Tag: mashed potatoes

Posted on

A Little This, A Little That

Hello! It is a beautiful day here. It isn’t too hot or too chilly…………….just right! Goldilocks would approve!

I have some stuff, as usual, to share with you. I hope you find something useful and interesting in this post.

In the kitchen…………

Baked Pork Chops

I had some boneless, center cut chops I wanted to prepare. They turned out great! They were moist and very flavorful. The bonus is that they were super easy to make.

  • 4 boneless pork chops
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup seasoned Italian bread crumbs

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with foil for easy clean up. On a plate combine the garlic powder, black pepper, bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Rub the pork chops with the olive oil. Then coat both sides of the chops with the mixture you made on the plate. Place on the foil and bake in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Pork is done when it has an internal temperature of 145 degrees according to the USDA.

As a side note, I absolutely love my digital meat thermometer! They are reasonably priced and so useful! I am not sure what I did before I had one.

Fruit Cocktail Cake

When I was a child I loved fruit cocktail. However, as an adult, I’m not that thrilled by it. Somehow I ended up with a couple of random cans and I am never one to throw out anything or just let it expire. I hunted around and found this recipe. I don’t know who to give credit to for the recipe.

It actually turned out great! The cake was very moist, had a little crunchy layer on top and was easy to make. It wasn’t too sweet either. I think you would like it.

  •  1  1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cans of fruit cocktail (drained)
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the sugar and the eggs together. Mix the dry ingredients together (except the nuts and brown sugar) and add them to the sugar and egg mixture. Add the fruit cocktail and mix well. Pour mixture into a greased 9″ X 13″ pan. Mix the nuts and brown sugar together and sprinkle on the cake. Bake for 45 minutes.

    

Peanut Butter Cheerio Marshmallow Treats 

*from the blog Just A Taste

I thought I would try something other than Rice Krispies. I found a recipe with peanut butter and chocolate. As my brother, Doug, would say, there’s nothing wrong with peanut butter and chocolate together! He says it with some deep love and some exuberance!

  • 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter 
  • 1 (10-oz.) package marshmallows
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 6 cups Cheerios cereal
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Using either the microwave and a large enough bowl for your ingredients or the stove top with a large enough pan for all ingredients,  melt the butter and then add the marshmallows to melt. If using the microwave stop every 30 seconds to stir and check progress. Once both are melted and combined add the vanilla and then the peanut butter. Once that is incorporated add your Cheerios and stir to coat all the cereal. Spread into a 9″ X 13″ greased pan. Melt the chocolate chips and then spatter, (or drizzle, pipe, or whatever technique you want to use) the melted chocolate on top of the treats. Allow to set.

* I used salted butter. No harm, no foul! I never have unsalted butter on hand and I am not purchasing a whole pound of it to use a few tablespoons. These were YUMMY!

Projects 

I wanted to give you an update on my vintage metal picnic baskets turned flower boxes. I added some petunias and I am much happier with them now!

I have been gradually decorating the house for Summer. One of the areas I have tackled is my table. I bought some cute “nautical” type place-mats at The Christmas Tree Shoppe. You know they weren’t expensive coming from there. I believe I paid $1.99. I liked them but they needed some dressing up. I decided I wanted some cloth napkins and rings to put on them. I bought 4 fat quarters at Walmart for $1.97 each in a color and design I thought would go with the place-mats. I cut squares out of each quarter (not wasting hardly any material) and washed them. The edges frayed a little and I frayed them a little more. Over time I would like each napkin to have a frayed edge of about a quarter-inch. I love the vintage tablecloths and napkins that are done in this style. As a matter of fact, I collect them! For the “napkin rings” I used some jute that I had to tie up the napkins.  Then I folded the napkins accordion style and then in half. The look is nice and I am pleased.

Tips and Tricks

I have to say that I used it to make mashed potatoes and they were absolutely heavenly! I am anxious to use it again and I would highly recommend the investment.

  • I am quite often annoyed when I boil eggs, particularly when I do so for deviled eggs. Sometimes they come out so easy to peel and sometimes they are not! My latest quest was to find a method that is successful most of the time. My first attempt was using the following method.

Place the eggs in a saucepan.

Cover the eggs with lukewarm water.

Add in vinegar and pinch salt.

Bring to a full boil over medium heat; boil for 2 minutes (start timing after the water reaches a full boil).

Remove from heat cover with a tight lid.

Allow the eggs to stand for 11 minutes.

The results were not good and I followed the directions exactly! I will forge on to the next method. If anyone has a surefire way please leave a comment and let me know!

  • I don’t know if many people use bobby pins any more. I have some kicking around here and I did some research on creative ways to use them. You can use them to zip or unzip a zipper that has lost its tab by inserting the pin into the eye of the slider. You can also put a bobby pin at the bottom of a tube of toothpaste and slide it up as you use the toothpaste. Waste not, want not! You are assured of getting as much as you possibly can out of the tube. Lastly and this is my personal favorite, you can put a bobby pin at the loose end of a roll of tape and never struggle to find the end again!
  • Recently, my daughter, Sara, and I have been on a “clean out the clutter” campaign. We have donated, thrown out and sold a lot of stuff! It is very freeing!

Anyway, one of the items of her’s that we tried to sell was a stack of DVDs. We tried our favorite Facebook selling page at a super cheap price and no bites. I remembered something about online sites that would buy used electronics, games, tablets, and movies and with very little effort found Decluttr (that is not a spelling error) and Second Spin.

Out of the two sites I prefer Decluttr because they allow you to print a shipping label at their expense. Second Spin has you pay for the postage and then be reimbursed at a media mail rate. Decluttr, I found, took less DVDs but paid better. I first submitted the upc code on Decluttr and if they weren’t taking that movie then I tried Second Spin.

Both sites give you money through your Paypal when they receive and process the box. I sent the Decluttr shipment through UPS which is the label they provided and with Second Spin I used USPS and told them it was a media shipment. There were about 50 movies in the box and it cost $8.27 to mail them as media mail.

There was a little effort involved but it wasn’t horrible. Both sites were easy to use but due to Decluttr supplying the shipping label that is my favorite. I have placed the links below for you to check them out.

decluttr.com

secondspin.com

Happy Father’s Day to all the Daddy’s out there! Be sure to leave a comment or share a trick or tip with all of us. See you soon!

Posted on

Now On To The Leftovers

I hope your Thanksgiving was great and that you were surrounded with positive people and of course, tons of food.

We had the best Thanksgiving in recent years. Now, I say this not because previous ones were bad in any way but mainly because I didn’t have any hiccups in the meal preparation and I even had time after dinner to play some cards which I really enjoy.

Last year the rolls were a little over done and the bottom of the pumpkin pie cake was burned. Those are two of my kids’ favorite things and I was happy this year both items came out as they should have. I also didn’t forget anything for the meal. No trip to the store at the last minute is a plus. Last year I forgot to take the family picture which I take every year and use in my Christmas cards. This year we took great pictures!

Now, we are onto the leftovers. Everyone loves leftovers from the Thanksgiving feast. I purposely make extra so that each person goes home with a plate to enjoy later. My brother, Doug, even comes to the dinner with his own containers to take some home. I told you, WE LOVE LEFTOVERS! Items from the dinner included, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, butternut squash, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn, pumpkin pie cake, sweet potato pie,  and mixed berry pie.

Even after I had a couple of meals from my leftovers I still had some items in the refrigerator that needed to be put to use. I had an abundance of mashed potatoes and quite a bit of sweet potato casserole. I decided to make potato soup (I love soup!) with the mashed potatoes and I found a recipe for using leftover sweet potato casserole to make biscuits. I am sharing them below.

Leftover Mashed Potato Soup

  • 4 cups of mashed potatoes
  • 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Chives, bacon crumbles, and grated cheddar for garnish

In a stock pot  heat the olive oil and then add the chopped onion. Saute the onion until it was translucent. Next, add the mashed potatoes and the broth.  Then add salt and pepper to the pot. Simmer these on medium until the mixture is warm, the flavors have a chance to combine and many of the lumps of potatoes have been incorporated. Finally, use a submersion blender to get all of the lumps out and fully incorporate all of the mashed potatoes with the broth. Just for good measure I simmered the soup for a few more minutes with the lid on. I left the lid on because I didn’t want the liquid to reduce any further. After ladling the soup into bowls garnish with chives, bacon, and grated cheddar.

*Notes: This recipe was a combination of several that I found online. I just used the parts of recipes that sounded good to me. It was outstanding!

 

Sweet Potato Casserole Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 oz. (4 tablespoons) cold butter
1/8 cup milk
1 cup sweet potato casserole
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients. Add the cold butter which has been cut into chunks. Use a pastry cutter  to incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients. If you don’t have a pastry cutter,  use a fork. It can be done, it just isn’t as easy. Once this is done add the milk and the sweet potato casserole. Form a ball with your dough and using a rolling pin roll it out until the dough is 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or sprayed with pan spray. Bake in the oven for 9 to 11 minutes.
*Notes: This recipe was from the Pinterest board, Home Cooking Memories.
I followed the recipe exactly but set my timer for 7 minutes instead of 9-11. The first time I make a recipe I want to make sure I don’t over bake it. As it turned out, the biscuits were done perfectly in 7 minutes. The difference in baking time is most likely due to each oven being different.
As you will likely notice in the pictures, I put chopped pecans in my sweet potato casserole and they are a really nice addition to the biscuits. I will definitely make this again!
I want to add a little something about the parchment paper I use. I have for many years used parchment or baking paper that came in rolls like foil. Recently, a friend, Linda, told me that they now sell sheets of the paper. That is nice since if you have worked with this product before you know that it is a struggle to get the parchment paper that is in a roll to lay on the baking sheet without curling. When the paper is in sheets it lays nice and flat. That is so much more convenient! It can be quite expensive but I happened to stumble upon it one night with Linda at our local Dollar Tree store. They sell it in packages of 10 sheets for a dollar. That is a bargain!
Odd Item
This morning while washing dishes I was cleaning my spatula from breakfast with the dishcloth and it just snapped in half! I have only had it for a couple of months and I use it exclusively for making eggs. To say I was surprised is an understatement. I have decided I am going to write the company since it is a rather well known one and let them know what happened. I think it must be a design flaw.
I once wrote about a kind of large set of utensils (you know, large and small spatulas, ladle, slotted and solid spoons, etc.) They weren’t cheap.
I loved them except for one thing. Apparently, when I washed them, water would get into what must have been hollow handles and then when I would use them water would come running out. This happened several times and that water went right into whatever I was cooking. I tried draining them at every angle but it didn’t work. It was very unsanitary to say the least.
I wrote the company about this flaw. They totally surprised me by allowing me to pick out a new set from their website. I still have that set and they must have corrected the design flaw since it doesn’t happen with the new ones.
Just to be clear the small spatula I used for eggs and the other set are not made by the same company.
Christmas Idea
Wrapping paper can be quite expensive. There are alternatives to using traditional wrapping paper. When I was a kids I can remember my Mom saving the colored comics from the Sunday paper to use as wrapping paper for a child’s gift. For a person who loves to read, even the black and white pages make a great wrapping! Other items might include fabric scraps ( you can also use fabric scrapes to make bags just by stitching 3 sides together), maps, butcher paper, paper bags, pillow cases ( just add a drawstring or tie with a ribbon), or use part of the gift as wrapping such as a baby towel or blanket or a sheet. When using plain paper the sky is the limit to how you can embellish it. You can stamp on it, paint on it, autograph it, tie it with colorful twine or add a sprig of pine or a cinnamon stick. Use your imagination. Look in your drawers and your sewing basket!
Gift tags can also be re-imagined. One year I used an old deck of cards, cut the edges with pinking shears, punched a hole in one corner, used a black sharpie to write the name on it and a ribbon to attach it to the gift. Another year I used old photos from my Mom’s photos that were of landscapes, cars, and other items like that. They had no special meaning to me. I punched a hole in the corner and used twine to attach it to the gifts. The bonus was that my family loved they they were Grandma’s pictures!
Christmas Decor
This year I had seen an idea on Pinterest to use a ladder and decorate it like a tree with lights and all! I thought I would try it out. I bought lights, large ornaments, and a large gold bow for the top.
My one quandary was how to keep it anchored so the wind didn’t blow it over. The ladder was my Mom’s and is an aluminium one which is very light. I decided to use tent stakes, supplied by my daughter, Sara, and zip ties (gosh how I love zip ties!) I used two on each side. Well, it was windy yesterday and a couple of the stakes pulled right out of the ground. In desperation, I grabbed a brick and put it hidden out of sight on the bottom step! Necessity really is the mother of invention! I think it turned out nicely.

 

 

Verified by MonsterInsights