Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole

This is my sixth month participating in the Improv Cooking Challenge which is hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.  As always I looked forward to participating and finding or coming up with a great recipe which included the two theme ingredients.  This month the participating bloggers were asked to make any recipe of their choosing using the two given ingredients of potatoes & cheese.  I knew immediately what I was going to make as this recipe has been a favorite in our home for a few years and as I haven’t made it in ages nor have I ever posted the recipe to my blog, well it was time to make it.  Back the end of 2006 when we first brought Maisie home, not only was I very sick but she wanted no part of me putting her down or leaving her so that I could cook.  Because we still needed to eat, I started going one night every month or so to one of those kitchens where in two hours you partially prepared twelve meals and then you brought them home to your freezer.  When dinner time would roll around all I would have to do was take my prepared items and quickly cook them.  It was nice because we were eating real food that I had previously prepped, but at home I had virtually no clean-up and my time in the kitchen was mere minutes. This recipe was inspired by one of the meals I once prepared in that kitchen but through the years I’ve changed and adapted the recipe to suite our tastes and this is the version I have been making for a few years.

NOTE:  A reduced fat & lower calorie version can be found here:  Slimmed Down Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole 

My previous Improv Cooking Challenge entries:
February 2012  Ginger & Carrots:  Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing
January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream:  Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart 
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries:  Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter 
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese:  Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake 
October 2011 Caramel & Apples:  Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies 

In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, hot sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder & paprika.

Add the potatoes and stir to coat.

Add the potatoes to a greased baking dish.

 When scooping the potatoes into the baking dish, leave behind any extra olive oil/hot sauce mix.

Add the diced chicken to the “left behind” olive oil/hot sauce mix and stir to coat all the chicken.  Allow to marinate as the potatoes bake.

Roast the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and nice and crispy on the outside.

Once the potatoes are fully cooked add the marinated chicken.

In a large bowl mix all the topping ingredients together.

Top the raw chicken with the topping.

Bake until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is melted and bubbly delicious.

 
Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole 

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 8-10 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes  (I leave the skin on)
• 1/3 cup olive oil 
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 TBS. freshly ground pepper
• 1 TBS. paprika 
• 2 TBS. garlic powder 
• 6 TBS. hot sauce 

Topping:

• 2 c. Fiesta Blend Cheese or a mix of Cheddar & Monterey Jack
• 1 c. crumbled bacon 
• 1 c diced green onion

Preheat oven to 500F (This is NOT a typo, 500F is correct!)  In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder & hot sauce.  Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat.  Carefully scoop the potatoes into a cooking spray coated 9 x 13 inch baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mix as possible.  Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and crispy & browned on the outside.  While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the leftover olive oil/hot sauce mix and stir to coat.  Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400F.  Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken.  In a bowl mix together the cheese, bacon & green onion and top the raw chicken with the cheese mix.  Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.  Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing.

Enjoy!

Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter

This sauce is absolute delicious simplicity and I could easily, and I almost did, eat the entire batch just out of a bowl and forget about even putting it on pasta.  This sauce didn’t need added cheese or spices…I’m telling you, this sauce is just AMAZING!

It’s Crazy Cooking Challenge time again and this month our hostess Tina of Moms Crazy Cooking challenged the participating bloggers to search non-celebrity blogs looking for the ultimate spaghetti with red sauce recipe.  Once we find what we think is the ultimate recipe we are to make and feature that recipe and the blog where we found it.  This month I *KNOW* that I found the ultimate spaghetti with red sauce recipe as I’ve read the panegyric accolades of Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter on so many blogs including More than Burnt Toast, My Italian Grandmother, Orangette, Shockingly Delicious and numerous others, well I just had to make her sauce and highlight it. 

This recipe is crazy easy with only three ingredients and it’s essentially hands off simple as there’s no slicing, dicing, mincing or messing around with fancy ingredients.  I’m telling you too, if you’re a cook and you’re used to adding and subtracting ingredients and spicing to fit your tastes and trust me, I do it all the time, DON’T DO IT!  Make this recipe as written and you will be rewarded with a perfectly balanced creamy sauce where the taste of the tomato shines through and the butter gives a richness and gorgeous silky mouth feel.  Even better, this sauce freezes beautifully so make a big batch and freeze some for later use. 

Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter

• One 28-ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes
• 5 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
• Kosher salt

Combine the tomatoes, their juices, the butter and the onion halves in a medium sized, heavy bottomed saucepan. Add a pinch or two of salt. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered at a very slow and steady simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, for about 45 minutes or until droplets of fat float free from the tomato. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and salt as needed. Discard the onion. Serve over cooked pasta.

Enjoy!

My previous Crazy Cooking Challenge entries:
Chocolate Cake Challenge:  Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake
Chicken Noodle Soup Challenge: Thai Chicken Noodle Soup 
Fudge Challenge: Biscoff Fudge 
Mashed Potato Challenge: Aloo Tikki 
Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge: Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps 
Mac & Cheese Challenge: Velvety Mac & Cheese 

Broiled Sushi

I love being a member of The Secret Recipe Club and each month I’m excited to receive my Secret Recipe Club assignment to see who I’ve been assigned.  Just as in months past, as soon as I received the email from our Group ‘A’ hostess Jane, which contained all the information for my assigned blog, I was off stalking it.  This month I was assigned Lisa’s Sweet as Sugar Cookies which is a wonderful blog filled with dozens and dozens of sweet treat recipes as well as some main dishes.  I looked at so many of Lisa’s bar, cookie and ice cream recipes and there were just dozens that I wanted to make but because of Maisie’s allergies she can’t really eat most of the sweets and the fact that neither Eammon nor I really need to be eating sweets right now I decided to look at the main dish recipes.  Once I saw Lisa’s recipe for Broiled Sushi I knew that I had found my recipe. 

I’ll bet that it was less than four hours from the time I opened the email containing my assignment to the time that I served this meal.  As it worked out I opened the email late on a Sunday morning and as I didn’t have any plans for meals that day and the fact that I had everything I needed to make this in my pantry and freezer…well it was meant to be.  I got my mushrooms and sushi rice soaking and I pulled a package of imitation crab meat from the freezer and got that defrosting and then I was good to go.  This dish came together in no time at all and Eammon especially adored it and ate it for meal after meal until he finished the entire dish.  Surprisingly for me, I didn’t change Lisa’s recipe at all, I made it exactly as written and when I make it again, which I will, I wouldn’t change a thing…well maybe I would make one of her wonderful looking sweets to enjoy after the Broiled Sushi.  Oh and if you’re turning your nose up thinking sushi = raw fish well not in this dish, as there’s nothing raw, just wonderful flavors so give it a try.

In a large bowl mix together the mushrooms, crab meat, sour cream and mayonnaise.

Spread a layer of sushi rice in a baking dish.

Sprinkle the rice layer with furikake.

Add the crab & mushroom mixture and it’s ready for the broiler.

Bubbly and lightly browned, fresh from the broiler.

Furikake and roasted laver (Gim).  I keep both the sheets and the individual packets of Gim in the house.  The sheets are when we eat at home and the small packets I send with Maisie for snack at school and at the gym.  To see our no-mess way of cutting the sheets into neat little squares, click here.

Broiled Sushi  (from here)

• 10 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water until rehydrated and then chopped
• 1 1/2 lbs. imitation crab meat, shredded
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• furikake (Japanese rice seasoning)
• 3 cups cooked brown sushi rice 
• Korean roasted laver (Gim)
• Sriracha

In a large bowl combine the chopped mushrooms, crab meat, sour cream and mayonnaise and stir to combine  Spray a 9 x13-inch Pyrex with cooking spray and spread the sushi rice in an even layer.  Sprinkle with furikake seasoning. Spread with the crab meat mixture. Put under the broiler for about 10 minutes until the top begins to brown. Serve with Sriracha.  Scoop into pieces of Gim, and eat.

Enjoy!

My previous Secret Recipe Club Recipe Posts:

Health(ier) Peanut Brittle 
Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites 
Texas Chicken with Lime Butter 
Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens 
Thin Mint Irish Coffee 
Levain Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies 
Welsh Cakes 
Nutella Crêpes 
Cilantro Lime Chicken 
Holy Guacamole 
and
Home Style Chicken Curry

Crab Cake Stuffed Mushrooms

The reason that I call these Crab Cake Stuffed Mushrooms is because I use the exact same recipe to make crab cakes but I like these better as I’m adding the mushroom and I’m not frying anything.  If you choose to make these into crab cakes just leave out the mushroom and with the filling, pat it into cakes, dust lightly with flour and fry in a hot skillet drizzled with oil.  Fry until browned, 4-5 minutes and then carefully flip to fry the other side until golden.

Using a tablespoon I fill the mushrooms really full with the filling and then I sprinkle on some paprika.  These are ready for the oven.

Crab Cake Stuffed Mushrooms

• 24 oz. mushrooms
• 1 pound crabmeat, picked clean of shells
• 22 Ritz Crackers, crushed finely
• 3 green onions (green and white parts), finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Hellmann’s real mayonnaise 
• 1 TBS chia seeds, stir into 1/4 cup warm water and allow to hydrate and form a gel (or substitute one egg)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard 
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• Paprika

Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. 

Clean the mushrooms, remove the stems and with a spoon scoop out the gills.  Set aside the stems and gills for another recipe, (soon to be posted.)  In a large bowl, except for the mushroom caps, mix together all the ingredients.  Using a Tablespoon fill the mushroom caps nice and high with the filling.  Place the filled mushrooms on the prepared baking pan and dust with paprika. 

Bake for 20 minutes until the mushrooms are tender and the top of the filling is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Health(ier) Peanut Brittle

A very fortuitous thing happened yesterday morning, almost like it was meant to be.  Let me back up a bit and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.  If you’ve followed my Moments with Maisie blog you’ve read about our struggles with Maisie’s chronic nasal congestion.  We found out back in November that Maisie’s allergic to wheat, egg whites and dairy so we removed all those items from her diet and she seemed to be doing somewhat better.  The nasal congestion that was right in her nose cleared up and it wasn’t wet and blue up there anymore.  But unfortunately the removal of those foods did not completely clear up her condition and the congestion seemed further back in her sinuses.  There was a thought that her adenoids could be the problem but after a visit to an ENT that was ruled out.  Our next stop was the allergist who performed further allergy tests only to find out that there were no additional allergies.  He then sent her for a CT scan where they found that Maisie had a major infection in her sphenoid sinuses.  He put her on a 28 day course of Augmentin and then a probiotic was added to help with the stomach side effects.  By day six Maisie was suffering so much, unable to sleep more than four hours due to being so congested when she was laying down, the doctor started her on steroids to try to reduce the swelling and allow her sinuses to open up a bit and provide her some relief.  Sadly the steroids only seemed to affect her mood, focus and attention and didn’t do the trick in helping her sinuses so after the five day course something else needed to be done. 

Now that I’m medically qualified to make such decisions, thanks to my many consultations with Dr. Google, we are starting something new with Maisie.  I found out that certain foods contribute to chronic nasal congestion with the biggest culprits being wheat, dairy, refined white sugar & high fructose corn syrup.  Since we’ve already completely removed wheat and dairy from Maisie’s diet we decided to see what would happen if we also removed the white sugar and corn syrup…I mean it can’t hurt and hopefully, fingers crossed, this will help my sweet little Maisie Miao Miao. 

Now that you’ve slogged though my big long back story, let me get back to the fortuitous event that happened yesterday morning, well fortuitous for me and Maisie.  I was online looking up some recipes so that I could make something sweet and special for Maisie as many of her current treats contain the white sugar and/or corn syrup that we’re trying to cut out and she needs some treats and the calories that go along with them.  Up pops an email from Amanda saying that The Secret Recipe Club group ‘D’ hostess April, needed someone to step in and cook from a blog that was orphaned for today’s reveal when the original assignee backed out at the last minute.  Though I already posted my group ‘A’ Secret Recipe Club recipe this month, without a second thought I emailed that I was available and up for the task as I’d hate to see anyone in the group left orphaned without someone cooking from their blog.  Amanda messaged me the blog url and I set off, excited to see what I would be making.  I opened up Bean’s Without Adornment blog and was immediately mesmerized by her gorgeous photos.  Without even reading I started paging through just ogling the photos but I started noticing the words ‘gluten free’ and ‘vegan’ and my excitement built.  I stopped drooling over her photos long enough to click over to her recipe list and immediately started the happy dance when this came up on my screen: 

“Here are a compilation of all the recipes I have shared since I started this blog. I have done my best to indicate which common allergens are not in each recipe. Every recipe is gluten free unless otherwise indicated.

DF – Dairy Free
EF – Egg Free
RSF – Refined Sugar Free
SF – Soy Free”

Well WOOHOO!!! I was meant to find this blog and I knew that here I would find a sweet, Maisie “safe”, refined-sugar-free treat for my girl.  I scanned the recipe list and her codes and first looked at her Vegan Raspberry Bars.  The bars looked wonderful but I quickly realized that I didn’t have any of the various flours in the house and in all honesty, I’d be making them more for me than for Maisie as they’re more my taste so I moved on.  I then saw that she had a candy section with a recipe for Peanut Brittle which I knew would be something that Maisie would enjoy.  I opened up the recipe and it was perfect as it not only fit Maisie’s dietary needs but I had all the ingredients in my panty…Kismet!    

Coconut oil and Agave in a small pot.

Bring to a boil.

Stir in the peanuts.

Attach a candy thermometer to the pot and stir continuously.

Once the mixture reaches hard crack (300F) it will be thick, remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda and salt being careful that the mixture doesn’t boil over. 

Pour the hot mixture onto a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet. 

Chill the candy completely in the freezer.

Once the Peanut Brittle is set it’s easy to lift from the pan.

Maisie, trying her Peanut Brittle.

This candy was simple to make but I kept Maisie away from the process for fear of her getting splashed and burned so she was happy to help break the brittle.

Maisie, delighted with her big bowl of Maisie “safe” Peanut Brittle.

Health(ier) Peanut Brittle  (from here)

• 1 cup Agave nectar (I used raw organic agave)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cup roasted peanuts
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Measure agave and coconut oil into a small to medium sized pot. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the peanuts.  Stir continually for 20-30 minutes until you’ve reached hard crack temperature (300F).  Remove from heat and stir in salt and baking soda. It will be very frothy so be careful that it doesn’t bubble over.  Pour onto a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Put into freezer for two hours to cool.  Once cool, break into pieces.  Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

My previous Secret Recipe Club Recipe Posts:

Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites 
Texas Chicken with Lime Butter 
Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens 
Thin Mint Irish Coffee 
Levain Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies 
Welsh Cakes 
Nutella Crêpes 
Cilantro Lime Chicken 
Holy Guacamole 
and
Home Style Chicken Curry 

Baked Egg & Avocado

Not only have I lately been on a lemon kick with my Glazed Lemon Squares, Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart, Dark Chocolate Dipped Candied Lemon Peels and my Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake but I’ve also been on a major avocado kick, adding it to a lot of salads, sandwiches, soups and other dishes.  A while back I saw a picture of an egg baked in an avocado (sorry I don’t remember where so as to give credit) and the other morning I awoke dreaming of it so I had to make it.  I cut an avocado in half, removed the pit and scooped out a bit of the flesh to make room for the egg.

Obviously I didn’t quite scoop out enough as my egg runneth over.  No worries though as I just used what my avocado could hold. I added salt and pepper and then I carefully transferred the egg filled avocado to the hot pan in the oven,

Hot and delicious straight from the oven.  The white was nicely set, the the yolk was still soft and a bit runny and the warm avocado was creamy…pure deliciousness!

Baked Egg & Avocado
for each serving:

• 1/2 an avocado, pitted and some of the flesh removed to make room for the egg
• 1 small or medium egg
• salt & pepper to taste
  
  Place a heavy bottomed oven safe pan in the oven and heat to 425 F.  Fill the prepared avocado with an egg and add salt & pepper to taste,  Once the oven is hot carefully transfer the filled avocado halves to the hot pan.  Cook for 10 minutes or until your eggs are at the firmness you desire.

Enjoy!

Apple Pancakes

Do you ever see a recipe on a blog and have to instantaneously check your pantry to see if you have the ingredients on hand to make it…immediately?  Well that’s what happened last Sunday night when I saw Chaya’s recipe for Apple Fritters on her My Sweet and Savory blog.  Something about her recipe called to me and all I could think was that I had to make it…well my version of it.  I took great liberties with her recipe as I had to adapt the recipe based on what I had on hand in the pantry and also to make it Maisie “safe” as the original recipe called for an egg which Maisie can’t eat and then I didn’t want it too sweet so I omitted all the sugar…and the salt…and the nutmeg, but what a perfect quick Sunday night dinner.  I’ll bet that Chaya’s were wonderful and these were wonderful so make either one as these were easy and delicious.  We all really enjoyed the flavor, the texture and sweetness of the pancakes and honestly, had I not known these were wheat, egg & dairy free, I never would have guessed it.  Another wonderful thing about this recipe is that the pancakes stayed well wrapped in the refrigerator and then reheated beautifully in the microwave so Maisie was able to enjoy the leftovers a couple of mornings for breakfast. 

Apple Pancakes (Adapted from here)

1 cup gluten-free pancake & waffle mix
1 TBS chia seeds
2 TBS boiling water
2/3 cup Almond Breeze original
1 small apple, peeled, cored and grated
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 TBS. vegetable oil, plus more for pan

maple syrup

In a medium bowl mix together the chia seeds and boiling water, stir well and allow to sit for five minutes.  Then add the Almond Breeze, grated apple, applesauce, cinnamon and 1 Tablespoon oil and stir to mix well.  Add the pancake mix and stir to combine.  Heat a large cast iron skillet and lightly coat with vegetable oil.  Using a large cookie scoop measure out the batter into the pan.  Cook until golden brown and then flip to brown the second side.  Serve with maple syrup or additional applesauce.

Enjoy!

Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

This is my fifth month participating in the Improv Cooking Challenge which is hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.  As always I looked forward to participating and finding or coming up with a great recipe which included the two theme ingredients.  This month the participating bloggers were asked to make any recipe of their choosing using the two given ingredients of ginger and carrots.  At first I was going to make a soup, being that it’s winter…supposedly…as our temperatures had been balmy and gorgeous…well until this past week when we hit the deep freeze…but even so, I decided to make something light, healthy and fresh, thus my Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing.  I loved this salad so much and as I had plenty of dressing, I ended up eating it for lunch five days in a row,.

This Carrot Ginger Dressing is very similar to what is served in Japanese restaurants so if you enjoy it out I’d suggest making it at home as it’s super simple and it keeps in the fridge for about a week.

My previous Improv Cooking Challenge entries:

January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream:  Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart 
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries:  Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter 
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese:  Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake 
October 2011 Caramel & Apples:  Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies 

Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

raw shrimp, peeled & deveined, tail left on
Shichimi togarashi
chia seeds
baby salad greens
avocado, peeled & sliced
tomato, sliced
carrot, julienned

Dry the shrimp well and then lightly sprinkle with the Shichimi togarashi and chia seeds.  Cook the shrimp under the broiler or in a lightly oiled hot pan until they are opaque and just cooked through.  Arrange the salad greens, avocado, tomato, cooked shrimp and carrots on a plate and drizzle on the Carrot Ginger Dressing.

 

Carrot Ginger Dressing

1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 TBS. chopped peeled fresh ginger
fruit pulp from 1/2 of a lemon
1 TBS. ketchup
1/4 tsp. Shichimi togarashi 
2 TBS. water
1/2 cup Grapeseed oil

Put all the dressing ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Will keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about a week.

Enjoy!

Malted Pretzel Crunch

WARNING:  Do not make this recipe!

I swear this is the sweet & salty snack version of “crack” because after just one bite you’re addicted and before you know it you’ve eaten the entire batch, are jonesing for more and thinking up excuses to make another batch or three or four so that you can actually share some while getting your fix.  My bloggy pal, Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives posted her Malted Pretzel Crunch for Super Bowl Sunday a mere ten days ago and I’m embarrassed and not going to admit how much of this “crack” I have made and consumed.  If my Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon wasn’t addiction enough, now I have a new one so thanks a lot Lisa, thanks a lot!

Add the pretzels and dry ingredients to a bowl.

Mix in the melted butter,

Spread the mixture onto a Silpat lined baking pan.

One hot delicious mess straight from the oven,

Malted Pretzel Crunch (recipe from here) 

4 cups salted mini pretzels – about 1/2 of a 16-ounce bag
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons milk powder
1/4 cup malt powder
1 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons butter (1 stick, plus 6 tablespoons), melted

Preheat the oven to 275 F.

Pour the pretzels in a large bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. Add the brown and granulated sugars, milk powder, malt powder & salt and toss to mix. Add the melted butter and toss to coat. As you toss, the butter will act as glue, binding the dry ingredients to the pretzels and creating small clusters. (I did not get small clusters but once baked, it formed a sheet of pretzel crunch that I broke into pieces).

Spread the clusters on a Silpat or parchment paper lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, until it looks toasted and smells buttery. 

If you can wait long enough before starting to snack, cool the pretzel crunch completely. Once completely cooled, if there’s anything left, break into pieces.  Store the crunch in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for 1 week (not in this house mind you); in the fridge or freezer, it will keep for 1 month. Lisa’s comment and I agree,  “I think these would be fantastic in cookies with chocolate chunks OR pour or drizzle melted chocolate over the top of the sheet of pretzel crunch, let set, then break into pieces – like toffee.”

Enjoy!