Countdown to Christmas- Reindeer on Rye

 Several years ago, my son had a cooking series on my blog called Cooking with Kyle. He was very interested in cooking, and developing his own recipes.  While he only did it for a few years, he has lots of good recipes on this blog.  (which you can see below)  

One of those recipes was this fun Christmas appetizer Reindeer on Rye. (you can seen the original post here.)

I'm thinking this might have been one of his last cooking posts.  He was 15 in this photo. Its so nice to see his face without a lot of facial hair. He has had a beard for several years now, so I have not seen his clean shaven face in a long time. 

Kyle was hungry, and since it was just a few days before Christmas he decided to make something Christmas themed. 

The first thing he did was sandwiches on rye bread. The size of the loaf is much smaller than regular bread, and perfect for an appetizer.   He chose to use turkey, swiss, miracle whip and Dijon mustard.  

*this is an affiliate link 

He cut out circles from mozzerella slices with the center part of an apple slicer - corer.  The noses are cherry tomatoes sliced in half. 

He has some trouble figuring out the what to use for the pupil.  He originally thought pepperoni, but it did not work right.  Even though he was not a fan of black olives, we both agreed they looked the best.

The last step was to add the antlers.  We only had mini pretzels on hand so the antlers were a little small, but they still were cute. 

Would you like to see some of Kyle's other Cooking with Kyle posts. He has some great family recipes, that you can make with your kids.   You can see the posts below. 

Chicken Salad Surprise

Breakfast Burrito

Grilled Turkey with Cheese

Burritos

Ham and Cheese Bundles

Cheesy Chicken Legs

Marinated Pork Chops

Shredded Pork Tacos/Burritos

Cheese Fries

Chicken Marsala

Pizza Bites

Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

Cheese BBQ Sliders

Homemade Egg Potato Salad

Homemade Pizza with a Twist

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Reindeer on Rye Appetizer Sandwiches

*this post contains an affiliate link  

Look who is back!  It is time for a new installment of Cooking with Kyle.   I recently found a loaf of rye bread at our local Aldis.  I knew it would be perfect to make into some sort of appetizer for the holiday.  Today when Kyle said he was hungry for lunch, I asked him if he would help me put together a Reindeer themed sandwich. 

The first thing he did was make the sandwiches.  He decided to use turkey, swiss, Miracle Whip and Dijon mustard. 

It was then time to construct the faces.  Using the small circle in my apple slicer/corer, he cut out circles of mozzarella cheese. (any white cheese will do)  The noses are slices of cherry tomatoes. 

I helped him brainstorm on what to use for the pupils of the eyes.  He thought maybe pepperoni but we were out.  He tried to cut circles out of bread, but they did not look right. Even though he is not a fan of black olives, we both agreed they looked the best.  I happen to like black olives so I was totally okay with his choice.  

The antlers are on the small side, because I only had mini pretzels on hand.  We would use regular size pretzels the next time we make them. Theses were fun to make, and tasted great too.  

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Cooking with Kyle- Homemade Pizza

Kyle made us another meal  for dinner tonight. He decided to make a homemade pizza. Technically what he made was semi homemade, but for a teenage boy it is about as homemade as we are going to get.  

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Cooking with Kyle - Homemade Egg Potato Salad

As promised, I am going to share the other half of Kyle's family meal. He decided he wanted to try and make his own version of egg potato salad.    While at the store he picked out petite yellow potatoes.  

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Cooking with Kyle - Cheesy BBQ Sliders

I am very excited about this edition of Cooking with Kyle. He planned out a meal, went shopping with me and worked on a budget, and then cooked our family dinner.  We not only have one post from today's shopping trip, but THREE!   

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Cooking with Kyle - Pizza Bites

Pizza Bites

He's back!  Did you miss him?  Kyle is back with a new Cooking with Kyle recipe.  In this post he is going to share how to make pizza bites.

You will need:
refrigerated biscuits.. your choice on size
pepperoni
your favorite cheese.. we used tomato and basil string cheese
1 egg
Italian seasoning
Marinara or Spaghetti sauce for dipping
Parmesan if desired

Pizza Bites

He started by preparing his ingredients.  He flattened out the biscuits (we used jr size) and opened the pepperoni

Kraft just came out with a new tomato and basil flavored string cheese, that was perfect for this recipe.

Since he made 2 small cans of 10 biscuits, he cut 5 of the individual cheeses into 4 pieces about 1 inch long.

Inside each biscuit he layered a piece of pepperoni, the string cheese cut in half lengthwise so it laid flat and then another piece of pepperoni.

Pizza Bites

He then wrapped the biscuit around the filling and sealed it.

Pizza Bites

After laying the biscuits seal side down, he brushed on a little bit of egg on each one.

Pizza Bites

He sprinkled on some Italian seasoning on each biscuit.  He could have added some Parmesan at this step too, but we forgot to get it out.

Pizza Bites

If making small size Pizza Bites cook in a 425 degree over for about 10-12 minutes.  A few minutes more if you use a bigger size biscuit.

Pizza Bites 

These pizza bites were DELICIOUS!!  They are a perfect after school snack, party food, are even for a light dinner.

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Cooking with Kyle-Chicken Marsala

Guess who is back!  He just finished up his quarter in Basic Foods at school.  It was his favorite class, and he is disappointed it is  over.   Now that he is not cooking at school anymore, he is willing to cook at home again.

On Monday after his dentist appointment, I took him to the grocery store with me.  I had a couple of coupons for Campbell's Skillet Sauces, and it was on sale.  He looked them over the different flavors of sauces, and decided he wanted to try the Marsala sauce.

Using the picture on the front of the package on the package, he decided to make a chicken and pasta dish.   He cooked the chicken in a little bit of oil, and boiled some whole wheat linguine.

Once the chicken was cooked through, he added the package of sauce and simmered.

He placed the chicken on top of the pasta and covered it with sauce. He also served some steamed broccoli on the side.

Most of the family really liked Kyle's  Chicken Marsala.  One sister did not like the taste of the  sauce.   This meal would be a quick go to meal on nights when you don't have a lot of time.  The Marsala has mushrooms in it, so it might not be the best choice for picky eaters.  Kyle really liked it, so I am sure he will want to make it again.

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Cooking with Kyle-Cheese Fries

Last night Kyle wanted to make us a special treat... homemade cheese fries. We recently bought a bag of potatoes on sale and he picked out a block of cheese. 

He carefully selected what seasonings he wanted to add. He chose salt, pepper, garlic salt, Italian herb, and just a dash of Paprika. 

I had to take this picture.  It is just such a rare site to see him standing by the sink. Gasp!  He chose 5 potatoes, and then washed each one.

He cut one potato with our Pampered Chef slicer, and announced that cutting potatoes was too hard.  I offered to help him cut the rest of them. 

He sprinkled the seasoning on the freshly cut fries. 

This is where we made a slight mistake, but it turned out okay in the end..  He applied the shredded cheese a bit too early.  We should have cooked the potatoes a bit before had added the cheese. He cooked the fries about 30 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  I checked on them every 10 minutes or so.  

He added a lot of cheese. Yum! 

I realized about 15 minutes  in that they cheese had cooked a bit too long.  We decided to cook the fries for awhile longer, and then added more cheese.  

What they looked like coming out of the oven. 

This is all  that was leftover.  They were really good!  It was then when I realized mistake #2. I should have told him to spray the pan BEFORE adding the the fries.  Oh well, lesson learned.  

As an experiment I tried something else while Kyle was making his cheese fries. .  I had a package of Cheddar Jack & Bacon Fresh Take that needed to be used.  I didn't really feel like making a big meal, and wondered what it would taste like on some zucchini, I recently bought.  (mine didn't grow this year)   We were all pleasantly surprised with the taste.  It  is kind of hard to explain, but worth using on vegetables instead of meat again.  

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Cooking with Kyle-Shredded Pork Tacos/Burritos

I was very excited when Kyle told  me he wanted to do another segment of Cooking with Kyle.  This summer he has been rather sporadic on when he was willing to cook.  I decided not to force him, because I wanted him to enjoy cooking.  I gave him the sales ads and a notebook, and told him to go through them to figure out his recipe. He brought them back to me a few minutes later,  and said he decided on pork tacos and cheese fries.  I told him I was not sure how the two recipes would go to together, but we would figure something out. I was also very excited about how much he wrote on his list. As you know he has Aspergers. What you may not know, he HATES to write. It is like pulling teeth to get him to do his homework, so writing a list because he wanted to is pretty cool!

I made him go shopping with me, which he was not thrilled to do.  He kept asking why he needed to go  when he gave me a list. I told him that real chefs like to choose their own ingredients. Once we were at the store, he actually seemed to enjoy it.  He  read a few labels,  and I had him figure out a few shopping  math problems.

Since it was getting late ( I will explain why  in my next post), he decided on just making the pork taco/burritos tonight.   The ingredients his chose are Curly's seasoned pork without sauce, a can of Taco Bell refried beans,  Kraft taco cheese, Chi Chis tortillas,Taco Bell hard taco shells, lettuce and tomatoes.  He also added in a few hot papers from our garden.

While the pork was heating up in the microwave, he started cutting the lettuce. I gave him a choice on a whole head of lettuce for .77 or a bag of shredded lettuce on sale for .99.. He chose to cut the head of lettuce.. I have taught him well.  LOL!!

I didnt realize this picture was blurry, or I would have taken another one.  He then cut  the biggest tomato into small chunks.

 He mixed the refried beans and the shredded pork  together in a small  bowl.

 He added the meat mixture, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes to the tortillas and rolled them up.  

For his OWN  tortilla, he added the cut peppers and hot sauce.. Umm.. can you say HOT!!..

                             He likes things very spicy..

A few of his masterpieces. 

Again he made a very tasty recipe.  He gives a big thumbs up as he chows down!  

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