Breakfast Feature: Magic Sausage Rolls

Don't laugh because I said "magic sausage." If you're laughing, you can't eat them, and that means you have to deal with your brutal hangover.

Yes, that is why they are magic; these breakfast rolls are the ultimate hangover relief food. They're composed of Jimmy Dean sausage, a brick of Philadelphia cream cheese, and a roll of Pillsbury Flaky Layers biscuits. The exact ingredients are important for these, so I don't bother with generic versions.

I like to get as far along in the preparation as possible the day before so the next morning when I'm glaring at my kitchen out of one bloodshot eye, I don't have to tackle a lot of prep. This usually includes browning the sausage and mixing it with the cream cheese, but this time I took it a step further an prepped the biscuits, too. It's crucial to get the Flaky Layers biscuits, because you need to peel each biscuit into 3 pieces, which isn't too hard if they're already flaky layers.

Several people that I've made these rolls for have been hesitant because of the sausage cream cheese mixture, but these are the only food that I make that has NO leftovers EVERY time; I think that says it all.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 roll Jimmy Dean Sausage (I prefer Maple flavor)

8oz Philadelphia cream cheese

1 roll Pillsbury Flaky Layer Grands Biscuits

Directions:

1) Brown the sausage and drain it very thoroughly (I put it on a layer of several paper towels and dab it to get it as drained as I can)

2) After the sausage cools, mix it with the brick of cream cheese

3) Peel each biscuit into 3 pieces to get a total of 24 thinner biscuits

4) Spoon the sausage mixture into the biscuits and pinch them closed so it looks like a little taco

5) Put in a baking dish and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes until the biscuits are brown

Cream Stuffed Strawberries

Dinner night with T is usually a fancy affair, so lately I've been trying to keep up by having special desserts planned to complete our sophisticated meals.

Last week at our friend's house (after I gave him his awesome cookies) his stepdad was chatting with Jeff and said that their friend stuffs strawberries with cream cheese for dessert. It sounded simple and awesome, so I thought I'd go for that this week for fancy dessert night.

I mentioned it to my coworker who is an awesome chef (and baker) to see if she had any input, and she suggested I try stuffing the strawberries with that new chocolate cream cheese that Philadelphia put out. I completely agreed and picked some up on the way home from work.

I wanted to stuff the non-chocolate strawberries with something more than just cream cheese, so I added 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla and whipped it all together with an electric mixer before stuffing the strawberries. It was a sweet filling and it was very tasty. I didn't alter the chocolate at all because that would be sacrilege.

Both versions were pretty amazing, but the chocolate disappeared from the plate first. I would imagine that finding some way to dip these in chocolate to get a hard shell would be awesome, and I might experiment with that this summer.

-Aly

"Recipe"
Ingredients:
-Strawberries (enough for however many people you're feeding keeping in mind that they'll each want at least 2-3, or more in our case)
- Chocolate Cream Cheese
Cream Cheese Filling: (I halved these ingredients when I made it)
     -8 oz Plain Cream Cheese
     -1/2 cup Sugar
     -1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:
1. Rinse strawberries and cut off the tops with a paring knife in a cone shape to hollow them out (see pics above to see what they should look like)
2. Mix Plain Cream Cheese, Sugar, and Vanilla together with electric mixer until smooth and well blended.
3. Spoon the different fillings into the strawberries and place on a plate to serve.