Taco Ring

This is another great recipe from Allen's family!
Serves: 2-4

1 tube Crescent Rolls

1/2 lb Ground Beef

1/2 packet Taco Seasoning

1/3 cup water

1/2 cup cheese

Toppings of your choice

1. Preheat your oven to 375.

2. In a skillet, brown your beef. After the beef is browned, add in your taco seasoning and you water. Mix together well and then bring to a boil. After it comes to a boil, reduce it to a simmer (uncovered) for about 10 minutes.

3. While your beef is simmering, open the tube of cresent rolls and lay the pieces in a cirlce on your pizza stone or cookie pan. Make it look like this:

If you are making a double batch then make your outer circle larger and instead of having 1 piece in the center, have 3 in a circle.

4. Once your beef finishes simmering, add in the cheese and stir around until fully melted.

5. Use your ice cream scooper and scoop out some beef and put it on each piece (on the wide section of the crescent roll). After you do that roll up the skinny side up around the beef like so:

6. After you do this for every section stick it in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. When it comes out of the oven it should look something like this:7. To serve it cut off a couple sections and put it on your plate. Dress it with whatever topping you like. (eg. cheese, hot sauce, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, ranch...)

Hot dog on a stick

2 cups flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cups milk
2 egg yolks (slightly beaten)
8-10 hot dogs
vegetable oil (for frying)

1. Heat up oil to 300
2. Dry off hotdogs and put on a stick. (I also like to put a long skewer stick in as well so I have more to hold on to when frying)
3. Combine Flour, Cornmeal, Sugar, Salt, and Baking Soda in a bowl and mix.
4. Add the egg yolks and milk into the dry mixture and beat until smooth.
5. Dip the hotdog into the batter and let some of the batter drip off of the hotdog.
6. Put into oil and start spinning the hot dog quickly so that it keeps its shape. Fry until brown.


***I just love love love hot dog on a stick and this recipe is so close! The first dog I fried I messed up terribly. I learned that the batter comes off the dog in the oil so you have to spin it very quickly until the outside layer of batter is fried. Also, like I said, I added a long skewer stick into the hotdog as well as a stick because it gave me much more to hold onto.

Rigatoni Sorrentino

1 pound Rigatoni
coarse salt
4 Cups Marinara sauce
1/2 pound Fresh Ricotta Cheese
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 1/2 Cups Parmigiano-Reggiano chese , grated

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and return to a boil. Add rigatoni and cook until al dente, according to package directions. Drain; set aside.

2. Preheat broiler. In a large saucepan, bring marinara sauce to a boil over medium-high heat. Pour half the heated sauce into a large bowl; set aside. Add cooked rigatoni and ricotta to saucepan with remaining sauce; stir to combine. Bring to a simmer over low heat.

3. Pour pasta mixture into a baking dish and top with reserved sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Transfer baking dish to broiler and broil until cheese has melted, 3-5 minutes. Serve immediately.



This is what it looks like strait out of the oven. This meal is really good and so easy to make. I made it from start to finish in about 20 minutes. It's a great quick meal. I didn't feel like using Rigatoni noodles so I used a different kind of noodle instead! Enjoy!