A Southern Fairytale: A Southern Fried Mom Blog

By Rachel on February 8, 2010

Know what those are?

Those are the Mashed Potatoes that won the Tastemaker 2K10 Cook off Challenge at Blissdom.

and they’re mine.

I can’t even begin to put into words how much fun the Tastemaker Challenge was. Crazy, loud, exhilarating, insane, silly, fun, tasty…

They did such a good job driving us crazy keeping the details secret! They had great shirts made for us that said “Team (tastemaker’s name)

There might have been a bit of competition between the Tastemaker fans, as you can see with Tanis and Casey

However, no potatoes were harmed during this picture but MANY were consumed by the hungry crowd in the form of the Mashed Potato Bar and the signature Potato Vodka cocktails.

We were given 20 minutes, a secret ingredient, a ’style’ mashed, baked etc… and a table full of possibilities to use as well as already cooked potatoes.

My secret ingredient was fresh basil! My first thought.. SCORE! Y’all know that I love me some Basil!!!

I grabbed some of my favorite ingredients:

potatoes
greek yogurt (NOM)
blue cheese crumbles
tabasco
kosher salt and pepper
fresh basil
a lemon
butter

And I got to workin’ it

My fellow tastemakers were AWESOME and the competition was fierce!!! I had more fun with this Tastemaker Challenge Process and the live cook off was like the loaded toppings on a hot perfectly cooked baked potato.

Enough chatter.. y’all want the recipe, right? RIGHT!

K.. tiny side note.. this was a challenge, I was time crunched.. the exact portions are a bit ‘iff-ish’

4 medium potatoes (110 calories each) (HOLLA to my Team Rachel girl SARAH who knew that when asked!)
greek yogurt ( 1/2 C-ish)
butter ( 2 Tbsp)
salt and pepper
fresh basil leaves
1/2 C blue cheese crumbles (this may have ended up being a cup……)
1 lemon’
tabasco (y’all know it’s up to you.. I added 6 drops)
chicken broth to moisten (milk works, too but we didn’t have any)

Your potatoes should be cooked (keep in mind that in the pics and for the challenge, I served my mashed potatoes in the skins of more potatoes for aesthetics.. if you want to do this, you’ll need more than 4 potatoes)
Finely chop 5 basil leaves (I roll them together and then chop them, much easier) if anyone took a pic of me doing that.. I’d love it!
Put your potatoes (yes, with the skin) in a bowl and mash the livin’ daylights out of them.
Add in greek yogurt, 1/2 C blue cheese crumbles, 2 tsp salt and pepper, add in basil, dashes of tabasco and some chicken broth, veggie broth or milk to moisten and the juice from 1/2 a lemon.
Mash some more and mix some more.. do a little hot potato dance or the mashed potato while you’re at it.

6. Because this was a cook off challenge and we were being judged on Creativity, Taste, Health, Visual and Crowd Participation (seriously y’all.. the crowd was amazing. The Blissdom bloggers ROCKED that party).. I purtied mine up by serving them inside the scooped out skin of two more potatoes.

7. I filled the skins with my mashed potato mixture, topped each with a basil leaf, a bit more blue cheese, some salt and pepper and a teeny squeeze more lemon juice.

They were nommy!!!!!

I have to give a supah star shout-out to my amazing roomie Jo-Lynne because her stupendous videos won her the FAN FAVORITE award at the Tastemaker Challenge!!!

Thank you to EVERYONE who came out to support us, to the AMAZING team at Fleishman-Hillard for putting this ridiculously fun event and project together and to the United States Potato Board, this was one of the highlights of my 2009 and a seriously amazing way to kick off 2010!!!

A special thank you to my fellow tastemakers; Melanie., Jo-Lynne, Jen, Melanie, Jodi, Jim, Amy and Lindsay, it has been my honor, privilege and joy to work with y’all.

If you’re linkin up to Mouthwatering Mondays, YAY! Say HI, leave a comment and leave your recipe URL in the MckLinky.. visit other MWM participants and make sure to link back here so that others can share in the love.

super thank you to Casey, Jessi, Heather, Sarah and Lotus for taking pictures and letting me use them! xoxo

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Posted in mouthwatering monday | Tagged mouthwatering mondays, recipes | 46 Responses

By Rachel on February 2, 2010

Y’all know that I love me some Picnik. Love, puffy, sparkly hearts and rhinestones love me some Picnik.
let’s just state right here for the record, I am getting zippity doo da nada for this post. I just love picnik

There are so many fun options and tools and they are constantly updating and improving *coughmorefontoptionscoughplease* them and there are lots of things that you can do for free with their regular basic membership but there are even more fun things that you can do with the premium membership

(From Blissdom last year where I meg the indomitable Megan who is one of the most amazing people that I’ve ever known)

I know, you’re asking WHY I’m telling y’all about this. Well, not only is it because I love Picnik but also because…. ONE BILLION pictures have been edited on Picnik!!!!!!!!! You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words… that’s a lot of words.

So.. in honor and celebration of that fact.. from Feb. 3 at 9 am PT to Thursday Feb. 4 at 9 am PT Picnik is opening their Premium Suite Tools to EVERYONE!!!! ( that is 11AM CST: 12 NOON EST for those of y’all who like me, would have had to look that up otherwise)

Seriously, y’all should be taking advantage of this. Picnik is super easy to learn, inexpensive and quite user friendly.

Also because Picnik is THAT awesome, they are giving the person who ‘Picniked’ the One Billionth Photo a LIFETIME Premium membership and they’ll be featured on Picnik for the month of February.

So.. GET over to Picnik and try it out, it is SO fun! I use it for virtually all my photo editing.. even if it’s just adding a watermark.

psssst: If you’re going to Blissdom, the darling and amazing Domestic Chicky is not only speaking about photo editing at BlissDom.. rumor has it, she’s going to be giving away some Premium Memberships!!!

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Posted in photography | Tagged photography, picnik | 8 Responses

By Rachel on February 1, 2010

I teased y’all with this picture in the Mouthwatering Monday post. Well, now that my internet is back and working properly again, I can share the recipe goodness with y’all.

Let’s talk about Velveeta and bacon and green chilies and spinach and tomatoes all melted together to form a mouthwateringly delicious dip that is perfect for football parties, birthday parties or just because.

Why should we talk about this? Well, because it’s awesome and everyone should be eating it and because it just happens to be the recipe that I made for my first Kitchenista Vlog and teased y’all about yesterday.

Since January is both Nathan’s birthday month and a BIG Football month here with Nathan’s favorite team of all time, The Colts, who have been tearin’ up the fields, kickin’ trash and takin’ names… we’ve been doing a lot more casual eating, with what we call “football food”. Lots of finger foods, appetizers and the like, so when my Velveeta recipes came in my e-mail it was a no brainer to choose a hearty dip chock full of bacon and spinach and zesty Ro*Tel tomatoes and green chilies!

This dip was super quick to make and the only alteration that I made to the original Velveeta recipe was to use the Mexican Velveeta because we love us a little it of heat!

Normally in my vlogs I’ll let you watch me cook and you’ll see more of me and my kitchen, this time however, we were in the middle of a little DIY re-working of our kitchen cabinets and EVERYTHING from inside my cabinets and drawers was on my counters; the drawers and doors were in the garage… and my kitchen was a disaster, which I think actually proves just how easy this dip is to make because I was able to make it in the midst of chaos.

Cheesy Spinach and Bacon Dip

click the title to go to the Velveeta site for the original recipe

1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 lb (16 oz) Mexican Velveeta, cubed
4 oz (1/2 and 8 oz pkg) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, cubed
1 (10 oz) can Ro*Tel Tomatoes and Green Chilies, NOT drained
8 slices, Bacon. Cooked and Crumbled (I might have used 10)

Cook the bacon (if you place bacon in a cold skillet and heat from there, your bacon won’t curl up as much), set aside and crumble.
Cube the Velveeta and the cream cheese; open the can of Ro*Tel
Put all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and cook for about 2 minutes in the microwave. Stir, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve with your favorite chips and veggies

I hope that y’all make this dip and that y’all get a kick out of my Vlog.

Y’all make sure that you visit the Velveeta It! Kitchenistas FB fan page and see what my fellow Kitchenistas are cooking up!!

Now for that transparency/disclosure part of the program: I have partnered with VELVEETA to serve as one of five VELVEETA it! Kitchenistas. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes vlogging about my cooking experiences with VELVEETA and developing one original VELVEETA-based recipe. I have also been compensated for the food purchased for my VELVEETA vlogs. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

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Posted in recipes | Tagged recipes, velveeta | 7 Responses

By Rachel on February 1, 2010

Just take in the yumminess of that picture!

NOM NOM NOM

Okay, I *had* a pasta post planned for today but my internet is fighting with me (still) So, I’m posting a teaser about tomorrow’s recipe that’s an awesome dip for your next get together to watch football, hockey, the Olympics or just because!!

So, in order to get this up before my internet takes a dive again!!!

Y’all know the rules, link recipe, link back in your post, share the love by visiting others.

MWAH

PS: If you’re going to Blissdom, don’t forget your shoes for Soles 4 Souls to send to Haiti!!

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Posted in mouthwatering monday | Tagged mouthwatering monday | 10 Responses

By Rachel on January 29, 2010

or interpretation is everything..

Thanks to Chick-Fil-A, the kids got two Between The Lions CD’s the other day. They begged me to put them on in the car, so I did.

As soon as the theme song started, Princess started singing and Monkey, not knowing the words, but no less enthusiastic started bopping along in his booster seat.

We listened to the first story on the CD and we talked about it (thank you for awesome car conversations, Chick-fil-A).

Suddenly, Princess perks up. ”

“Mom, Why is it called Between The Lions?”

Okay, take 1: Easy Answer

“Well honey, the main characters are Lions and it’s about them”

I tell you what, you can HEAR the gears churning in that blonde head.

“But then why do they sing… ‘Between the Lions Between The Covers of A Book’ aren’t Lions in jungles and zoos?”

Oh for the love of literal children… *sigh*

Take 2.. more complicated answer

“Well sweetie, when you read books (and in life) there is a saying ‘read between the lines’ it means to read and see more than just what’s written, you should use your imagination and see more than just the written word”

Dead silence back there.

and then.

“So there is more to a book than just what’s written and that’s why the call the show Between The Lions… it’s one of those punks you were telling me about..”

???PUNKS!??

imagine a lightbulb going off over my head

“You mean a PUN?”

Princess: “Oh (giggle) yes ma’am, a pun”

Me: “well, yes honey, kind of. It’s also known as a play on words.. Lions.. Lines…”

Princess: “Okay”

Change the setting to us pulling into the driveway. Monkey VAULTS out of the car and charges through the front door and into his room, he rips a book off his bookshelf and opens it; throws it on the floor and pulls out another one. rinse and repeat 3 or 4 more times.

He then STOMPS his booted feet out into the living room, looks at me accusingly and in his most disappointed and peevish 3 year old voice says: “Mom, there are NO LIONS in my books!!!”

*le sigh*

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