Spring Brunch

11:18 PM ByFiled UnderMain Dishes, Side Dishes

Scalloped Potatoes, Coffee Malts, Berry Lemonade, Macaroni and Cheese and Ham.

glazed ham table of food

All featured, devoured and LOVED at our Spring Brunch last weekend.

(full disclosure:  I hosted the Spring Brunch House Party as a part of my Kitchenista fabulousness)

I’m going to show y’all the video and then share the insanely delicious and easy recipes.

Now that you’re rockin’ to the tunes and drooling over the recipes.. I’m going to share a few recipes with you.

As part of my Kitchenista “ista-ness”  I got to host a Spring Brunch House Party and had friends over to eat, play, laugh and welcome Spring.

The biggest hit of our Spring Brunch had to be the Scalloped Potatoes.  They were kind of ridiculously easy to make and I must admit, that while I’ve always been a bit intimidated by scalloped potatoes… these potatoes were crazy easy to make and only could have been easier if I’d had a mandolin.   Still, slicing each potato by hand.. not really that big a deal.

With Easter this weekend and many other spring parties and summer bbq’s coming up.. this is a recipe that you need to bookmark, it’s delicious, simple and crowd pleasing.

Scalloped Potatoes

sliced potatoes

Recipe: New Look Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 lb red potaotes (9 ish, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices)
  • 16 oz Fat free Sour Cream
  • 3/4 lb (12 oz) Velveeta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 1/2 lb Oscar Mayer Smoked Ham, chopped
  • 4 green onions
  • 1/4 C Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350
  2. Cook potatoes in boiling water in large covered saucepan 10 to 12 minutes or until potatoes are JUST tender.
  3. Remove 3/4 of the potatoes; place in a large bowl. Add sour cream and mash until smooth. Stir in Velveeta, ham and onions. Gently mix in remaining potato slices.
  4. Spoon into a 9X13 baking dish that has been coated with baking spray; top with parmesan.
  5. Bake 30 minutes

Quick Notes

* I used 6 green onions stalks * I used the Kraft 3 Cheese Blend because it’s my favorite

Variations

* I added 2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Microformatting by hRecipe.
I wish that I’d gotten a good picture of this macaroni and cheese.  It was silly easy to make and everyone devoured it.  I actually caught Nathan eating it cold out of the serving bowl at the end of the day.
I used wheel shaped pasta because when I went shopping I had the 3 yo Monkey with me and that’s what he requested.
wheel pasta

Recipe: Easy Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (8 oz.) elbow macaroni, uncooked
  • 3/4 lb. (12 oz.) Velveeta cheese product, cut up
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/8 tsp. pepper

Instructions

  1. Cook macaroni as directed on package; drain well. Return to pan.
  2. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Cook on low heat until Velveeta is melted, stirring frequently.

Quick Notes

I added: * 1/4 C Cream Cheese * 1 extra Tbsp pepper * used the whole 16 oz of Velveeta Quite seriously y’all.. this was the EASIEST and most delicious Mac and Cheese I’ve ever made

Variations

* I used the wheel pasta because that’s what the 3 yo wanted when we were at the store.

Microformatting by hRecipe.
The Easter Ham Recipes can be found Here
The Berry Lemonade Recipe can be found Here
This party was hosted as a part of my Kitchenista “istaness” and while my time is compensated, the opinions are entirely my own.
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Easter Menu Planning

12:22 AM ByFiled UnderMouthwatering Monday, Recipes, Side Dishes

Do you plan your Easter Menu?

Easter Menus can be daunting, the planning.. down right frightening.  Do you serve Ham or Lamb?  How many side dishes do you make?  Do you serve appetizers?

For my family, it’s always been Ham on Easter, Turkey at Thanksgiving and Chili on Christmas Eve.

If this is the first Easter meal that you’ve cooked it can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.  Seriously y’all.. don’t let it.

I’m going to be playing with some Ham recipes this week and I’ll share them very soon, promise.

For today.. here are two side dishes that will be appearing on OUR Easter table:

Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Potato Casserole

sundried tomato basil casserole

I made this potato chip topped, creamy, flavor packed, cream cheese enhanced casserole last Easter and it was one of the first things to FLY off our table.  Seriously, you add potatoes, green onions, sour cream, potato chips, sun dried tomato and basil cream cheese, cheese and more… how can you go wrong?  Plus, it’s EASY to make!!!!

You can find the recipe here.

Chilled Green Bean and Potato Salad

green bean and potato salad

Fresh, crisp green beans, baby red potatoes, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, red wine vinaigrette and more blend together in a dressing that adds a special zing and unique flavor to this refreshing twist on a green bean side dish.  If you’re tired of the same green bean or potato salad dish, this is the side dish to add to your table.  When I serve it, it gets thumbs up from everyone and requests for it to show up again sooner rather than later.

Recipe here

What’s going to be on your table this Easter?  Do y’all do Ham, Lamb or something else for a main dish?

I’d love y’all to share your Easter Menus and Ideas!

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Mashed Potatoes with Fresh Basil, Blue Cheese and Greek Yogurt

1:56 AM ByFiled UnderMouthwatering Monday, Recipes, Side Dishes

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)
  1. 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)
  2. 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!
  3. Put your potatoes (yes, with the skin) in a bowl and mash the livin’ daylights out of them.
  4. 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.
  5. 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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