Elvis Phyllo Cups

This recipe is really delicious and SO easy to make.  My brother found it in the newspaper a few Sundays ago and called me up to tell me about it.  He was SUPER excited that I immediately knew where he was going with this:

Me: do you want to make it together?
Josh: yes that would be so awesome!
Me: ok, I'll get the few things that we need, check your work schedule and let me know when you can come over.

You wanna know what I had to purchase?  A banana and some phyllo cups.  Oh, and I bought more peanut butter, mostly because I wasn't sure how much we had left and it was on sale when I was at the store. That's it.

At the store, I couldn't find the pre-made phyllo cups, but I was able to find phyllo dough which ended up being a better deal for me.  For probably the same price as what the cups would have cost, I was able to make them myself and now I have a ton of phyllo dough sheets left over.  I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but that's another story.  Actually, I'd love to try making baklava, but I think I'm the only person I know who eats it, so that's probably out.

I googled the crap out of it, but making the cups was super easy!  You have to work quickly but carefully to make sure the dough doesn't rip or get dried out, but it's pretty much impossible to ruin them.

As for preparing the "Elvis" part of these?  It was easy.  Easier for me, because I had Josh do it while I supervised.  I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we've been giving him cooking lessons so that when he doesn't have to survive on pizza delivery and McDonalds... or that if he does, it's by his own choice, not because he doesn't know what to do in the kitchen.  We've taught him fairly basic things so far: mashed potatoes, chop suey, shepherd's pie, cheeseburgers, pork chops, kielbasa.  He and I haven't gotten to do much baking, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to help him read a recipe and put it all together.  I did make the cups ahead of time, but that's because I was planning on it being a lot more complicated than it really was.

The banana makes the cups soggy if they hang out for too long, so put them together right before you plan to serve.

For real, though, these little cups have everything you'd want in one little bite-sized dessert: crunchy, salty, sweet.  No wonder Elvis loved this combination!

Elvis Phyllo Cups

15 phyllo cups, pre-baked and cooled*

1/3 c. peanut butter
2 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 banana, sliced
3 slices of bacon, cooked and cooled

*I was unable to find frozen phyllo cups at the grocery store, but I was able to find sheets of phyllo dough.

To make the cups:
4-5 sheets of phyllo dough
2 Tbsp melted butter
sugar

Lightly grease a muffin tin and set aside.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cover your work surface with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Lay down one sheet of phyllo dough.  Lightly brush the sheet with a little bit of the melted butter.  Dust a little bit of sugar on top of the melted butter.  Top with a second sheet of phyllo dough.

Repeat until you have a stack of 4 or 5 sheets of phyllo dough.  Using a sharp knife (I used a paring knife), cut the sheets into squares that are slightly bigger than the muffin cavities.  Press each little stack of phyllo dough into the muffin tins.

Bake for 5-7 minutes, until lightly browned.  Babysit them, as they will cook quickly.

Remove from oven and let cool.

In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla.

Place 1 slice of banana into the bottom of each phyllo cup. Top the banana slice with 2 tsp. of the PB mixture and garnish with a chunk of bacon.

Serve immediately.

Bacon Wrapped Potatoes with Spicy Sour Cream Sauce

I wasn't going to post about these so soon, but I figured I should share at least one Superbowl recipe with you guys.

I saw the picture on pinterest, but it didn't actually lead to a recipe.  So.. I made it up.  Wrapping the potatoes in bacon was a little bit more time consuming than I had anticipated, so you'll want to leave yourself plenty of time.  Also, you kind of do want to pay attention to your potato pieces and make sure they're all about the same size.  I just guessed as I went and found myself having to trim a few as I was wrapping them with bacon.  Honestly, you'll probably just want to make them smaller than what you think you should.  Trimming some wasn't a big deal for the small amount that I made, but if you're planning on feeding a larger crowd, it's probably better to make sure they're the right size the first time.

Cooking the potatoes for this is a little tricky, too.  You want to the water to boil so that the potatoes cook, but you DO NOT want the potatoes cooked all the way through - if they're too mushy, they'll fall apart when you try to do the next steps!  I am not too sure how to describe the softness that you're looking for - fork tender, I guess.  You should be able to spear the potatoes with a fork without them falling off.

Once you drain them, make sure you rinse them with cold water to cool them off a little!  This will help slow down the cooking process, but it's also practical so you don't burn your hands!  I found it easier to cut the bacon into thirds as I went, so I didn't cut more than I needed, but the total amount of bacon depends on the number of people you're feeding.  As with all bacon stuff, make sure you drain on these on paper towels before you serve them - I found that some of the grease got trapped in between the bacon piece and the potato.

The sauce was so easy and so great.  I only added 1 1/2 tsp. of hot sauce to mine, because Joe doesn't like things that are too hot.  The sour cream does cool it down quite a bit, though, so you should be able to spice it up a good amount without burning the mouths of too many people.  For me, I would have definitely made it hotter, but sometimes, you've just gotta go with what the crowd wants and likes.  For game day, I think I'm going to chop up some chives or green onions and mix it in with the sour cream sauce so it really tastes like a little baked potato.  Man, I'm drooling just thinking about it!

The reaction to these was off the hook!  I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I love baked potatoes and I felt like these would taste pretty similar.  When the boys saw me take these out of the oven, they got so excited when they realized what they were about to eat.  When I presented the plate to them, they practically knocked me over in their quest to eat snacks.  Between the three of us, we devoured this plate in just a few minutes.

The recipe below makes about 3 dozen bites - increase accordingly based on your needs!  If you try this one, please let me know what you think!

What are some of your favorite Superbowl/party foods?

Bacon Wrapped Potatoes with Spicy Sour Cream Sauce
 3-4 potatoes
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp. salt
garlic powder*
onion salt*
ground peppercorn*
smoked salt*
cajun seasoning*
6 slices bacon
4 oz. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. hot sauce

*all spices are to taste.  these are what I used, but you can use whatever you like!

Peel potatoes and dice into about 1" cubes, keeping the pieces about the same size (it's okay if they're not the same shape).

Put the potatoes in a medium pot, cover with cold water, season with salt and bring to a boil.  Cook potatoes until they're fork tender but don't fall off the fork.  You want them to be almost cooked through but not mushy

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Drain the potatoes.  Rinse under cold water and transfer to a large bowl. Season with spices and oil, coating evenly.

Cut the strips of bacon into thirds. Wrap each potato in a piece of bacon, securing the ends with a toothpick. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until bacon reached desired crispiness.  Remove from oven.  Let cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.  Combine the sour cream and hot sauce; serve.

BLT Pasta Salad

I don't know about you guys, but it's been HOT all week here.  I'm talking weather advisories, can barely breathe when you go outside, need multiple pairs of underwear in one day hot.  We normally get heat waves like this, but only for a few days, not a week at a time.  There's supposed to be some big thunderstorms this weekend so hopefully that will cool things down a bit.

In the meantime, it's way too hot to cook.  But... I still need to eat!  I've been seeing a few different variations of this BLT salad on Pinterest and decided to make my own.  It's delicious and the pasta makes it more filling than a regular salad. 

Okay, so you do have to do a little bit of cooking for the bacon and the pasta (yes, it's been too hot to even boil water), but I promise you it's worth it.  I made a huge bowl of this and have been tweaking it every day so that I don't get sick of it, and it just keeps getting better as the flavors get to know each other better.

Plus, I like this recipe because it's easy to adapt and add or remove things you don't like without totally changing the flavors.

Joe's not a huge salad person, but he loved this one! Although to be fair, I think he'd eat anything as long as it involved bacon.  No real recipe for this one, since it's pretty simple: romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, red onion, pasta of your choice.  Toss is all together.  If you know it's all going to be eaten, top with ranch dressing in the bowl.  Otherwise, serve in individual-sized bowls and top with dressing.  As you can see from the photos, to mix it up, I also added some corn and some shredded chicken.  Yum!

If you try this, let me know what you think!