Hashbrown Casserole

Here is another perfect breakfast recipe for the holidays, girlfriend brunch, or just because, and this recipe was also given to me by my girlfriend Gina. Many, many moons ago she used to work at Cracker Barrel, and this recipe is very similar to their hashbrown casserole.

Gina is one of those people who can take one bite of a dish and tell you all the ingredients, and if she can't she is willing to experiment until she comes up with it. I'm not one of those people, instead I make friends with people who do.

Anywho, here is the recipe, recounted to the best of my knowledge. We made this for our Christmas morning brunch, without my recipe, and it turned out perfectly.

Why, you ask I didn't have my recipe? A while back I started to organize my ever growing pile of recipes, printed, written, torn out magazine pages, I was on a mission. Well, as usual I started the project, but never finished. So, now if I want to find a well loved recipe I need to dig it out of a pile of loose pages shoved into a box, shoved into a cupboard. ... Wait, this sounds like a topic for another posting, on another day.

Hashbrown Casserole:
1 Bag of Shredded Potatoes (I found a 20oz bag of Ore Ida seasoned shredded potatoes at our local crash and dent grocery store for 99 cents.)
1 Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 Cups of Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Mix in a 8x8 or 9x9 pan (Great recipe to complete this part ahead of time.)

Bake at 350 degree for 40-50 minutes.

Enjoy!

Christmas Party Weekend

Welcome! Come in, sit down; coffee, tea, or maybe some of this mocha mix. EM and my Mother-in-Law mixed it together yesterday. My MIL watched EM so I could go into ED's classroom and help the kids make gingerbread houses. Let me tell you, it may sound like a frivolous activity, but it was interesting to watch the kids assemble not only their houses, but make trees out of gum drops, lamp posts out of candy canes, and so forth, all without any more instruction then "spread the icing on the graham cracker and place it on one side of the milk carton. There are some future engineers in that class.

I'm beginning to feel the stress of the season. This weekend, as you can see from my title, is our Christmas Party Weekend. (Last weekend was Christmas Program Weekend, and next weekend is Celebrate Christmas Weekend. What can I say, I like labels and themes.) Though we are hosting only one of the party's, I need to make something for the others. This wouldn't be so bad, if I had more time. This morning I was at EM's Christmas party, to kick off the weekend, which only gives me a few hours this afternoon to put our house in order and complete some baking before the babysitter arrives.

For tonight's party I'm making these: Curry Chicken Salad Crisps. Considering my current anxiety attack over time maybe these were not the best choice, but I've been dying to make them since first seeing the recipe.

From the sound of the weather report I may be baking tomorrow between sledding runs. The predicted snow amount keeps rising, but we shall see. One snow flake has yet to fall. I've seen this before, they call for apocalyptic amounts of snow are called for, the weekend is canceled, the milk and bread shelves are wiped clean, and no snow falls.

Well, it is time for me to go back to cleaning and cooking. Enjoy your hot drink and head over to Rachel Anne's at Home Sanctuary. Many Company Girls wrote about their favorite Christmas memories, I can't wait to read them.

Merry Christmas!

Yummy, Belly Buttons

These are so easy. Crazy easy. And tasty. The funny thing is I never heard of these until a year of two ago when my Sister-in-Law brought them to Christmas. Of course, as it is with most of sweets we make during the Christmas season, I promptly forgot about them until this year when a friend posted on Facebook that she had made (and was then eating) some belly buttons.


Did I mention that they are easy, and delicious, and very evil? They are small. You start by eating one, and before you know it you have eaten half the container.

The kids and I made them Saturday night, while the pizza was baking. They are so easy, and take next to no time. In fact, the most time consuming part was adding the M&M's to the melted Hershey Kisses, then again we were using mini M&M's making that step a little more complicated.

The recipe is easy enough to let the kids take control of the process, without needing to pop a Xanax before letting them into the kitchen.


The kids laid out the pretzels onto the pan.



Then they unwrapped, without eating every other one ... I'm impressed, the Hershey Kisses and set them onto the pretzels.



We popped them into the oven at 275 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes. After pulling them out of the oven I pushed the mini M&M onto each kiss. (By this time the pizza was done and the kids had deserted me for dinner and Cricket on the Hearth. Which, by the way, a Christmas special I'm still conflicted about letting my children watch. It is cute, but still unsure if it is appropriate for children. Of course, with many things I'm unsure of I let the children watch as I continue my internal debate. My problem is that the program has attempted murder, lying, ... but, maybe I'm being too sensitive and need to snap out of my PC ways. Sorry, I digress.)

Enjoy!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Recipe

Our family loves this recipe. It was given to me by my good friend Gina. You want a delicious recipe, you call Gina. You need your house redecorated, you call Gina. You need a good laugh, to vent, some encouragement, you call Gina. She is ray of sunshine who loves the Lord, loves her family and her friends.

Sorry, I digress. When I start talking about Gina it all comes gushing out.

Anywho, the other day I made this for some friends, and now they are asking for the recipe. Since I am not above shameless promotion for my blog I'm sending it to them via this post. (Ladies, you can thank me later.) Also, with it being close to Christmas, you may be looking for an awesome coffee cake recipe. Look no further.




Batter:
1/2 C Margarine (I use butter)
1 C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 C Sour Cream (I've used regular, I've used fat free, it turns out fine either way)
2 C Flour (I put in 1 C white and 1 C fresh ground wheat, because I like to keep it semi-healthy)
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Vanilla

Topping:
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C White Sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon

1. Cream Margarine (or butter) and Sugar. Add Eggs, beating well.
2. Combine dry and wet ingredients, alternating with the Sour Cream. Ending with the Flour and Vanilla. (I may or may not follow this step to the T.)
3. Spread half the batter in a 12x8 pan (I use a 9x9 because I like my coffee cake thick, this may require a longer baking time.) Cover with 1/2 the topping mix (I usually dump it all in one go.) Spread remaining batter and sprinkle on top the remaining topping mix.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes (maybe longer if you use a smaller pan.)

Enjoy!

***No, there is no picture of the actual coffee cake. By the time I thought of taking a picture the coffee cake was half gone, so I thought of taking a picture of the empty, crumb scattered 9x9 pan. The moment the pan was empty I set it in the sink to soak, scrapping off all the crumbs. Sometimes I'm a tad bit too organized and clean for my own good. Plan C: A picture of a clean 9x9 pan, with the recipe and several ingredient items.

PAR'TA!

Last Saturday we hosted a clam bake. Well, not so much a clam bake since we live 3+ hours from the nearest beach, more like a clam boil.

This was the second year we hosted this one-pot clam bake. It was said that this little party is now a yearly event. It was said by one of our guests.


That is a picture of the clams cleaning themselves. Supposedly, if you soak clams in water, sprinkled with corn meal, the clams will spit out the sand from within their shells. I don't think we soaked them enough.

The picture is a picture of me playing with the camera. The Pioneer Woman suggested taking food pictures using natural light, no flash. So I did. And my picture looks like I used no flash and have no idea how to use the natural light. :::sigh:::

And, that is the one and only picture I took to record this year's clam bake, um one-pot clam boil. Which is one picture more then I took last year. So, if for no other reason, we need to host the party for at least one more year so I can take more then one picture.

Apparently I'm not the only one forgetting to take pictures. I cruised the web looking for pictures to accompany the recipe I'm about to post, but couldn't find one.

OK, enough about the lack of pictures. As far as party preparation goes, this one is a cinch. A little cleaning, a little cutting, throw it all in a pot, let it cook, and eat.

Ingredients:

2 pounds small new potatoes

8 ounces Spanish chorizo or kielbasa, sliced

1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 12-ounce bottle lager beer
4 bay leaves
kosher salt and pepper
8 ears corn, cut into thirds
2 pounds large shrimp, shells on
4 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
2 baguettes, warmed
2 sticks butter, melted

Directions:
1. Heat grill to high. (We cooked ours on the stove)

2. In an 11-quart stockpot (a very big pot, the largest you have), combine the potatoes, chorizo, onion, beer, bay leaves, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add just enough water to cover the potatoes. Add the corn, shrimp, and clams in layers.

3. Cover the pot. cook on the grill until the clams open, the shrimp are opaque, and the potatoes are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. (Or cook on the stove over medium-high heat. On our stove, and in our really big pots, it takes 60 minutes to cook.)

4. Transfer to a large platter and serve with the bread and butter.

I found the recipe in a Real Simple magazine. The nice thing about repeating a theme party is that you learn what works, and what to adjust. Last year we made three pots of food, only ate two and over-cooked the third. This year we made two pots; cooked a few less potatoes, a few extra corn cobs and an extra 2lbs of shrimp ... perfect!

The recipe says it serves 8 people. That is if you serve absolutely nothing else. We ask friends to bring a side dish to share.

Is this common, to ask your guests to bring food? Maybe it is a Mennonite thing? When our group of friends get together for a party it becomes a pot luck, so to speak.

We also borrow a friend's fire pit and have s'more fixin's available. Last year the kids discovered the fun of flaming balls of sugar. This year we remembered to discuss fire/marshmallow safety before allowing ANYONE to roast a marshmallow.

Now I need to write down all these notes so I remember them for next year. I need to write them all down, including how many people we fed, where I can find them for next year.

It's nice to re-host a theme party because you learn from each party what you can improve for next year. However, it is only helpful if you can remember what you learned from the year before. And, since I can't remember to take pictures of the party, I'm pretty sure I won't remember any of this by next year.

Company Girl Coffee

Welcome! Come in, have a seat. Let me poor you some coffee, and would you like a few Strawberry Shortcake Cookies. (Jo, comparing your picture with my cookies and I do believe your cookies turned out much better then mine. Think I cut my strawberries too small and added a few too many. But they are still delicious.)

It has been several Fridays since I last joined a Company Girl Coffee. Every Friday I've missed I had every intention to at least visit those participating. :::sigh::: It is hard to read blogs when you don't have time to turn on the computer.

Our house has been abuzz with painting, furniture buying, and house cleaning. Some trim still needs finished in the playroom, when that is completed I can start painting the kitchen. I had hoped to work on it this week; however, as all projects go, last week's clean house project spilled into this week. And then today I left early this morning to pick strawberries.

I headed out early this morning because the farm opens at 7:30 am, and they are known to be picked out early. Yesterday they were picked out by 8:45 am. By the time I arrived they were telling people that, yes, they were already picked out, it was 7:40. They gave people the option to wait around to see if any rows opened up. I spent a peaceful 45 minutes waiting around, yes peaceful. When you are a mom there is luxury is found in moments like these. When I headed to the polls in November I took and book and rather gladdened to hear of the long lines. Imagine my disappointment when I was able to walk right in and vote. he he.

Anyway, I digress, my perseverance won out and I ended up picking a little over 10 pounds of strawberries.

So far today I've made a strawberry pie, for tonight's dessert. The Strawberry Shortcake Cookies, and I can't stop eating them. Plus, a Strawberry Cream Freeze, found at Allrecipies.com, for tomorrow's cookout. I can't wait to eat this tomorrow. I doubled the recipe to fit in a 8x13 pan, instead of the suggested chocolate cookie pie crust, and had some mixture left over to place in a cupcake pan to make 6 mini pies. Oh wait, I have extra. I don't have to wait till tomorrow.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1 (8 oz) package Cream Cheese, softened

1c Cold Milk

1 package of Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1 1/2c thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

20 Nilla Wafers, coarsely broken

1c Sliced Fresh Strawberries

1/2c Strawberry Ice Cream Topping

Directions

1. Beat cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Gradually beat in milk. Add dry pudding mix; beat 2 minutes. Stir in Cool Whip, wafers and berries. Swirl in ice cream topping.

2. Serve it your way!

3. Pie: Spread filling into 6-oz Oreo Pie Crust. Freeze 6 hours, or until firm. Garnish with additional berries, if desired.

4. Mini Pies: Spoon filling into 12 cupcake liners. Freeze 4 hours. Remove paper linings. Garnish desserts with additional berries, if desired. Makes 12 servings.

5. Waffle Bowls: Freeze filling 6 hours or until firm. Let stand 15 minutes before scooping into waffle bowls. Makes 8 servings.

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Along with skipping Company Girl Coffee, I've also shelved the Small Things this month. Though, when I saw the prize I made an effort to complete the tasks, but that only lasted one day.

Recently Rachel Anne announced an exciting new project, she wrote a book. And, it is about friendship, the spirit of being a Company Girl. Along with announcing this new project she has asked people to submit pictures for the book. for pictures. Details to enter a picture can be found at Company Girl.

She also announced that she is speaking at a ladie's luncheon in Midlothian. Midlothian! Hey, that is only two hours from me. Oh wait, she is speaking in Midlothian, Texas. I live 2 hours from Midlothian, Virginia. Sorry, Rachel Anne. I was going to come, but Texas is a tad bit far for me.

Oh my, it seems that everyone has been busy. What have you been up too? Do you have any favorite recipes that celebrate the tastes of spring?

Suckered Again

I love to cook and bake. I love trying new recipes. In fact I make my life difficult when I plan our meals for each month by searching for new recipes, instead of using tried and true favorites.

Which is another reason why I love Christmas; I find new recipes everywhere and I must try as many as possible.

However, as much as I love to cook and bake there are a few recipes I won't try due to the steps involved (too many), expensive ingredients (not sure I could even find caviar here in the Valley), and cookies requiring rolling, chilling, rolling and then assembly.

Dough that requires rolling, before chilling, is usually too sticky to roll out. Thus creating a mess of flour and dough all over me and the kitchen and a not so happy chef. Once it is chilled it is then too stiff to roll out, until it warms up and by then it becomes too sticky again. See the problem?

Well, I hate these type of recipes and usually stay away from them until I saw this picture:

Not only do they look yummy but they were also titled "Shortcut Sweets" in December's Southern Living. Shortcut! And they look good! I'm in.

Yes. I realize the cookies in the picture are not actual cookies but painted resin, or Styrofoam, or cardboard, or some other inedible material. I was making those cookies. I mean just imagine the oohs and ahhs from friends when you present them with a plate of THESE cookies. (I would skip individually wrapping them in cellophane, I am NOT Martha Stewart.)

Yeah well, needless to say all my frustrations arose while making these cookies. The dough was too sticky to roll out. I didn't have the Red Color Paste required to make the red portion of the dough. But I did have red food coloring; which looked very red in the raw dough, but turned pink in the oven. The white dough turned brownish after being baked. Yes, I know the inedible, delicious looking cookies in the picture are painted and that I leave my cookies in the oven way too long.

I was drawn in by the picture. The picture won me over. What can I say, I'm a visual girl and Southern Living suckered me in.

However, after all the headache I must say the cookies were D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. They do taste good, as good as they look in the picture. And, maybe good enough for me to try again.

But, only after I learn a few tricks on how to deal with this kind of dough. So, if anyone has tips for me and my dough (short of purchasing a cooling marble top pastry slab) just leave a comment, please! My husband, my children and myself will thank you. I may even send you a tin of the cookies. If it is a really good tip I might individually wrap each one.

And if you want to try this delicious recipe click over here to Southern Living. Sorry, it's late and I'm too tired to type it out.

My Favorite Things

One of my favorite things during the month of December are the recipes. Also, that most of the parties we are invited to (not that we are invited to many) they are, in a sense, pot luck.


Saturday was our Sunday School Christmas party; finger foods, bring a favorite dish. For Hubby and I that means we each brought a dish because we each like to bake and we each have different tastes. He made his world famous cheesecake. OK, maybe "world famous" is stretching it a bit, but it is famous in two churches, in two separate states, and several circles of friends and family.


I on the other hand have been salivating to make baked Brie. I love Brie cheese, I've loved it since I was a child (and we can have that psychoanalytical session another time, I mean what kid loves Brie cheese? For that matter, what kid has ever heard of Brie cheese, I did.) The kids were fascinated while I assembled the pastry and Brie. (Really, they just wanted to eat the left over, unbaked pastry ... don't ask because I don't know.) Hubby looked a little green as he saw the raspberry preserves spread around the cheese and then wrapped in the pastry.


Here is the recipe I used. It came from Very Virginia: Culinary Traditions With a Twist. This was published by the Junior League of Hampton Roads, Inc. (Needing to give credit where credit is due.) And, once Hubby saw and tasted the finish product, I think it also helped that everyone at the party was digging into it, he became a baked Brie convert.

Raspberry Brie en Croute

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed according to package directions. (I used 2 since my Brie was 2 times the size of what the recipe called for)

1 round of Brie cheese (8 oz) (I had 19 oz)

1/4 cup raspberry preserves (twice the amount of cheese, twice the amount of puff pastry, twice the amount of preserves)

1/4-1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted (in my world nuts are optional, therefore no nuts were used for my recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place pastry sheet on a lightly greased baking pan. Place Brie in center of pastry, spread with preserves, and sprinkle with almonds. Wrap Brie in pastry sheet, trimming excess. Seal seams by moistening edges with water and pressing together with fingers. (You may be creative, twisting the pastry into a knot or braid or decorating with excess pastry.) (I went all Martha Stewart, as if baking with Brie is not MS enough, and used the holly leaf shape cutter to cut out two leaves and place them on top of the wrapped Brie.)

Bake 30 to 40 minutes (mine took more like 5o to 60 minutes, I guess double the amount and increase the time.)

Serve with crackers.

It was a hit, we came home with very little left. The cheesecake, as always, was a hit and we came home with just enough to keep me in a chocolate and sugar high for a couple days.

Oh, and the left over puff pastry my kids wanted to eat. I tore it up in little balls, placed them in a mini-muffin tin, spread them with cooking spray and sprinkled them with sugar, cinnamon and sucanut, and baked until lightly golden brown. I was channeling Martha all over that kitchen Saturday night!

What recipes have you tried during these holidays? Leave a comment and let us know.

Mission Possible

So here is the situation: We have only $20 left in the food budget. We were invited to a pumpkin carving/hay ride party and needed to bring some food to share. All ingredients for this unknown food item had to already exist in our kitchen since going to the store was not allowed (see above about the $20 left in this month's food budget.)

What to make? That was the question. Thank goodness for Goggle, and all the many recipe sites out there. Below is the recipe we used, and the substitutions we made. Many thanks to to Esther who's cookbook has a section called "Substitutions for Ingredients" and was obviously written just for me.

The site I'm listing for the recipe we used, though it is not the same site we used Saturday (sometimes bookmarking a page is a little beyond my abilities.)

Pumpkin Pie Wontons
1 Cup Canned Pumpkin (Not sure how old this can was. Hoping that it didn't travel down with us from PA 4 years ago. Either way it is time to free up some cupboard space.)
2 tbl Maple Syrup (Needed to make our own since used all the store bought stuff that morning for pancakes.)
3 tbl Light Brown Sugar (Needed to make our own with sugar and molasses since the brown sugar we did have was used for the maple syrup.)
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Can't believe I have this in the house. If we didn't then would have used a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice ????)
16 Wonton Wrappers (Had 6 very broken egg roll wrappers in the freezer, so that wouldn't do. Decided to make pie dough and create mini pumpkin pies instead. In the process was reminded why I don't like making my own pie dough.)
Granulated Sugar & Ground Cinnamon for dusting (Check)

For directions visit the site.

By nature I'm not a frugal person. I am very guilty of throwing away food gone bad or just because I didn't have any good ideas as to what to do with it.

However, I love it when I am on my frugal game and am able to create a delicious dish using ingredients in the kitchen cupboard and substitutions.

What tricks do you use in the kitchen to make your grocery budget go further? Seriously, I need some help (see above about not being frugal) so bring it on. I'm taking notes.