Deli Pinwheels

Little wheels of finger food!

Hubs and I recently went on a trip to Myrtle beach, and I was wracking my brain to figure out what type of finger food we should bring.  You know, for grabbing at a road trip pit stop without needing plates or cutlery, for bringing to the beach to snack on, etc.  Since we have copious amounts of cream cheese and hot sauce in our fridge, this is my version of the deli pinwheel!  It worked out great and we we devoured the whole lot of them by the end of the trip.

DELI PINWHEELS
Ingredients:
3 large tortillas or wraps (sundried tomato flavor or spinach gives extra flavor)
2/3 cup cream cheese/neufchatel
1/3 cup hot sauce
Half head of romaine lettuce
Swiss or pepper jack cheese slices
Deli meat (We used half roast beef and half turkey)
Toofpicks!

Method:
Mix cream cheese with hot sauce of your choice- I used Franks, because its awesome!
Spread 1/3 of mixture evenly on tortillas
Layer 3 slices of cheese on top of cream cheese mix, leaving 1/3 empty
Top cheese with big leaves of Romaine, again leaving 1/3 pretty much untouched
Add 6 slices of deli meat, again... you get the idea :)
Roll the tortillas, filled side first, tightly until the cream cheese "glues" the end to the roll
Cover the rolls with plastic wrap
Pop in the freezer 10 minutes
Slice the rolls into ~1 inch rounds, securing each with a toothpick stabbed through the center
DONE!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Finished product~

OK, first legitimate recipe, yay!  Hubs and I love spicy food, and enjoyed buffalo chicken pizzas at Buffalo Brothers for the first couple years of dating. However,  it's much cheaper to make at home and tastes great!

First of all, if you want to be O.G. about it, you gotta use Frank's Red Hot sauce.  It's the original hot sauce used in Buffalo, New York for the first "hot wings" made.  It's a great sauce and very versatile (awesome on eggs!)  Also, we are blue cheese fans.  Blue cheese is my FAVORITE kind of cheese, and I was a cheesemonger, so I've eaten way more cheese than I'd like to admit.  But I do understand that it's not for everyone, and so ranch can easily be substituted for this pizza, so no worries!

Sometimes I make my own pizza dough, but most of the time I don't.  That's a recipe for another day.  For this, I used the bagged pizza dough found in the deli section of my grocery store.  The Pillsbury stuff in a can is fine too, but I prefer the texture of the bagged stuff!

Whatever butters your biscuit!

For the chicken, I used bone-in thighs because they were cheap.  But use whatever you'd like as long as you soak it in that sweet sweet Franks.

Before hitting the hot oven

Aw yes, cheesy goodness

RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 ball of pizza dough

2 cups diced chicken, mixed with 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot

1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce, for drizzling on top of pizza

3/4 cup chunky blue cheese dressing OR ranch dressing

2 cups mozzarella cheese

3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup diced green onions

1 teaspoon cornmeal

Salt, garlic, and cayenne to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 450* F, with pizza stone heating on bottom rack

~If no pizza stone, that's fine!  Just add 2 minutes to bottom rack cooking time and use a cookie sheet!~

Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with corn meal

Stretch dough ball into desired pizza shape, coating the bottom with the cornmeal

Sprinkle dough with tiny pinch of salt, garlic, and cayenne pepper

Use the bottom of a spoon to spread dressing on the pizza as a base/sauce

Evenly distribute mozzarella on top

Place Frank's soaked chicken pieces all over

Sprinkle crumbled blue cheese over top of pizza

Drizzle Frank's Red Hot evenly over pizza

Put parchment paper with the pizza on the heated pizza stone, bottom of oven rack

Cook 5 minutes

Move pizza stone to center rack, cook 7 minutes or until golden brown crust and bubbling cheese

Remove and sprinkle with diced green onions

Cut pizza (just on parchment, never on the stone)

DONE!

Easiest Roasted Corn

Hi everyone!  Since this is the first "recipe" (if you can even call it that) I figured I would make it short and sweet!  We like to make corn but boiling it is kind of a pain and because we live in an apartment, grilling isn't possible unfortunately!

Everyone loves roast corn- It's simple, delicious, and an easy side dish!  This method of roasting simplifies cooking this starchy "yellow devil" even more.  OK, so I took an anthropology class.

Keeping the corn in its husk as it cooks steams it and keeps it nice and juicy with minimal effort!

...

RECIPE

Ingredients:
Corn, as many as you like or can fit in the oven
Butter
Spices (I use Cajun seasoning, kosher salt, and pepper)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350* F
Place corn cobs, whole and un-husked, directly onto oven rack
Cook 35 minutes
Remove from oven, let cool a few minutes
Husk the corn, leaving on the layers to use as a "handle"
Rub with butter and sprinkle with spices
DONE!

Welcome!

Hi, and thanks for visiting Calico Cocina!

My name is Alexandra and this is my little nook of the web to share my life and interests.  I'm 26, born and raised in North Carolina, where I still live with my husband, dog, cat, and 2 guinea pigs.

Cooking is a huge part of my life and something I'm very passionate about.  Some of my favorite possessions are my beloved cast iron pans- they get a lot of love and use! People have requested I share some of my recipes and techniques, so what better place than a blog?  I was a cheesemonger for a while so there may be an excessive amount of cheese related recipes, and occasionally cheesemaking.

My other passion is caring for my pets.  I walk dogs and care for animals as my job, and I LOVE it.  I have a YouTube channel dedicated to their care and probably bore my friends with how much I talk about them.

I also enjoy art and crafting!  I love to draw and lately have been getting into watercolor.  I have an Etsy shop where I sometimes sell paintings.  Recently, I have been trying to learn crochet- I'm still a beginner but it's a lot of fun!

I really dig video games, too!  Particularly Nintendo and PC gaming.  I have a Twitch channel on which I stream game play, mainly of The Binding of Isaac and retro Nintendo games.

Anyway, on to the babies!!

This angel wrapped in fur is Trixie (AKA Tracy, Sissy).  We adopted her when she was 5, and she turns 10 the day after Christmas.  She's a long haired Pembroke Welsh Corgi and she is an amazing dog- My first dog ever, too!  She's sassy and loves to be the center of attention.

This fatty catty is Miss Biscuits.  Yep, she's overweight- but really, we don't overfeed her!  And no, she doesn't actually eat pancakes. :)  We got her from the animal shelter when she was 4, and now she is 9.  She had been declawed front and back and so she is utterly helpless, not that she has a mean bone in her body anyway!  She's a daddy's girl and the inspiration for the name of my blog.  I just LOVE calicos.

These 2 perfect piggies are Diamond and Marmalade!  I'm mildly obsessed with them. I love how vocal they are- they squeal like crazy when they hear a veggie bag crinkle!  And they even have Halloween costumes.  Yep... obsessed...

And here's hubby and I!  I'll refer to my husband as "Pepe", my term of endearment for him.  We got married 8/8/15 and he's my best friend in the world.  He supports all my endeavors endlessly and deals with my clumsiness and occasional irresponsibility.  He's the best.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, I do that a lot!  Thanks again for visiting my blog! ^_^

-Alexandra