Mushroom Ranch Potatoes – Slow Cooked Potatoes Exploding With Flavor!!!

Tags

Cheese, cream of mushroom, crockpot, onion, potatoes, ranch dressing, slow cooker, southern hasbrowns

Life has been a little crazy lately, so I was looking to make a fairly easy dinner for the family last night. These Mushroom Ranch Potatoes filled the bill! It was as simple as chopping a little onion and dumping my ingredients in the slow cooker! The pay out was great tasting potatoes though! The cream of mushroom soup and cheese gave it creamyness and the ranch dressing mix and onion gave it wonderful savory flavor. This was good enough to serve as a holiday side dish and would be easy to increase for a crowd. It would also be good topped with some panko or bread crumbs!

I served these with a Beer Butt Chicken (Yes, you read this right!) and some local, organic corn on the cob. Mmmm! It was a delicious dinner!

Mushroom Ranch Potatoes

1 – 32 oz bag of frozen southern hash brown potatoes

1 – 14 oz can low-fat cream of mushroom soup

1/2 white onion, chopped

1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix

1/2 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Before opening the bag, break up the potatoes by throwing down bag or using a meat tenderizer to pound the bag. You want to be able to stir the potatoes with all the other ingredients. Spray a slow cooker pot with non-stick spray. Add all ingredients and stir until mixed. Cook for 5-6 hours on low.

Enjoy!

Confetti Vegetable Terrine – A Beautiful and Delicious Party Dish

Tags

Cheese, crackers, Cream Cheese, Feta, spread, terrine, vegetable, vegetarian

I recently made this dish for my daughter’s college graduation party. I hadn’t made it in years. Why did I wait so long??? I forgot how fabulous it is!!! Between the cream cheese, sour cream, feta cheese and finely diced vegetables, this is some creamy goodness on a cracker!!! It is a visibly beautful dish. It’s not too difficult too make and it’s one of the best cheese spreads I’ve had. Even my food loving brother-in-law loved it and said it beat out any cheese ball or log he’s ever had!

I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but I cannot. This came out of a 1993 Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The recipe is older than the graduate we were celebrating!

I hope you and your loved ones enjoy it as much as we did! I did try to cut the fat by using reduced fat cream cheese, sour cream and feta cheese. It still tasted fabulous!!! I also chose to double the recipe and made two loaves of this. We had 50 people at our party, so wanted to make sure there was plenty.

This can be made up to 24 hours ahead, so it’s a great party dish! Gotta start that prep early when you’re feeding a large group!

Confetti Vegetable Terrine

2 – 8 oz pkg. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

1/2 cup chopped roasted sweet peppers or canned pimientos (I bought jarred roasted red peppers)

1/3 chopped black olives

1/2 cup snipped parsley

Edible flowers

Assorted crackers

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Line bottom of an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan with foil. Grease sides and set aside.
• In a medium mixing bowl (I used my kitchen aid mixer here), beat cream cheese till south. Add feta cheese, garlic powder and ground red pepper. Beat well. Add sour cream, eggs, and lemon peel. Beat just till blended. Do not over eat. Stir in onion, roasted peppers and olives. Pour into prepared pan; spread evenly. Place loaf pan in a larger baking pan. Pour boiling water into the larger pan to  a depth of 1 inch. I put the pans in the oven and then poured in the water. Didn’t want to spill boiling water on myself when trying to move the pan.This worked out well.
• Bake for 50 minutes or till center is soft set and stays firm when shaken. Transfer loaf pan to a wire cooling rack.Cool completely (about 1 hour). Cover and chill for 4 – 24 hours.
• To serve, slip a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen, then invert onto a serving platter. Remove foil. gently press parsley onto sides of the terrine and garnish with edible flowers. We have a society garlic plant in our back yard and I’ll usually use the flowers from that. Serve with crackers.

Enjoy and party on!



Chocolate Fountains – Get Creative With That Thing!

Tags

barbecue, Cheese, Chocolate, creative use of chocolate fountain, dipping, Entertaining, fountain, nacho, Party, Ranch

Several years ago, some lovely friends bought us a chocolate fountain. They knew we entertain a lot and knew we would get good use out of it and we have! Our kids have loved having chocolate fountains at their parties. Who doesn’t love dipping stuff in melted chocolate!?! But wait! There’s more!!! These fountains can be used for more than just chocolate! We recently used ours as a barbecue sauce fountain. It was a hit! People loved the novelty of it and had fun dipping the various meats and crackers in the fountain.

So what can you do with that fountain, you ask???

• Chocolate – There are a variety of recipes online. You’ll need to use a good quality Belgium chocolate or you can use chocolate/milk chocolate chips and add oil. You can jazz up your chocolate flavor with Nutella, Kahlua, etc. Have fun with it! Serve with various fruits (berries, bananas, etc.) or pretzels. Everything is better when dipped in chocolate!

• Barbecue Sauce – Pick your favorite barbecue sauce and put it on in that fountain! You will want to use the heat on your fountain to help keep things flowing well. We barbecued tri-tip roast, Huli Huli chicken, and sausages, cut them up into bite size pieces and served warm next to our fountain. Delicious fun!!!

• Ranch Dressing – Have a pack of vegetarians on your hands or just want an impressive crudités display? Put out a ton of veggies and fill that fountain with ranch dressing! For this one,you won’t want to use the heat on your fountain. If the dressing is to thick, you can mix in a little milk to get it to the right consistency.

• Nacho Cheese – NACHOS!!!! Put out a spread of tortilla chips and various toppings. Fill that fountain with the liquid nacho cheese and you have a fiesta on your hands!

• Ketchup – This works just like the barbecue sauce! If your friends and family are ketchup fiends this is perfect! What to dip? French fries, onion rings, tator tots, corn dogs, hot dogs, sausages, burgers or sliders. The options are endless! Like my son-in-law’s shirt says, “I like ketchup on my ketchup!”

• Maple Syrup – This is a fabulous idea to step up your brunch game! You can serve waffle sticks, small pancakes and even breakfast sausages are delicious dipped in this sticky stuff!

• Marinara – Have an Italian themed buffet! You can dip breadsticks, cheese sticks or meatballs in the savory sauce.

As I like to say, get out there and play with your food! Get creative with your ingredients and your kitchen tools! These fountains aren’t terribly expensive and they make a great gift! I probably wouldn’t have bought one for myself, but we have thoroughly enjoyed having this party trick to delight our friends!

Cheesy Chicken Pepper Pasta – Our Family’s All-time Favorite Pasta Dish

Tags

Cheese, Chicken, creamy, pasta, Pasta with Chicken and Pepper Cheese Sauce, pepper, recipe, spicy

My sister has been telling me I need to blog this recipe, so here we are! I found this recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine probably over 20 years ago and have been making it ever since! The spicy, creamy sauce over pasta and chicken is so very delicious! It has just the right amount of spice! It’s a nice enough dish to serve to company and it’s an easy dish to multiply in order to serve a large group. This was a favorite when our large family group would go to Tahoe for snowy get-aways. The teenagers loved coming in from playing in the snow to this spicy, warm dish!

I chose to keep the dish as low-fat as possible by using fat free dairy ingredients. You can change it to low-fat or full-fat ingredients based on your taste.

Cheesy Chicken Pepper Pasta

3 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided

1/2 tsp tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

1/8 tsp ground white pepper

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken (breasts or thighs), cut into 1 inch pieces

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 tbsp seeded, chopped jalapeno pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

3/4 cup fat free chicken broth

1/2 cup fat free milk

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 cup fat free Monterey Jack or motzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 cup fat free sour cream

8 oz linguine or spaghetti, cooked and drained

Combine 1 tbsp of the flour, salt, and ground peppers; toss with the chicken to coat. In a large skillet heat oil and cook chicken 4-5 minutes or till tender. Remove chicken; add onion, red pepper, jalapeno pepper and garlic. Cook until tender. Stir in remaining flour. Add broth, milk and Worcestershire sauce; cook and stir until bubbly. Shir in cheese until melted. Stir in sour cream. Add chicken and heat through (do not boil). Serve over pasta. Makes 5-6 servings.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Surprise Burgers – The Tastiest Burger I’ve Had in Ages!!!

Tags

barbecue, bbq, Burger, Cheese, Grilling, Hamburger, recipe, stuffed

  

My 17 year old daughter wanted to make dinner last night. All she would say was she was making burgers. She was being very secretive about what exactly she was doing with them. Low and behold it was a stuffed burger with surprise ingredients in the middle. These were stuffed with tomato, onion,cheese and relish. They were delicious!!! I’ve been trying to keep my posts really healthy, but this recipe was too good not to share!

My daughter, with some help from her dad, cooked these plump beauties on our charcoal grill. You can’t beat the taste of a charcoal grilled burger! The only better thing is a stuffed, charcoal grilled burger!

  
Stuffed Surprise Burger

This recipe comes from “365 Ways to Cook Hamberger and Other Ground Meats” by Rick Rodgers.

2 eggs

2 lbs. ground beef (85% lean)

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tbsp prepared mustard

1 large tomato, cut into 6 slices

1 small red onion, cut into thin slices

6 thin slices of cheese, we used pepper jack, but take your pick!

2 tbsp pickle relish

Prepare a hot fire in a grill. In a large bowl, beat eggs with a fork. Working as quickly as gently as possible, add ground beef, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper and mix well. Form into 8 patties about 1/2 inch thick.. Spread mustard over 4 patties, then layer on tomato, onion and cheese slices, trimmed to fit,if necessary. Spread relish over cheese. Place remaining patties on filled patties and pinch edges together to enclose filling and create 4 stuffed burgers.

Place patties on an oiled grill set 4-6 inches from the coals. Grill, turning once, until well browned outside but still pink and juicy inside. Cook about 14 minutes for medium or shorter or longer if desired. They should be cooked long enough to melt the cheese inside. The stuffing will keep burgers flavorful and juicy!

Meanwhile, open up buns and toast on sides of grill til warm and lightly browned. Place cooked burgers in buns and let everyone choose their own fixings. Personally, I just dipped mine in Ketchup and it was perfect!!!

We served our burgers with a side of oven-baked, seasoned curly fries. It was a great Friday night family dinner!!!

Enjoy!!!

Spinach & Sausage Quiche – A Delicious Dish for Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner

Tags

Cheese, Cooking, eggs, Food, Quiche, recipe, sausage, spinach

  
Our family loves quiche! If you love eggs, sausage, cheese in a wonderful pie crust, you’ll love this dish. It also sneaks some veggies in! It’s so tasty though that your picky eaters won’t even fuss about the spinach in the dish! It’s fairly easy to make and since the pie shells come in a two pack, I usually go ahead and double the recipe making 2 quiches. These freeze great, so I’ll make two and freeze one for a quick dinner on another night. 

On this particular night, my 17 year old daughter was our chef doing the cooking. She also made my recipe for Hawaiian Sweet Bread to accompany our quiche. 

Quiche is a great dish for breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner! On a few occasions, we’ve hosted a brunch for Mother’s Day. This quiche was a perfect dish for such a brunch and was very well received.

In the following recipe, I’ve given some tips on how to reduce the fat and calories. In a previous blog post, I shared a method for cutting additional fat and calories by replacing the pie crust with shredded potatoes.

Spinach and Sausage Quiche

1 frozen deep dish pastry shell

8 oz bulk pork sausage (I use the light Jimmy Dean sausage)

¼ cup green onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced or pressed

½ (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, cooked, and drained well

½ cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix (I use Stove Top)

1 ½ cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (6 oz)

3 eggs, slightly beaten (Egg substitute also works well)

1 ½ cups half and half (I use fat free)

2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

Paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Let frozen pastry shell stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, do not puncture the pastry shell. Bake 7 minutes. Remove from oven, set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. In a medium skillet, cook sausage, green onions and garlic over medium-high heat until sausage is done, stirring occasionally, breaking sausage into small pieces. Drain sausage mixture. Stir in spinach and stuffing mix. Sprinkle first cheese and then sausage mixture into the pastry shell. In a medium bowl, combine eggs and half and half with a whisk or fork until mixed well but not frothy. Pour egg mixture over sausage mixture in the pastry shell. Bake 35 minutes. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and paprika. Bake 20 minutes or until knife inserted off-center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 3-5 servings.