Sausage Potato Casserole

Tonight was Sausage and Potato Casserole night. I know what you are thinking, delicious right? Well we made it once before and I remember it fondly, so it probably was. We planned the weekly meals and thought it could be good enough to do again. Don’t know if this is a repeat, and apologize if it is. Anyway, as the end of the week rolls around, Aly remembers she is going out to stay with friends this weekend. So I’m alone. Now normally when alone, I usually just eat whatever we have laying around. Bag of peanuts, pound of carrots, baking chocolate. Whatever. For whatever reason today though, I think because we had bought the ingredients, I decided I'd make the meal anyway. So I apologize now for the pictures, Aly normally does those.

First and foremost, I have no memory of where we found the recipe below. If someone links it we would be glad to repost. I do have some feedback though. 5 Large Potatoes is bull. If someone buys that for this recipe laugh at them. Go with 3 tops. Other than that, its pretty easy. Dice, mix up, bake.

I started by lining the pan with aluminum and then coating in olive oil. I like that this recipe doesn't measure anything, which makes me think maybe I made it up? Anyway, I put some in the pan. Then you get a bowl, dice the sausage onion and 5 large potatoes and throw them in. As you can see my bowl was not big enough. I think I was supposed to skin the potatoes, but as Aly was out I skipped that step. I like the skins on and figure it can't hurt. It was way more potato that needed, and I probably threw a whole one’s worth away at the end. It still piled super high.

Note about sausage. I'd have preferred one that wasn't shrink wrapped, because that sort of meat generally skeeves me out, but our Wegmans refuses to carry anything that isn't pre cooked and pre seasoned. I think they really focus on the “Heat it in a pan and call it cooking” crowd. So this is the one they had.

I put it on bake for an hour, wrote this entry and then threw cheese on. Back in for 5 mins, and then ate. Its pretty solid and I'll have leftovers for the whole weekend.

-Jeff

Note from Aly: I originally found this recipe on Boy Meets Bowl. Jeff did not make it up.
Ingredients:
-1 Pkg Smoked sausage
-1 Large onion
-5 Large potatoes
-Olive Oil
-Paprika
-Dried thyme
-Grated Cheddar cheese

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line casserole dish with aluminum foil and drizzle lightly with olive oil
-Cut sausage into rounds and put into large bowl
-Dice onion finely and add to bowl
-Cut potatoes into 1/2" cubes and add to bowl
-Drizzle sausage mix with a few Tbsp of olive oil and season to taste with paprika and thyme. Toss to evenly distribute
-Bake in oven for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Potatoes should be brown and tender
-Top with shredded cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted

Loaded Baked Potato Salad

Two years ago Jeff and I went to a friends' place for 4th of July, and they happened to have this magical potato salad from Costco that tasted like sunshine and rainbows. I think I ate my weight in potato salad that day.

I was dismayed to realize that since I do not have a Costco membership, I cannot acquire this potato salad on my own; luckily, I realized we live in a world with internet, so I used the Google to locate a copycat recipe! I actually now prefer to make this potato salad myself rather than try to make shifty deals with Costco members. I mean for the taste, not just because of the hassle and shiftiness of the other option.

I wasn't sure when, if ever, I might get to unveil my delicious potato salad discovery at a family event. I think there is a law of the universe that says every family must have that one member who is known as the Potato Salad Master, and he or she is the only one who may ever bring the potato salad. If I should dare to step on the toes of this sacred bearer of the family potato salad, I would be smoted. Unfortunately for me personally, I do not like the potato salad brought by my family's potato saint; I do not like onions and their salad to me tastes like onion salad with potatoes waved over it for effect.

Then I realized that this person is only on one side of my family, and we have plenty of gatherings on the other side, so I brought the potato salad, darn it! Make way for the new Potato Salad Master!

The pictures in the slideshow are of a batch I made for a family gathering with my in-laws earlier this summer. I'm trying to root myself in as the Potato Salad Master anywhere I can, and so far so good! For that batch, I got into a weird zone when chopping the potatoes and chopped them super tiny. I made this salad again yesterday and didn't go so nuts, and it was still awesome, so don't think you need to get neurotic with the chopping for it. Also, the original recipe includes green onions, and I admit that after having made the copy cat recipe without the green onions (because I don't like them) and trying the Costco again, now the original has too strong of an onion taste for me. As I mentioned before, I am pretty sensitive to onions in potato salad. I did meet the onion people part way by putting a teeny dash of onion powder into mine.

Another interesting fact about this potato salad: it is delicious on hot dogs. I admit I was tipsy when I first thought of this, but I have since tried it sober and it holds up. If you make this potato salad for a cookout and there are hot dogs around, try it. Bun and all.

A few notes about the ingredients I choose: I go anywhere between 2-3 lbs of potatoes, but keep the other measurements about the same. I also have started using that fully cooked bacon that comes in a box because it is at a perfect level of crispness without being charred or black. I use my Pampered Chef chopper (think Slap Chop) on it and get good little crumblies every time. I have used regular bacon though (as seen in the slideshow), but it was so much more of a pain because I couldn't get it cooked enough without it being burnt and sad, so my chopper didn't work and I had to try to chop itty bitty bacon pieces by hand. 

Original Copycat Recipe at No Ordinary Moments
Ingredients:
-3 lbs small red potatoes
-1/2 lb bacon
-1 1/2 cups sour cream
-1/2 cup mayonnaise
-1 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp black pepper
-1/8 tsp garlic powder
-1/8 tsp onion powder
-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
-Wash potatoes and chop into 1/4" chunks
-Put potatoes in pot and fill with cold water covering potatoes by 1". Bring to boil on stove top and boil for 5 minutes or until knife goes through center of chunks with no resistance. Drain in colander when finished
-While potatoes are cooking, cook and/or chop bacon
-In large mixing bowl, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, spices, and bacon
-Mix boiled potato chunks well into bowl mixture. Add shredded cheese and mix well
-Chill until ready to serve

Chicken Bacon Wraps

I first got this recipe from Jessica, but it turns out it's a Paula Deen. Don't worry, there isn't any butter in it. Actually, there are only 4 ingredients and they're pretty easy to make.

Jeff and I have made them for dinner twice, but both of those times were because we were really hurting for meal ideas. These are delicious, but they're much more of an appetizer than a main course. I keep imagining that someday someone will invite us to a cookout or dinner party and I will think to myself, "I know just what to bring!" and somehow I will get these there, hot and delicious. I'm not sure at this point how I would do that without prepping them and then using a friend's oven, but maybe that's just how it would have to be. The down side of that plan is that they have to cook for 30-35 min, and I feel like that's outside the polite "may I use your oven?" guidelines.

As far as "dredging" the wraps in the powder mixture... I'm not entirely sure what dredging means? So I dipped each one in, then used a spoon to pack a decent amount of powder onto the wrap, lifted it out, gave it a little tap to shake off excess, then put it on the pan. I also used my trick from the black bean flautas for baking these. I covered a baking sheet in aluminum foil, then laid a cooling rack on top and placed the wraps on the cooling wrack so they could drip onto the foil. The recipe calls for a broiler pan for the same reason, but apparently my oven didn't come with one. I wouldn't recommend using thick cut bacon for this recipe. Or, if you must, don't cut your chicken pieces as small as the recipe says. The end result will be dry chicken and chewy bacon - trust me on that.

Original recipe from Paula Deen
Ingredients:
-4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
-1 lb Sliced Bacon
-2/3 Cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
-2 Tbsp Chili Powder

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
-Cut the chicken breasts into 1" cubes. Cut the bacon slices into thirds
-Wrap each chicken piece with bacon and secure with a toothpick
-Combine brown sugar and chili powder in a small bowl
-Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture and place on broiler pan or cooling rack on a baking sheet
-Bake 30-35 min until bacon is crisp

Lime Fish

So,

We started up the food blog again apparently. Tonight, Aly googled some lime fish recipe which was embarrassingly easy to make and we are gonna blog about it.

We left off a few of the ingredients because Aly didn’t like them, and she went shopping without me this week. So no red onion and no sesame seeds. I think the seeds would have been an improvement to an otherwise lame salad.

This meal was a dish and a side, which is kind of unusual for us, usually we do a meal and then forget about a side. The meal was the fish, and the side was a Snap Pea Salad. I’ll talk about the salad first. To make it you throw the olive oil and lime juice in a bowl. Then you are supposed to grate some ginger, but that’s a pain so I diced it. Throw that in, and then the peas. Mix and done. Overall they were alright, but didn't have a lot to them. Aly didn't like uncooked snap peas, but I didn't mind. Just nothing to write home about. Limey peas. I think I ate them all and she threw like 4 away. This is where the seeds may have added some excitement to the salad, but maybe not. We probably won't bother again, but if I see them in a salad bar I’m all over it.

The fish was the main dish. It was embarrassingly easy. Throw oil in the skillet. I didn't measure but used way more than called for. It wasn't enough and the fish stuck to the pan. As you can see from the pics, Aly's turned into a pile. We were supposed to use Halibut, but our Wegmans is weirdly stocked. We never have basic fish that isn't frozen, but always have tons of exotic 3 eyed puffer fish or other ridiculous stuff. We threw the fish in the oil and fried it 5 min on each side. Put it on a plate and served with lime slices. The recipe didn't mention what to do with them, so we squeezed them on the fish. Overall I forgot how easy and good fish like that is. We should probably do it a lot more often. We probably intend to do that again. 

-Jeff

Recipe from RealSimple.com
Ingredients:
-1 Tbsp Fresh lime juice
-1 tsp Grated fresh ginger
-2 Tbsp Olive oil
-Kosher salt and black pepper
-12 oz (4 cups) Sugar snap peas, strings removed
-1 Small red onion, thinly sliced
-1 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted (optional)
-4 6oz Pieces halibut fillet
-1 Lime cut into wedges

Directions:
-In a large bowl combine the lime juice, ginger, 1 Tbsp of the oil, and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
-Add the snap peas, onion, and sesame seeds. Toss to coat
-Heat the remaining Tbsp of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat
-Season the fish with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Cook until opaque throughout, about 3-5 minutes on each side
-Serve with the salad and lime wedges

Black Bean and Corn Flautas

I have made a push recently when planning our dinners to try some new recipes. Most of them have been a bust, but luckily we happened onto this one and felt that it was a keeper.

We are pretty big fans of Mexican food, so this one looked like a good one to try because it also looked like it wasn't too time consuming. The only issues I've had so far has been with the bake time and temp. The recipe instructs 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Both times that I have made these flautas, they have been very crispy and browned, even though I've tried a few different positions with the oven racks. I will have to keep playing with it until I get it right, and if I get it i'll update this entry to let you know.

The original recipe was a little confusing in parts to follow.She started instructing you to do something with peppers that she never said you needed, and the microwaving instructions become a little strange, so I have re-written it. However, if you want to access the original, it is here.

Ingredients:

·         -9 Corn tortillas

·         -1 cup Black beans

·         -1 cup Mexicorn (corn w/ red and green peppers)

·         -½ tsp Chili powder

·        - ½ tsp Garlic powder

·        - ½ tsp Cumin

·        - ¼ tsp Red pepper flakes

·        - 4-6 oz Shredded cheese

·         -2 heaping Tbsp Taco sauce

·         -Chicken-cooked or mostly cooked (optional)

·         -Olive Oil

 -Dips/toppings of choice (sour cream, salsa, Sriracha, etc)

Instructions:

·         -Heat oven to 425

·         -Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and lay a cooling rack on top. If you don't have a cooling rack, you can use a broiler pan

·         -In medium bowl, combine black beans, corn, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, taco sauce, and chicken

·         -Pour a little bit of olive oil into a small bowl and shredded cheese into another bowl (will use later but want ready)

·         -Do this next step in small groups and fully prepare flautas from each group before starting next batch so they don't get cold. Wrap a few tortillas (about 4) in a damp paper towel followed by a dry paper towel and microwave on plate for 30 seconds

·         -Using a plate as prep space, rub a little olive oil on one side of a tortilla and fill with black bean mixture. Add shredded cheese. Roll up and secure with toothpick. Place on cooling rack on top of baking tray

·         -Repeat with all tortillas heated in this batch, then heat and fill next batch. Continue until all flautas are filled and ready to bake

-Bake on middle rack (not too close to top of oven) for 15 minutes. At the end of baking, set to broil for just under a minute to make tortillas crisp and golden

Experiment Brownies

I was milling about the house with a little more than an hour before Jeff was supposed to be home, and the urge to bake something hit me. So I grabbed my Hershey's cookbook that I'd hardly ever used (though everything in it looks marvelous) and looked for something that only required ingredients I had in the house.

Instead I settled for some rocky road brownies that mostly used things I had (except marshmallows...) and I opted to use peanut butter chips in their place, because I did have those. I had a jar of tiny dried marshmallows that we throw on ice cream, so I added a bunch of those to the batter, but in the end they melted in and we couldn't detect them. I think the recipe is fine without them.

Of course the result was amazing, because it was brownies with peanut butter chips. We ate the first of them while they were still warm so the chocolate topping was still gooey. That was amazing, but they were also still wonderful after the topping had hardened. They stayed soft for a while, and I am attributing that to the hardened chocolate on top keeping all the goodness inside.

Recipe (mostly from Hershey's cookbook until you get to the peanut butter chips instead of marshmallows... plus you're supposed to put nuts in them)

Ingredients:

-1/2 Cup (1 stick) butter

1 Cup sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 Cup all-purpose flour

1/3 Cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (recipe calls for 1 cup)

1/2 cup peanut butter chips (not in original recipe)

1 1/4 cup mini marshmallows (I did not have these)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I didn't use these either)

Directions:

-Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9" square baking pan

-Stir together any baking chips, marshmallows, and/or nuts you are using and set aside. Place butter in microwave safe bowl. Microwave on Medium 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla, beating with spoon until well blended. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; blend well. Spread batter in prepared pan

-Bake 22 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chip mixture over top. Continue baking 5 minutes or until marshmallows have softened and puffed slightly. I think 5 minutes was too much for mine because my chips seemed a little scorched in some areas. I think 4 would have been plenty

-Remove from oven and use spatula or back of wooden spoon to spread/smear chip topping (if you didn't use marshmallows or nuts at all). Cool completely. Cut into squares with wet knife

Taco Puffs

I'm not really sure what else to call these. A coworker and I were sharing recipes and she said these are how she usually uses up leftover taco meat. Now, I know it sounds ridiculous to have leftover taco meat and want something that isn't just more tacos, but for me it happens because I run out of taco ingredients at different paces, and meat seems to always be last.

My instructions on these weren't incredibly specific, but they are very simple, so I managed and they were pretty tasty. Jeff said he would be fine for these as a regular means of using up excess taco meat, so I consider that a win. He also said "Plus they're a different shape, so I like them." So, there's that. No, I did not have more clarity on what they were a different shape than. Than tacos? Than each other? We will have to live our lives with this mystery.

The cheese residue that would get stuck on my hands when I reached into the bag tended to make it hard to pinch the crescent roll seams closed, but I just kept a paper towel handy and wiped the residue off between the cheese and pinch steps.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
-Taco Meat (If you don't have any already prepared, I'd make some with ground beef and taco seasoning. Follow the instructions on the seasoning, but I doubt you'll use all the meat)
-Shredded Mexican Cheese
-Crescent Rolls (I used 2 rolls and had 3 left from about 1/2 a pound of leftover meat)

Directions:
-If the meat is not already prepared, do that. Follow the instructions on the back of the seasoning packet.
-Preheat oven according to the crescent roll instructions (mine were 375)
-Unroll the dough and separate the rolls. Put a little spoonful on each at the widest area and top with a little pinch of cheese.
-Seal the roll by pinching edges together in any way you can. I got creative with some of mine and they were all kinds of goofy shapes. The important part is to seal all openings as best you can.
-Place the sealed puffs on a baking sheet and bake according to roll instructions (mine said 10-12 minutes and were done at the 10)

Apple Goat Cheese Pizza

This is easily one of the most pretentious foods I've ever prepared. I first had it at a restaurant that my family liked to meet up at in Mt Airy. The place used to serve very awesome specialty pizzas along with other general bar food. Unfortunately, they changed their menu one day and got rid of all of the awesome stuff they served. We've gone back once since, but the menu is so sparse and bland now that it's not worth it and we probably won't go again.

This pizza was my favorite on the menu, and I would crave it and specifically go to this restaurant to get it. Once they stopped serving it, I decided that Jeff and I would have to try to make it ourselves.

We usually make the dough ourselves with a recipe Jeff found a while ago that we'd been using for homemade pizzas. This most recent time, though, we decided to buy a pre-made pizza crust to save time because the homemade dough has to rise for 2 hours. I definitely prefer the pizza with the homemade dough, but this may be because the only crust we could get was whole grain. I felt like this one tried to have too much of a presence as a taste and it challenged all of the toppings' flavors rather than melding with them.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
Dough (If making your own):
1 tsp Active dry yeast
1 Cup water
2.5 Cups flour
1 tsp Salt
Olive Oil

Toppings:
1 Granny smith apple, cored and cut into thin slices
2-3oz Goat cheese crumbles (I got a 4 oz tub and didn't use all of it)
2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Olive Oil

Directions:
- Prepare Dough: In medium bowl, mix yeast in water. Let sit 5-10 min.
- Combine Flour and Salt in a large bowl. Add yeast/water mixture.
- Remove dough from bowl, wipe it out smooth, then coat in oil. Let sit in bowl covered with paper towel 2 hours to rise.
- Preheat oven to 500. Shape dough into crust on top of pizza stone or baking sheet
- Brush with extra olive oil and place a layer of mozzarella cheese
- Top with apple slices and goat cheese crumbles
- Finish with another layer of mozzarella cheese and bake for 12-15 minutes