Secret Recipe Club: Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

For this month's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned Susan's blog, The Wimpy Vegetarian.  Susan is the leader of the subgroup I'm in, so I must admit I was rather nervous!  Thankfully, Susan is very nice.  She's also very creative in the kitchen and has all kinds of fantastic looking recipes on her blog!  She has formal culinary school training, which I think is pretty awesome.  She also gets to live in nice, warm California, says the lady trapped in the dead of an Alaskan winter.  Can I come visit you, Susan?

 

Anyway, like I said, Susan has lots of great recipes.  I was particularly drawn to Figgy Cardamom Snickerdoodles (how amazing do those look?), Lemony Three Bean Salad, and Warm Brussels Sprouts Salad with Caramelized Onions.  As tasty as those looked, I ended up choosing Cheesy Mashed Potatoes because I'd only ever used russet potatoes for mashed potatoes and haven't really ever added cheese to them.

 

The mashed potatoes turned out really well and seemed rather fancy, especially considering how easy they were to make.  I couldn't find the the Frieda's Butter Babies potatoes that the recipe called for, but thought they looked rather like Yukon Gold, so went with those.  The mashed potatoes were so soft and tender, and had a rather sweet quality to them because of the Yukon Golds.  We liked them for sure and I will make them again, but think I'll use either good ol' russets, or try baby red potatoes instead because we prefer the sweetness of Yukon Gold potatoes on their own.  I served the potatoes with baked salmon and roasted green beans, it was a great meal.

 

Thank you, Susan!
  

 

Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

 

2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes

2 1/2 Tbsp butter

1/3 C half and half

1 tsp salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp dried parsley or 2 Tbsp fresh minced parsley

1 C smoothly melting cheese (I used cheddar)

 

Wash potatoes, then cook until soft using whatever method you like.  I used my pressure cooker.  Place potatoes in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher.  Melt butter in the microwave, then add milk and heat 30 more seconds, until warm.  Add to potatoes along with seasonings, and continue to mash.  Stir in cheese.  Cover with foil if you aren't going to serve within a minute or two.

 

Yield:  About 6 servings

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Slow Cooker Honey Carrots

I made these carrots for both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner in 2015.  They couldn't be any easier and are quite tasty!  Usually we eat steamed carrots either completely plain (not even salt added), with a little butter and dill, or we have Rosemary Roasted Carrots.  Adding sugar and lots of butter to carrots isn't something I'd do usually, but I figure the holidays are the time to do it!  There are lots of different versions of these carrots to be found on the internet, and I made up my own proportions anyway, so I'm not going to link to a source recipe.

  

 
Slow Cooker Honey Carrots

2 lbs baby carrots

1/2 stick salted butter

1/4 C brown sugar

2 Tbsp honey

Place all ingredients in small brown crock pot, cook on high 2 hours, stir, cook on high 2 hours more, or until as tender as you'd like.
 
Yield: 6-8 servings

Monterey Chicken

My husband has declared this to be the best chicken he's ever had.  I really like it, too!  In spite of the rather long directions, this is a really easy recipe.  I originally found it over on the Real Housemoms blog a few months ago and have made it twice.  I added dijon mustard to the marinade and cut out the barbecue sauce you're supposed to brush on the chicken at the end.  I made it with the barbecue sauce the first time and it was great, but the marinade itself is so flavorful that I decided to try it on its own.  My suspicions were correct, it's just as good/maybe better without the barbecue sauce, which just covers the flavor of the marinade.  If I ever decide to make this last minute, I'll just skip the marinade completely, sprinkle the chicken with seasoned salt and garlic powder, then brush it with barbecue sauce before adding the chicken and bacon.

 

Quick Note:  How many this will serve really is up to you.  My 2 1/2 lbs of chicken breasts were just two enormous ones, and I cut them in half right down the middle to make two thinner pieces, so we ended up with 4 large servings.  If you have smaller chicken breasts and end up with 5 or 6 serving pieces, that's fine as well, just make sure they all get covered properly with cheese and bacon!

 

If you accidentally cook your bacon a little too long during the first round and worry about it burning if it spends any more time in the oven, you can either try putting the bacon under the cheese before baking it again, or stick the bacon on top of the melted cheese as soon as the finished chicken comes out of the oven.

 

 
Monterey Chicken

 

2 to 2 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (this was 2 very large breasts cut down the middle for me), cleaned of excess gunk

3 Tbsp soy sauce

3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 lb bacon

4-6 slices of pepper jack cheese

 

Place chicken breasts in a gallon ziploc bag.  Stir together remaining ingredients except bacon and cheese, and pour over chicken in bag.  Seal bag and squish it around so the chicken is coated.  Refrigerate for 4 to 12 hours.

 

When you're ready to cook the chicken, arrange 2 racks in the oven so that they're more or less centered in the middle.  Grease a 9 by 13 inch baking dish and arrange the chicken breasts in the dish, then pour the marinade from the bag on top.  Place this on the lower rack in the oven.  Line a large baking pan with foil and fold the edges up to contain the bacon grease, then evenly arrange the bacon on the foil.  Place the bacon in the oven on the upper rack.

 

Bake chicken and bacon until bacon is cooked almost as much as you like, about 15-25 minutes depending on your preferences and the thickness of the bacon.  Carefully remove both pans from the oven and rearrange the baking racks so one is in the middle.  Return the chicken to this rack and continue to bake until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of one of the breasts registers 165.  Meanwhile, remove the cooked bacon to a paper towel lined plate and dab off the excess grease.

 

When the chicken is cooked through, remove the pan from the oven and top the chicken with the sliced cheese, tearing the slices to fit.  Top the cheese evenly with the bacon, tearing it into pieces.  Return the pan to the oven and cook until the cheese is melted and the bacon is cooked to your desired doneness, about 5 minutes more.

 

Yield: 4-6 servings

Jamboree Muffins

This is the most recent recipe I've made from Joanne Fluke's murder-mystery series about Hannah Swensen that also focuses a lot on baking.  This recipe is from The Red Velvet Cupcake Murder.  I was lying in bed Saturday night and had decided to make muffins, but didn't have a particular recipe in mind.  10 minutes later, I was reading the book and came upon the recipe for Jamboree Muffins.  I had all the ingredients and they sounded good, so why not?
  

These muffins are GREAT.  Definitely among the best I've ever had.  They're very interesting, too.  The finished muffin is like a cross between a muffin and a biscuit, both in texture and flavor.  When I looked the recipe over the first time, I had my suspicions they'd be rather biscuit-like because the ingredients look more like a biscuit dough than muffin batter, and I was right!  They aren't very sweet and have a texture reminiscent of a buttermilk biscuit, but are rather airy, like a muffin.  The jam in the middle is an awesome addition.  I used strawberry, but pretty much any flavor would be really good.  I've tried making jam filled muffins in the past and they haven't been particularly good to start with, but the leftovers were awful because the jam made them very soggy.  The texture of these muffins is dense enough that they don't get soggy and were still tasty the next day.
  

In the future, I'd like to experiment with making these muffins with other ingredients added instead of jam.  They'd make great dinner biscuit/muffins with green chiles and cheddar added, or any number of other ingredients.  I'll bet they'd even be great left completely plain.  It's such an easy, one bowl recipe, that I'm sure I'll try several variations.

   

   
Jamboree Muffins
    

1 egg

3/4 C milk

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/3 C sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 C flour

about 1/3 C jam
   

Preheat oven to 400 and grease a 12 cup muffin pan with oil, or use muffin papers.
   

In a large bowl, beat egg with a fork.  Mix in milk, vegetable oil, and sugar with a spoon until smooth, then stir in baking powder and salt.  Stir in flour and mix thoroughly, but don't worry about lumps.  This is basically a wet biscuit dough, so you don't want to over mix it!

Fill each muffin cup 1/3 full with batter, then top each with a small spoonful of jam.  Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups.
  

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes (mine took 17).
  

Yield: 12 muffins

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

My husband is crazy about casseroles, and I hadn't made one for a while, so decided to go with this one when I saw it on the Macaroni and Cheesecake blog.  This is a very simple casserole, but proves how nicely things can turn out if you use decent ingredients.  I'm quite certain that the same casserole made with canned chicken, cream of blank soup (which I do use sometimes, no regrets!), and frozen veggies would have landed several rungs lower on the casserole tasty-meter.  this is just a nice cozy casserole, nothing fancy, but great on a cold night and pretty quick to prepare!

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

10 oz mix of fresh, chopped broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots

2 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

3/4 C milk

3/4 C chicken broth

1/2 C sour cream

5 oz container plain (NOT vanilla!) greek yogurt

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp poppy seeds

1 tsp Montreal chicken seasoning (I used Montreal steak seasoning)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

meat from 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
  

for topping:

1 Tbsp butter

12 Ritz crackers, crushed
  

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 2 quart baking dish.
  

Microwave vegetables in a covered bowl until barely beginning to turn tender, about 5 minutes.
  

In a large nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium-high.  Whisk in flour until smooth, then cook for one minute, whisking constantly.  Whisk in milk a little at a time, making sure it's completely smooth before adding more.  Whisk in the chicken broth in the same fashion.  Bring to a boil and simmer, whisking constantly, for another minute or two.  Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and greek yogurt, then seasonings.  Stir in chicken and veggies.
  

Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish.  Melt butter and toss with the crushed crackers, then spoon the crumbs evenly over the casserole dish.
  

Bake until bubbling around the edges and crackers are golden, about 20 minutes.
  

Yield: 6 main dish servings

Tamale Pie

This is another recipe from Catherine Newman over at Ben & Birdy.  I've meant to make it for a while, and am glad I finally did!  It turned out really well, my husband loved it.  He's not a fan of regular tamales and liked it a lot more than them.  I personally love tamales, and this tamale pie doesn't bear many similarities to them, but that's okay.  This honestly turned out better than I expected.  I've seen many recipes for tamale pie and always passed them by because I thought they'd be kind of boring, but I've had great success with all of Catherine's recipes, so decided to try her version.  I'll certainly make this one again! 
 

This recipe is tweaked a bit from the original.  I had to add a bit more buttermilk (just milk plus a little vinegar) to make the batter... batter (instead of dough) and decided to put all the cheese on top because cheese seems to disappear into baked goods.  In the future, I'd like to experiment with using another can of beans instead of the corn and leave out the sugar, but it sure was good this way!

 

 

 

Tamale Pie

1 lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic, minced

15 oz can pinto beans, drained

8 oz can plain tomato sauce

2 C frozen corn

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp white vinegar
 

for cornbread topping:

2/3 C cornmeal

1/3 C whole wheat flour (or you can use white)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

2/3 C buttermilk

2 Tbsp canola oil

1 egg

1 C grated cheddar
 

Preheat oven to 400 and grease a 2 quart baking dish.
 

Heat a nonstick pan over medium and add ground beef and minced garlic.  Break up with a spatula and cook until the meat is cooked through and crumbled.  Add beans, tomato sauce, and seasonings.  Stir to combine, reduce heat to low, and simmer while you prepare the cornbread topping.
 

In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients for cornbread topping.  Add buttermilk, oil, and egg, and stir just until well combined.
 

Spoon meat filling evenly into prepared baking dish, then pour cornbread batter over top.  Spread with a spatula.
 

Bake 15 minutes, then sprinkle on cheddar cheese.  Bake 5 more minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

 

Yield: 6 servings

Secret Recipe Club: Coconut Oatmeal Cake

For this month's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned the blog A Taste of Madness.  It's written by a Canadian woman named Cathleen.  Cathleen is a math teacher (how cool!) and enjoys doing yoga and traveling, in addition to making- and eating- desserts.  Sounds like we have a lot in common!

I'm not sure I'd seen A Taste of Madness before, but believe me, I'll be back frequently to try new recipes.  There were about 25 looking awesome ones that I bookmarked, and I didn't even go through her whole blog.  I actually made two recipes of hers this month, the Cottage Cheese Pancakes (which I added a smidge of vanilla to, they were amazing), and Coconut Oatmeal Cake.  My husband and I both really wanted to make her crumpet recipe but ran out of time, it's one we plan to make soon, though!  Cathleen is originally from the UK, so we figure she would know a good crumpet recipe!

This Coconut Oatmeal Cake was great.  I've seen recipes that called for a broiled coconut-pecan topping and always wanted to try it. I brought it to a friend's get together where we got to paint, and it got rave reviews from everyone.  It's so moist and the topping is delightfully sweet, crunchy, and a little chewy from the caramelization.  This is a perfect cake for winter because of the spices, oats, and rich topping!  I can picture it perfectly on a Thanksgiving or Christmas table.

My only change was to decrease the salt in the cake (I worried it would be too salty with 1 1/2 tsp), and for the topping, there was a difference between the types of sugar mentioned in the ingredients list and the recipe itself.  I decided to go with what the ingredient list said, and it turned out wonderfully!

Coconut Oatmeal Cake

for cake:
1 1/4 C boiling water
1 C quick cooking oats
1 1/3 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick salted butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 C packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs

for topping:
1/4 C milk
1/2 C salted butter
1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
1 C sweetened coconut flakes
1 C shopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 by 13 pan.

In a heat safe bowl, pour boiling water over oats and stir to combine.  Set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the batter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar, then stir in eggs until smooth.  Mix in the dry ingredients a little at a time, until smooth.  The mixture will be thick.  Mix in cooked oats.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

When cake is almost done baking, prepare the topping.  Place the milk, butter, and brown sugar into a medium sauce pan and cook over medium until everything is melted and well combined.  Remove from heat and stir in coconut and pecans.

When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately top with the topping mixture.  Spread the topping as smoothly as possible so no bits of coconut or pecan sticks up, this will help prevent burning.

Place an oven rack at the highest setting, turn the oven to broil, and place the cake on the top rack.  Watch it very carefully (don't walk away!) and remove the cake immediately when the topping turns golden.  This will only take about 2 minutes.

Let cake cool, and serve.  It's great both warm and at room temperature.

Yield:  about 10 servings

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