Category — Cooking Recipes

For the last several years, my family has bypassed our usual sweet potato recipes in favor of this sweet potato casserole with a brown sugary, strudel-like topping.  It would make a great addition to your Thanksgiving recipes!  In fact, if you’re expecting a crowd, I’d make a double batch…there are rarely any leftovers on this one.

Sweet Potato Crunch

Base:

• 3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk

Combine all above ingredients in a large mixing bowl, blend well, and place in a square baking dish.  Set aside, and prepare topping.

Topping:

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 tbsp. melted butter
• 1/2 cup pecans

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, and blend with a fork.  Mixture will be crumbly.  Sprinkle on top of sweet potato mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until bubbly on the sides and topping is crisp.

I made this crock pot corn chowder recipe yesterday.  It’s very savory; after a day in the crock pot, you can really taste all the flavors in this stuff!  It’s sort of a hybrid recipe- I read through several corn chowder recipes, and morphed them into one.  This easily makes enough to serve 4.

Crockpot Corn Chowder

• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 slices bacon
• 20 oz. frozen whole kernel corn
• 1/2 cup carrots, finely diced
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 1 cup of water
• 2 cups potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 tsp.  Worcesterchire sauce
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• Pinch of garlic powder

Coarsely chop bacon, and fry in a large skillet until crisp.  Remove bacon from skillet, and set aside.  In bacon drippings, saute onion and potato for 3-4 minutes.  Discard bacon drippings.  Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.  Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce temperature to low for 3-5 hours.

In the last hour of cooking time, scoop half of chowder into a blender, and pulse until smooth.  (Careful-very HOT!)  Place blended mixture back into crock pot, and stir.

Optional:  Just before serving, stir in a little butter, and about 1/2 cup of half and half.

I’ve just added this great new toaster to my most wanted kitchen gadgets list.   The Back to Basics Egg ‘N Muffin Toaster will toast a muffin, and poach an egg…at the same time.  I see 3 big benefits here.  First, there’s no skillet or egg poacher to wash.  Second, I think older kids could do this themselves. Third, it’s faster than doing things separately.

The Back to Basics egg and muffin toaster makes a muffin (and egg) in 4 minutes.  There are switches to turn off the toaster or the poacher if you just want to use one feature.   The toaster will also hard boil up to 4 eggs at one time, and it shuts off automatically.  I found the egg and muffin toaster combo at In Cooking.

Seems like company comes around pretty often this time of year.  It’s always nice to have ingredients for cheese ball recipes or other easy appetizers around for whipping up something in a pinch.  Here’s an easy cheese ball recipe that I’ve made several times.  The ingredients keep for awhile, so you can buy them ahead, and make it when you need it.

Chipped Beef Cheese Ball

• 2 blocks of cream cheese, softened
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 pkg. dried beef, finely chopped.
• 1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped
• Dash of garlic salt

Set aside 1/3 of beef and onions.  Combine cream cheese, remainder of beef, Worcestershire, remainder of onions, and garlic salt in food processor.  Pulse until blended.  Form into a ball, and roll in reserved beef and onions.  Serve on a platter with crackers and cheese knives.  If you don’t have a food processor, you can mix this by hand in a large mixing bowl.

No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a heaping helping of piping hot and buttery mashed potatoes.  There are several ways to make delicious mashed potatoes.  Here are a few variations on “mashed potato recipes”.

Old-Fashioned Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes made with a hand potato masher, like the one above, will give you that irregular, a little bit lumpy, texture in your mashed potatoes.  For those who want mashed potatoes like Grandma used to make, this is probably the way to go.  Peel potatoes, boil, and drain before mashing.  Add milk, butter and salt to taste.

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With a few weeks remaining until Thanksgiving dinner, you still have time to get in a practice run of your favorite Thanksgiving recipes.  Pumpkin pie is always a favorite, and it isn’t hard to make.  Here is a classic pumpkin pie recipe.

Classic Pumpkin Pie

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 can solid pack pumpkin, 16 ounces
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
• 1 unbaked, deep dish pie crust (9 inches), or 2 shallow crusts

Blend all ingredients with a hand mixer.  Mixture will be thin.  If using a homemade pie crust, place crust in a deep dish pie pan.  Pour pumpkin mixture into crust.  Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Then reduce heat to 350 degrees F, and bake for an additional 45 minutes.  Pie is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.   Shallow crust pies will require only 20-30 minutes of baking after reducing temperature to 350.

Pumpkin Pie Tips:

Pretty Pies: Pumpkin pie “batter” is very runny, and when it gets spilled on the edges of your crust it turns very dark.  For prettier pies, pour the “batter” into a pitcher or large measuring cup, and fill pie plates after placing them on a cookie sheet in your oven.

Substitute Pumpkin Pie Spice:  You can use pumpkin pie spice instead of the individual spices listed above.  1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice equates to 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon of clove, and 1/4 teaspoon of ginger, so the recipe above would require 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.

This is one of my favorite chicken casserole recipes.  It’s one I’ve adapted to suit my family’s tastes over the past couple of years, and it just seems to be getting better.  If you’re a garlic lover, feel free to add a couple more teaspoons.

Garlic Chicken Mozzarella Bake

• 2 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
• 2 cans diced tomatoes, do not drain
• 4 cups dry elbow macaroni
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic, more or less to taste
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• Salt and pepper
• 3/4 dried bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook macaroni, drain in a colander, and place back in pot.  In a large skillet, cook onion and garlic in 2 tbsp. of olive oil until softened, and beginning to brown. Add chicken to skillet, and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add onion, garlic, and chicken mixture to macaroni and stir.  Then stir in mozzarella, undrained tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste.  Pour mixture into a 9×13 baking pan, or casserole dish.

Topping:  With a fork, blend together 2 tbsp. olive oil, Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, and a pinch of salt.  Sprinkle over casserole.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes until bubbly on the edges, and golden brown on top.

Covered casserole dishes are always convenient for this recipe.  When the meal is over, just pop the lid over the leftovers, and place in the fridge.  The casserole dishes above are available at World Market.

Election Day is almost here!  After nearly 2 years of political ads, and seemingly endless months of pundits weighing in, Barack Obama and John McCain are finally reaching the end of the campaign trail.  Regardless of your party affiliation, a sweet treat on  Tuesday night will certainly hit the spot.  After all, it could prove to be a long night.

American Flag Cake

• 1 yellow cake mix
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and dried
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, washed and dried

Cake: Prepare cake mix in a 9×13 cake pan according to directions.  Place on cooling rack. If you wish to serve this cake on a platter, remove cake from baking pan after 5 minutes of cooling.

Frosting: Mix together powdered sugar, water, corn syrup, and vanilla with a hand mixer until well blended.  Apply frosting to top and sides of cooled cake.  Arrange whole blueberries on cake to resemble the starred section of the American flag.  Slice strawberries in half lengthwise, and place end to end to form stripes on cake.  Remember to dry fruit before placing on the cake.

Here’s a buttery recipe for homemade yellow cake if you don’t want to use a cake mix. Here’s another variation of the flag cake recipe that includes gelatin.

If you’re trying to turn back the hands of time, you may want to give blueberries a try.  These plump and royal-hued berries should be considered little gems when it comes to maintaining a youthful appearance and good nutrition.

Here are just a few of the health benefits of eating blueberries:

• Blueberries contain more antioxidants than any other fruit.   Eating blueberries wards off cancers and heart disease because of their high concentration of anthocyanin.
• Blueberries slow the aging process, preserve eyesight, and help us stay mentally alert.
• Blueberries prevent urinary tract infections.

Here’s a recipe that will help you add blueberries to your diet!

Banana Blueberry Bran Muffins

• 4 ripe bananas, pureed in blender or food processor
• 1 package frozen blueberries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups oat bran
• 1 quart of buttermilk (see below for substitute info)
• 4 cups Kellogg’s All Bran cereal
• 2 1/2 cups flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine bananas, blueberries, walnuts, eggs, baking soda, sugar, vanilla, and oat bran until coarsely blended.  Then, add buttermilk, cereal, and flour.  Stir until thoroughly mixed.  Fill muffin pans 2/3 full and bake at 375 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

No buttermilk?  You can make your own buttermilk substitute in 5 minutes.  To make 1 cup of buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup.  Then fill to the one cup line with regular milk.  Gently stir, then set aside for 5 minutes before using.  The muffin recipe above requires 1 quart (4 cups) of buttermilk, so you’ll need to do this four times, or quadruple the recipe.

Here are many more blueberry recipes.

Nothing is easier to serve at a Halloween party than a big batch of cupcakes.  No cake to cut, no plates or silverware-just grab and go! Here a few fun ideas for decorating Halloween cupcakes:

These monster cupcakes are decorated with candies, marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, and licorice.  The bottom right cupcake’s tentacles are made from strips of Laffy Taffy, and the bottom left is constructed out of gum drops and Good & Plenty licorice candies.  Click on the photo to see a diagram of all the candies used.

These spider cupcakes look like a real chocolate fix!   They are chocolate cupcakes and chocolate icing topped with chocolate sprinkles, red hots for eyes, and black licorice ropes for legs.

Other ideas for decorating Halloween cupcakes:  Candy corn, candy pumpkins, gummy body parts, orange frosting, marshmallow ghosts, etc.

It’s easier and much quicker to make a lot of cupcakes if you have at least two cupcake pans, so you can work on filling one while the other is in the oven.  The pumpkin cupcake pan above turns out 4 jack-o-lantern cupcakes, and it’s available at Oriental Trading Company.  For a non-stick option, try silicone bakeware.

Need more ideas?  Check out our Halloween recipes!