Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole

Hubby is sick.
Help me now...we all know what the "man-cold" is like.




Sigh
It's funny because it is true.

Anyhoo...being a good wife, I saw this comfort food dish on Do They Have Salsa in China and decided it would be the perfect thing for sicky over here.

Yup. Won't cure a man cold, but it tastes dang good and is beyond comforting.

Ingredients:

2 Bags Steam and Mash potatoes

8 oz Cream Cheese (softened)

½ Cup sour cream

½ Cup butter (cubed)

¼ Cup milk

1 ½ Tsp Onion powder

1 Tsp salt

1 Tsp Garlic powder

½ Tsp Pepper

6 Bacon strips (Chopped)

1 Cup Cheddar cheese (shredded)

3 Green onions (chopped)

Directions:

1. Cook bacon until crisp. Set aside to drain.

2. Prepare both bags of Steam and Mash

3. Mash potato with cream cheese, sour cream, and butter

4. Stir in milk and seasonings

5. Place in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan

6. Sprinkle with cheese, onion, and bacon

7. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use

8. Remove from fridge 30 minutes before cooking

9. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 40-50 minutes

Print

and the milk.... 

Apparently I snubbed the milk during the ingredients picture. Shocker.

Come party with me HERE!

Mushroom and Sweet Pea Risotto

It is so cold.
So so very cold

I know, it's cold everywhere.
Snow in Florida?! What!

Not that I am a fan of waking up to -10 degrees with a windchill of -30...
but, it IS winter. Winter is temporary.

We got a big storm last week, about 18 inches of snow in our area. The winds were flying so high yesterday it looked like mini blizzards every time a gust came by.
That can be annoying.

My big problem is the complainers!
Oh. My. Word.
(yes, I see the irony of me complaining about others that complain)

Facebook is FULL of everyone "OMG it's too cold"
"I HATE WINTER"
"Make it end!"
"Another day, still in the single digits. GAAAAAH"

Now, maybe I am confused...but...
Didn't you make a choice to live here?
Learn to dress for it people!

Personally, I cannot stand it when it rains.
Drives me to drink.
So, I make it a point not to live in, say, Seattle.

I get it. It's cold.
Our heating bills are up and we stay inside more.
BUT
It's beautiful white and sparkly.
You get an excuse to make soups, stews, chilis, and casseroles all the time.
Not to mention, you get to wear all those fluffy comfy sweaters!

Now that I am done complaining...I still find this giggly

Are you the half full or half empty type when it comes to winter?
What's your favorite "warm the bones" winter food?



Ingredients:

4 Cups Chicken broth (for vegetarian, use vegetable broth)

1 Tbsp Butter

½ Cup Sweet onion (finely chopped)

1 ½ Tsp Garlic (minced)

1 Cup Arborio rice (uncooked)

½ Cup Dry white wine

1 Tbsp Olive oil

4 Cups Mushrooms (sliced)

2 Tsp Thyme

¾ Cup Frozen green peas

6 Tbsp Parmesan cheese

¼ Tsp Ground black pepper

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, heat broth over low heat (keep warm)

2. In large skillet, melt butter over medium heat

3. Add onion, cook until clear

4. Add garlic, cook 30 seconds or until fragrant

5. Add rice, cook (stirring) for 3 minutes

6. Add wine, cook until liquid is absorbed (stirring constantly)

7. Stir in ½ cup of broth, stir constantly until liquid is absorbed.

8. Repeat until all broth is gone and rice is tender

9. Heat oil in large skillet

10. Add mushrooms, cook until tender

11. Add the mushrooms, thyme, peas, ¼ cup cheese, and pepper to the rice

12. Stir and cook for 3 minutes, just until everything is warmed

13. Spoon into bowls and top with remaining Parmesan

Print

Come party with me HERE!

Adapted from: Recipe Girl

Scalloped Sweet Potato

Hubby and I were sitting around one day (or night, whatever) watching the Food Network. Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction was on, and he was making hasselback sweet potato.

I was bringing a potato side dish to a family function, and thought that would make for a nice change of pace.
Though, there were going to be so many of us, I knew there was no way I could do enough hasselback style. It would have either been overwhelming, or a waste.

I sliced the potato thin and layered them with the butter mixture to create a scalloped potato version.

As discussed in another post, I have yet to ever try a sweet potato.
So...general consensus is that this is sweet and delicious.
The majority have spoken!

Ingredients:

3 Large sweet potato (peeled and sliced thin)

1 ½ Sticks unsalted butter (softened)

3 Tbsp molasses

1 Tbsp cilantro

1 Tsp orange zest

⅛ Tsp nutmeg

Salt and Pepper

½ Cup rum

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Spray casserole dish with cooking spray

3. Mix all ingredients (except potato)

4. Layer butter, potato, butter, potato until all is used

5. Cook for 45 minutes, or until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork

Print

Come party with me HERE!

Candied Yams

This past Thanksgiving as I was assigning everyone their dishes, we realized nobody had sweet potato.

Now, I have never eaten a bite of sweet potato, much less ever made them.
I figured everyone would want the "traditional" dish with the mini marshmallows...so I googled it and came up with this recipe.

I ended up doubling it as there are many, many of us.
Um, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't know until I opened the can and placed them in the dish. I looked at them, thought about it, looked again....and decided to brave the store the day before Thanksgiving.

Imagine my surprise to find next to nobody in the store! Psyched!

I made them, they got eaten by most all...but it still wasn't eaten by me.

Maybe one year I will brave it.

Ingredients:

1 (29 oz) can sweet potato

¼ Cup butter, cut into pieces

½ Cup brown sugar

1 ½ Cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Place sweet potato in medium baking dish

3. Place butter cubes all over the potato

4. Sprinkle with brown sugar

5. Top with miniature marshmallows

6. Bake 25 minutes

Print

Come party with me HERE!

Ranch Potatoes (Crock Pot)

I had a discussion with one of hubby's cousins last night (which was SO nice! Miss her!)

She is one of those types that would take care of everyone and everything on the planet if she had the means. Genuine heart.

She has 3 (wonderful!) kids as well as two dogs at home.

Then she heard of this other little doggy down at the pound who needed love. She went down to look and the poor thing had pulled out all of its own hair! It was a mix of unhappiness and food allergies.

Cousin brought her hubby and their youngest down to look at the dog and they were like "seriously? this must be a joke".
A joke it was not! She brought her home and worked her magic!

A couple of months later, and you would never have known that this pup had a sad beginning. She is thriving and loving life with her new "siblings".

Thank you cousin, the world needs more people like you!

Ingredients:

6 Bacon strips (chopped)

2 ½ Lbs small red potatoes (cubed)

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

10 ¾ oz cream of potato soup

¼ Cup milk

1 Envelope ranch dressing mix

3 Tbsp thinly sliced green onions

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp.

2. Remove and drain, reserving 1 Tbsp drippings

3. Place potatoes in slow cooker

4. In a bowl, beat cream cheese, soup, milk, dressing mix, and drippings until belnded

5. Stir cream cheese mixture into potato

6. Sprinkle potatoes with the bacon

7. Cook on low 7-8 hours or until potatoes are tender

8. Top with green onions

Print

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home

Come party with me HERE!

Whiskey Glazed Carrots

Have I really been gone a month?
Seriously?

Sigh.

Thank you to you all who have stuck with me thru my absence!
Not that it is any excuse, but working two, soon to be three jobs plus trying to keep up with everything at home is kicking my butt.
(not to mention life happening in the meantime. Too many doctor appts, too many people in the hospital, too much of too much)
I am backed up with blog posts, and if you read my week in review sessions, I haven't exactly been cooking so much as of late.

Not to mention, gas workers down the street cut lines! We had no phone or internet for over a week. Scary!

I am going to try to be better...I promise!

Ingredients:

1 Stick butter

2 Lbs carrots (bite sized chunks)

½ Cup whiskey

¾ Cup Brown sugar

½ Tsp salt

Pepper

Directions:

1. Melt 1 tbsp butter in large skillet

2. Add carrots, cooking for a couple minutes. Remove from skillet.

3. Pour in whiskey and allow to evaporate for 30 seconds

4. Reduce heat to medium and add remaining butter

5. When butter melts, sprinkle brown sugar

6. Stir, then add carrots back to skillet

7. Cover and continue to cook for 5 minutes

8. Remove lid and add salt and pepper

9. Continue cooking until carrots are done and glaze is thick

Print

Adapted from Tasty Kitchen

Come party with me here!

Grilled Garlic Potato Rounds

I don't own a grill.
I feel like people look at me funny when I say that...I might as well have said "I don't breathe".
Whatever, it is what it is.

My consolation prize is the fact that I own a grill pan. I use it all the time. Anything I would usually make on the grill is done just fine on my little stove. Grill marks and all.

I spied this recipe in First magazine and since we have a love affair with garlic and potato, it was a match made in grill pan heaven.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tsp seasoning salt

1 Clove minced garlic

2 Tsp minced fresh thyme

8 Large potato (washed and sliced into ¼ inch thick rounds)

Directions:

1. Heat grill (or grill pan)

2. Mash together olive oil, salt, garlic and thyme to create a paste

3. Add potato to oil mixture and toss gently to coat

4. Grill 6 minutes or until potato is tender, turning once

Print

Come party with me HERE!

Salt and Vinegar Fried Cabbage

We eat a fair amount of cabbage in this house.
I had green cabbage from my kielbasa saute as well as some napa cabbage from my pot stickers.
There really wasn't enough of either to do much of anything.
Poking around online I came across this recipe on the Heavenly Savings site.

We like cabbage.
We are married to salt and vinegar chips.
Winner winner chicken cabbage dinner!

The original recipe called for a dried salt and vinegar seasoning they had on hand. I know of no such thing, but I really need to look into it!
Since I didn't have any, I just added salt and vinegar to taste.

Ingredients:

1 Head cabbage (cut into strips)

¼ Cup white vinegar

1 Tsp salt

¼ Cup butter

1 Small onion (cut into strips)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large skillet

2. Add cabbage and onion

3. Cook over medium heat until soft

4. Stir in salt and vinegar 5 minutes before serving

Print

My ghetto Ziploc bags with two different types of cabbage

Come party with me HERE!

Zesty Carrots

Mr. Fuzzy Bum the cat is scared to death of our stereo.
We think it is the bass, but as soon as he hears the power button click....he is GONE

Hubby had the music going while we were cleaning and doing all that fun stuff....so Lennon was just hanging out in our room. Enjoying the queen sized bed all to himself.

Then...the unthinkable.
Mom opened a can of tuna.
He heard it. He could smell it....but that scary noise box was still going.
What to do, what to do?

Solution: I will stand in the doorway and yowl loudly. My people will take pity on me and make the world a better place.
(we all remember what happened the last time he didn't get tuna juice, right?)

Hubby, who is pretty anti cat....reminded me again why I married him.
He heard Lennon. Stopped the music. Walked down the hall and talked to him. Walked him all the way out to the kitchen, and brought him right to the bowl of juice.

MELT!

Side note...actually about the food...
I do not care for spicy food. I just don't have the taste buds for it. These carrots made me nervous.
I ate them. My friend who is worse than me about spice ate them.
Try them, don't let the horseradish scare you!

Ingredients:

2 Lbs baby carrots

⅔ Cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp grated onion

2 Tbsp prepared horseradish

¼ Tsp salt

½ Tsp ground pepper

½ Tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Cup panko crumbs

¼ Cup butter (melted)

Directions:

1. Cook carrots until tender

2. Reserve 3 Tbsp of the carrot water

3. Spoon carrots into 2 quart baking dish

4. In bowl, combine mayonnaise, carrot liquid, onion, horseradish, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire

5. Spoon mixture over carrots

6. Combine breadcrumbs and butter, sprinkle over carrots

7. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes

Print

Recipe adapted from My Recipes

Cheesy Spinach Mashed Potato (Crock Pot)

My (not so little anymore) cousin is in college.
He eats a lot.

He is tall, skinny, and all us women folk wish we had his metabolism.
Whatever...that is beside the point of this post.

He was home for a visit, and inhaling every bite of home-cooked food he could get his skinny hands on. We were all over there hanging out the other night and I brought these potatoes over.

We all ate, and then it was time to go home.
Auntie said she had too many leftovers and for us all to bring home whatever was left of what we brought.

Cousin man had tears in his eyes. I convinced her to let him keep the potato. She was all "but you are heading back to school tomorrow". His reply? "That's why they make tupperware MOM".

I love when food makes people happy!

Ingredients:

10 oz frozen chopped spinach

6 Potatoes (peeled and chopped)

½ Cup chicken broth

½ Cup butter

1 Cup sour cream

1 Tbsp chopped onion

1 Tsp salt

¼ Tsp dried dill weed

1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. In large crock pot, place potatoes and cover them with broth, spinach (undrained), butter, onion, dill, and salt

2. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3 hours

3. Mash potatoes

4. Stir in sour cream

5. Transfer to a large casserole dish, top with cheddar cheese

6. Place under broiler until cheese is bubbly (about 5 minutes)

Print

Recipe adapted from Moms with Crock Pots

Come party with me HERE