Cool and Creamy Vegetable "Pizza" Crescent Cups

These Cool and Creamy Vegetable "Pizza" Cups are fun twist on the traditional version of veggie pizza that many of us know and love. They are perfect appetizers for summertime parties or you can even enjoy them as a light meal. They are easily customizable - use whatever fresh vegetables that you love or have on hand - and they seem to always be one of the first things to be devoured at parties.

For the recipe, you'll, basically, need a couple of tubes of refrigerated crescent seamless dough sheets, a few simple ingredients to make a cream cheese/sour cream filling and some fresh vegetables. After a short bit of oven time and a few minutes of cooling, the crescent cups get a dollop of cool and creamy filling before being topped off with your chopped veggies of choice.

From my experience, these can be made up to six hours {or so} in advance. While I do enjoy them just fine the next day {if there are leftovers}, they are best when freshly-made the day of service.

NOTE: VEGETABLES SHOULD BE CUT INTO SMALL PIECES AND BE OF UNIFORM SIZE. THE AMOUNT OF VEGETABLES NEEDED TO MAKE A SINGLE BATCH OF THESE IS VERY MINIMAL. ROUGHLY ONLY 2 - 3 TABLESPOONS OF EACH CHOPPED/SLICED VEGETABLE IS NEEDED. HOWEVER, THE AMOUNT, OBVIOUSLY, WILL VARY DEPENDING ON THE NUMBER OF VEGETABLES USED AND THE TYPE/VARIETY OF VEGETABLES CHOSEN. THEREFORE, I AM NOT PROVIDING EXACT MEASUREMENTS IN THE VEGETABLE SECTION OF THE INGREDIENT LIST BELOW.

Also, note that the recipe yields sixteen "cups," but is easily doubled or tripled for large crowds. And, to clarify, the cups are made in muffins tins with regular-sized wells - not mini muffin tins.

Yields 16 cups.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

I've been eating a good deal less meat and embracing more of a plant-based diet in recent months. I've not necessarily went all-out vegetarian, but I don't eat much meat on a regular basis. So, I've begun to get more and more creative with swapping in veggies, grains or the like for meat in my favorite dishes lately. (I've recently fallen in love with lentils in place of ground beef in Sloppy Joe Sandwiches, for example.) Since I adore the flavors of Buffalo chicken, I thought I'd take a run at modifying the standard utilizing a little creativity involving cauliflower.

The verdict: I'm like, totally addicted. I could not shovel these little cauliflower bites into my mouth fast enough while I was testing this recipe. I, honestly, did not feel as if I were missing out on anything. In fact, I pretty much prefer this recipe now over using chicken.

The buttery, perfectly-spicy wing sauce is right there in the forefront of each bite followed by the cool relief of creamy blue cheese dressing. And, of course these have to be served with crisp, refreshing celery sticks ... following suit in honor of the original.

I will say that because these bites are baked and not fried, don't expect as crisp of an outer texture on the cauliflower pieces as you're probably used to with Buffalo wings. (I'm sure these could be deep-fried once battered if you're so inclined.) And, although it does take ten minutes or so to dip each little floret into the batter individually before baking, this recipe is a very simple one and comes together quite easily.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan Focaccia Bread

Let me be honest.  When my children all leave on the bus for school around seven each morning, I often crawl back into bed with the t.v. remote in hand, flip through some morning news channels and, inevitably, doze back off to sleep for a couple of hours.  It is the most marvelous thing in the world.  As a self-proclaimed and self-diagnosed "night owl," my mind and body never seem to quite settle down at night until well past one or two.  And, a morning person I am not, although I do have to rise around 5:30 a.m. to get my children ready for school. 

So, that bit of extra snoozing after my kiddos leave is pure bliss!

This week, however, I have been up and at 'em (and raring to go) all morning long and have not went back to sleep!  It's amazing how productive I have been - with my cup of coffee in tow - in these quiet, early morning hours this week.  Laundry is getting done well before lunch.  My housework is done and out of the way early-on.  And, I have been able to spend more time working on my blog and all that having a blog entails.

And, the biggest plus - I have been spending more time in the kitchen.  Quiet, peaceful, therapeutic, uninterrupted cooking and baking while Christmas songs play in the background.

As I begin typing up this post, a lovely roast with potatoes and carrots is cooking away in the slow cooker, scones are cooling on the counter and the dough for this focaccia bread is proofing by the oven.  And, it's not even ten o'clock.

In regards to this recipe, if you've never made focaccia, let me encourage you to try it!  I have made this many times and I think I love it more and more each time!  Focaccia is a flat Italian bread that is usually seasoned with olive oil and herbs.  Because the dough bakes atop an olive oil base and is rubbed on top with olive oil, the outside of the bread becomes a bit fried.  My version has the addition of sun-dried tomatoes, slivered onions and some shaved Parmesan.  Any herbs, toppings or cheeses can be used.  You can keep it super simple ... just a little olive oil and fresh, chopped rosemary. Or, you can spruce it up a bit with whatever your sweet, little heart desires.