Double Stuffed Baked Potatoes

399. A hot baked potato filled with oozing melted butter, sour cream and melted cheddar cheese is a very welcome favorite of mine.  Although, it seems everyone should know how to make a baked potato... I wonder, how many know how to double stuff a potato?  

I know every microwave has a "potato" setting.  You place the cleaned, skin-on potato in the microwave and just push the button.  When your potato is "baked", the beep is sounded.  Only takes about 5-8 minutes, depending on the size or amount of potatoes you are cooking.  A much better alternative is to actually "BAKE" the potato, you know, like our grandmothers did, before microwaves were around.  

Scrub your potatoes and poke them with a point of a knife about 3 times around each spud.  Place them in a hot 350 degree oven and bake about 1 hour.  You will know they are soft when you squeeze them to test.

Remove the potatoes and let them sit about 10 minutes to cool.  Cut each lengthwise carefully and open them up.  This also allows them to cool quicker.  Have a bowl prepared to mix the filling.  Scrape out of the skins the soft potato into the prepared bowl.  Continue with each potato till you have only potato skins left.

Mix the cheese, butter, sour cream and seasonings into the potato filling.  Blend well but not too smooth.  Chunks of potato are fine.  By the spoonful, transfer the filling back into the skin shells mounding up the filling.  

Top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or till cheese is melted on top

I like to finish off the top with a dollop of sour cream and a healthy sprinkling of fresh garden chives.  Of course you can add bacon, fried sausage bits, pepperoni, parmesan cheese...and the list trails on.  Make it to your own taste and liking.

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This would be a great recipe to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  And, you can use sweet potatoes or yams as well to substitute.  Enjoy this simply wonderful recipe...a great recipe to make with a kitchen helper.

"I do not believe that you have to spend a lot of money to eat well:  it is hard to beat a plain old baked potato."

~ Laurie Colwin

Thanksgiving Feast

387.  Thanksgiving is a favorite time of year for so many reasons.  The great meal with stuffing, mashed potato, pan gravy, homemade pies and roasted turkey.  Each year I try to make something new or edit a favorite dish but this year I migrated back to our favorites done just as they simply are.

Here are a few photos of our feast...sweet potatoes with pecans, stuffed mushrooms, green beans with almonds and stuffing (in the bird! the only way to do it!)

I make homemade cranberry relish with orange where I take an entire bag of cranberries, a whole orange, rind and all and a cup of sugar.  Place them all in a food processor and chop.  Then spoon it into a serving dish.  Perfect every time!

Each plate was perfect...colorful...but more important, delicious!

And for the finale...apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie.

“Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.”– Henry Ward Beecher

Egg Brunch Muffins

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

310.  "Happiest of New Years"
A delightful resolution would be to enter a New Year by embarking on new and unexperienced recipes.  Are there any flavors you have desired to taste or new regional favorites you have longed to introduce your palate to?

Or simply taking one of your favorites and adding or "tweaking" the ingredients.  This is how I started this blank cooking year.  It is a challenge to elevate any recipe with complete confidence, but once you take a risk, you will be delighted with the outcome.

A simple egg muffin was on the brunch menu and rather than having multiple items of choice, I placed them all in one neat, convenient little bundle.  A standard egg muffin recipe can be found here:  http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/scrambled-egg-muffins

I altered the recipe by adding chives, tabasco, fresh parsley and sweet potato crinkle cut fries.

Of course, layering everything from the bottom up, then baking till bubbly and light brown on top.


They double in size and each morsel is packed with flavor and so fulfilling.

Step out of your cooking box and try something you never have before, or edit an old standby recipe.
Make this New Year one filled with delight, unexpected flavors and new favorites!

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.  Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world.  You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something."

~Neil Gaiman

Oven Roasted Vegetables

290.  Autumn is here and root vegetables and pumpkins are plentiful.  This recipe is hardy and warm and pairs with beef or pork very well.  Ideal for your Thanksgiving table.

Your prep work starts with a baking sheet, like a jelly roll pan, parchment paper, olive oil and salt and pepper.  Line the pan with the paper and rub with olive oil.  Set aside

2 large Leeks, chopped coarsely and placed in a water bath

3 large sweet potatoes or yams, pealed and coarsely cubed

3 large turnips, pealed and coarsely cubed

3 large cloves of garlic, slice thin

30 brussel sprouts, rinsed, picked over and stem ends cut off.  Slice each in half

Rosemary, 2 branches fresh leaves pulled off stem,  or 1 teaspoon dry 

Optional Veggies:  Beets, potato, pumpkin, squash of any variety, rutabaga in chunks

Place all veggies on the parchment paper and mix.  Sprinkle Rosemary, salt and pepper and drizzle with more olive oil.

Place in a 375 degree oven and set timer for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and toss the vegetables making sure veggies on the edges are moved so they do not burn.  Spread around again, drizzle more olive oil if necessary.  Return to oven for 15 minutes.  Repeat this process till all the vegetables are tender.  Taste for seasoning.

Remove from oven and place directly on serving platter.

Serve hot with your roasted meat choice and white horseradish on the side.

These veggies would beautify a platter surrounding a roasted beef or pork loin,

even your Thanksgiving turkey or roasted chicken.  And the flavors are succulent!

All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud.  You first have an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit.  Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.  It is vain to hurry it.  By trusting it to the end, it shall ripen into truth, and you shall know why you believe."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Curry Butternut Squash Soup

256. This soup is a rich delight. If you plan to make it, serve it as a small starter course or in a small tasting cup. It is much too rich as a main course.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash

2 yams or sweet potatoes

1 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon butter or oil
2 c. vegetable broth
4 c. water
1 tsp. curry powder
Salt and pepper

1/2 cup heavy cream or soy milk

Cut squash and yam/sweet potato into chunks. In water, boil butternut squash and yam/sweet potato until tender. Drain and reserve liquid to add if soup is too thick. Place tender squash and yam/sweet potato into a blender and puree, adding reserved liquid as needed. Put back on stove and add remaining ingredients except cream/milk.

Simmer until heated through.

Before serving, place cream or soy milk in a 2 cup measuring cup. Add several scoops of hot soup to cream and "temper" the milk to bring it up to soup temperature. If you do not do this, the milk will curdle from the heat. Pour the tempered cream/milk into the soup.

Serve hot with a sprinkling of chives on top.

"Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them."
- Author Unknown

Sweet Potato Bake

119. What are your favorite dishes to savor on Thanksgiving Day? The turkey and dressing always rank high, along with pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and gravy. No one menu is more special or better tasting...we all have "the best" menu when we share this meal with our family and friends. Yes, the food tastes great...but it is the time spent with those dear to your heart that enhance the experience. Make everything taste...better!

Baking pies, especially pumpkin or pecan, are at the top of my list. This year it was Pumpkin and Cranberry Apple Pies.

Thanksgiving Day began at 5:00am, so we could catch the 6:10am train into NYC. Yes, we went to the Macy's Day Parade. And we are so glad we did!

The day was perfect and the Spiderman Balloon stole the show!!!

I personally, was very excited to see the "Food Network" float...although Bobby Flay and Paula Deen were not in sight!

Around 3:00pm we arrived back home, happy, tired, and very hungry. I stuffed and baked my turkey from midnight till 5:00am that morning, so the turkey just needed to be reheated.

I decided to make a quick Sweet Potato Bake, that my girls always *gobble* up.

I peel and chop 4 to 5 sweet potatoes and arrange them in a deep casserole or baking dish.

Sprinkle brown sugar, about 1 cup, over the potatoes, then dot with small handful of raisins. I used white raisins.

Drizzle maple syrup over top of potatoes then dot with butter, or melt butter and pour over.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or till bubbly and the potatoes are tender.

After our meal we played "Clue" and enjoyed a piece of pie.

But the crowning enjoyment of our meal was the special "Persimmon Sorbet" my daughter just whipped up! It was wonderful...with a hint of lemon and cinnamon. You could taste the cinnamon first, then you would catch the lemon and then the persimmon's subtle flavor came through! This was a wonderful recipe!!! And it was so beautiful!

I am sure your Thanksgiving Day was just as tasty!

"You have to eat to cook.

You can't be a good cook and be a non-eater.

I think eating is the secret to good cooking."

~ Julia Childs

"Dining with one's friends and beloved family

is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights,

one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal."

~ Julia Childs

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

14. Homemade crescent rolls are wonderful!!!

My daughter, Maggie, wanted crescent rolls to eat. I don't normally purchase the store bought ones...I'm always trying to save my pennys and they are considered a luxury.

But make my own!!!! I can do that!

I found a wonderful recipe on line, last year, and it has taken residence in my "most favorite" stash. This is a Land O Lakes recipe...so yes, butter is an ingredient!

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

Preparation time : 45 min Rising: 50 min Baking: 10 min

Serve traditional sweet potatoes in a new way, in a tender, delicious crescent roll!

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I used my bread machine and I place all the liquid ingredients in the machine first with the salt. Then, flour and remaining dry ingredients. After the dough is ready, approximately 1hr and 30 min, and continue to follow directions.

Here is the beautiful dough...and it smells wonderful!

Serve hot rolls with butter, honey cinnamon butter or pumpkin butter :-)

Try this recipe...you won't be disappointed!

"Many a one has been comforted...by seeing a good dish come upon the table." -E.C. Gaskell