Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Who doesn’t love a good potato recipe?? Potatoes go well with every dish and everyone loves them. If they don’t, they might have a screw lose. Don’t trust them. We love our meat and potatoes around here. I was making a beef dish for dinner the other night for dinner and I wanted a quick and flavorful potato recipe and luckily Ina came to the rescue. I referred to my Barefoot Contessa cookbook and voila, there was just what I was looking for. Thanks Ina! Not only do we love potatoes, we love rosemary too. Especially fresh rosemary. You really can't beat the flavor it adds to a dish. Luckily I’m growing a lot of fresh rosemary this year so I just clipped some, tossed in olive oil and had a yummy dish in time for dinner. If you don't have your own rosemary plant, of course you can use dried, but you can also pick up a little bunch for about $1 in the grocery store. Now let's get started on a new quick, go-to, recipe for your box as well:

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1 1/2 pounds small red or white-skinned potatoes (or a mixture)
• 1/8 cup good olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoons minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the potatoes in half or quarters and place in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary; toss until the potatoes are well coated.

 

Dump the potatoes on a baking sheet and spread out into 1 layer; roast in the oven for at least 1 hour, or until browned and crisp. Flip twice with a spatula during cooking to ensure even browning.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, season to taste, and serve and enjoy! It doesn't get easier than that, does it??

 

Squash Casserole

Being a  nice southern girl, like I am, you must know how to make a good squash casserole. I love me some squash.  Make it into a casserole, throw some cheese on it, and it’s one of the best thing you’ve ever tasted. My Daddy grows squash in his garden and I miss living close by and getting a regular supply. His just seem to taste better. But until I can make a trip to collect some fresh veggies, I’ll have to keep frequenting the local produce stand.

 

Now I found this squash casserole many years ago, before I found the Food Network or there were a million food blogs out there. This is Art Smith’s recipe (slightly enhanced), Oprah’s chef, from his cookbook Back to the Table. He used to come on her show and make some delicious recipes. I’ve had his cookbook for some time now, but had forgotten about it. I pulled it out the other day and found my squash casserole recipe waiting on me. I was so happy! Art didn’t add cheese, but everyone knows you’ve got to have cheese in a squash casserole! See if you like my enhanced version of Art’s squash casserole:

 

Ingredients:

3 medium yellow squash , cut into 1/2-inch half-moons

1 medium onion , chopped

2 cloves garlic , minced

1/2 cup chicken broth or canned low-sodium broth

1 1/2 cups reduced-fat sour cream

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (make in the blender or food processor)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup (+) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

 

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Lightly oil an 8-inch square baking dish. Slice squash and dice onion.

Bring the squash, onion, garlic and broth to a boil in a medium saucepan.

 

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the broth evaporates and the squash is tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and cool slightly. Stir in the sour cream and oregano and season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

 

Stir in 1 cup of shredded cheese and spread in the baking dish. Sprinkle with a little more cheese, then breadcrumbs and drizzle with the oil.

 

I usually have breadcrumbs on hand, but this time I didn’t so I made my own. I was pretty excited! I toasted a couple of slices of bread, threw them in the blender and viola! Bread crumbs! Pretty cool. I’ll definitely make them again.

Bake until the juices are simmering and the top is crusty, about 30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then serve hot. I served with some yummy grilled chicken and rice with kale. What a delicious and healthy meal, right?? Have I mentioned.....I love food?? I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

 

 

Sausage & Cheese Muffins

I’m always looking for a good appetizer recipe to take to parties or serve to my guests. When I saw this one on Pinterest, it caught my eye.....anything with sausage and Bisquick HAS to be good, right?? These two ingredients combined can’t possibly make a bad recipe. The recipe calls it “all purpose baking mix”, but we all know it’s Bisquick. No pantry should be without it. You never know when it will come in handy. These taste very similar to my sausage balls, but the fiesta cheese soup gives it a different flavor. A perfect breakfast treat or a great appetizer as well. It’s super easy to throw together too, which is always a plus in my book.  Let’s get started with this tiny little treat.

Ingredients:

 

• 1 lb. hot ground pork sausage
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 3 cups all-purpose baking mix (aka Bisquick)
• 1 (10.75 oz) can condensed fiesta nacho cheese soup
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup milk (water will work too)

Directions:

Cook sausage and onion in a large skillet over medium to med-high heat, stirring until it crumbles and no longer pink. Drain and cool.

Preheat oven to 375. Combine sausage, baking mix, and shredded cheese in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Stir together the soup and milk; add to sausage mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Spoon until lightly greased mini muffin tins, filling to tops of cups.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until they look like lightly browned little morsels from heaven. This recipe made 5 dozen mini muffins. Share and enjoy! 

 

Italian Chicken & Pasta Bake

You might have noticed that I love pasta with red sauces. I love them both dearly! I can't live without my carbs! When my friend, Paula Deen, tweeted me this recipe, I had to give it a try. It sounded like a chicken lasagna, but without the fuss of lasagna noodles, which caught my attention. Who doesn't love lasagna, right? If you don't, something must be wrong with you! It wouldn't be a Paula Deen recipe without butter, but I substituted olive oil and will do so in the recipe below. I made this for dinner tonight and we both loved it! We both went back for seconds and I think David went back for thirds, but don't tell him I told you that. Let's get cooking....

Ingredients:

3 T olive oil
 1 cup chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 (16-ounce) package bow tie pasta, cooked according to package directions and kept warm. I used tri-color because they were pretty.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a very large skillet, add olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 6 minutes or until onion is tender.

Add flour, and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Stir in milk, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce; cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Stir in chicken, 3 cups cheese, salt, pepper, and sugar. Stir in pasta. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish; sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  This made a very large casserole! We'll be having left-overs tomorrow.

Doesn't that look like a yummy dinner? It was! Be sure to serve with some nice crusty bread. Delish. Enjoy!

Key Lime Cake

 

This is the best non-chocolate cake I’ve ever made! It is so delicious! My husband LOVES key lime pie so when we both saw Trisha Yearwood (a new friend of mine) making this cake on her cooking show, we knew I needed to try it. He made me promise I’d make it next time we needed to take a dessert to a party or cookout. Well, he was in luck this week because we had a party to attend and this was at the top of my “to bake” list. He was so happy. This cake is so flavorful and tart and the cream cheese icing just pushes it over the top. Oh, and moist.....sooooooo moist! Probably the moistest cake I’ve ever made. The glaze that you will prepare and pour on top makes the cake super moist. If you love tart and just old deliciousness, you will love this cake!  I made a sheet cake like Trisha did on her show, but I might make a layered round cake next time.....more cream cheese icing that way! I’m happy to share Trisha’s recipe with you:

Ingredients:

Cake:

• Butter, for greasing pan
• Flour, for dusting pan
• One 3-ounce package lime flavored gelatin
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 large eggs, slightly beaten

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup key lime juice (from about 25 small key limes or 4 large regular limes)
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Icing:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick butter), room temperature
• One 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• One 1 pound box confectioners' sugar

Directions

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour one 9-by-12-by-2-inch cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the gelatin, granulated sugar, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir to mix well. Add the oil, orange juice, lemon juice, vanilla, and eggs. Mix until well combined.

The batter will be thin as you can see.

 

Pour the batter evenly in the pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Such pretty green batter

 

Test for doneness by lightly touching the tops or inserting a toothpick. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

For the glaze: While the cake is still hot, mix the lime juice and confectioners' sugar together well.

Let's start juicing those key limes!

 

Pierce the cake multiple times with a fork to allow the glaze to soak in better and pour it over the cake on the cooling rack. I used a spoon to slowly spoon it over evenly. Allow cake to cool completely as you prepare the icing.

For the icing: Cream the butter and cream cheese. Beat in the confectioners' sugar until mixture is smooth and easy to spread. Spread the icing on the top and sides of the cake. You can also use two or three 9-inch round cake pans and make this into a layer cake.

 

Not only is this cake delicious, it's also so beautiful when you cut it. I think you'll be very pleased if you make this recipe. Enjoy.....we sure did!

 

Dawn's Blogalicious Meets Fishalicious!

How cool is it that the restaurant was named Fishalicious?? Of course, we HAD to go there!  While in Curacao, we did not find great food, but we had high hopes for a restaurant named Fishalicious. It was after my own heart, or at least destined for a blog entry!

When we arrived to the restaurant in our tiny lime green rental car, we were the only people in the restaurant. That was a little alarming at first, but then it began to fill up and we felt better about our restaurant choice.

There were a lot of great choices on the menu, but I was drawn to one type of fish…..catfish! Those of you who know me well know I love me some catfish, but could I really order that in Curacao?? That seemed silly. I should try something else, right? Like barracuda. David still regrets not ordering the barracuda. So I asked the waitress about the catfish. She told me it was from Holland (see, I can’t get Holland catfish at home) and that it was paired with a mushroom risotto (now she’s just teasing me. I love risotto!). ‘Nuff said, I needed to order the catfish! I am proud to admit that I was in Curacao and I ordered catfish! That’s right, judge away people. Before you get too judgy though, take a look at that picture of the catfish. How delicious does that look? Does that look like your normal deep friend catfish? No. Let me tell you, this was the most delicious catfish I’ve ever put in my mouth. It was so different from any that I’ve ever eaten. It was thick, moist and buttery. It was heavenly! I’m so glad I ordered this. It has changed my life!

Let me back up a bit though…….for our first course, we received an amuse bouche. More of an hors d’œuvre than a course really, but I was still so excited. Look at how cute it is. Those are two tiny salmon cakes. David doesn’t like salmon so I got too. Woohoo!

But let’s quickly move onto the most important course…..dessert! They had two of our favorite desserts on the menu and since the meal had gone so well, we had to finish it off with dessert. I got the apple pie and David selected cheese cake that our waitress made that morning. How bad could that be? Both of our desserts were delicious and the best part was the garnish! It was a yummy little caramel lattice treat. The extra touches really add to the whole experience.

All in all, Blogalicious meeting Fishalicious was the highlight of the trip!

Kale Chips

Okay, I’m not a health freak, but I love me some kale chips! They are so good and so good for you. Kale seems to be very popular right now and I had to see what all the rage was and make some for myself and we inhaled them. It’s just like a healthy potato chip.....you can’t eat just one.  They are crunchy and salty and full of flavor AND nutrition. You can’t go wrong with these. Your kids will even love them. I don’t have kids so I can’t really swear to that, but I know people that have kids and they say they love them. They wouldn’t lie about something as important as kale chips! These are so easy and delicious, you should give them a try. I’ll teach you how:

Ingredients:

I bunch of kale, torn into small pieces, away from stem

1 Tablespoon olive oil or olive oil spray

Sea salt

Garlic powder (optional)

Directions:

Wash kale and cut into bite size pieces, disposing of the stems.  Spray a cookie sheet (I used olive oil cooking spray) and lay pieces on cookie sheet.

Either drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat evenly or spray with olive oil cooking spray. Sprinkle with sea salt and garlic salt if you want a little more flavor. I made a batch of each.

Bake at 350 for 10 – 15 minutes. Be sure to check on it after 10 minutes to make sure edges don’t burn. Let cool for a few minutes, they get crispier as they cool, and enjoy! A easy, healthy snack!

Cinnamon Sticky Buns

These are WAY better than regular sticky buns. They are like sticky buns on steroids! They are so delicious. If you are a fan of cinnamon like me, then you’ll be a fan of these delicious little treats. One of my blog readers, Nia, loves cinnamon and has fallen in love with the Easy Cinnamon Rolls, but  maybe her mom will make these for her and she’ll really be in heaven! Kelly, pay attention. :-)

 

I made the Easy cinnamon rolls for my husband and I a couple of times, but had a thought one day that I could combine them with my Dad’s sticky bun recipe. Why not have the best of both worlds, right?? Plus, I love when I can share a recipe with my Dad instead of me stealing all of his. This is a compromise, half mine, half his, and totally delicious! Let’s get started with the basic easy cinnamon roll recipe:

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1 tube Refrigerated crescent rolls or the cool new dough sheet of crescent rolls.
• 1/4 c Granulated sugar
• 2 T cinnamon
• Softened butter to spread on dough

Directions for Cinnamon Rolls:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Unroll crescent dough and press seams together. Spread with a thin layer of softened butter.



How cool is this??? Thank you Pillsbury!

• Combine cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle mixture on top of the butter.

• Roll up....you can either roll them up so that you have smaller rolls but more of them, or fatter rolls but a few less. This time I went with more and rolled them up from the longer side. Next time I’m going for fatter ones!

• Now move onto the gooey sticky bun portion. Here’s what you need for the best topping ever:

4 Tablespoons of butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Karo pancake syrup

1/4 cup chopped pecans

• Directions:
• I used my iron skillet, but you can use whatever skillet works for you. Heat butter in pan, once melted add brown sugar, syrup and pecans, and stir.

• As you can see, I could have used a smaller pan, but this worked for me. If you use a skillet, make sure it can go directly in the oven. If it can’t, use a round cake pan and pour this mixture in the bottom of the pan.

• Take off heat, place sliced cinnamon rolls in mixture and bake for 12 - 15 minutes. Is your mouth watering yet?? Mine is. I wish I had a sticky bun right now!





• Look how beautiful they look fresh out of the oven.  Now get ready to flip the pan upside down. Another reason a smaller pan would have worked better. I had to use my muscles!

Now flip and make a mess like I did!

Now for the best part, put a few on a plate, get a fork, and dig in! Best served warm. Now just try to eat just one, I double dog dare you!

Enjoy!

Crescent Pepperoni Roll-Ups

How awesome are crescent rolls?? One of the best creations ever! You can make so many tasty treats with them. You have found a few crescent roll recipes on this blog and  here’s another one, thanks to Pinterest! This one is a great appetizer, or even for lunch, and so easy to make. I made a double batch for a party and everyone loved them. Who doesn’t want a little individual pizza all rolled up and baked to perfection?  That sounds delicious to me. I kinda wish I had one right now. If I can’t have one now, at least I can teach you how to make them. Let’s get started so I can get a snack.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

40 slices turkey or regular pepperoni

4 pieces of mozzarella string cheese, each cut in half

garlic powder (optional)

pizza sauce

 

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 375. Unroll crescent rolls and separate into 8 triangles.  Place 5 slices of turkey pepperoni on each crescent roll.  Top pepperoni with string cheese half and roll up.  Tuck the lose edge around one end to keep the cheese inside as much as possible.

 

 

Sprinkle crescent rolls with a little garlic powder for extra flavor.  As you see, I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper because I knew it would be running out.

 

 

Place rolls on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. 

 

Look how yummy those look with the cheese running out. Serve with a side of warm pizza sauce.

Rosemary & Sea Salt Rolls - Yummy!

How delicious do these Rosemary and Sea Salt rolls look? My mouth is watering. They were sooooo delicious. I will be making these again and again. I first had rosemary bread at Macaroni Grill in Atlanta, GA. It was so delicious. We would eat the whole loaf and ask for more. When I saw the my friend Ree, aka the Pioneer Woman, making these I knew they would be close to the perfection we had at Macaroni Grill. I might even go so far as to say they are even better. The best part is you start with frozen yeast rolls so you don’t even have to make the dough. These are super easy and super delicious. Add these to your dinner and you won’t regret it. Let’s get started:

Ingredients:

• Frozen, Unbaked Dinner Rolls
• Melted Butter, salted
• Fresh Rosemary, Coarsely Chopped
• Coarse Sea Salt

Directions:

Spray a small iron skillet with cooking spray (or coat with olive oil). I use the best of both worlds, olive oil spray. Place frozen rolls in the skillet, leaving plenty of room for rising.

Cover with plastic wrap (put a little spray on the top of the plastic wrap) and allow to rise for several hours. Check the package for details.

Viola! It's like magic.

After rising, brush rolls with melted butter.

Sprinkle on chopped rosemary. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Bake according to roll package directions (usually 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes - check package for cooking instructions), until rolls are a deep golden brown on top and look delicious. Let's just look at them one more time since they are so beautiful.....

Your friends and family will thank you! Enjoy!