El cerdo con manta

I promised to update you with my other Pillsbury Bake-Off entry this week, and, if you were checking back hourly in the hopes that I would follow through on that promise, well then you're in for a treat. For the rest of you, check back soon, and I promise to post something more interesting. Just kidding! There's nothing more interesting than crescent rolls.

Anyway, for my second entry (well, second in terms of how I'm posting them, but it's actually the first idea I thought of), I wanted to create an appetizer inspired by the flavors of Spanish tapas. I knew from the outset that it would have to include chorizo because I needed an excuse to buy a bunch of chorizo. From there I preceded to create what was essentially a pig in a blanket but with a more Spanish flair. (I originally wanted to call them "Spanish Pigs" for that reason, but common decency prevented me.) The result was a crescent puff filled with chorizo sausage, Manchego cheese, and a bastardized version of a Basque piperadda (that incidentally didn't include very many peppers and absolutely no onions by the time I got through with it).

You'd think that after making this recipe as many times as I did during the testing phase, I would have gotten at least one picture. And yet, shockingly, I did not. It's okay; they weren't all that showy appearance-wise anyway. Rather like the recipe in my last post really. Based on Carolyn's suggestion in the previous post though, I'm just going to post delicious pictures of food from the Internet.

Isn't that the most glorious pie you've ever seen? It's mango strawberry meringue for those of you keeping score at home. It would probably make a nice pairing with this appetizer. Then you wouldn't even need a main course!

If you were going to make a main course though...you could do worse than cornmeal crusted fish tacos with rhubarb salsa.

Okay, following that gratuitous display of food pornography, my recipe might not be able to hold it's own. Nevertheless, a promise is a promise.

Ingredients:
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
1 can(s) Muir Glen Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes
3 tablespoon(s) chopped chipoltle peppers in abodo
1 tablespoon(s) olive oil
1 teaspoon(s) garlic, minced
4 oz(s) Manchego cheese
4 oz(s) fully cooked chorizo sausage

Number of servings 12:

Preheat oven to 375.

In a frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the minced garlic and saute until garlic starts to brown (about 2 minutes). Add the chopped peppers (you can add more or less depending on how spicy you want the appetizers) and the can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes. Turn the heat down to low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally. When the liquid is mostly gone (this should take about 10 minutes), remove from heat and let cool.

Open the Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls (you can also use the Pillsbury Crescent Seamless Dough Sheet, if available). If using the rolls, unfurl the dough, but do no separate into individual rolls. Press the perforations together with your fingers. Use a knife to cut the dough into 12 equal squares.

Using a sharp knife, slice your fully cooked chorizo sausage into thin slices (approximately 1/8 inch thick). Place one slice of chorizo in the center of each of the crescent dough squares.

Slice the Manchego cheese into small chunks, the approximate size and thickness of the sausage slices. Place a chunk of cheese on top of each sausage slice.
Add a heaping teaspoon of the tomato pepper mixture to the top of the cheese on each of the 12 squares.

Fold each of the four corners of one of the dough squares inward over the filling. Where the four corners meet in the center, press the dough tightly together so that the sides will not unfold during baking. There will be naturally occurring slits where the dough does not quite meet and filling is visible. Repeat these steps with the remaining eleven dough squares.

Transfer the folded appetizers to a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 13 to 15 minutes or until the appetizer bites are golden brown. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, but the appetizers are best served while still warm.

Peanut butter jelly (brownies) time

Well, as anyone who is up on their packaged foods recipe contest dates knows, the deadline for entries for the 2012 Pillsbury Bake-Off was yesterday. I've been holding off on posting my entries here just in case, because I didn't want them pilfered. Naturally, I trust my regular readers implicitly, but the Internet is a wasteland of recipe thieves just waiting to google search. It's a dark, dark, digital world that we live in.

But anyway, this year I entered two (fairly disparate) recipes. I'll post one now and one in a couple of days, just for the sake of posting more. Today's recipe is one that may sound like something that could only be consumed by 5-year-olds and stoned people, but they are actually quite tasty and I have seen them enjoyed by many a sober adult. Enter: the PB&J Brownie Cup. I originally came up with the idea for the pb&j brownie when I thought that peanut butter swirled brownies were good and as were brownies swirled with raspberry jam. A quick perusal of the Internet informed me that I was not the first one to think of this combination. In order then to make my entry a little punchier, I baked them in muffin tins with raspberry preserves in the center and a peanut butter mixture swirled on top. Now they're portable, self-contained, and offer a tasty surprise in the middle! But enough of my subtle campaigning to Pillsbury, Smuckers Preserves, JIF, and their subsidiaries. On with the recipe!


I may not know much about photography or how to plate something so that it doesn't just look like a turd on a dish, but I do know that things look better when placed next to flowers.

PB&J Brownie Cups 1 box(es) Pillsbury Milk Chocolate Brownie Mix 1/2 cup(s) Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil 1/4 cup(s) water 2 eggs 1/4 cup(s) Smucker's Red Raspberry Preserves 1/2 cup(s) Jif Creamy Peanut Butter 1/4 cup(s) powdered sugar 2 tablespoon(s) butter, melted 1/4 teaspoon(s) vanilla

Number of servings: 12

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oil, water, eggs, and brownie mix. Stir 50 times with a wooden spoon to combine. In a smaller mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, powdered sugar, melted butter, and vanilla. Stir until mixture is smooth, with no lumps of powdered sugar remaining. To assemble the brownies, add 1/8 cup of brownie batter to cup of the muffin tin. On top of this add to the center of each cup a teaspoon of raspberry preserves. Divide the remaining brownie batter among the cups to cover the preserves. Top each cup of brownie batter with a tablespoon of the peanut butter mixture. Then, using a butter knife, skim the surface of the brownie batter to swirl the peanut butter. Place the tray in the preheated oven for 25-28 minutes. Brownies will still be gooey (due to the preserves) when finished.

Let me know you think, if you make them. Unless it's to offer criticism that would have been constructive two days ago before I submitted it, but now would offer me nothing but bitter regret. I'm just kidding! Positive and negative feedback is appreciated. I can always use negative comments to help pave my way to domination at Pillsbury Bake-off 2014. Also, stay tuned in the next couple of days for recipe number 2: Spicy Tapas Puffs.