"Crunchy Cheese Nibblet" Appetizers

While we were stuck in the house during the East Coast blizzard this weekend, I experimented with an appetizer idea.

I wanted to use up some leftover potato chips we had in the house, (I'm all about trying to USE the food we have lately, instead of buying more and more) and I actually found a recipe on AllRecipes.com from a woman named Janis. This is her recipe here.

I tried out her exact recipe, but I also made a batch using some different tastes.

She got mostly positive reviews on her creation...but I definitely have a few ideas on how to improve this for my tastes. All in all, my husband and I enjoyed the appetizer, but agreed it needed some tweaking the next go round.

Here are the ingredients I used for both batches:

1 cup finely shredded Cheddar cheese (yellow)
1 cup crushed potato chips
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon ground mustard
crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup finely shredded Cheddar cheese (sharp white)
1 cup crushed potato chips
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Bryant & Cooper BBQ sauce
parsley flakes

Directions (same concept for both)

In a bowl, combine all ingredients.


Shape dough into 3/4-in. balls.

Place on ungreased baking sheets and flatten slightly.


Bake at 375 degrees F for 5-8 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack.

Serve warm.


Now, here is what I would have changed:

1. I did "flatten" the balls slightly... I think next time I am keeping them in ball shape so they can be served more like a cheese ball with a toothpick.

2. They need slightly more flavoring. Granted, I used plain potato chips...and these would have worlds more flavor if you used like, BBQ Chips or Sour Cream & Cheddar or anything you like. But, if you use plain chips, add more more spice or sauce or whatever.

3. They needed closer to 10 minutes cooking time.

Otherwise, kudos to this lady for being inventive. Here's to experimenting with food!

Sunday Game Day Snack - Open Face Knish Sandwiches!

Today's Sunday Game Day Snack is a hearty one, and VERY delicious, as my husband and I just tested out. Open face knish sandwiches. YUM-MY!

My husband originally saw something like this concept on the Food Network and desperately wanted to try it. So today when I went food shopping, there were some knish's on sale and I plopped them in the cart.

We planned to use turkey and cheese on top of a sliced knish. You can definitely use any type of deli meat you enjoy, accompanied by any type of cheese or additional vegetables - the possibilities are endless!

The knish's we bought happened to be potato broccoli, mostly because those were the ones on sale and we didn't want to buy something that cost more since this was an experiment and we really don't eat knish's very often at home.

We also purchased some plain, thin-sliced deli turkey and light Swiss cheese (also thin-sliced).

We got home around 12:30 so just decided to go ahead and make these for the start of the 1 pm Jet game and eat a late lunch/early snack.

I sliced the knish in half so I had 2 "sandwich ends." Then I shredded some of the sliced turkey and put it on top of the potato filling, topped by a slice of Swiss cheese.


They baked about 20 minutes until the cheese started to get a slight golden color on top and the potato filling was hot.

The sandwich was yummy plain (as I ate it), and my husband decided to add some spicy mustard to his, which he also really enjoyed.

Since we ate them for lunch we each had two sides, but if we were using this as a snack we would have just split one. They are very easy to make, very filling and very tasty.

Happy Football Day!