Sweet Potato Casserole

For all of you sweet potato haters out there that are turning their noses up at this post right now, I have one question for you,  "Have you actually ever tasted a sweet potato?" That is the first thing I say to people that tell me they don't like them.  I'll be the first to admit that up until two years ago, I was one of those haters, but to be honest with you, I had never even tasted a sweet potato.  What is it about them that makes us automatically think they must be disgusting? 

About two years ago, at Thanksgiving dinner up at Jake's parents, he pretty much forced me to taste his mom's sweet potato casserole, because he knew that I would love it.  Boy was he right, I not only liked it, but I really did love it.  I don't know what I was afraid of all those years growing up when aunt Patrecia would pass her sweet potatoes around the table and I would cross my fingers that she wouldn't make me eat them?  As long as you like pecans, brown sugar and coconut, I honestly don't see how you could not like these?  I have never had the kind with marshmallows on top,  but this version with the crunchy topping is AMAZING I tell ya.  

Creamy, crunchy and oh so delicious!!!!  I cooked two large and one medium yam and ended up with about 4 cups of mashed yams, so two large yams should be plenty for this recipe.  

Sweet Potato Casserole

from: Lisa M. (Jake's Mom)

(Printable Recipe)

3 c. mashed yams

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. evaporated milk

Topping:

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/3 c. butter

1 c. chopped pecans

1 c. coconut

Combine cooked mashed yams, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and evaporated milk.  Pour into 9x13 casserole dish.  For the topping: combine brown sugar, flour, pecans and coconut; cut in butter and sprinkle over potato mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  

I Love Taquitos!

Do these look good or what?  We have been making these for a few years now and absolutely love them.  So, you have to make these, because you and your family will absolutely love everything about them.  We made these last Sunday for dinner, we were going to grill up some steaks, but Jake was golfing all day, so when he got home, he wanted something quick and easy.  These taquitos are just that . . . quick and easy.  I hurried and threw some seasoning on a chicken breast and baked it in the oven for about 45 minutes, but if you have leftover chicken or even a rotisserie chicken, feel free to use that.  One large Costco chicken breast is enough for five taquitos.  

Chicken Taquitos

From: Jenn-eatcakefordinner.blogspot.com

(Printable Recipe)

shredded chicken, cooked

cheddar cheese, grated

soft corn tortillas

iceberg lettuce, shredded

Roma tomatoes, chopped

yellow onion, finely chopped

jalapeno, ribbed, seeded and finely chopped 

cilantro, chopped

lime, juiced

salt and pepper

Italian dressing, opt.

sour cream or mexican crema

vegetable oil

toothpicks

For pico de gallo: Combine tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper and a small amount of Italian dressing (if using); set aside.  Heat about 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Warm tortillas in microwave, about 30 seconds or until pliable.  Top each tortilla with some shredded chicken and some shredded cheese.  Roll up tightly and fasten with a toothpick.  Place, toothpick side down, in hot oil and fry until crisp, flip using tongs and fry other side until crisp.  Remove to a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with salt.  Remove toothpicks.  Place on serving plate and drizzle with sour cream or crema or a mixture of both.  Top with shredded lettuce and fresh pico de gallo.  Serve.   

Caramel Banana Pudding Pie

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.  Time to start gathering up which recipes will make it to the table.  I wanted a pie recipe that would "wow" the guests.  When I saw this pie on a recent episode of Dessert First, I knew this might just be that special recipe.  I immediately went to the store and gathered up the ingredients to give it a try.  I started by making the caramel sauce.  It only has three ingredients and I barely had enough cream for the recipe, so I crossed my fingers that this would work the first time.  Well, it looked like caramel and tasted good, but it ended up being a little grainy, so I'm not sure if I burned it or what?  Anyway, I hoped the crust and remaining ingredients would hide the graininess of the caramel.  The caramel was supposed to set for four hours, but I didn't want to wait that long, so I put it in the fridge to speed up the process and I just made sure to stir it every so often.  Then, I made the Nilla® Wafer crust - yum!  Next, I made the pudding and it was sooooo easy, no way you could mess that up.  

Time to assemble the pie.  You take your cooled crust  and layer it with the caramel sauce and sliced bananas, then a layer of pudding, another layer of caramel sauce and bananas, followed by another layer of pudding.  Let that chill overnight, then top it all off with homemade whipping cream and a drizzle of caramel and crushed wafers.   I was excited to try the homemade whipping cream with almond extract instead of vanilla extract, but when I went to grab my almond extract it was gone.  So, I ended up using vanilla.  I couldn't wait to try it.  I was ready to cut the first slice and realized that I forgot to add the fleur de sel (salt) to the caramel.  Crap.  So, I ended up with Caramel Banana Pudding Pie instead of Salted Caramel Banana Pudding Pie.  Oh well.  

I don't know what happened to my caramel overnight, but it disappeared?  I couldn't taste any caramel at all in the pie.  It just tasted like banana cream pie, but it was very very delicious!!  The Nilla® Wafer crust with homemade pudding, fresh bananas and homemade whipping cream!  How could you not love it.  Well, I loved it, so give it a try!!  I will definitely be making this again!!   

Caramel Banana Pudding Pie

adapted from: Food Network

(Printable Recipe)

1 box Nilla® Wafers

6 Tbl. butter, melted

3 large ripe bananas (I used 4)

1 c. salted caramel, plus more for garnish, recipe follows

vanilla pudding, recipe follows

1 c. heavy cream

1/2 tsp. almond extract (I used vanilla)

2 Tbl. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put 60 vanilla wafers in a food processor and pulse until the cookies are finely crushed.  Reserve 1/4 cup to top the pie.  Stir together remaining crumbs with the melted butter until blended.  Firmly press it into the bottom, up the sides and onto the lip of a greased 9-inch pie plate.  Bake until lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes.  Remove and let cool completely, about 30 minutes. 

Coat the banana slices with salted caramel (1 cup caramel plus 1 tsp. fleur de sel).  Arrange half of the caramel-coated banana slices evenly over the bottom of the crust.  Spread half the hot, prepared pudding over the bananas, top with more caramel-coated bananas.  Spread the remaining pudding over the bananas.  Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks are just about to form.  Add the almond extract and sugar and beat until peaks form.  Make sure not to over beat, or the cream will become lumpy.  Spread the cream over the chilled pie.  Just before serving, garnish with a caramel swirl and the reserved wafer crumbs.

Creamy Caramel Sauce:

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. water

1 1/4 c. heavy cream

Over low heat, mix the water and sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Cook until the sugar dissolves, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Do not stir.  Increase the heat to medium and boil, uncovered, until the sugar turns a warm chestnut brown, about 5 to 7 minutes, gently swirling the pan to stir the mixture.  Be careful - the mixture is extremely hot.  Watch the mixture very carefully at the end, as it will go from caramel to burnt very quickly.  Turn off the heat and stand back to avoid splattering.  Slowly add the cream.  Don't panic - the cream will bubble violently and the caramel will solidify.  Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until the caramel dissolves and the sauce is smooth, about 2 minutes.  Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours.  It will thicken as it sits.  

Vanilla Pudding:

3/4 c. sugar

1/3 c. flour

2 large eggs

4 egg yolks

2 c. milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a bowl, whisk together the sugar and flour until all of the lumps are gone.  Once it is a fine powder, whisk in the eggs and egg yolks and continue whisking until a smooth paste is formed.  Slowly whisk in 1 cup of milk and once this is incorporated add the remaining cup of milk.  Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and cook over medium heat whisking constantly until it reaches the thickness of chilled pudding, about 10-15 minutes.  (Mixture will just begin to bubble and will be thick enough to hold soft peaks when the whisk is lifted).  Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla.            

Homemade Oreos

A friend at work was having a birthday!!! Yay, perfect opportunity to make some treats.  I decided to go with good 'ol oreos.  Who doesn't love homemade oreos?  I made this cookie recipe, minus the red food coloring and I went with three different fillings.  1. The common cream cheese frosting, 2. peanut butter (my favorite) and 3. coconut pecan (the experiment).  I think the peanut butter ended up being the favorite out of the three.  The coconut pecan didn't stand out very much to me, all I could taste was the chocolate cookie with a little coconut texture.  If you have a big chocolate/peanut butter lover in the family, make them these cookies and they will love you forever!!    

German Chocolate

Peanut Butter (Left) and Cream Cheese (Right)

Homemade Oreos

-I made a triple batch of these chocolate cookies, minus the red food coloring

Coconut Pecan Filling: 

From: Jenn - eatcakefordinner.blogspot.com

Enough to fill 12 cookies

2 egg yolks

1/2 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. sugar

6 Tbl. butter

1 1/3 c. sweetened shredded coconut

3/4 c. pecans, chopped

Beat egg yolks, milk and vanilla in a large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended.  

Add sugar and butter; cook on medium until thickened and golden brown, about 12 minutes,  stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add coconut and pecans; mix well.  Cool to room temperature.  

Peanut Butter Frosting:

From: Jenn - eatcakefordinner.blogspot.com

Enough to fill about 16 cookies

8 Tbl. (1 stick) softened unsalted butter

3/4 c. peanut butter

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

evaporated milk

Cream butter and peanut butter.  Add salt and vanilla.  Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until creamy.  Add enough evaporated milk to reach desired consistency.  

QUICK MEAT PIES FOR TWO

I created this recipe after my favorite little food place closed down a few years ago.  They had the best meat pies.  A few days of the week they would have beef pies and the other few days they would have turkey pies.  My favorite were the beef ones. The owner made them from scratch and you could tell, because the crust was so incredibly flaky and the filling was amazing.  So, this is my quick version.  Someday, I would like to make them from scratch, using homemade pie crust, but for now, I use store-bought.  Instead of making two individual pies, I make one large pie and cut it in half when it is done.  I usually have a little extra veggies, so I just eat those on the side.  Yummy! 

Quick Meat Pies For Two

From: Jenn - eatcakefordinner.blogspot.com

(Printable Recipe)

1/2 Lb. ground beef

1/4 onion, finely chopped

garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

1 russet potato, peeled & diced

1-2 carrots, peeled & chopped

1/3 c. frozen peas

1 pkg. Pillsbury® pie crust (One box has two crusts, 

      but we only need one crust)

1 pkg. brown gravy mix, make according to pkg. directions

Boil the diced potatoes and chopped carrots until tender.  Just before they are done, add the frozen peas.  Meanwhile, brown ground beef; add onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.   Drain veggies.  Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Unroll one package of pie crust onto cookie sheet.  Cover half of the pie crust with meat, veggies and top with a little prepared gravy.  Fold over dough and seal edges with a fork.  Poke a few holes on top for ventilation.  Bake according to package directions until nice and brown.  Serve with more gravy. Serves 2.         

Country Pumpkin Muffins

You can never have too much pumpkin.  Can you?  Here is another muffin recipe I found on All Recipes.  I had been dying to use my new jumbo muffin pan, plus I had been wanting to try something pumpkin with some butterscotch chips, because I had read on a few different websites that the two go really well together. So, I thought this would be the perfect chance to try both.  


I made the batter for the muffins and added milk chocolate chips to half and butterscotch chips to the other half.  These muffins turned out really good.  The butterscotch ones had a unique flavor that complimented the pumpkin, however, I think I prefer the more traditional ones with the milk chocolate chips.  


So, how did they compare to these pumpkin muffins?  They almost tasted the same, but if I had to choose one, I would choose the first ones, only because these new ones turned a little sticky the next day. Overall, they were really good.  I'm not sure how many it made, because I made jumbo, regular and mini muffins and I didn't count them when I was done.  Also, the recipe's directions said to bake at 400 degrees, which I tried for the first two pans, but the outside was getting done before the inside was done(jumbo muffin on the left), so I turned the oven down for that last few pans and they baked a lot more even(regular muffin in the middle).  I am really sorry, but I forgot to write down how long I baked the large and mini muffins for.  So, just take the time for the regular muffins and do less for the mini and more for the jumbo.   

Country Pumpkin Muffins

adapted from: All Recipes

(Printable Recipe)

2 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1/2 c. milk
3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
2 c. milk or butterscotch chips


In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar, oil, eggs, pumpkin and milk.  Combine flour, baking powder, soda, spices and salt.  Add to pumpkin mixture; blend until just combined.  Fold in chocolate/butterscotch chips.  Spoon into greased muffin tins, filling 3/4 full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15- 18 minutes for regular muffins.  

Cheesy Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

I made this for dinner last night & I wished I would have paid more attention to the instructions before I started.  Or if I would have read Melissa's Post, I probably would have saved it for Sunday dinner.  I didn't realize how much there was to this recipe.  I think I dirtied every dish/pan in my house, just kidding, but it really did dirty a lot of dishes.  Also, it was pretty time consuming for a weeknight meal.   You have to cook some chicken (45 minutes in the oven), make wild rice (mine took 50 minutes) and some regular rice, chop veggies and make a cream sauce.  Now, If you are fine doing all of that on a weeknight, then go ahead, but next time I make this, I will save it for a Sunday.  Overall, it tasted really good.  I did add some powdered cheese (from store bought mac & cheese) along with the regular cheese to give the cream sauce a little more flavor.  I served with a side of this yummy pumpkin cornbread.  I will definitely make this again.  

Cheesy Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

adapted from: here

(Printable Recipe)

3 Tbl. olive oil

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

3 carrots, peeled & diced

2 Tbl. fresh minced garlic

2 c. shredded, cooked chicken

2 c. steamed white rice

2 c. prepared wild rice

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

2 c. chicken broth

3 1/2-4 c. shredded cheddar cheese, divided

4 Tbl. butter

1/4 c. flour

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat oil in dutch oven over medium heat.  Saute onion, celery and carrots until softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook for one minute.  Stir in chicken, white rice, wild rice, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Reduce heat to low.  For cheese sauce: Melt butter in large saucepan and whisk in flour.  Slowly add chicken broth.  Season with salt and pepper.  Whisk until thick and stir in 2 cups of cheese until melted.  Pour cheese sauce into rice mixture and transfer to 9x13 dish.  Top with more cheese.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.  Serve hot.  Yield: 8-10 servings.