::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!

::To Be Continued...::

Hello Everyone! I haven't seen my mom since December so I taking a mini vaca to go and visit her and my step-dad. I get back on the 16th, so until then there won't be any blog posts. Sorry to disappoint! :)

Anyways, while I am gone catch up on making some recipes on here and report back to me. I will leave you with one super easy thing that every has to experience! Enjoy and see you back soon!

::Ice Cream & Pudding::

Vanilla Ice Cream

Your favorite kind of pudding (it has to be the cook & serve kind)

-our favorites are chocolate and banana cream pie-

Scoop ice cream into a dish and ladel the hot pudding on top!

::Apple Pita Chip Crisp::

Simply amazing. This recipe is out of this world, seriously. Well first off, if you haven't tried the Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips, you need to. They are so good and addicting; which is why I don't buy them often. They are a thick "chip" with the perfect amount of cinnamon & sugar. Once again, I got this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. My neighbor gave me a bunch of apples from her apple tree so I was on the hunt for apple recipes when I came across this one. I'm sorry, but moms, mother-in-laws, and grandmas...your "family favorite" apple crisp might be taking the back burner and replaced with this one. It's just so damn' good (sorry for the language, but sometimes swear words really bring out the meaning :) ) I'm not sure where you are at reading this right now, but you might want to grab a towel for the drool that will start running down your chin while looking at these pictures!

Oh, one more thing, sometimes it can be hard to find these pita chips and sometimes not. See, there are other kinds of the pita chips and it seems that sometimes stores will have the cinnamon & sugar kind and sometimes they won't. I have boughten them at Wal-Mart before but this time they didn't have them (maybe they were out) so I got them at Dan's Supermarket. The recipe calls for 18-24oz, and each bag I have ever found is 8oz. Anyways, I had 2 bags and it turned out fine. Next time i'll try three and see the difference, if any, it makes.

Oh, second thing; while I was looking for these pita chips I thought to myself "I bet Walgreens has them, they have everything." My sister works at Walgreens and she is always telling me about items they have, along with the great sales. Anyways, when I was talking to her last night after I made this and told her that it is made with the pita chips, she says "They are on sale at Walgreens right now!" Also, my sister brought the ::Apple Dumplings:: to work one day and said that they are "from my sister's blog" and she got a response of something like "Wait, what? ::From Scratch:: is your sister's blog? I look at it all the time!"

So, I am dedicating this post to all the dedicated followers at Wallgreens!

Enjoy!

::Apple Pita Chip Crisp::

18-24 oz. Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips

2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, melted

4 Granny Smith Apples), peeled, cored, and slcied very thinly

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 quick oats

2 tablespoons wheat germ (optional)

Sauce:

1 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon apple brandy (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

First, crush half the pita chips and place in the bottom of a 13x9-inch pan. Drizzle 1/3 of the butter over the top. Next, mix apple slices with the nutmeg, salt, and 1 cup of brown sugar. Pour the apples evenly over the first layer of pita chips.

Crush remaining pitachips in the bag an pour over the apples. Drizzle another 1/3 of the butter over the top layer of chips. Aprinkle on oats and wheat germ (if desired). Sprinkle remaning brown sugar over the top layer of chips. Now, drizzle the remaining 1/3 off the butter evenly over everything.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

While apple crisp is baking, make the cream sauce. Place all sauce ingredients into a small skillet or saucepan and cook over low heat for 15 minutes, or until sauce is reduced. Spoon apple crisp into a bowl. Generously drizzle warm sauce over the top.

Stars of the show!

I forgot to announce, I got anothe one of my favorite baking dishes. I have the white Martha Stewart dishes from Macy's and these baking dishes go with it.

Up close & personal of these bad boys.

 The apples.

Sliced pretty thin. It always amazes me how fast apples turn brown. Just a thought.

More of the apples...ready for the nutmeg.

Starting out with the first of the third of butter. A 1/4 cup.

Drizzle that butter over the crushed pita chips.

Then, mix in the nutmeg and....

...salt...

Into the apples.

Oh, can't forget to mix in the brown sugar! So, I had looked at the recipe/steps on the Pioneer Woman's blog, printe the recipe and then got to the brown sugar step and thought wait...what? So, the recipe calls for 1 cup brown sugar and to add it to the apples. Which is what I did...then you get later on and have to add the "rest" of the brown sugar. I was thinking "rest of it?" So then I went back to her website and her steps an she mixed in 1/2 cup with the apples and then used the other half for the other step. I had already had the 1 cup mixed in and it still turned out more than fabulous! Guess you can never have too much sugar, right?!

Cheers to 1 full cup of brown sugar...instead of 1/2. We don't 1/2 ass it here on ::From Scratch::!

Yum!

Ready for the next layer of pita chips!

And here they are! I may have, or may have not, snitched a piece of the pita chip. I may have.

Don't worry, we haven't used all that butter yet!

And...another 1/3 of the butter is added to this layer of pita chips!

Now, for the "traditional" ingredient of apple crisp..but for this one you only need a 1/4 cup of quick oats.

Sprinkled on top.

So, I didn't have the optional ingredient of the wheat germ. But, I did have this ground flax, which I used instead.

Ground flax sprinkled on top.

Then, a half cup of brown sugar sprinkled on top.

And, the last of the butter drizzled over top!

Ready for the oven! Notice the blurriness (if that's a word) on some of the bottom of the pics. Well, remember those eggrolls I blogged about and the dip that went with them? Welp, I dropped my camera in the dip! Ha...it was bound to happen!

So, the crisp is in the oven...so onto the heavenly sauce! What better way to start than with some heavy cream!

..and sugar!

So, I didn't have any maple syrup, but I used just reg pancake syrup that I had instead.

Since I didn't have any of the maple syrup I added maple flavoring. I love maple flavored things! I added only a half of a capful, next time I might try a full one.

Apple crisp is done...and the house smells amazing!!!!

But..onto the sauce again...I guess I got so excited about the crisp I stopped here with the sauce pics! Anyways, I think I cooked the sauce for more than 15 minutes, and it did reduce a little but reduced mostly after it cooled down a couple mins.

The same day I bought the 2nd Martha Stewart baking dish...these M.S. small dessert plates (that go with my set) were on sale! Sold!

Close up! When it is dished out it breaks apart, but it is suppose too!...you'll see...

Do I even need to say anything?! All dished up with the sauce! I can't even explain to you the flavors and yumminess of it. This dish is forsure a must make!

Close up! The sauce pairs this perfectly.

Delicious! Enjoy!