Fancy Dinner Part 2 - Steak, Hollandaise, Asparagus

All the girls in our family agreed that our fancy mousse made in the morning needed a fancy dinner to surprise Daddy. We had previously decided to make rolls, steak strips, asparagus, and hollandaise sauce. Mmmmm

Taste of Home Easy Potato Roll Recipe

There it was, in my fridge, staring at me. The scooped out leftovers of the Potato Skins made here. What to do, what to do. Potato Rolls!

Ingredients:
2 pks active dry yeast (1/4 oz each)
1 1/3 cup water (used separately)
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed potatoes
2 1/2 tsp salt
6 cups flour

 Add yeast to 2/3 cup of water. Make sure water is 110-115 degrees. My mom can do this by feeling it on her wrist. I turn on the hot and put a meat therm. under it.

 Yeast should start to fizz and bubble. It is okay to stir it gently to get it all in the water. I use to be scared to do that.

This is my oldest girl mashing our scooped out insides a bit. Not pictured is the sugar. It is measured at 2/3 cup and in my kitchen aid. Next add your 2/3 cup shortening and cream. Add eggs, potatoes, salt, yeast mixture and 2 cups flour. Whisk till smooth. Add remaining 2/3 cup water and replace whisk with dough hook. Gradually beat while adding remaining flour. Don't worry about kneading this dough (I have learned the hard way that not all dough has to be kneaded) but keep it up until you have a soft dough that forms into a ball. Add up to 1/2 cup more flour or Tablespoons of water if needed. Put your ball of dough into a bowl and cover for one hour. Punch down and cut into 15 pieces. My girls helped roll pieces and put them in a dish. Cover and let rise again, about 30 minutes.

Once risen they should look something like this. Give them a quick brush with olive oil or melted butter. Bake in a 375 preheated oven for 20 minutes. I turn mine around halfway through since my oven browns the back half faster.

 While the rolls are cooking we looked up our recipe for mock hollandaise sauce. I'm pretty sure I found this on allrecipe.com a long time ago but sadly did not credit the cook. It is not nearly as good or thick as the original but nice in a pinch and much easier. (I made homemade with my brother over Thanksgiving. It's kinda sad that he's a better cook than me!)

Blender Hollandaise Sauce

 

Ingredients -

Remember the egg yolks you didn't use in your mousse from earlier today? You're gonna need them. Yep, all 6

1 squirt Dijon Mustard

1 Tb lemon juice

2 dash hot sauce (such as Tabasco)

3/4 cup melted butter

 

Blend egg yolks with mustard, Dijon, lemon juice, and hot sauce. Pour melted butter into blender in a steady stream. Put blender in a bowl of hot tap water to keep warm.

 

 

 Asparagus

For some crazy reason my kids love asparagus. I think it is best slightly crunchy and not mushy. To do this wash your asparagus and break off the lower tougher end. It should snap off easily. Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add asparagus and reduce to a simmer. A simmer is when the bubbles are just wanting to break into a boil but can't seem to muster enough energy. Parboil 2 minutes and immediately get those babies out of there.



 

 As soon as asparagus is done put it into a water bath. It slows the cooking down and keeps them firm.

Since the oven was still occupied by my potato rolls I decided to pan fry the 1/4 inch thick sirloin steak. Add a little olive oil to the bottom of the pan and turn to medium high heat. Season with whatever you have on hand. I used Adam's Reserve Sear N Crust. Cook 7 minutes on one side, flip, season 7 minutes on the next side. Grilling is really the way to go for steak but if you are pan frying keep checking it. If you push on the top and it feels like the fleshy part of your hand below your thumb it is medium rare - which I think is perfect.

Make sure to get those rolls out of the oven!

 

 At the last minute I fried a few leftover sausages we had. I have to admit to eating a few bites off my plate before remembering to take a pic. There was more green on that plate I promise! The girls loved the rolls and I forgot how much they fill you up! Daddy was surprised and everything was perfect. I do admit that we just couldn't finish the mousse after a meal like this. Everyone ate about half a cup and we put them back in the fridge to be finished tomorrow.



Sausage and Cabbage Soup

I made this recipe up as I went along so there are not exact measurements, but who follows those anyways? So here are my guidelines for a simple and hearty soup.Sausage and Cabbage Soup

1/2 head cabbage
3/4 link of smoked sausage
carrots
potatoes
1/2 onion
1 leek
Beef broth
Seasoning (garlic, pepper, thyme, maybe a bay leaf)
Brown sausage, remove and cook onions and leek down. When almost tender add shredded cabbage. Cook until a little transparent and add broth.
Add all remaining ingredients (can add to crockpot at this point as well). Cook until potatoes and carrots are tender.

Leftovers 101

Once a week we do leftovers night.  It's that night where everything that you've got in your fridge gets cleaned out and dumped.  Otherwise known as clean-out-your-fridge night.  I tell my kids the goal is to clean out as many of the containers as possible, it's like a game to them.

This was our leftover offerings last week.

#1 - Steamed butternut squash served with a little bit of butter, salt and pepper.

#2 - Beef roast, cooked in the crockpot for 4 hours with a packet of dry onion soup mix on the top.

#3 - Brown rice pilaf (recipe below), this was found while cooking a diabetic meal for a friend.

#4 - Mandarin-cranberry pork chops (recipe below), I made this one up to see how it worked.  It turned out to be easy and delicious!

#5 - Potatoes and onions, my kids favorite "fries".  Cut up some potatoes and onions, cook with a little bit of olive oil and salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.  Like fries, my kids eat this with ketchup.

#6 - Fresh cut mango.  I have never been good at cutting mangoes, I pretty well massacre them.  Then I asked my babysitter to teach me, because she's the master.  It's really easy, if you follow the directions.  Here is a tutorial, if you're interested.  It's not the way I learned, but it's a workable way as well.

#7 - Fajitas - Sauteed chicken breast, onions, green bell pepper and jalapeños...my kids loved it and it included everything they hate, ie: peppers and onions.  Sometimes it's just how you cook it!

Brown Rice Pilaf

2 cups water
1 cup brown rice
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup frozen vegetables
1/2 tsp. cumin

If you have a rice cooker, throw it all together, and cook.  If you don't have a rice cooker, in a saucepan mix the water, rice, olive oil and salt and bring to a boil.  Mix in the vegetables and cumin.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 45-60 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed.


Mandarin-Cranberry Pork Chops

4 pork chops, or as many as you need to feed your family
1 can, whole berry cranberry sauce
1 large can, mandarin oranges, juice drained
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. curry powder

Preheat oven to 350°.  Brown pork chops in pan, season with a little salt and pepper, then place in baking dish.  In a separate bowl, combine all other ingredients and pour over chops in bowl.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour or until your pork chops are cooked through.  Serve over rice.

**This would also work really well in a slow cooker, just adjust cooking times as needed.**

Camping Food

We went camping over the weekend and made a super yummy dinner. No burnt hot dogs for us!
I made some shish-kabobs ahead of time and had them marinating in the cooler. I also chopped up the potatoes and onion ahead of time and had them in a bag with all the seasonings ready to go. It was too dark by the time we ate so I couldn't take a picture, but trust me it was good. Here are the original recipes and I will tell you my modifications at then end. I know these ingredients might shock yall that I would buy so much pre-packaged stuff, but hey I was camping. I even ate cheese from a can the next day.


Dutch Oven Potatoes
1 pkg. bacon, cut into fourths (low sodium)
10-12 large potatoes (scrubbed, rinsed, and sliced into circles)
Seasoning Salt ("Spike" or "Johnny's" seasoning salt work great!)
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 can cream of chicken
3-4 c. shredded cheddar cheese

When the dutch oven is good and hot add the bacon and heat until fully cooked. Drain about half of the bacon grease then add the potatoes. stir in about 3 Tbsp. of the seasoning salt (or to taste) and all of the garlic powder. Cover and cook about 30 minutes stirring occasionally (or until potatoes are no longer crunchy, but do NOT overcook). Add cream of chicken. When the cream of chicken is evenly distibuted and hot, add cheese. When cheese is melted, remove from heat and serve.

*These taste best when served with ranch dressing on the side*


Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler
2 (29oz) cans peaches, in heavy syrup (or 1 can peaches, 1 can peach pie filling)
2 boxes yellow cake mix (DRY, not prepared)
1 cube butter
brown sugar and cinnamon (to taste)

Pour peaches into hot dutch oven (if using the canned peaches, drain some of the liquid out so your cobbler isn't too runny). Add cake mix over the top. Slice thin slices of butter over the top of the cake mix, then top with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cover and cook for 45 minutes or until the cake mix starts turning golden brown and is cooked through. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

My notes:
With the potatoes I halved the recipe and quarted the cheese. I think honestly it would be just fine without the can of soup. I used Tony Chachere's for the seasoning but I think a ranch packet would be good too. I also added a quarter of the onion with the potatoes. I chopped the potatoes but you could get away with those little red potatoes if you can find them small enough.

With the cobbler I also halved the recipe. Next time I will do two cans of peaches with one box of cake mix. I still used one stick of butter.

Christmas Dinner

Nothin' says Christmas dinner to me like a ham. Yep, a big slab of pig - nicely sliced and glazed, of course. Thanksgiving gets it's turkey. Easter gets it's eggs. Independance day and Labor Day have hamburgers and St. Patrick's day gets corned beef and cabbage....well, not at our house, but it counts anyway.

But Christmas...it gets ham.

Where's the chicken in all of this? They apparently drew the long straw when it came to sacrificing themselves for holiday meals.

And, if you're a vegetarian sorry about this post, it's probably nauseating just reading those last few lines...

However, the recipes I'm posting today are actually vegetarian, so keep reading.

I'm not going to tell you how to cook the ham, that's easy. (You bake it in an oven until it's 160° inside...)

I'm going to tell you what goes really good with ham. And I'm not going to mention green eggs, because that's a St. Patrick's Day post, remember?

Yams (or sweet potatoes, since for all intents and purposes they're interchangeable), and apples and orange juice. Those go really, really good with ham. So, for the next time you decide to bake up a nice, juicy, smoked ham here are a couple of ideas for a side dish - vegetarian style...

Yams and Apples

Boil 3 to 4 large yams. Peel and core 6 apples. Slice in layers and place in greased 9x13 in. casserole dish.

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. cornstarch

Sift together, then add 2 cups hot water. Heat until slightly thickened. Add 1 tbsp. butter. Pour over yams and apples. Bake at 325° for 1 hour.

Yams with Fresh Orange Sauce

6 medium size yams

1 cup orange juice

1 tbsp. cornstarch

3 tbsp. melted butter

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

rind of 2 oranges, grated

2 tbsp. white corn syrup

Boil yams until tender, then skin and slice. Arrange yam slices in greased baking dish. Combine last 6 ingredients in saucepan and cook until thickened. Pour sauce over yam slices and bake 45 minutes at 350°.

September = Apples

In my mind September equals apples. Something about putting an apple on the teachers desk and the feeling of crisp autumn air. Course, it's still 100+° here, there is a nasty feeling of moderate humidity in the air and school started this week, which of course is still August...

I stand by my feelings though, *ahem*, September = Apples...following me?

Here are a couple of apple recipes. They are great for fall menus. I typically buy Gala, Fuji for cooking and Golden Delicious because my family likes them to eat.

APPLE COBBLER

3 large apples, peeled and sliced

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 large egg

1/2 cup butter, melted

Put apples in the bottom of a lightly greased 8x8 in. baking dish. Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and egg until it looks like coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over the apples. Pour melted butter over the entire dish.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE

12 gala apples, peeled and sliced

1/4 cup granulated sugar

In a large pan, boil apples with about 1 cup of water. Cook about 10 minutes or until soft. Sprinkle sugar over cooked apples. Mix with hand mixer until blended to desired consistency. This will make about 1 quart of well blended applesauce. I keep old applesauce bottles to put it in, or I put in tupperware containers and freeze.

You can sprinkle some cinnamon in with the sugar if you prefer. This is not cheaper than buying it at the store, but my kids love the homemade stuff and it's got all natural ingredients, no preservatives.

PORK CHOPS w/ Sweet potatoes and apples

4 pork chops

1/2 cup chicken bouillon

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 apples, sliced

Place pork chops and bouillon in crock pot and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours. Add apples and sweet potatoes for the last hour.

Friday Night is Pizza Night

Family traditions start small. Duplicate a fun event several times and it becomes tradition. We love to celebrate Friday nights with pizza and a movie.

In Utah we ordered the pizza for two reasons - one, I was working full time and by the time Friday night came around I was beat, and two, we had a really great pizza place that I loved.

Here in Texas it's a different story. Friday night comes around and I'm even more beat than I was when I was working "full time", but we haven't managed to find a remarkable pizza place. Thus I've been trying out different pizza recipes. After several attempts I found a winner tonight. This crust was perfect! A few modifications and I made it stuffed crust, topped with ham, turkey, pineapple and monterey jack cheese - it was heaven!

To finish off the "fast food" experience, we completed the meal with sweet potato fries. They were a great compliment to the pizza and the kids ate them up!

Quick Pizza Dough

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp. quick-rise yeast

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup warm water

1 tbsp. oil (I used EVOO)

t tbsp. honey

Preheat oven to 425°. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. Separately combine water, oil and honey. Combine with flour mixture. Knead for 2 minutes - it will be stiff and crumbly at first. Roll out. I rolled a little extra big for my pizza pan so that I had extra to roll over the 'stuffed crust'. There is no need to let the dough rise, or to bake it first.

Place on pizza pan/stone. For stuffed crust I added cut cheese the size of small carrot stick around the perimeter of the pan, then rolled the extra dough around the cheese. Add pizza sauce - I used left over spaghetti sauce from yesterday's Eggplant Parmesan. Add any additional toppings prefered by your family and bake in preheated oven for 9 - 12 minutes.

Sweet Potato Fries

2 medium sweet potatoes

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. parsley

Preheat oven to 425°. Spray baking pan with cooking spray. Skin sweet potatoes with potato peeler, and cut into sticks that look like carrot sticks, approximately 1/4" wide.

In a large mixing bowl add olive oil and cut sweet potatoes. Using hands, mix potatoes and oil until all potato sticks are coated. In a separate bowl add all remaining ingredients and mix well. Sprinkle over potato sticks while mixing with your hands to ensure good coverage. Spread on baking pan, taking care to separate each stick. Bake for 20 minutes and turn with a spatula, then bake and additional 20 minutes.

These are great! They are perfectly crisp on the outside and sweet and soft on the inside!

Breakfast Burritos

I have so not adjusted to the life of a Texan. Everything here starts an hour earlier, add that to the time change (yes, it's been almost a year and I swear it's still jet lag...it couldn't possibly be the children keeping me up at night...nah) and I just can't get a hot breakfast on the table during the week. I think it just allows my family to be that much more grateful on the weekends when they get breakfast, a whole breakfast! They like pancakes and waffles, my favorite is french toast, and we recently found a new dish that everyone likes too....breakfast burritos. I swear I'd made these before, but the family didn't rave like they did this time around, I guess their taste buds have matured in the last year.

This recipe is easy, it's a one pan sort of dish. The best thing about it is I made a lot of extra and kept it in the fridge. It's really easy to reheat in the microwave for a quick, on-the-go, week day breakfast. Hint, hint, that's bonus points for a hard-working mom!

Breakfast Burritos

6 medium potatoes, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
4-6 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
olive oil
salt
1/2 green pepper, chopped
6 eggs
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
flour tortillas
salsa (or ketchup, for my kids)

In a large skillet heat olive oil, then add potatoes and onion and cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Season with a little salt while potatoes are cooking. Add eggs and green pepper. I don't even scramble the eggs before adding to the pan, I just scramble once they are in the pan. Cook until eggs are done. Remove from heat and top with shredded cheese, cover pan and let sit until cheese is melted.
Heat tortillas in microwave until warm. I like to put my salsa into the tortilla first, then dish up potato/egg mixture. You can keep cheese separate and add at the time of dishing, if you prefer.

U = Utah

Do you know how many jokes I've heard about Utah food? Fry sauce, green jello salad, funeral potatoes...joke away, it's all good. Feel free to try all of these recipes if you've never experienced them before, it'll make you homesick too!

FRY SAUCE

1/3 cup ketchup
2/3 cup miracle whip

Mix together...duh! :) Great with onion rings and french fries.

FUNERAL POTATOES

6 medium baked potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 pint sour cream
1/3 cup green onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup cheese, grated
2 cups cornflakes, crushed
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Heat butter and soup. Blend in sour cream, onion and cheese to soup mixture. Grate potatoes on a large hole grater. Stir potatoes into soup mixture. Place in buttered 9x13 inch pan. Mix crushed cornflakes into melted butter. Sprinkle on top of potatoes and bake 45 minutes at 350°.

GREEN JELLO SALAD

1 small package lime jello
1 cup boiling water
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 small whipping cream
1/2 large package softened cream cheese

Mix jello and water. Put in freezer to get soupy. Add pineapple. Whip whipping cream and add cream cheese. Mix together with jello and pineapple. Set in refrigerator.

Thirty Minute Thursday

We have had beautiful, rainy, cooler weather the last few days and I am loving it! It's great to be able to pull out some of the 'rainy day' recipes; recipes that you don't exactly want to eat on blistering, hot days. Last night we had brisket, sweet potato surprise, and mint brownies. mmmmm! No wonder I can't lose that weight that I want! I realize every time I cook that I should really start measuring the ingredients in the dishes that I make, so I have a better idea how to write down the recipes. I tend to add a splash of this, a dash of that and....no measured ingredients to document. I vow to do better, I promise.

Sweet Potato Surprise

4 sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 c sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup grated unsweetened coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, melted

1. Heat oven to 375° F. In large bowl, mix the sweet potatoes, sugar, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla extract until well combined. Transfer the mixture into a 2 1/2 quart baking dish.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the topping ingredients until crumbly. Distribute the topping over the sweet potatoes. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Brownies
10 Tbsp. butter
6 Tbsp. cocoa
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Mint Filling
1/2 c. butter (very soft)
2 c. powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1-2 drops green food coloring
(Beat together and spread on cooled brownies)

Chocolate Topping
1/2 c. butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
(Heat for 1 minute in microwave. Stir and pour over mint filling, coating evenly)

1. Melt butter and cocoa in microwave. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour and salt; mix. Bake in 9x13" pan (grease bottom) at 350° for 25 minutes. When cool frost with mint filling. Then put in freezer for 10 to 20 minutes to harden frosting. Frost with chocolate topping.

Dallas Dining

I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most adventurous person. I enjoy trying new things, but I'm a creature of habit and I like routine. I watch Man vs. Wild and feel weak every time Bear eats a grub or a snake and I've never been closer to vomiting at the dinner table than the first time I ate sushi. That being said, I ate the sushi and I love it now. When we went to Pappadeaux's in Dallas this weekend I about died when my brother and sister-in-law ordered frog legs for the appetizer. After a lot of convincing I took a bite and who knew that they weren't that bad. To top off the meal I ate crawfish and catfish too, not a big deal to a lot of you...big deal to me! Utah doesn't exactly have restaurants that carry the same sort of food as Pappadeaux's so I haven't ever had an opportunity to eat frog legs, crawfish, catfish, and etouffee with dirty rice, I'm glad that I had the chance. In honor of my new found foods I'm posting a copycat recipe from Pappadeaux's restaurant.

Title: Pappadeaux'S Sweet Potato Pecan Pie
Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients

1 1/4 c cooked, mashed sweet 'taters
- (about; 2 medium potatoes)
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 c heavy (whipping) cream
1/4 ts vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
3/4 ts ground cinnamon
3/4 ts allspice
3/4 ts nutmeg
3 tb softened butter
1 unbaked pastry for a single
-crust 9; -10 pie shell
1 pecan filling and bourbon
-sauce (in; gredients below)

------------------------PECAN PIE FILLING-----------------------------
1 1/4 c sugar
1 1/4 c dark corn syrup
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tb unsalted butter, softened
1/4 ts vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
3/4 ts ground cinnamon
1 1/4 c chopped pecans

--------------------------BOURBON SAUCE-------------------------------
1 1/2 c heavy (whipping) cream
1 c milk
1 package instant vanilla
-pudding mix; (4-serving siz
3 tb bourbon, brandy or rhum
1 ts vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325° F. Combine mashed sweet potatoes, sugars,
egg, cream, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and butter in
an electric mixing bowl and beat at medium-low speed until smooth, do
not overmix.
To assemble pie, spoon sweet potato filling into the pastry-lined
pie pan. Fill shell evenly to the top with with pecan filling. Bake 1
1/2 hours or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes
out clean. Store pie at room temperature for 24 hours. Serve pie
slices with Bourbon Sauce on top or to the side.

Prepare Pecan Pie Filling: Combine sugar, syrup, eggs, butter,
vanilla, salt and cinnamon in an electric mixing bowl and beat on low
speed until syrup is opaque, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in pecans, mix
well.

Prepare Bourbon Sauce: Combine cream and milk in a large mixing
bowl. Slowly whip in pudding mix. Add bourbon and continue whipping.
Add vanilla and whip until mixture is well blended to sauce
consistency (should not be as firm as pudding, but should not be
runny). Sauce should be made about one hour before use; it will
thicken as it sits.

SHRIMP OR CRAWFISH ETOUFFEE
From: Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen
Adapted from source: WTTW11, Chicago

1 1/2 lbs unsalted butter
1 1/2 quarts yellow onions, chopped fine
1/2 cup garlic, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped fine
1 1/2 cups bell peppers, chopped fine
1 cup dark roux (gumbo roux)
1 cup blond roux
1/2 tbsp ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp salt
6 cups shrimp stock
1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, 74/40s

In a saucepan, melt butter until almost clarified, then add yellow onions and garlic, cook for 20-30 minutes until onions start to brown and caramelize. Stir.

Add celery and bell pepper, cook until limber (about 10 minutes).

Pre-heat roux in microwave.

Add black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper, paprika, salt and blond and dark roux to butter and vegetables in pan. Cook until roux dissolves (about 10 minutes).

Heat shrimp stock. Add shrimp stock to pan mixture and bring to simmer; let cook for 15 minutes.

Add tomatoes, blend and cook for one minute. Remove from heat and place in container. Cool. (If not serving, store in refrigerator)

Add shrimp or crayfish to the etouffee and warm before serving.

Yields 1 gallon

Potatoes

FYI, for those who care. I resurrected the potatoes today for dinner and they were great! Yeah! Also, menu is coming along great, I think I'm actually going to have a good menu to work off of by the time school starts in a week. (amazing...)

Recipes from Yesterday

These are the recipes from last night's dinner, including the potatoes (yes, I'm still bitter, but I did them wrong so it's my fault!)

BBQ CHICKEN

2 lbs. chicken tenders
1/2 c. ketchup
6 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons ready-made white horseradish
4 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1 clove garlic, minced

1. preheat broiler, heat a charcoal grill until coals form white ash, or preheat a gas grill to medium

2. prepare sauce, in a medium bowl, by combining ketchup, vinegar, horseradish, brown sugar and garlic

3. combine tenders with sauce, chill and marinade for at least 30 minutes for better flavor

4. broil or grill 3 inches from heat, basting with excess sauce and turning until no longer pink in center, about 5 minutes per side

RE BAKED POTATOES

10 russet potatoes
2 c. sour cream
1 package dry ranch dressing
3 c. cheddar cheese, shredded

1. preheat oven to 425°, scrub potatoes; pat dry. Pierce several times with a fork. Microwave pierced potatoes on HIGH for 12 minutes; bake for 15 minutes

2. while potatoes are baking, mix together 2 c. sour cream, ranch dressing and 1 c. cheddar cheese, set aside

3. cut cooked potatoes lengthwise; scoop insides into bowl with cheese mixture and mix together

4. brush potato skins with olive oil

5. spoon potato mixture into potato skin shells, sprinkle with remaining 2 c. cheddar cheese. place on baking sheet and bake 15 minutes

HOMEMADE PEACH ICE CREAM
(for a 4 qt. ice cream maker)

1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
4 c. half and half
1 tbsp. vanilla
4 c. whipping cream
3 c. chopped peaches, mixed with 2 tbsp. sugar

1. Mix whipping cream, half and half, sugar, salt and vanilla together until sugar and salt dissolve. Add peaches, stir.

2. Refrigerate mixture for at least 30 minutes before freezing.

3. Freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions, usually freezes within 25 minutes.

4. Once frozen it will be soft set. If you prefer a harder texture to your ice cream place in freezer to 'ripen' for an hour or so.

STUFFED JALAPENO POPPERS

15 jalapeno peppers
1 package (12 oz.) cream cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 package thick cut hickory smoked bacon

1. preheat oven to 350°

2. prepare jalapenos by cutting stem off and cleaning out all membranes and seeds, leaving the hollow jalapeno whole

3. mix cream cheese and cheddar cheese together in a bowl

4. stuff cheese mixture into jalapeno

5. wrap with bacon all around jalapeno, secure with toothpick

6. bake for 30 minutes