Southwestern Potato Casserole - WTF and WOW Recipe Wednesday

Source

Source

Crystal Meth Barbie and Ken
Source

Southwestern Potato Casserole

Ingredients

1 (32 oz) bag shredded hash browns

1 can cream of chicken soup

16 oz sour cream

1 tbsp dried minced onion flakes

1 can Rotel, drained

8 oz Velveeta cheese, grated

2 cups crushed tortilla chips

¼ cup butter

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine sour cream, cream of chicken soup, Rotel tomatoes and cheese in large bowl.  Fold in the hash browns and pour into a 3-quart casserole that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

You can divide the potato mixture between three 8 x 8 foil pans and freeze two of them.  Just cover the pans with saran wrap and foil and pop them in the freezer.  Thaw a pan in the refrigerator on the morning you want to serve them.

Top casserole with crushed tortilla chip and drop dollops of butter on top.  Bake for 45 minutes.

Recipe Source

As God Is My Witness...I'll Never Go Hungry Again and Yellow Squash Stuffing

Last year I suffered a lot of grief and stress at the hands/paws/talon-like feet of various woodland creatures in my yard.  They ravaged my strawberries, tomatoes, squash, zucchini and sanity.  The frustration of watching fruits and vegetables nearly reach their pick time and then suddenly being stolen by animals in the dead of night is measurable only by being immeasurable.  The only thing exposing their cowardly crimes were the remnants left after the massacre…remnants that provided a visual to haunt my nightmares.  Finally, utterly broken, at the end of the season, I put on my gardening corset, petticoat and bonnet, I walked to my box gardens and shaking my parasol to the heavens made a vow to stop the insanity and grow some freaking food.  It looked a bit like this…

This season, I have honored that promise.  I made a cage for my tomatoes (click here for instructions) and hired 24 armed guards (armless guards can't shoot) to patrol the area.  The outcome has been amazing.  We are having tomatoes with nearly everything…including on our cereal in the morning.  I’ve also begun to share the fruits of my labor.  That is the great thing about gardeners, we share!  One of my friends bought me lots of squash from her mother’s garden.  It is delicious.  Here is a recipe I suggest you try if you are looking for something different to make with squash.

Yellow Squash Stuffing

Ingredients

2 cups diced yellow squash

2 cups crumbled cornbread (I just used Betty Crocker Cornbread Mix and made six muffins)

½ cup margarine, melted

2 teaspoons dried sage

1 (10.75 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup

1 egg, beaten

1 large onion, chopped

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup milk

Preparations

Place squash in a pot fitted with a steamer basket over boiling water, and steam 10 minutes, or until tender.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a medium baking dish.

In a bowl, mix the squash, cornbread, margarine, sage, cream of mushroom soup, egg, onion, sugar, salt and pepper, and milk.  Transfer to prepared baking dish.

Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.

Recipe Source

Click Here to Print Recipe!

Tomatoes!!!

I can't wait to make a cucumber salad with these guys.

This actually is a red pepper.  I may excitement pee in my pants when this pepper turns red!

Sea Salt and Vinegar Roasted Baby Potatoes - WTF and WOW Recipe Wednesday

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Sea Salt and Vinegar Roasted Baby Potatoes

Ingredients

Drizzle of Olive Oil

2 cups of teeny tiny baby potatoes

Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Malt Vinegar, to taste

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Boil the baby potatoes in a pot of water for 5-7 minutes.  Remove from the water and place onto a baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray.  Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil then season with a bit of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste.  Place the baking dish into the oven and roast for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and fork tender.  Remove from the oven and toss the potatoes with malt vinegar, to taste and add a bit more sea salt, to taste.  Toss until evenly coated then serve immediately.  Enjoy!

Recipe Source

Cheese Puffs - "True" History Tuesday

Facts state that the cheese puff (puffed corn-based snack with cheese) was invented in the United States in the 1930s when the Flakall Corporation of Wisconsin deep-fried and salted puffed corn and added cheese.  However, “True” History Tuesday reveals that this is only partially true.  Cheese Puffs were originally discovered growing wild on small trees by Amerigo Vespucci.  Vespucci was on an expedition in 1501 when, along the Eastern Coast of South America, he found miles and miles of Chizito Trees.  Fruit from the Chizito Tree yielded the tasty cheese puff snack.  Thousands of bags were filled with the cheese puff fruit.  So many bags could be filled because each bag actually weighed less than 17.2 pounds.  All the bags were taken back to the Old World. Eventually, the Chizito Trees were picked so many times that they no longer produced their cheese puff fruit.  Sadly, the trees died out.  Based on Vespucci's secret journals, the owners of the Flakall Corporation reproduced the snack.

Rachael Ray’s Cheese and Herb Puffs

Ingredients

1 cup water

6 tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup flour

4 eggs

2 tablespoons fresh herbs, such as thyme, rosemary and parsley

1 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium size saucepot over medium-high heat, combine the water, butter and salt.  Heat until the butter has melted and water is boiling.  Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, with a wooden spoon.  Stir until the mixture begins to create a dough ball in the center of the pot and the dough is completely pulling away from the sides of the pan, about 2 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  On low speed, add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl well after each addition and beating until the bowl feels cool (the mixture should be very smooth and silky).  Add in the herbs and cheese after the last addition of egg. 

Transfer the mixture to a plastic food storage bag and cut a half-inch off of one corner to create a pastry bag.  On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, squeeze the mixture into small rounds. Bake until golden brown and puffed, about 25 minutes.  The pastries can be made a day or two ahead of time and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.  If they feel soggy when you take them out, pop them into a 400 degree oven for a couple of minutes until they are crisp again.

Recipe Source

Click Here to Print Recipe