NECK OF THE WOODS CREATIVE: cream cheese

There is no real reason for the word doodle to be in the title of this noodle pudding, but I liked the sound of it so it stuck.

The grocery store I use most often has carts and racks set in various places throughout the store for clearance items. I buy a lot of items at clearance prices that I might not normally purchase if it was full price. Perhaps it's because it's a higher priced name brand or something that is not ever on my shopping list. The noodles I'm using in this recipe I got for a steal in one of those bins. I tried making them as just noodles in chicken broth with a little butter but we didn't really care for them.

Something made me think of a traditional Jewish dish called noodle kugel, also knows as noodle pudding. I guess I could have called this recipe Noodle Doodle Kugel, too. That actually has a good ring to it!

The recipes I could find online didn't really match exactly what I was thinking of wanting this dish to be, so I used ideas from several different places and came up with this deliciousness I share with you now.

NOODLE PUDDING

Ingredients:
1 pound medium egg noodles
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
6 eggs, well beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
16 ounces sour cream
16 ounces small curd cottage cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
1 sleeve cinnamon graham crackers
(Printable Recipe)

The noodles I had were in 12 oz. packages so I used my handy-dandy to measure out the 16 oz. needed, and put the rest in a ziptop bag for some other use later on. I also used the scale to measure out the 1/2 pound of butter since I buy it in a one pound block. I did the same with the cream cheese to get the 4 oz. from the 8 oz. brick.

Cooking Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Apply spray oil to a 9" x 13" pan and set aside. In a large pot bring water to a boil then add the noodles and return to a boil and cook for 7 minutes. Drain and leave in the strainer for a few minutes.

In the now empty pot add the remaining ingredients, expect the graham crackers, and turn on the heat enough to melt. The order I did it in was the butter and cream cheese first, then the cottage cheese and sour cream. Then the sugar, vanilla and beaten eggs. Stir well to combine and turn off the heat. Add the noodles and continue stirring until they are thoroughly combined.

Pour the noodle mixture into the prepared pan. Using your spatula move the noodles around so that they get into the corners and they look like they are spread fairly evenly.

Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the graham crackers into crumbs. There are several ways this can be achieved, this is the easiest way I've found to do it. Take a sleeve of crackers and start pounding on it lightly with a rolling pin. Don't pound too heavily or it will break open the seals on the package. Turn the crackers to one side, pound, turn, pound, and so on until they are nothing but crumbs.

After 30 minutes remove pan from oven and cover the top with the graham cracker crumbs.

Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Note: This is even more delicious than I thought it might be. This is going to be my go to dish to take to potlucks. It's perfect just the way it is, but you could make it lighter by using fat free or reduced fat ingredients, and replace the 6 eggs with 1 1/2 cups egg whites. Some of the recipes I looked at added raisins, and we wouldn't care for that ourselves, you could add about 1/2 cup of raisins before baking.

We were gifted with half a bushel of banana peppers a few days ago by our neighbor and I've been coming up with as many recipes as I can to use them all. Luckily, for me, they are not very hot, but they are full of flavor. When I make this recipe again using these same peppers, I'll add a splash of hot sauce. They are delicious as they are, but a little more heat would be great, too. Also, feel free to use the peppers you prefer. If you don't like any heat, use bell peppers. If you like more heat, then use jalapenos would be a good choice.

PEPPER PILLOWS

8 oz. cream cheese (I used reduced fat, but fat free or original would work just as well)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (6 oz.)
1/2 diced fresh banana peppers (or others of your choice)
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic powder to taste
1 can (16.3 oz.) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 egg
Water

Preheat oven to 350° F. In mixing bowl, stir together cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, peppers, salt, pepper, and garlic powder until well combined. Set aside.

Using a rolling pin and some flour to dust, roll each biscuit into an 8 inch circle. Place one heaping Tablespoon of the filling in the center of the dough.