Creamy Carmalized Onion And Bacon Pizza

I love pizza! We have a deep never ending bond. I love it so much that I have come up with a few recipes of my own that have become family favorites. Don't get me wrong, I have the pizza chains on speed dial for the nights when all I feel like doing is lounging on the couch with a pizza box and Mr. remote. But, on the other hand, nothing is better than a homemade pizza pie. I have made thin crust and deep dish, tried lots of toppings and different cheeses and sauces, and have come up with a few favorites. This one actually came to me while I was making stuffing for Thanksgiving. I was caramelizing some onions and I made way too many. I did not want to throw them away so I just popped the extra in the fridge for another meal, and so it came to be that this food baby was born!


1 refrigerated pizza crust ( no I do not make my own......shoot me!)
1 medium onion, sliced
8-10 strips pre-cooked bacon, chopped (you can use raw and cook it, but why? Its just an extra step)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper


In a saute pan melt 1 tablespoon butter and a tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute for 10-12 minutes until they are golden in color and sweet smelling. Preheat oven according to pizza crust directions. Spread dough on pizza pan and drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Bake crust for 5 minutes or just until set, not browned. Once onions are caramelized, push to outside of pan and melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the center of pan. Add heavy cream and Parmesan cheese. Stir until creamy and incorporate onions into cream sauce. Remove pizza crust from oven and spread with the creamy onion sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and chopped bacon. Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.

This pizza is EXTREMELY rich in flavor. Beware!!! I can usually only eat 1 slice, 2 if I am really hungry. Its also great cold. Yes, I love cold pizza. My son ate a whole slice of this. He is only 21 months old, which proves how yummy and delicious this is.

Disclaimer: I never said that this was good for you, fate free, calorie free, low in calories, or would not clog your arteries, because its not at all healthy. Proceed with caution.

Polish Sausage Soup

This recipe is from a family friend. I love polish sausage or kielbasa as most people call it. My husband and son love it too, which is great because my son is not a big meat eater. And I know that it is high in salt, but I decided to just leave the salt out of this soup as a compromise. This soup is awesome too because you can easily make this whole recipe in the crock pot, go to work and come home to a hot home cooked meal. Just leave out the barley, and add that 10 minutes before dinner. Yummy, and super easy. Perfect for winter!!

I always buy kielbasa and then it sits in my fridge because I don't know what to do with it. I think this is my only recipe that calls for it. So, if anyone has any recipes that call for kielbasa or polish sausage I would be more than appreciative.

Polish Sausage Soup

1 link of polish sausage or kielbasa
2 medium carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 can great northern beans, also called Navy beans
1/2 cup of quick cooking barley
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes
2 32 oz. boxes chicken stock or broth
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large soup pot.
Add diced veggies and garlic, saute for 10 minutes.
Cut kielbasa into coins, about 1/4 inch thick.
Add chicken stock, tomatoes, beans and kielbasa.
Heat to boiling and add barley. Boil for 10 minutes or until barley and veggies are tender.
Eat many large bowls of this. Go to bed stuffed!!

Egg Muffins

I was reading a new cookbook that I got out of the library called, The Family Kitchen. The great thing about this book is that it shows ways in which your children can help you in the kitchen. Each recipe has a "Call the kids" section with ways the kids can help, whether it is washing vegetables or mixing a salad dressing.

My son loves to watch me cook. He is in his glory to sit in the kitchen with me and mix and stir with my bowls and spatulas. I try really hard to keep him interested in food and preparing it. So far he is not a picky eater, and I am really hoping his appetite does not change. He will pretty much eat anything, from salmon to asparagus. He loves it all! I know, lucky me, right?

Well this recipe comes from this book, although I did adapt it slightly. The recipe in the book calls for zucchini, and I did not have any on hand, so I twisted it up a bit and made ham and cheese egg muffins instead.

I think this is a brilliant idea. Pair a few of these egg muffins with some fresh fruit and hash brown potatoes and you have a complete sit down meal. Or, if you are constantly on the run like I am you can make these on Sunday and keep them in the fridge for an easy on the go breakfast all week long. Toast up an english muffin or bagel and pop one of these in the middle and you have an instant breckfast sandwich and most of the work is done for you. So here is my adaptation of this recipe.

Egg Muffins

4 eggs (will make 6 egg muffins)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2-3 slices deli ham, diced
1/4 cup milk or half and half
salt and pepper
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
In a mixing bowl, crack eggs and add milk. Whish together.
Mix in ham dices and 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese.
Salt and pepper the egg mixture to taste.
Poor egg mixture equally into muffin tins. The mixture should fill 6 muffin cups.
Sprinkle the tops with remaining shredded cheese.
Bake for 10-14 minutes, or until golden on top.
Remove from oven and slide a butter knife around the edges to loosen. If eggs are runny, put back in the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Once cooled, use knife to loosen.
Eat them.

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

I love Alfredo, and my husband loves it even more. All that creamy cheesy goodness....yummy!! We have tried every kind of jarred Alfredo sauce on the market, but none of them even came close to the real thing. I always thought Alfredo sauce would be a complicated drawn out process. I used to be incredibly afraid of any kind of sauce. (I burnt a bechamel sauce one time, and ever since have been traumatized.)Needless to say, my sister found this great super simple recipe for Alfredo sauce.

This sauce is so easy, you will never need another white sauce again. It is easily adaptable to fit any recipe that calls for a white sauce. I have since used it for Alfredo pasta, white pizza and lasagna. Watch for recipes to come that will use this sauce. I am not positive of the origin, but I will include a note to as where my sister found this, at a later time.

So no one ever said Alfredo had to be low fat, and this recipe is deffinitly not in that category. I am not even going to try and guess what the calorie or fat content would be per serving, especially since I usually eat two bowls. Everything in moderation is key!


Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

olive oil
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 stick butter or margarine
3-4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch chunks
1 head of broccoli, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
1 pound pasta, such as penne
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste


Heat oil in a skillet and brown chicken pieces.
Add Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.
Meanwhile boil pasta according to package directions. Add broccoli and boil for the last five minutes of pasta cooking time. Drain.
In a small sauce pan, melt stick of butter.
Add Parmesan cheese and heavy cream, stirring until smooth.
Toss with pasta, broccoli and chicken.
Eat alot!!

Cherry Pie Cups

These cups are so adorable and delicious. My son loved them because he got to eat his own little pie. I was going through my refrigerator getting rid of leftovers and all the yucky gunk left from Thanksgiving, when I realized I had 2 boxes of pie crusts left. I decided to use one to make chicken pot pie later in the week. (watch for the recipe) The other box contained only one crust, leftover from turkey day. I came up with a cute idea to make little pies in my cupcake tin! Brilliant and ingenious. I am sure someone has already thought of these cute little pies before me, but I was convinced for a brief moment that I was a genuis.

Cherry Pie Cups

1 refrigerated pie crust
1 can cherry pie filling, or filling of choice
cooking spray
granulated sugar

Preheat oven as directed on pie crust box.
Unroll pie crust onto cutting board.
Cut 6, 4" rounds from pie crust. ( I used the lid from a can of cashews and a pizza cutter, works fantastico!!)
Spray cupcake tin with cooking spray.
Press dough rounds into muffin cups, edges will be fluted.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of pie filling into each cup.
Eat extra pie filling with a spoon, and feel no shame!
Sprinkle edges of dough with sugar.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are lightly browned.
Let stand for 10 minutes, loosen edges with a butter knife and remove from muffin tins.

These are better than regular cherry pie. I don't know if it is the whimsy of eating a tiny little pie that is portioned just for me, or just the fact that I love cherry pie filling, but these are magnificient. I plan on making these at Christmas, but I thought I would try a few different varieties of pie filling and serve them on a tray together. Yummy!!

Cake Mix Chocolate Crinkles

I recently got a book out of the library called, Cake Mix Cookies. I read it cover to cover and wanted to eat every page, the cookies, not the actual book! The author is brilliant. She has created recipes for every type and flavor of cookie possible, in which the main ingredient is a box of cake mix. I thought this was incredibly clever, considering the way our economy is going right now, this truly will save you money, not to mention time. By the time you have purchased the ingredients in a typical cookie dough you are well into twenty dollars. If you use a cake mix, you can typically spend under five dollars, and that is if you really have NOTHING in your pantry, no oil, eggs or milk.

My sister and I were really inspired by this cook book and have decided to use cake mixes as the basis for most of our holiday baking. Seeing as tomorrow is December first, I thought I would start off the month by making a Christmas favorite in our family, the Chocolate Crinkle Cookie. My mother has made these every year for as long as I can remember. They are a rich cake like chocolate cookie that is rolled in powdered sugar before being baked. While baking the powdered sugar finds every nook and crannie in the cookie. They are actually a very pretty cookie, and so yummy!!!

Cake Mix Chocolate Crinkles

1 box Devil's Food cake mix
2 eggs
4 teaspoons milk
1/4 cup oil
powdered sugar


Mix cake mix, eggs, oil and milk in a large bowl. Dough will be very thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. use a teaspoon to roll dough into 1 inch balls, and roll in powdered sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Make sure you have a well greased cookie sheet, otherwise the powdered sugar will burn and make the cookies stick to the pan. Also, if you are a cookiholic like me, you might want to pop the dough in the freezer for 10 minutes instead of the refridgerator for 30 minuites. This is for those of us who have a I NEED TO EAT THEM NOW mentatlity. I include myself in this category.

German Apple Cake

My mother has always been a baker. Because of her, my sister and I have grown to love baked goods. It is a special bond. The yummy sweet aroma of a tasty treat from the oven is to me what the holidays is all about. Well, that and being with family and friends of course.

My mom is a lover of coffee and cake. Pound cake especially, as well as any kind of strudel or danish. At any time during my childhood you could wander into the kitchen and be sure to find some kind of baked good, whether it be homemade bread or cake.

I came across this recipe while searching for German recipes. It struck me because it calls for four cups of apples, which at first seemed like a ton! Upon making this cake, I found out that it is a perfect amount to achieve a really thick and dense batter, which by the way the batter was pretty tasty too! German Apple Cake


German Apple Cake

2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups of peeled and diced apples ( I recommend you dice this in a small dice, otherwise the cake seems too lumpy)

Preheat the oven to 350
grease and dust a cake pan with flour, 9x13 works best
In a bowl combine the eggs with the oil and beat with an electric mixer until smooth
Add sugar and vanilla and beat again until it is well combined
In a second bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon
Slowly add the dry ingridents to the sugar, egg and oil mixture, the batter will be VERY thick
Fold in the diced apples
Spread into your cake pan and bake for 30 minutes
Cake is done when a knife inserted comes out clean

The original recipe calls for this cake to be baked for 45 minutes. I checked mine and it was done at only 30 minutes, but my oven does cook a little hot. Adjust accordingly.

YUMMY! I sprinkled my cake with confectioner's sugar. This cake has a very crunchy top layer, which I think is excellent!!