Touchdown Taco Dip from Pampered Chef

1 can re-fried beans (16oz)
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 TBSP taco seasoning mix (or Pampered Chef Southwestern Seasoning)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 oz cheddar cheese, shredded (1/2C)
1/2 cup pitted ripe olives, sliced
1 med tomato, seeded & diced
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions with tops
2 TBSP fresh cilantro or parsley thinly sliced
tortilla chips

1 Preheat oven to 350 Spread re-fried beans over bottom of a 9x13 glass dish. In bowl combine cream cheese, sour cream, & taco seasoning. Finely chop garlic; add to bowl and mix well.

2 Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over beans. Grate cheese over top. Bake 15-18 min or until hot.

3 To prepare toppings, slice olives. Dice Tomato and thinly slice green onions. Thinly Slice cilantro. Sprinkle them all over dip. Garnish with additional sour cream, if desired.

4 Serve with Tortilla Chips.

Pasta Shells

Cottage cheese or Ricotta cheese
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2-3 C Mozzarella cheese
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 T parsley
Italian seasoning
pepper

Mix all together and add meat (browned hamburger if you want it). Stuff into cooked shells and place in baking dish. pour spaghetti sauce over the top and sprinkle any cheese you want on top.
Bake 350 for about 30 minutes. until bubbly

Carmel Pops

Off of the Clover Club Bag

8 oz of Pops
1/2 C Butter
1/2 C Karo Syrup
1C Brown Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda

While mixing, cook butter, syrup, & Brown sugar for 2 minutes or until bubbly around the edges, remove from heat.  Add 1 tsp baking soda to cause foaming (this will allow for proper coverage of the pops)  Pour Carmel slurry over pops and stir until pops are coated evenly.  Place in oven at 250 for approx 45 min stirring ever 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and pour onto wax paper.  Break apart (before they cool) to desired pieces.

I use a disposable turkey roasting pan to make mine.

Best Ever Mashed Potatoes

Figure out how many potatoes you need for your group.

Fresh Potatoes, Mashed Servings: 25 Serving Size: 1/2 cup Amount Needed: 7 pounds
(from BHG http://www.bhg.com/thanksgiving/planning/thanksgiving-food-shopping/)

Wash, Peel, & Boil your Potatoes until done.  at this point drain the potatoes and place them on a greased (butter or olive oil) cookie sheet.  bake them at 350 for at least 30 minutes.  The goal is to dry out the potatoes as much as possible.  Once you have dried them out you want to run them through a potato ricer or we use the Fruit & Vegetable Strainer on our Kitchen Aid Mixer to speed up the process.  (You made need to add a little cream to get the dry potatoes to move through the strainer).

At this point there are still no measurements, you just add soft butter and cream to the potatoes until you get the consistency you want.   At this point you can season them as you please, we just do a little salt so the potatoes can just compliment the flavor of the Turkey, Gravy, Stuffing, etc.

We were given this recipe by Ethan at Communal Restaurant in Provo Utah (one of our favorites)
http://heirloomrestaurantgroup.com/blog/category/communal/
http://communalrestaurant.com/

Peanut Asian noodles & Chicken

I have a new go to dinner!  There is a recipe on this blog for Pad Thai that I Love but I just can never find the time to make it, don't get me wrong it is worth it but with 3 kids with one on the way dinner needs to be quick.  So here is my simplified version:

1 TBSP Ginger Root Puree** (if you don't have gingerroot it will still be good but ground ginger doesn't have the same flavor so I would just leave it out)
1 TBSP Sesame Oil
4 TBSP (1/4C) Soy Sauce or Braggs,  I use the TBSP measurement to save a dish to wash  :)
1/2 tsp Siracha
1/2 C Creamy Peanut Butter

I mixed these in a bowl and microwaved to soften the PB but it never combined all the way and that is okay it will later.  :)

I diced some chicken and browned it, and boiled some noodles.  We had it once with Linguine and once with spaghetti, whatever noodle you favor or happen to have on hand.

Then mix them all in a pot and stir well.

At this point you can steam whatever veggies you want, we went with broccoli, but you could add so much more at this point, whatever you have on hand.  It is also still good without veggies if you don't have any on hand.  :)

**I buy a larger gingerroot peel it, dice it and then puree it in the magic bullet or blender with a little water and then freeze it in a mini muffin pan like they did here with cilantro, but I line the pan with saran wrap to make it easy to remove from the pan.  :)

http://www.thyhandhathprovided.com/2011/05/preserving-cilantroin-april.html

Basic Pasta Recipe

Putting this in a safe place for my hubby! ;)

1 1/2C Bob's Semolina Flour (guess where we got the recipe?)
1/2 tsp salt, optional
2 eggs or 3 egg whites, beaten
2 TBSP Water
2 TBSP Olive Oil

Combine Semolina Flour and salt.  Add beaten eggs (or egg whites), water and oil.  Mix to make a stiff dough.  Knead 10 minutes or until dough is elastic.  Wrap dough in a towel or place in a plastic bag and let rest 20 minutes.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out to desired thickness and cut as desired.  Bring large pot of water containing 1/2 tsp oil to a boil.  Add pasta and cook until tender.  When making lasagna, no need to boil noodles.  Add directly to your recipe.  Serve with your favorite sauce or pesto or toss with olive oil or butter, pepper and Parmesan cheese.

** Note from package:  Many People prefer making pasta using 50% Semolina & 50% Unbleached White Flour. **

Curried Squash Soup

I modified the recipe I found here... at Simply Recipes

Curried Squash Soup Recipe

• Prep time: 15 minutes (prepping my butternut squash took more than 15 min ;)
• Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 1 2-lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, diced into 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch cubes, yielding about 6 cups of cubed squash (see how to cut and peel a butternut squash)
• Olive oil
• 1 stick of butter
• Salt
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped  (I used about 1/4C dehydrated because I didn't have fresh on hand)
• 2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
• 1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds (if you substitute ground mustard, only use 1/4 teaspoon)
• A dash of ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
• 4 cups chicken stock (instead of chicken stock I use 1/2Tbsp to 1C water of Kirkland organic no salt seasoning)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2-1 cup sour cream (can substitute plain yogurt)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (can substitute parsley) (I didn't have either on hand and I think it would be even better with them, if you have them, I did use dried Cilantro)
• I also added about 1/8-1/4C cream of coconut, I think you could add a lot more.

Method

1 Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large, thick-bottomed stock pot on medium heat. Add a dab of butter to the olive oil. Working in two batches so as not to crowd the pan, add the cubed butternut squash to the pan. Toss to coat all sides with oil. Sprinkle a little salt over the squash. Then spread out in an even layer and let cook, stirring only occasionally, so that the edges and sides get lightly browned. You may need to adjust the heat up to ensure browning, or down to prevent burning or drying out. Add more oil and butter for the additional batches. Remove from pan and set aside. (I didn't remove from pan)

2 Heat another tablespoon of olive oil in the pot, on medium heat. Add the chopped onions and cook, stirring now and then, until softened. Add the curry powder, mustard seeds, cumin, and fresh ginger, and cook for a minute or so longer. Use a flat bottomed wooden or metal spatula to scrape up any browned bits.
3 Return the butternut squash to the pot. Add the chicken stock and a teaspoon of salt. Increase the heat to bring to a simmer, then lower the heat to maintain a low simmer, cover the pot. Cook for 40 minutes until squash is completely tender. Use an immersion blender (or a stand up blender in which case work in batches, I like the blender better, I don't like the texture I end up with when I use the immersion blender) to blend the soup smooth. Add more salt to taste if needed.
Serve in individual bowls with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped cilantro.

This was delicious!  My 10 yr old and 1 yr old enjoyed it, I loved it, and when my hubby gets home I am confident he will enjoy it.  :)