Baked Potato Skins

I got the idea for this from a recipe that I found on Allrecipes. Anyways just a few changes, but I don't remember which recipe I used. Anywho, as always the amounts of each ingredient are approximated.


2 big baking potatoes

6 strips of bacon (more or less..whatever)

1/2 cup of cheese

dash of cayenne

dash of garlic

salt and pepper

1/2 veggie oil

sour cream for dipping

Preheat to 400 degrees. Wrap potatoes in foil and bake them for about a hour.

When potatoes are cool cut them in half lenghwise, scoop out the flesh, and then each half into 3rds (You'll get 6 wedges per potato)

Brush wedges w/ veggie oil and sprinkle w/ cayenne, garlic, salt and pepper on both sides.

Bake the wedges flesh side up for about 10-15 minutes on 375 until they start to crisp up and brown a little.

add cheese and bacon and return to oven until cheese is melted

top w/ sour cream.

White Chicken Chili- Cheat

Yes, you can already tell that by saying "cheat" in the title that I used a seasoning packet...and believe it or not I followed the recipe. Well kinda, for the most part.

Kathryn discovered this and brought it to work for lunch one day. Well I drooled over it and she let me have a nibble. I had to make it for myself!

And from start to finish maybe 30 minutes. And that includes making rice and cornbread.

So you can basically follow the recipe on the back of the package. But I'll give you a rundown

1lb of chicken, cut very small

2-3 tbs veg oil

1 packet of White Chicken Chili

1 can of white beans (I used white kidney beans, but Kathryn used some other bean, they were both equally as good)

1 cup of water

heat oil to medium low and add chicken, put a lid on it and stir occasionally until its not pink.

Add beans, water, and seasoning packet and simmer for a few minutes.

I served it on top of rice and w/ cornbread muffins. Below is the 'mush deliciousness' that I made.

Grape vs. Cranberry--who will win???

So Anita and I always wondered which meatball was better. Grape or Cranberry. So I did a side by side taste test. The winner...well u need to read the rest to know.

Grape Meatballs:
Dump the following into a crock pot and cook on high until meatballs are tender (or low for a hell of a long time)



1 jar of grape jelly (medium sized jar)
1 jar of chili sauce
1 tbs mustard (if u wanna)
meatballs...duh


Cranberry Meatballs:
Dump the following in a crock pot and cook on high until the meatballs are tender or on low for a hell of a long time.

1 can of cranberry
1 jar of chili sauce
meatballs

****I did not do a full recipe so I eyeballed the cranberry and chili sauce. So eyeball it. Im guessing here



AND THE WINNER IS..............................Grape, hands down!

Rice Krispie Treats!

Thats right! The delicious treat you remember from ur childhood days. So easy and still one of my faves!

I think we all know the recipe for these, but just in case:

3 tbs butter
4 cups of mini marshmellows
6 cups of rice krispie cearl

melt butter over medium heat

add marshmellows and stir constantly until smooth and not lumpy

remove from heat and stir in cearl.

spoon into a greased 13x9 in pan and let cool...or eat it. I don't care either way!

I like to put it into shapes and things sometimes. Depends on my mood :)

Corn Souffle From Kraft

I made this at Thanksgiving and am JUST getting around to posting it. I got this recipe from my Kraft Foods and Family Magazine. Which is a really good magazine if I do say so myself!

I love to make this when Im making chili, soups, chicken and dumplings...u get the idea.

2 TBS Butter

1 8oz pack of Cream Cheese

1 Can Whole Kernel Corn, drained

1 can Cream-Style Corn

1 pkg Corn Muffin Mix

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Preheat to 350

Microwave butter on high for 30 seconds

Add Cream Cheese and heat for an additional 15 seconds

Add both Corns, muffin mix, and eggs- Mix Well

Pour into a greased 13x9 inch baking pan. Sprinkle w/ the Cheddar Cheese

Bake 40 minutes or until golden brown. (I usually bake it for a little longer)

Thanksgiving Snack-A-Roo

Ok so everyone is always hungry while the cooking is going on so I made some boiled peanuts for everyone to snack on while the cooking missions were being completed. Light, yet a family favorite and everyone we still hungry!

couple lbs of green peanuts

good 1/4 cup of salt

boil peanuts on high heat w/ a lid for about 2 hours

taste to see if they are soft enough and/or salty enough. If not boil longer and/or add salt

transfer to crock pot to keep warm.

enjoy!

Told ya they were easy!

Thanksgiving- Deviled Eggs

I make my Deviled Eggs like my momma taught
me to make them. Im not sure of the exact measurements....as always!

9 hard boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayo (add more if too dry)
1 tsp of mustard
dash of celery seed
dash of garlic
2 tbs dill relish
salt and pepper to taste

Peel cooled hard boiled eggs, split in half and put yoke in a separate bowl

Combine the remaining ingredients in the yoke bowl and mash well. Taste and see if it needs more seasoning. If dry add more mayo because im not sure exactly how much I used and I made these a few days ago and can't remember exactly.

Spoon about a teaspoon into the egg white and refrigerate until serving. So yummy!

Thanksgiving-The Bird

Okay, so this was my first T-day that I hosted at my house and I made the turkey. I had been talking to a friend earlier that day and she asked if I knew what I was doing. I (rather arrogantly) responded how hard could it be? have u seen some of the bozo's that make turkey?


Meet: The Bird. We'll call him Rosco. Why Rosco...idk it just happened.

So this is the point that my arrogance has turned into complete and utter frustration and I realize.....I have no clue what to do w/ Rosco. He was still a touch frozen and I was able to get the giblets bad out, but there was something in his butt which I couldn't get out. So I resorted to my AR friends and they said to put it in water. So an hour later hes almost ready and I attempt again to get the stuff out of his butt. So I tug and tug and finally pull out this well...thing! The neck! Im still having flash backs from that one! So I decided I was going to brine it. Well teeny tiny problem......I don't have a big enough pot so that was out. I decided to put Rosco back in the fridge to sleep off the humiliation of having his butt probed and I'd deal w/ him in the morning.

So the next morning I made some herb butter using garlic, salt, pepper, sage, and some other various spices in my pantry. I forgot to mention that I also stuffed his butt w/ onion, celery, carrots, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper. And I realized, tonight while w/ some friends that I never removed the bay leaf from inside his butt. But, I didn't geat anything out of the butt so I guess we're good huh?



I rubbed the butter mixture under the skin and all over Rosco. I put him in my pan breast side down and cooked him for a few hours. Then I flipped him and browned the skin on the breast. Rosco was a tasty bird!! My first turkey was a success! See!

Curry Grilled Chicken

Curry Grilled Chicken

This is a recipe that I "rescued" from my Recipe box on AR. This recipe is DELICIOUS!! This recipe tastes like you just stepped out of a Thai Restaurant. Im not a big curry fan, so don't let that stop you from trying this recipe because it is on my fav list now! You can find this recipe at Allrecipes.com


INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/3 cup ketchup (FYI i was out of ketchup once and used BBQ..tasted the same)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika (I like cayenne instead)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (use more..about 1-2 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

DIRECTIONS
In a blender, combine the first 10 ingredients; cover and process until blended. Pour into a large resealable plastic bag or shallow glass container; add the chicken. Seal or cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Drain and discard marinade. Grill the chicken, covered, over medium heat for 6 minutes on each side or until juices run clear. (I put mine on kabob-o's...obviously!)

So w/ the Curry Grilled Chicken I made some fried rice. I, of course, did not measure so Im just guessing on this one. But the rice was good actually.

2 cups of cooked rice

2 TBS oil

1 tbs soy sauce

garlic

cayenne pepper (to taste)

curry (1/2 tsp)

2 eggs

salt

pepper

Directions:

heat oil on med high and add eggs, scramble

when eggs are done push to one side an add rice and remaining ingredients and fry for about 5 minutes or until the rice is a little brown.

taste and add more or less spices.

Tailgating Continuted

Ok so my Buffalo Chicken Dip was mauled before I was able to snap a picture of it. This is a recipe from AR but I don't follow the directions completely.

1 real chix ta-ta, boiled and shredded

1 package of cream cheese

1/2 cup of Ranch

1 TBS of Hot sauce (maybe more)

Dashes of Cayenne Pepper

half bag of cheese, whatever you like

Directions:

Spread cream cheese in the bottom of an oven (and microwave safe) pan

Sprinkle w/ cayenne pepper

Mix chicken, ranch, and hot sauce and spread on top of cream cheese

Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for about 20-30 mins at 350

And, since u have it in a microwave safe dish...if it gets cold u can pop it in the nuker! smart huh!?!

U can also dump all this in the crock pot and heat that way, which is what I will probably do next time, but we didn't have any way to plug in a crock pot so I didn't

I also made pigletts in a blanket, but forgot to take a picture of it...I know..im mad about it too. I mean, it was really a difficult specialty.

1 package of little smokie sausages

1 package of grands biscuits

Tear pieces of the biscuit and wrap around the baby sausage

Bake per package directions and eat umm.