Home Cooking with Jess

My kids don’t eat 75 percent of the food I cook. I made them homemade macaroni & cheese and they took one bite and begged for “easy mac.”  

Hand breaded chicken tenders … same results. 

I have told them that people would be so angry if they knew that my children didn’t eat my cooking, but to be fair, there are lots of ingredients that I use that I likely didn’t love as a child. I hated pickles, sauerkraut, shrimp and anything with mayo or barbecue sauce, just to name a few. It probably wasn’t until I was out of college that I was adventurous with food. 

While trying to figure out when and why I started trying new foods, the first example I thought of was crab legs. On vacation in Myrtle Beach, I liked to crack my mom’s crab legs, but I didn’t like crab meat. Then one summer, I discovered I loved them. 

Now it’s hard for me to list specific foods that I don’t like, and menus are an anxiety attack for me and my broad palate. I hope my kids one day have this delicious curse.

For now, I’m going to honor my picky children by including one thing they WILL eat on my tailgate spreads and one thing they absolutely won’t event try. 

“Are these ‘Jess Rine’ pepperoni rolls?!” was one of my favorite compliments. I was taking bags of these babies to softball games all summer until my oldest, Bella, apparently got sick of them and said, “I liked when we just had them on Sundays for Steelers games.” (Insert eye-roll here.)

In true Jess fashion, I take a short cut with these and buy frozen dough loaves. For 1 p.m. kick-offs, I put the frozen dough on a cookie sheet on the stove, spray it with oil and cover it with plastic wrap the night before the game. I’ve done the speed thawing method on the back of the package before, but I don’t always trust myself to take it out of the oven in time. For later games, I can just set it out in the morning.

You can also use the small frozen rolls which aren’t as cost effective, but they do thaw much faster. Maybe I should be, but I’m not picky on the pepperoni that I use and usually just grab whatever is on sale. (I know this is only my 3rd blog, but are you noticing the trend here? That’s right, money!) I think it’s the egg wash with parmesan cheese that really puts these in a different category than all other pepperoni rolls. 

Now to what the kids won’t ever touch in their youth? Armadillo eggs.

Sometimes I type the ingredients I want to use into Pinterest and see what comes up. That’s how I discovered these. Cream cheese, jalapenos, sausage and bacon = Armadillo eggs.  These are one of the more time-consuming things that I make, but they are worth every second.   

Jalapeños often appear in the dollar baskets at Jebbias, but they aren’t very expensive fresh either. Also, if you must touch your eyes at any point during the day, learn from my mistakes and do that before seeding the jalapenos.  These truly are not TOO spicy because the cream cheese cools them down. Just be sure to do a good job seeding.

I wonder when I first started to like spice to my food. Regardless, my kids aren’t there yet, which is fine. More armadillo eggs for me. 

I’m still getting the hang of writing down recipes.  If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Pepperoni Rolls:

Ingredients:

• 2 loaves of frozen bread dough
• 1 package of sliced pepperoni
• 1 package of shredded mozzarella
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp water
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
• Italian seasoning and garlic salt to taste if you wish.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. (I think this is the first time I pointed out that you should preheat your oven. Whoops. #rookie)
2. Thaw the dough and let it rise a bit.
3. Cut into three-inch piece. (I’m actually not sure the size! Ha! But you can make these as small or large as you want.  I’ve used the whole loaf and made it like a Stromboli many times.)
4. Spread out the dough and line it with pepperoni.  I use about 4-5 slices per roll.  (Guys, add as much or as little pepperoni as you’d like.) 
5. Add a generous pinch of cheese. I would say I use about 2 ounces. 
6. Here is where I sprinkle them with Italian seasoning and a little garlic salt.
7. Roll them up and make sure the pep and cheese are all stuffed inside.
8. Make egg wash with egg, water and parm cheese. (I put a little garlic salt in this, too.)
9. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and space the rolls out an inch.
10. Brush them with the egg wash.
11. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Some people like to dip them in a red sauce. You do you.

Armadillo Eggs:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb raw breakfast sausage patties
• 1 lb of raw bacon (not thick cut)
• Dozen fresh jalapenos 
• 1 brick of cream cheese softened
• ½ Cup of shredded mild cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425. J
2. Cut the tops of the jalapenos, slice them on one side and take out the ribs and seeds.
3. Combine cream cheese and mild cheddar and stuff the peppers.
4. Cover the stuffed pepper with one sausage patty each.
5. Wrap each sausage covered stuffed pepper with bacon.
6. Place a medal cooling tray on a baking sheet and place armadillo eggs on the wrack.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. 

These can be brushed with barbecue sauce before baking, but they are keto friendly without it. I’m sure it’s delicious, though! 

Enjoy!

Need more Food info? Try “A Vagabond Does Roam“.

Home Cooking with Jess