::Cheese Buttons::

There is a first time for everything. For me, it was making ::Cheese Buttons:: The first time I had them was at my neighbors and I thought they were wonderful; which meant I knew I needed the recipe. I finally remembered to get it from her the other day when I was at her house and made them before I went to visit my mom and step-dad in AZ! Speaking of AZ; I am back now and had a wonderful time! I am not much of a gambler, since I'm such a tight-(fill in), but I won $85.00! Also, you know when you love to cook and bake when you go on vacation and you get so excited over this new huge upscale grocery store with all kinds of  different ingredients and products thatt you wish little ol' ND had! Anyways, I had a great time!

Back to the cheese buttons! The "buttons" are kind of like noodles and the onion/butter/bread crumb mixture gives it great flavor and a slight crunch (mostly the topping part). They are easy to make so don't let the word "dough" freak you out from this recipe! They make great leftovers...Enjoy!

::Cheese Buttons::

3 eggs

24 oz. cottage cheese

1/2 tsp salt

3-4 cups flour to form stick dough.

Roll out on floured counter. Cut into diamonds. Boil in salted water. Drain.

Place a layer of boiled cheese buttons in a cake pan or shallow casserole dish. Sprinkle with a mixture of sauted onions & bread crumbs (1 onion diced an 4-5 slices bread-crumbled). Add another alyer of buttons an top w/ crumb mixture.  Pour 1/2 and 1/2 on top. About 2 cups. Bake until heated and bubbly.

*Boiled cheese buttons can be frozen in a single layer and then pkg in airtight container to fry or cream later. Defrost somewhat before cooking.

*Can be boiled and then fried in butter until lightly browned.

Starting out with the eggs.

Cottage cheese! This is the best kind of cottage cheese; it's from Sam's Club. My friend Jackie introduced it to me saying "I know this is weird, but the cottage cheese from Sam's Club is just so much better than any other one!"

Mixing the two together.

Always need a little salt for everything.

And some flour to bind it all together!

Hmm...can't say this looks as appetizing as that apple crisp post did :)

You want the dough to be somewhat sticky, which means when you roll it out use a generous amount of flour on your counter and sprinkle some ontop of the dough.

Sauteing the onions with some olive oil and a little salt and peppa.

I'm starting to think I should be getting paid my Martha Stewart; I use her baking dish for about everything!

Prior to rolling out. The rolled out piece that I showed earlier was a trial run to see if the dough was okay to roll out; ie too sticky, etc.

The big piece of rolled out dough ready to be cut!

Close up!

The magic tool for this...makes cutting the dough a breeze and super fast!

So, since this was my first time making cheese buttons, I learned that next time I will make them smaller than ^this^

Then onto the white bread.

I used my food processor to grind it.

The boiled buttons; draining.

1st layer in the pan; I seasoned with some seasoning salt.

I guess the camera steamed up! Mix the onion/butter/bread crumb mixture and sprinkle over the first layer of cheese buttons...then add another layer of the buttons and sprinkle again!

Like this!

Then add the half and half and bake!

An it will come out ooey and gooey like this!