Cheesy Bacon Potato Puffs

1 cup mashed potatoes (leftover or prepared from instant)

12 oz. pkg of bacon, cooked, crumbled & drained

1 pkg of crescent rolls

1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out crescent rolls, press together diagonal seams, and cut into 24 squares (4×6). Press one square into each hole of a mini muffin tin (24 count). Bake for 7 minutes.

While puffs are baking, mix together mashed potatoes, one cup of cheese, and bacon. Remove puffs from oven and put one tablespoon of tater-cheese-bacon mixture on each puff. (Smoosh if necessary!) Top with remaining half-cup of cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and any visible crescent puff is golden brown.

I think these would be particularly tasty served with sour cream (like potato skins) and maybe some chopped chives. Very tasty, very easy!

There is a lot going on. Tomorrow we are going to look at houses to buy. I’m working on deadline knitting and trying not to pull all my hair out and/or sell my husband. So last night it was either Sangria or chocolate. I opted for the chocolate. I had all the ingredients and the nifty Pampered Chef tools to make these s’more cups.

I changed the recipe a bit based upon the ingredients I had. So this is how I did it.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

7 graham cracker sheets, crushed to crumbs

6 tbsp melted butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

30 Dove Promises candies

12 large marshmallows, cut in half

Mix the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar, and stir in the melted butter. Divide evenly into the 24 cups of a Pampered Chef mini muffin/tartlet pan. Use the little wooden tart shaper to form them into little crust. Bake at 350 for 4-5 minutes.

Place one Dove candy in each cup. Top with one marshmallow half. Return to the oven for 1-2 minutes or until the marshmallows start to soften.

Cut the 6 remaining Dove candies into fourths. Top each finished s’more cup with a piece of chocolate. The original recipe has you dipping the creations into melted chocolate. And that was just way too complicated for me.

Look – chocolatey s’more goodness.

I love to cook. Really. A whole lot. And one of the hardest things about Florida is that all summer long (which last like 8 months!) it is too hot to turn on the oven. But not today. Today was a very good day for using the oven. So I did. I’ve made this apple cake before, but  I never seem to get any pictures of it. Maybe because it doesn’t last. Maybe because no matter how good of a picture I take, it will never measure up to the awesome pics that the Pioneer Woman takes. But here’s a view…

It tastes even better than it looks. Even better than it looks on her blog. The carmelized bits get kind of chewy/crunchy when the cold ice cream hits them, and it just screams fall with it’s appley-cinnamon goodness. It  might even be good with cinnamon ice cream. Such a delicious recipe. Actually every single recipe I’ve made from her blog has been delicious. Give her a look-see.

I’ve had an urge lately. The urge to bake. But I’m being healthy eating woman, and eating half a pan of lemon bars will not help me in my quest to reduce the size of my arse. And I spend way too much time alone to be trusted with baked goods. And not to brag, but I’m very good at the baked goods. Ask my friends. Are they wearing bigger jeans than they used to? Yeah, part of that is because of my baking.

Anyhow, I’ve been suppressing my urge to bake. It wasn’t that hard. It’s been pretty hot here – 90′s most days. And that is not conducive to baking. But then yesterday it started to rain. It’s still raining by the way. And it’s cold. No, really. It’s been in the 50′s and 60′s. This is Florida my friend. The Sunshine State. Where the orange blossoms grow. This is not a state where 60 in late May is anywhere near normal.

So I had to do it. I had to bake. Throw in the fact that the boys bridge over in Cub Scouts tomorrow to the next level and I’m supposed to bring cake?!?!?! What is a girl supposed to do with these overwhelming urges? And I’ve really been wanting to make cupcake bites ala Bakerella. So this morning, in the pouring rain, I hit one cake supply store, two craft stores, and three grocery stores and found the supplies I needed.

Note the yellow candy melts and the navy blue m&ms. These are Cub Scout colors. I was so excited. I just knew that a platter of these cupcake bites was gonna be the hit of the pack meeting. And may I present the finished product:

Um, yeah. Want another view?

I’m underwhelmed. Totally. First off these are very time-consuming. But I make mountains of buckeyes every Christmas. Time-consuming means nothing to me. That I could handle. But the dipping into the yellow? Ugh. And rada rada. When you hold the mini cupcakes by the chocolate base it starts to immediately melt in your fingers. Which makes it not so pretty. And the dipping by that method was much harder than buckeye dipping. I may have to attempt putting toothpicks or something into the base of the cupcake bites to dip them. Otherwise they will all look wonky like you see above.

So I fix the dip. And they probably need some sprinkles in addition to the blue m&m. It just looks kind of forlorn sitting there. But I can’t really solve the real problem.

The actual cake part of the cupcake bite is a mixture of crumbled cake and frosting mixed together and shaped into balls. Which sounds great in theory. But in practice the texture is rather um, disgusting to me. It’s mushy and dry at the same time. And I let the baked cake cool thoroughly, so I know that’s not the problem. I just feel like the mushy filling doesn’t have any tooth against the hard candy shells. I don’t know. I so wanted to love them. And I certainly dropped a pretty penny getting all the crap together. But I’m disappointed.