different toppings.  Whatever your favorite pizza toppings are would work great here.  If you do go that route, I would put about 3/4’s of the toppings on top of the sauce and the rest on the very top.






Put the remainder of the cheese on, or as much as you want to.  I again just covered it nicely.  Follow that up with the pepperonis, as many or as few as you like!  There are a lot of choices it seems!



Next put it into an oven preheated to 375 and wait.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and turning golden brown.



Serve with tortilla chips, breadsticks, or garlic bread.  Really whatever you want!  I was low on time so I opted for the chips and it was fantastic.  Both pans were gone fairly quick.  You may want to have more parties once you taste this treat!  Rage on.

German Style Tater Tot Salad

Potato salad is always a great accompaniment to many different dishes.  Likewise, tater tots just kick butt.  Why have they not been combined into a dish?  Good question.  I asked myself this and decided that I must find out.  I decided to make a German style salad which usually uses oil and vinegar instead of the usual mayo and is also served warm.  I will tackle the cold tater tot salad at some point but this was a great start.  Rage on!

Ingredients

1. 1/2 Bag of Tater Tots(16 oz.)
2. 5 Strips of Bacon, diced
3. 1/2 a Small Onion, diced
4. 1/4 C Sugar
5. 1/4 C Vinegar
6. 1/2 C Water
7. 2 Tbsp. Brown Mustard
8. 1 tsp. Salt and Pepper
9. Vegetable Oil

Quick Directions

1. Preheat oven according to directions on tater tot package.
2. Spread tater tots on a baking sheet.
3. Bake until about 5 minutes are left for tater tots.
4. Smash with fork and then finish baking them.
5. Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a sauce pan.
6. Add bacon and cook on medium high stirring frequently.
7. When bacon is almost done, add diced onions and cook till translucent.
8. Add water, sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper and mix well.
9. Bring to a boil and then simmer till begins to thicken.
10. Add tater tots and remove from heat.
11. Mix together.
12. Enjoy!

Detailed Directions

This dish is quick, easy, and delicious!  Start by spreading your tots onto a baking sheet and getting the oven preheated to the temp. the package calls for.  Toss them in and start dicing your bacon and onions.



Pour a little bit of vegetable oil into your sauce pan and add the bacon.  Cook on medium high heat for 5-8 minutes or until almost cooked through.  If you need to, add a little more oil to keep it from sticking.  Next, add the diced onions in and keep cooking till they begin to be translucent, about 5-8 more minutes.


Make sure to stir frequently.  This will help them to not stick and to make sure you don’t over cook them.



When there is about 5-8 minutes left for the tots, take them out of the oven and smash them with a fork.  You don’t need to do this step, but I felt it made for an interesting final product.  In other words, it is what I did so it is the rage style?


Good, you made the right choice when you smashed them too.  Stick them back in the oven and cook them till they begin  to brown and get crunchy.



When they are done, pull them out and set aside unless you have finished with the dressing steps already.


Once the onions are translucent, add the water, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper.  Bring this to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Cook until it begins to thicken up which doesn’t take very long, about 3-6 minutes.  Make sure to stir often.


Remove from heat and toss those cooked tots in and stir well.  And that is pretty much it, go enjoy this tasty dish with whoever you choose to share the rage with.  Rage on!







This dish is designed to be easy and tasty.  Removing a few steps like using potatoes and replacing them with tots.  If you decide to, you can also do this same recipe with regular potatoes.  I would probably use Yukon Gold potatoes but russets would work great too.  Decide whether you want to remove the skin or not, then dice them into a fairly even medium dice.  Boil them until fork tender, then add them to the sauce and mix like the tots.

Granola

I’m still munching on this delicious treat so I’m going to make this post short and sweet!  Munch…I mean Rage on!

Ingredients

1. 2.5 Cups Rolled Oats(Sometimes called old fashioned oats)
2. 3/4 Cup Wheat Germ
3. 1 Cup Mixed Nuts(Any nut works here, but I like to use a mix)
4. 1/2 Cup Honey
5. 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
6. 1.5 tsp. Vanilla
7. 1.5 tsp. Cinnamon
8. 1/2 tsp. Salt
9. Brown Sugar(about 1/2 a cup)

Quick Directions

1. Rough chop, or pulse in food processer, the cup of mixed nuts.
2. Mix honey, vegetable oil, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl.
3. Add rolled oats, wheat germ, and nuts to honey mixture.  Mix well.
4. Spread out evenly on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake in oven at 225.  Stir every 15 minutes.
6. After first stir, sprinkle brown sugar over the top.  Cover well, then mix in.
7. Bake till oats are golden brown, about 60-75 minutes.  Don’t forget to stir every 15!
8. Remove from oven and stir every couple of minutes till cool.  Less stirring will leave bigger chunks as it will begin to stick as it cools.  Your choice on how much to stir here.
9. Enjoy!

Detailed Directions

Granola!  The base of a great trail mix or an awesome stand alone snack.  Throw a little milk on it and have cereal?  I haven’t tried that yet but just might!  Right, so lets get down to it.

Start by getting the nuts ready.  I use mixed nuts because it gives a good amount of choice to the granola, but use your favorite.  I think walnuts are the best in granola but the batch of mixed nuts I got this time didn’t have any.  Which…I didn’t realize when I bought them or I would have probably picked some walnuts up to add to it.  Oh well, you live and learn and then rage for a second until you realize the granola is still great!

So chop them up.  I found a really easy method for this.  Put some plastic wrap down, place nuts on top of the plastic wrap, then put plastic wrap over that.  Then use a meat mallet and pound on them(stress released!) or find a frying pan, that works too!  The goal is to get them broken into little pieces.  If you want, use a knife or pulse them in the food processor if you like more traditional methods.

So next get the honey, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt into a mixing bowl and mix well.

 

 

 

 

 

You may be asking about the brown sugar, but hold on and follow directions.  Next add the rolled oats, which let me take a step aside and explain why rolled oats.  They are sometimes called old fashioned oats or rolled because of the method used to prepare them.  Anyways, it is what you want as they cook the best.  Add the wheat germ and the nuts also and mix well.  Then mix a few more times just to make sure its all mixed well!

Next put it onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  You don’t need to use the parchment but I feel like the mix would make a mess on the pan so I played it safe.  Spread evenly and then place in the oven set at 225.  Bake for 60-75 minutes stirring it every 15 minutes.

 

Ok, so now we are finally at the brown sugar part.  After your first stir, sprinkle brown sugar over the top.  Doesn’t have to be a lot, you just want to cover it well.  And then stir again to mix the brown sugar in.  Why do I do it this way?  I can’t really explain it, I forgot to add it one time and did it this way and liked the way it turned out so I say don’t mess with it.  I am sure there is some scientific reason why this is good or bad to do but I don’t have that answer for you.  So if you like, go ahead and mix it in with the honey mixture before adding the oats in.  Probably do 3-4 Tbsp.

So then it is finally done!  It is a little hard to tell because the color your looking for is golden brown oats but this can be hard to see with the honey mixture on them.  What I do is taste a small bite every stir after the first 30 minutes of baking.  Once it is out, continue to stir every couple of minutes for the next 15-20.  The granola will begin to stick and clump up as it cools.  The bigger you want the clumps to be, the less you stir it.  So now it is done, go enjoy!  And rage on!

Other Thoughts

Ok, so this is the base for a trail mix I made awhile back.  I don’t particularly like the raisins and other things I added to it that time so I didn’t do it this time as it is just for me.  But, I can tell you what to do!  Once it comes out of the oven, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes and then add in the other goods you want to add.  Such as raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, pretzels, really whatever you like.  The choice is yours, which it always has been when in your kitchen.

Shrimp and Green Beans

I received some green beans from a friends garden and needed something to make with them.  Not trying to do anything I normally would make, I came up with this idea.  Can’t say I was disappointed and I hope you won’t be either.  There is a little bit of prep but the cook time is fast.  Enjoy, and rage on!

Ingredients

1. 1/2 lb. Shrimp, peeled and deveined
2. 2 cups Green Beans(I used fresh but frozen can be substituted)
3. 1/2 Tbsp. Granulated Garlic
4. 1/2 Tbsp. Ground Ginger
5. 1 Tbsp. Rice Cooking Wine
6. 3 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
7. 1/2 tsp. Fish Sauce
8. 1 Tbsp. Hoisin Sauce
9. 1 tsp. Brown Sugar
10. 1/2 Tbsp. Sesame Seeds
11. 1/4 tsp. Salt and Pepper
12. Sesame Oil
13. 1 1/2 Tbsp. Corn Starch
14. 4 Tbsp. Water

Quick Directions

1. Wash and clean green beans.  Remove ends and cut into about 1 inch sections.
2. Peel and devein shrimp.
3. Mix together garlic, ginger, rice wine, soy sauce, fish sauce, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, sesame seeds, and salt and pepper.
4. Mix water and corn starch together.
5. Heat wok or frying pan to medium high. Pour in enough sesame oil to coat bottom.
6. Add shrimp and green beans.
7. Cook till shrimp is opaque, or done.  About 3-6 minutes.
8. Add in garlic and other seasonings mixture and cook till begins to boil.
9. Add corn starch mixture.
10. Mix well and cook till sauce thickens, about 1-2 minutes.
11. Serve over rice if you want to, enjoy!

Detailed Directions

If you are using fresh green beans, which I highly recommend, then you will want to start by cleaning them.  First rinse them and then cut off the ends and cut them into about 1 inch sections.  I found it to be quicker to just break the ends off and break them in half.

If you don’t have fresh then use frozen.  Canned would probably work but it won’t have that slight crunch or crispness to it once it is done cooking.  And I’m really not a fan of canned veggies.
Also, make sure your shrimp is peeled and deveined.  I bought the shrimp that still had the shell on because it was a little cheaper but if you don’t want to mess with peeling it off go with the already peeled.  One thing you will have to do though is make sure it is deveined.  Usually they are cleaned all the way, but occasionally there is something that needs to be cleaned up.  It is easy to spot too, just look at the back side of the shrimp(or where it is split, as if cut…which it was) and if there is anything black or blue in there, remove it.

Great so we are moving right along.  Next get your seasonings mixed together.  This mixture would include everything but the shrimp, green beans, corn starch, water, and sesame oil.  Mix it up well.  And don’t think you can wait on doing this part.  The shrimp cooks fast so before you start doing any cooking you should already have everything else ready to go.


Next, mix together the water and corn starch.  You will most likely need to give it a quick stir before you poor it in, but mixing ahead of time will make it take less time later.



Okay, so we have everything ready to go, right?  Now it is time for the fun part.  Go ahead and get your wok or frying pan heating.  Medium high is what I would suggest.  Pour in enough sesame oil to coat the bottom of the pan and let it heat up a bit.


Dump in the shrimp and green beans and watch the magic happen.  One thing I love about cooking shrimp is watching them turn color.  It happens so fast that I just find it fascinating.  Toss and turn and stir the food around until all the of the shrimp is done, or opaque. A nice orange color I would call it.  It should only take about 3-6 minutes.

I also put in about 1 clove of minced up garlic after the shrimp and green beans cooked for about 2 minutes.  That is an optional step however, I just really like garlic.

Next put in the mixture of seasonings.  Let it cook till it begins to boil.


Once that has happened, pour the corn starch mixture in and stir till well incorporated.  Keep cooking till the sauce has thickened up.  About 1-2 minutes.  This meal is fast!
That is pretty much it.  I served it over  rice but it is optional.  I thought it gave a nice addition to the meal.  Go enjoy it and rage on.


Other Things

• This recipe will leave the green beans fairly crunchy.  If you prefer a more tender bean, I would suggest steaming them ahead of time or start cooking them before adding the shrimp in.  Maybe 3-5 minutes of time alone in the pan before you add the shrimp to the party.
• You can use light soy sauce and remove the addition of the salt to make the dish healthier.  Maybe serve it with brown rice.  This is all up to you.
• It cooks fast, can’t stress enough that you make sure you have everything ready to go when you start cooking.

Grilled Corn on the Cob

There are always the old stand by methods of cooking something.  Today, an easy replacement to the standard boiling  pot of water is on display.  Fresh sweet corn on the cob is a great summer treat, but throwing it on the bbq is a different method of cooking it that will not disappoint and it is easy!  Rage on.

Ingredients

1. Sweet Corn, un-shucked (either 1/2 of one per person or 1 per person)
2. Olive Oil
3. Seasoned Salt

Quick Directions

1. Remove outer layer of husk.
2. Carefully peel back rest of layers and remove silk.
3. Rinse corn and husk well in cool water.
4. Rub corn with olive oil and sprinkle season salt on.
5. Fold husk back into place.
6. Grill on edge of charcoal grill or on medium heat for gas grills. About 15 minutes.
7. Turn corn often.  Corn is done when it  has a nice  golden color.
8. Enjoy!

This recipe is really simple so calm down right now!  Start  by gently peeling back the husk from the corn.  I found it made this process a lot simpler by removing the very outer layer of husk before peeling back the interior ones.  The outer layer is a bit tougher and doesn’t fold back as nice, but feel free to keep it there if you don’t mind dealing with it.  Take out as much of the silk as you can.

You probably won’t be able to get all of the silk off, unless you want to spend all night working on it.  Anyways, the water should help you get off a lot of those pesky last pieces.  Once you have it fairly clean, run it under cold water and scrub well to help free up the remaining silk.  Also make sure to rinse the husk well.  Doing this will help keep it from catching on fire during the grilling process as well as cleaning it up a bit.

Next, pour a little bit of olive oil on the corn and sprinkle some seasoned salt over that.  Then…get your hands dirty!   I found it easiest to just go rub it all over with my hand but if you have a brush and like to keep clean feel free to use that instead.  You can brush the olive oil over the corn and then turn it while shaking the seasoned salt on if you like.  Whatever method you choose, the goal is to get the corn well covered in oil and seasoned salt.

Fold the husk back into place and you are ready to grill.  It should fold back easily enough, but take your time and if it breaks a little bit it is ok.  The husk is only left on to serve as a vessel for cooking.  It protects the corn so that it doesn’t get exposed to too much heat, allowing the cooking process to take place.

 

Throw it on the grill.  If you are using a charcoal grill, try to keep it on the edge.  If using a gas grill, use medium to medium high heat.  Regardless of the grill in use, the steps are the same.  Turn often!  It should take about 15 minutes to cook the corn, but make sure to turn it every couple minutes during that time so one side doesn’t burn.

 

As it cooks the husk will brown or burn a bit, but this is normal.  The corn will turn a nice golden shiny color when it is done.  An easy way to let you know!  I of course was so excited to try  it that it slipped my mind to take a final picture of the finished product so I do apologize for that slight misstep.  If you left the end on like I did, cleaning the husk off is really easy.  Just fold back the husk, grab hold of the end and rip it  off.  The husk should pull away with that piece.  Of course this may not completely remove all of it, so simply remove the remaining pieces.

Your corn is ready to eat and how you go about it from here is your choice!  I put a bit of salt  on and called it good.  You could run some butter over it and add some pepper if you choose.  You can also omit the seasoned salt in the beginning prep, but you should keep the olive oil so that the corn doesn’t dry out while cooking.  Feel free to experiment with seasonings though!  Rage on.