clickinmyheels

Fellow Pinners, do you have a pin on Pinterest that a lot of people have either liked or pinned and you haven’t even tried yet? I have a couple that I had pinned a long time ago that I get multiple notifications each week of someone repinning or liking these certain pins. One is an accent wall idea using pennies. You just glue them to the wall. Yes, you are defacing money and I guess you could be hauled to the slammer, but hey – it wasn’t my idea, I just pinned it.  Another one of those popular pins that others seem to like a lot is Easy Pretzel Bites. I originally pinned this from jenniferandrussell.wordpress.com. They had also found the recipe on Pinterest and decided to blog about it. I had intentions of getting around to making these yummy looking pretzel bites, but just never got around to them. When the likes hit 99 and repins hit over 900, I decided I better give these suckers a try. So one night, I decided to make appetizers for supper. What a fun way to spend a weekend evening! We ate in the TV room and enjoyed our yummy treats! I made Spicy Sausage Queso Dip with chips, as well as homemade mozzarella sticks which I also found on Pinterest from www.raininghotcoupons.com which I’ll also share with you to go along with these pretzel bites.

The Pretzel Bites were so simple to make and would be great for entertaining because they can easily be kept warm in the oven until serving and you can make a few different variations and flavors to please all your guests!

Pretzel Bites

Ingredients:

Rhodes Frozen Dinner Rolls

Melted Butter

Sea Salt or Kosher Salt

Parmesan cheese if you like

Cinnamon and Sugar if you wish to make sweet pretzel bites

Cheese sauce, Mustard, Honey Mustard, whatever you wish to dip your pretzels in.

Instructions:

No measuring here. Thaw Rhodes frozen dinner rolls and let rise until doubled in size per package directions.

Cut risen rolls into chunks. I cut each roll into around 6-8 pieces. They will get bigger once they boil. They kind of stick together, but it’s fine, just pull them apart before boiling.

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add a handful of dough chunks into the water and boil for around 35-40 seconds.

Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on paper towel to drain.

Once you have enough boiled dough bites draining, transfer to a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.

You will have to work in batches so as they are baking, you can be boiling and draining another batch of dough bites.

When your last batch is baking, melt your butter and get your toppings ready.

I did half with butter and salt and half with butter and cinnamon and sugar. I also made a cheese sauce for the salted ones.

Place a handful of the baked bites into a bowl. Toss with a little butter. I used a basting brush to coat with butter.

Salt and season as desired, or add the cinnamon sugar (use two separate bowls if doing some with cinnamon and sugar).

Serve immediately, or keep warm in the oven until ready to serve!

Delicious!

And now for those Mozzarella Sticks!!

Ingredients:

Mozzarella Cheese Sticks cut in half

1/3 C All Purpose Flour

1/8 C Cornstarch

1 Egg beaten

1 C Italian Breadcrumbs

1/2 teas garlic powder

1/2 teas salt

vegetable or canola oil for frying

Optional – marinara sauce for dipping

Directions:

Heat up oil in a heavy large saucepan to 350 degrees F. I used a candy thermometer to make sure my oil was at the correct temp.

Cut cheese sticks in half.

In one bowl, combine Flour and cornstarch.

In another bowl, beat the egg.

In a third bowl, combine breadcrumbs, garlic and salt.

Dip cheese sticks into flour, cornstarch mixture and then into egg and lastly into the breadcrumb mixture. You may need to go back into the egg and then re coat with breadcrumb mixture.

Once all the mozzarella sticks are coated, fry at 350 degrees F by carefully placing a few mozzarella sticks slowly into the oil.

Fry for around 30-35 seconds then remove using a slotted spoon or tongs. Transfer to paper towel to drain excess oil. Transfer to warm oven to keep warm if needed until ready to serve. I served mine with some homemade marinara that I had made earlier in the week when I made pizza.

Enjoy!!