Sweet Potato Casserole

This recipe is from combining several recipe that I found. It turned out very good and will definately be the one I use from now on. Its not overly sweet and the pumpkin pie spice really lets the sweet potato flavor shine through.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs sweet potato

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup half and half

 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

2 tbsp maple syrup

pinch of salt

1 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheet with foil. Prick skin of the sweet potatoes with fork and roast for 1 hour. Peel and transfer to large bowl. Mash with potato masher. Add in everything except marshmallows and pecans. Stir to combine and pour potato mixture into baking dish. Bake 20 mins. Remove from oven and top with marshmallows and pecans. Bake additional 15 mins.

Chili Cheese Potato Armadillos

This is a great way to spice up the boring ol’ potato that we all get tired of from time to time. The topping for these little babies smelled so good that I thought about eating it by itself!

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/chili-cheese-potato-armadillos/

Ingredients:

1 thick slice of white bread

4 tbsp butter, melted

2 tsp hot sauce

1 tbsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano

4 large red potatoes, cleaned well

Evoo for drizzling

salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250.

In food processor, pulse grind bread into crumbs. Place on baking sheet and toast for 15 mins or until lightly browned. Cool.

Toss bread crumbs with cheeses, hot sauce, paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, and melted butter.

Raise oven temp to 450.

Trim thin slice off of the bottom of potatoes to give them “feet” Trim ends off and thinly slice potato across about 1/4 in. shy of all the way through.  Rinse. Microwave potatoes, cut side down, for 10 mins. Cool for 5 mins.

Place potatoes on baking sheet cut side up. Drizzle each potato with evoo. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 mins. Stuff each potato with cheese mixture. Turn on broiler. Broil 3 mins or so.

Smashed Potato Skins

This is another recipe from Rachael Ray’s BOB cookbook. I served these with the sloppy hot wing joes and found that they are the perfect side dish!

Ingredients:

2 1/3 lb. small red potatoes-I used baby yukon golds

1 cup buttermilk

6 slices bacon

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1/4 cup chives

salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Arrange bacon slices on slotted broiler pan and bake 10-15 mins or until crispy. Let cool and crumble. Place potatoes in med. pot. Cover with water and boil until fork tender.  Drain and return to hot pot. Add in buttermilk, cheese, chives, crumbled bacon, and salt and pepper. Using potato masher, smash until you reach desired consistency.

Buffalo Potato Wedges

I found this recipe the other day on the love deliciousness blog and OMGGGGG these are sooooooo good. I made 3 potatoes for me and Jeremy. After we ate them, he promptly asked me to make about 5 or 6 more potatoes but we were out of hot sauce! haha These seriously are amazing and very addicting!

http://lovedeliciousness.blogspot.com/2009/07/buffalo-potato-wedges.html

Fried Rice

I love fried rice with any type of asian style meals. I really dont like the prepackaged stuff though so I started making my own a couple of years ago. Its a favorite in my house.

1/2 cup brown rice

1 cup water

1 tbsp butter

1 cup grated carrots

1 handful frozen peas

1 med onion, chopped

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp evoo

 

In med. saucepan, combine water, rice, and butter. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 mins or until rice is soft. Put rice into bowl and refrigerate until chilled.

In large skillet, heat evoo over med-high heat. Add onions and carrots and saute about 4 mins or until soft. Stir in rice. Cook 5 more minutes or until rice is heated through and slightly browned. Drizzle with soy sauce and stir in frozen peas. Remove from heat and let set 3 mins just to heat the peas. Serve!

Garlic Cheese Bread

Tonight for dinner I made the garlic cheese bread from pioneer womans blog to go along with the pizzaiola ragu that I was making. I didnt have any french bread on hand so I just used regular sliced wheat bread. It turned out awesome.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/garlic-cheese-bread/

 

Onion Rings

Onion rings are one thing that I could seriously eat daily and never get sick of them. Slice up a couple of onions in rings. Dip the slices in beaten egg and roll in some plain bread crumbs. I fried them until golden brown in about an inch of canola oil. Drain on paper towels and season liberally with salt and pepper.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Until I made these, it had been around 2 years since I had ate any of these. My mom used to make them all the time before I got married. These are simple and fabulous!

2 large green tomatoes

1 cup flour

2 cups water

1/2 cups corn meal

salt and pepper

Heat about 1 in. canola or veg. oil in large cast iron skillet. Slice tomatoes and put in a med. bowl. Pour water over top the tomatoes. In shallow dish, combine flour, corn meal, salt and pepper. Toss tomato slices in flour mixture and put in hot oil. Fry about 3 mins per side or until golden brown. Drain on some paper towels and sprinkle with salt and lots of black pepper!

 

Baked Beans

Ok, so who doesnt know how to make baked beans, right? Well Im sharing how I make mine anyway!

2 cans pork & beans

1/4 cup ketchup

3 tbsp yellow mustard

3-4 tbsp brown sugar

4 tbsp molasses

1 small onion, chopped

salt and pepper

3 slices bacon

Combine everything except bacon. Be gentle though, you dont wanna mash up the beans. Put in a crockpot, top with bacon. Cook on low about 4 hours.

Grilled Romaine w/ Caesar-cado dressing

Grilled romaine??? WHAT?? That was my first thoughts when I saw this recipe on The Rachael Ray show. I was cooking out today and thought I would give this a try. The dressing is light and refreshing. This was a nice change from a potato salad or cole slaw in my opinion.

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/grilled-romaine-avocado-with-caesar-dressing/