Pepperoni Roll...my own version

Hello everyone! 

Welcome! Thanks for stopping by! 

Here is my version of a pepperoni roll. It is soooo delicious! 

I have learned that there are some pretty fantastic pepperoni rolls in West Virginia...I would love to try one some day. 

This is just my version...a simple, yummy recipe that I make for my family for dinner once in a while. Everyone I have made this for LOVES it! I hope you give it a try!  

I love pepperoni rolls! I make this every so often and it's pretty tasty.
However, I am telling you though, this is not made from scratch.
But, this is one of those very easy, quick ways to make a pizza roll.
This is obviously not one of those healthful meals...
so eat at your own risk! LOL!
I use pre packaged frozen dough, cheese, pepperoni, some herbs and olive oil.

I like to use Rhodes brand.

(not being paid by Rhodes to say that...I just love their products)



Loosely cover the frozen bread dough with plastic wrap. Allow dough to thaw for a few hours at room temperature.

Roll dough out to approximately 11 x 11 square.


One frozen dough log makes one pepperoni roll.
Brush dough with olive oil or whatever cooking oil you prefer.



Lay pepperoni on dough covering entire surface. I like to use sandwich pepperoni from the deli.



Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese.





Next, sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese. You can use grated from a can if that is what you already have on hand...but you can buy the shredded Parmesan in a bag. You'll find it right next to the other bags of shredded cheese. Wal Mart sells it for $1.99 and it is very good. I like using the shredded Parmesan in the bag because the flavor is so much better!



Lightly sprinkle with Italian herbs...basically, some dried oregano, parsley and basil. Be careful, not too much....oregano can be very strong and you don't want too much!



Add a sprinkling of garlic powder. I was all out of garlic powder, so I used garlic salt.



Roll up dough starting at one edge of square.









Place rolls on baking sheet, leaving space between.



Brush some melted butter on top of uncooked pepperoni roll.



You do not need to let rise. Bake it right away. It will rise up in the oven perfectly.

Bake at 375 degrees for approx. 15 to 25 minutes.
Oven temps. and times may vary.
When done, top of roll should be golden brown and you should be able to make a tapping sound on the crust with your fingernail...just the same as when baking bread.
Make sure you allow pepperoni roll to cool completely before serving.



As with any baking, keep an eye on your roll. This is just an estimated time. You'll know it's done when the roll is golden and makes a hard tapping sound when you tap it with your fingernail...just like when baking a loaf of bread.



The pepperoni roll will be oozing with cheese and looking quite scrumptious. Let it cool before cutting for heaven's sake! I know it's tempting to dive right in there, but give it time to cool and set up.

**Make sure you allow your pepperoni roll to cool completely before slicing!



Oh my gosh, this is a meal in itself. This makes a great dish to take to a friend's house for watching the football game, or to take on a picnic, or as an office treat for your friends. This definitely can stand alone for dinner with a tossed salad on the side. Everyone in my house LOVES it when I make these for dinner. It's a great leftover to take for lunch the next day too!

P.S. I do not claim this to be a West Virginia pepperoni roll. This is bread dough, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese....all rolled up and baked. :)

Enjoy!

Kickin' up leaves!

Here's some footage of my chickens foraging for grub in the fallen leaves. They just crack me up how they kick the leaves out of the way! It is so cute. I love watching them do this! The filming is not crystal clear because I took it with my digital camera, not my regular video recorder.

I love me some felt crafts!

Here is a Halloween wall hanging that I made about 11 years ago while I was a stay at home Mom and my first born was crawling all around the living room. I miss those days. Geez, after all these years, it still looks great.



It's one of my favorite projects I've made for Halloween. I really love working with felt and I am proud of how cute this turned out.



I display it every year and assume one day it will get passed down to one of my kids for their own house. The entire thing is made from felt and embroidery floss. I made a sleeve at the top to slide a dowel rod through and used a piece of black ribbon to hang it.



Felt is so easy to work with. Once you decide what you want to make, just cut out the pieces free hand or use your own hand drawn pattern.



Pin the pieces to the background and do some basic embroidery stitches to complete.


This isn't a tutorial...I just wanted to share this with you...





...and maybe inspire you to make your own felt wall hanging. Maybe I'll make one for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

scenes from my backyard

I am enjoying the beautiful colors and the cooler weather!

Brown Sugar & Spice Cut Out Cookies

Good morning! It's Thursday! Whatever that means....nothing really. I promised to post my new cookie recipe yesterday afternoon, but things got too busy.

I really like this recipe because it is not your typical basic sugar cookie cut out recipe! I do love a good basic cut out cookie recipe, but this is just fun because it's different and very Fall. I love the brown sugar and cinnamon in the recipe! Give it a try, I know your family will love it! My kids scarfed them down! If you have leaf shaped cookie cutters, all the more fun!!



Brown Sugar and Spice Cut Out Cookies

1 C light brown sugar, packed
1/2 C butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Plus:
1 egg white with splash of water, beaten, to brush on UNBAKED cookie to help adhere colored sugar BEFORE baking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg, vanilla, and blend. Mix remaining dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture. If dough is too sticky to roll out, add another 1/4 cup flour. Also be sure to flour surface before rolling out dough. Roll dough to 1/8 inch thick and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Decorate with colored sugar. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. *Please read tip below

*Tip
This tends to be a sticky dough at first, but you can definitely work with it and cut out cookies with no problem. The original recipe calls for 2 cups flour, but I definitely had to add about a 1/4 C extra flour to dough so I could roll it out. Cookie dough will be soft and refrigerating dough will help. The dough has such a wonderful flavor it's worth dealing with the softness and adding extra flour. If your dough is just fine with the initial 2 C flour then don't add any extra flour! You don't want your cookies to be tough!








Enjoy!

no such thing as over the hump day

Good morning everyone! It's Wednesday...over the hump day. Ok, who even says that anymore? Not me, cause when you're a Mom, there is no hump, cause there is no end of the week...it's just one continuous week. That is definitely something I noticed when I became a Mom and didn't work outside the home...I no longer got excited about the weekend...because every day is the same...to me a weekday is the same as a weekend...it's all the same. Before children, it was always...it's Friday night, oh, we have to do something....just cause...it's Friday night and you're supposed to do something. Anyhow, at first, way back, it bothered me, but now, it's a way of life and I really don't care. Pretty much every day is a fun day for me now. I have a lot of freedom to do fun things when I want to and it is not restricted to just Friday or Saturday night. But also....my idea of fun has changed...drastically...I no longer think it's fun to go to a bar for a beer...I would rather not. I no longer think it's fun to go dancing all night, that would really wear me out and the music is way too loud! I no longer think it is fun to run naked through a corn field.....ha ha, got you there didn't I! No...I have never, ever run naked through a corn field....however, I have run through a corn field...only I was fully clothed and was on private property, was probably about 16 years old and hanging out with friends...it was very late, I'm sure my parents thought I was sleeping at my friends house...and I was having so much fun and laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. But I digress! Those were the REALLY good old days. We're talking like 1986 here! Sorry, just a little memory there~! The only corn fields I am running through now are the corn mazes at a Fall festival with my kids! I'm having fun now too! Only now, when I almost pee my pants, it's not because I'm laughing too hard, it's because I sneezed or coughed too hard! I'm laughing now! Can anyone relate? Really, I do love my life and I am happy! I have no humps to get over...at the moment. When the kids are grown and out of the house, I will be back to working full time and saying "Yes! It's Friday! Honey, what are we doing tonight? It's Friday, we gotta do something!" And so...I must go now and put the second child on the bus...the day is mine until 3:00! Fun!



P.S. Later today, I will be posting a new recipe for cut out sugar cookies. Stay tuned because these are no ordinary cut out cookies...they are brown sugar spice cut outs. They work the same as the traditional cut out cookies, but the dough is reminiscent of Fall. You'll love the flavor of this cookie and will have fun cutting out and decorating leaf shaped cookies.

Blog block and Band

I think I am suffering from blog block or something. I would like to post more, but sometimes I am not quite sure if what I want to write about is interesting enough. I think I am getting a blogging complex! Is that possible?

Just a quick note...my son, my first born baby, played with the band during half time at the homecoming game last night. He is in middle school. Normally I guess the high school band plays at the games...well last night the middle school band got to join them and it was great. My son was very excited and had so much fun. I was so proud of him.

My photos did not turn out well at all. I do not know how to take good pictures in that kind of lighting....so please just bare with me here. As I was searching for him in the sea of band members and looking at the faces of all those kids...all smiling and happy, playing their instruments and calling out cheers, I got a little choked up....choked up in a good way! I was happy for him that he is growing up and now entering one of the most fun and exciting times of his life.

Candy Corn Cookies and Rain!

This past Monday evening, it was cozy and warm inside my house.
Outside it was rainy and cold.
The kind of cold where you see your breath.
There were two things this evening called for...
a fire in the fireplace
and cookies in the oven!

I really wanted a fire but I knew I had to make kindling first! My husband was at a Boy Scout meeting with our boys so if kindling was to be chopped...it was going to be me doing the chopping! It was starting to get dark so I hurried out to the wood shed, grabbed the axe and found a few skinny pieces of dry wood to split. I did a good job...well...a pretty good job...I slipped once and the axe landed squarely on the knuckle of my left pointer finger. Just a tiny cut, but it did hurt!

I got a good fire going!
Ahhhhhh, the smell of burning wood.
and the heat on my face.
I loved it.

In the kitchen I whipped up some Candy Corn sugar cookies.

a little vanilla, an egg yolk, some baking powder and salt
mix, mix, mix....
add the flour....
mix again.
Roll some tiny dough balls...about the size of a tsp.

Bake 10 minutes...
pull the hot tray from the oven...
immediately push a single piece of candy corn into each soft cookie.

Mmmm, the subtle sweet smell of the candy corn warming on each cookie!
It was cranky and raining outside, but oh so sweet inside!
I wish that all of you...
my blog friends...
were here so we could've had a cup of hot tea,
a few cookies,
and some friendly chit chat!

Here's the recipe...you gotta give these a try!