Fried Lasagna Bites

Trying to figure out what to try next was really tough.  There are so many recipes out there. I decided to look for a recipe from my boy, Aaron McCargo, Jr. I rooted for him on the Next Food Network Star competition.  I hardly ever get to watch his show, Big Daddy’s House, but knew he would have some pretty tasty stuff to cook.  I landed on Fried Lasagna Bites. They looked easy enough, except I hate frying food. I always manage to get hot grease everywhere.  I made a grocery list and headed to the store.  Then I hit road block #1. There was no Sweet Italian Sausage. They had mild and hot, but no sweet.  Time to improvise!  I found some Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage. It should work, right? So I get home and get all my ingredients lined up.

The recipe calls for chopped basil leaves and Italian seasoning.  I must say that these spices look exactly the same and had me a little worried.  When I added them to my meat mixture, I held back on the basil because it just looked like too much.  Let's see if I'll regret this later. I have everything cooling down and it's time to get the cottage cheese and mozzarella prepared.  Road block #2 - it says to strain the cottage cheese.  I've never cooked anything with cottage cheese and now I'm a little scared that it has to be strained.  To top it off, the only thing I have to strain things is my colander.  I'm not sure if it will work, but it's all I have.  Does this looked strained?

I mix the cottage cheese and mozzarella together and I get a little worried again.  This looks like an awful lot of cheese compared to my meat mixture.

It all looks okay when I mix it together.



Now it's time to stuff the manicotti.  Which proves to be a little tough for me. Either it falls out the other end or I split the shell.  I quickly googled a video of how to do it and things begin to go more smoothly.  However, it takes forever to do it.  My feet hurt and I want this to be over with.  I finally get it done. Aren't they pretty?

I'm not done yet.  I get these bad boys firmed up and cut them in thirds per my instructions.  Then I have to dip them in flour, egg, and bread crumbs.  Every two pieces, I have to rinse my fingers because the bread crumbs are sticking to them more than the pieces.  This is taking way too long and I get a few pieces done.

I give up on breading them.  I think I have enough breaded to complete the experiment and the rest are going to go into the oven.  I decide to use my deep fryer  (that I've used once in 3 years) to save myself from any grease burns.  Tada! My fried lasagna bites are born.

I won't lie and say they were the best ever, but they were pretty tasty.  The hubby ate them and the only problem was that I think I cooked the pasta too long and it was a little chewy.  I also have to say that I don't know where they got the prep time for this recipe from.  It says 35 minutes, but I think I took an hour.  I don't know how people cook anything that's not straight of a box.  My feet hurt and I have all of these dirty dishes.

 Fried Lasagna Bites=Success!

Cinnamon Biscuits

My husband has been franticly looking for cinnamon biscuits that he used to eat and we can never find them.  Being the awesome wife that I am, I decide that I can make some.  How hard could it be to make a cinnamon biscuit?  I went to the internet to find a recipe and most of them required baking canned biscuits and dipping them in cinnamon. In my mind that’s not a cinnamon biscuit.  It should have cinnamon inside. Right? So, being the genius that I am, I come up with the perfect plan. I’ll buy some biscuit mix and just add cinnamon.  Yummy!?

I buy a mix that only requires water to be added.  I pour in cinnamon (no measurements, I got this), sugar, and a cap full of vanilla extract. 

As you can see, I may have went a little overboard on the cinnamon.  But hey, this could be good.  I add ½ cup of water and the mix is still a little dry, so I add a little more.  As my confidence is slowly fading I drop the mix onto the cookie sheet. 

Into the oven they go and I’m wondering what else I have in the kitchen that I can eat for breakfast.  Ten minutes later, I remove them from the oven. 

They look like big piles of dung, but I take a bite and… GROSS!  When my husband tried them, he said they weren’t too bad, just a little dry.  Back to the drawing board.  Cinnamon Biscuit = FAIL.