Happiness is a warm kitchen and someone you love waiting to eat something tasty you've made just for them.

Patrick wanted meatball parm monkey bread, and what my beloved wants, my beloved gets.

Meatball Parmesan Monkey Bread

1 can refrigerator biscuits

16-20 meatballs (frozen or fresh cooked)
1 pound ground beef - browned
2 cups tomato based pasta sauce
1 package (2 cups) shredded mozarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp basil
1 tsp pepper

Paula’s meatballs –
2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
6 cloves garlic
1 can chopped tomatoes, drained well
¼ cup diced chives
1 cup breadcrumbs
½ cup Parmesan cheese
2 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all meatball ingredients, create golf ball sized balls. Brown in a frying pan with a little olive oil, then put in a croc pot with the pasta sauce & cook on high 4 hours.

Stir together pasta sauce, extra ground beef, basil, ground pepper and meatballs.

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.

Put down a bottom layer of meat sauce & meatballs in a buttered Bundt pan or glass 9x13 pan -about 2/3 of the meatball mixture - then sprinkle on 1/2 of each cheese. Layer on biscuit pieces and repeat process with remaining meatballs & the rest of the cheese.

Bake at 400°F for 40 minutes or until biscuits have puffed up and turned golden brown. Allow to cool 15 minutes before removing from pan.

BBQ Pulled Pork Monkey Bread

My husband says this is the best one I've ever made. Bummer, because it's a bit more time consuming than most of my recipes, but it's really easy, so that's something. And it was delicious - I'll be making this one again in the future.










1 can refrigerator biscuits
3 lbs pork roast
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup brown sugar
¼ cup jack daniels
½ cup fruit juice
1 can crushed pineapple
1 package (2 cups) shredded mozarella cheese
2 cups BBQ sauce
2 tsp onion powder (optional)
1 tsp ground pepper
1 cup guacamole

In a crock pot, put garlic, brown sugar, jack daniels, fruit juice & pineapple. Brown the pork roast on all sides then put into crock pot as well - cook on high for about 6 hours.

Pull pork out of crock pot & shred with a fork - it should just fall apart.

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.

Put down a bottom layer of shredded pork in a buttered glass 9x13 casserole dish, then layer in the biscuit pieces, leaving a bit of space between them.

Spread half of your BBQ sauce and half the cheese over the top, then spread out the rest of the meat evenly. Strain the pineapple out of the crock pot, and save about 3/4 cup of the liquid - put these in your casserole as well, then add pepper, garlic powder, and pour the remaining BBQ sauce over the top.

Bake at 400°F for 45 minutes. Allow to cool 5 minutes – spoon into individual serving dishes & top with a spoonful of guacamole.

That's all there is to it! This weekend is hubby's b-day and he's requested a meatball parm monkey bread - sounds delicious, doesn't it? :-)

Best Spice Cookies EVER

Definitely not monkey bread. So here's the thing...new neighbors, right? Not sure if they eat nuts, or like cheese, or what...so instead, decided to do spice cookies; also a somewhat particular taste, but so far I haven't met anyone who didn't like 'em. I've made them frosted, unfrosted, chocolate dipped, chocolate drizzled, with and without nuts - no matter what variation, always gets rave reviews! I promise a BBQ monkey bread for my next post.

Spice cookies

4 cups flour

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups butter - softened (not melted!)

1 egg

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbls dark rum

1 tbls cinnamon

1/2 tbls ginger

1/2 tbls nutmeg

1/2 tbls clove

1 cup chopped walnuts, macademia nuts, or pecans (optional!)

Cream the butter & brown sugar, then add the egg - beat until fluffy. Add all of the dry ingredients, then mix well. Cover and put it in the fridge to firm up - takes a couple hours.

Preheat oven to 350, then roll out the dough on a floured surface - use a cookie cutter to make happy shapes, put on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes.

Put on a wire rack to cool.

If you want to frost them, I recommend 2 cups powdered sugar with a little food coloring and two tablespoons of water - stir until smooth, then spread onto cookies.

Hope you like this one - the new neighbors did (or at least they lied convincingly!)

Blueberry Caramel Ramekin Monkey Bread (serves 2)

This worked out awesome! So excellent - since Monkey Bread isn't exactly a health food, wanted more of a single serve option - so made this version in ramekins. Love it!

2 biscuits

2/3 cup frozen blueberries

2 tbls butter

2 tbls brown sugar

2 tbls white granulated sugar

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Butter ramekins. Cut each biscuit into 6 pieces and layer into the ramekins (1 in each). Add half of the blueberries to each.

On low heat, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the sugars, condensed milk, and spices – stir until smooth, then pour evenly into the ramekins. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Fabulous!!

We have a new neighbor, so this weekend I'll be making something special to take over & say hello....so hard to decide...a savory monkey bread, like apple-cheddar-walnut, or a sweet, like bourbon pecan? So many choices!! ;-)

Casserole St. Jacques (not really) Monkey bread

In honor of Mother's Day, thought I'd take one of my mom's favorite recipes & see if I could turn it into Monkey Bread...but then as I was looking through my supplies, realized I had a few extras that needed using...so there's a bell pepper and some corn that don't really belong in here, but they worked! We did decide it needed more protein - next time I'm adding a couple big cans of crabmeat to the mix as well.

1 1/2 cans refrigerator biscuits 1/2 stick butter
About 2 lbs scallops (if frozen, thaw!) – or 1 lb scallops & 1 lb shrimp
4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
½ cup scallions
2 cups alfredo sauce
1 cup instant mashed potato powder
1/2 cup white wine (or vodka)
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 green pepper, diced
2 cups corn kernels
4 cloves garlic

In a saucepan with high sides, melt butter over medium heat. Add wine & sauté scallops, mushrooms, green peppers, corn & scallions for about 20 minutes or until mushrooms shrink down. Add mashed potato powder & stir gently until it thickens.

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.

Since this is such a large batch, I made it in a single layer in a 9x13 and then also a 8x4 casserole – before baking, I wrapped up the smaller one and put it in the freezer for another day- some future blog will be on how it survives the freezing/thawing process!

Put down a bottom layer of biscuit pieces in a buttered Bundt pan or glass 9x13 pan, leaving a bit of space between them.

Layer on about ½ of the scallop mixture, and ½ of the cheese then layer on remaining biscuits, scallop mixture and cheese.

Pour alfredo sauce evenly over biscuits.

Bake at 400°F for 40 minutes or until biscuits have puffed up and turned golden brown. Allow to cool 15 minutes, then spoon into individual serving dishes.

We're giving it a thumbs up - give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! (Mexican Bean Monkey Bread)

Hey! So it's probably not the best night to start a blog, given that my monkey bread was really more monkey soup tonight, but hey, it wouldn't be any fun if it were perfect every time!

Tonights recipe was Mexican Bean Monkey Bread in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

I was trying to make a "small" batch, so I left out the second can of biscuits. Bad idea - way too wet. But still quite yummy! I've revised the ingredient list below to include 2 cans....but beware - you're gonna need a BIG casserole dish for this one.

Ingredients:

2 cans large biscuits

1 stick butter, softened

1 pound ground beef

1 can refried beans

1 can black beans - drained

1 can diced tomatoes with chiles - drained

1 large avocado - cubed

1 small yellow onion - diced

1 cup sour cream

1 package (2 cups) shredded cheddar cheese

3 cloves garlic

1 package fajita, taco or chili spice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray a skillet with cooking spray - brown ground beef and onions. Drain excess grease.

In a large bowl, mix butter, beans, tomatoes, avocado, garlic & fajita spice, then fold in the beef/onions.

Prepare a large casserole (13x9 with high sides!) by spraying it with cooking spray.

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces and layer them in the casserole, leaving space inbetween them.

Spoon the meat mixture evenly over the biscuits.

Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from oven.

Dollop sour cream across the top, then sprinkle the cheese evenly on top. Return to oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until cheese just starts to brown.

Let sit for 5 minutes before spooning into individual serving dishes.

So that's the first entry in my monkey bread obsession blog! Give it a shot & let me know what you think - hope you enjoy it!!