Cauliflower Poppers

For some unexplainable reason I have always like cauliflower.  However, no one else even in my extended family even remotely agrees with this like.  But I saw on Pinterest a pin for Cauliflower Poppers and it looked like they were dipping them in ketchup, so I thought that this might be a sneaky way to get Charlotte to eat her veggies.

Delighted Momma's recipe (which I followed) calls for 1 teaspoon pepper and two heads of cauliflower.  I ended up only making them with one head of cauliflower but didn't think to cut the pepper.  This resulted in very spicy poppers.  Charlotte tried one but said they were too spicy and I didn't blame her, they were almost too spicy for me!  But aside from the spice they tasted great!  I'll definitely be making these as a more common side dish in our family but will probably limit the pepper by quite a bit.

Raw cauliflower that's been coated with olive oil, salt, and pepper

Baked Cauliflower Poppers

James' First Birthday Dinner Menu

I often have a hard time coming up with complete menu's.  So I thought I'd share our menu for James' birthday dinner.  We had around 20 family members and ended up with just enough food.  Next time I'll make more because I would much rather have too much than not enough!

James' First Birthday Dinner

Two recipes of Crock Pot Barbecue

(with buns -- both slider size and regular size)
(I accidentally got beef instead of pork but Jason claimed that it tasted fine.  I would make sure that you get close to 5 lb roasts if possible, because mine were closer to 4 and we didn't have quite enough.)

Large bowl of cut fruit

One recipe of Broccoli Salad

One recipe of Mrs. Kelly's Baked Beans

One recipe of Corn Casserole

(So, so, so good! Should have had at least two recipes of this!)

One recipe of Slim Potato Casserole

(this was a little bland but at the same time too peppery -- it could have used a lot more cheese!)

One recipe of Arkansas Green Beans

(Jason said that these were the best green beans that he's ever had.  I would have to agree.  They were out of this world!)

Strawberry Birthday Cake

James' Christening Menu

On Sunday we had James' Christening and afterwards our family came over to our home to enjoy lunch.  Mom and I put together and meal and I was very happy with the way it turned out and the ease that it took to prepare everything.  We fed almost 25 people with this so I wanted to share what we had made in case you are in need of an easy menu for a lot of people!

Slow Cooker BBQ (2 recipes, cooked on Low for 13 hours) with Buns

Slow Cooker Baked Beans (recipe below)

Strawberry Spinach Salad (substituted Strawberry's for Apple's)

Cut Fruit

The Pioneer Woman's Fancy Macaroni

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Cake

Slow Cooker Baked Beans

Baked Beans

Ketchup

Yellow Mustard

Chopped Onions

Bacon

Brown Sugar

Worcestershire Sauce

1. Mix all together in a slow cooker and cook on High for 6 hours or Low for 8.

Shortcut Corn

I don't know about you but I'm pretty bad at making sides to go with meals.  I would much rather just make one casserole or something that we eat basically as our whole meal and add a salad or fruit and veggies with it.  But, I will make this corn to go with dinner because it's so easy and I almost always have corn in my pantry.  There's a good chance that you've been cooking your canned corn like this forever but I hadn't and so when I tried it out it was a miraculous discovery.  And one of the best parts is that Charlotte will eat corn when it's cooked like this so I can eat least get one veggie in her! But be forewarned, I'm guessing that this recipe is really not great for you what with the salt and margarine, but it sure is good!

Shortcut Corn

Serves 4

1 small can Shoepeg Corn

1 small can Yellow Corn

Salt

Pepper

2-3 tablespoons margarine

- Pour both cans of corn into a baking dish.

- Stir corn together until it's evenly mixed.

- Generously salt and pepper the corn and remix.  

- Cut margarine into 4 or 5 pats of butter and spread them throughout the corn (i.e. spoon out corn, put the margarine in, and put corn back on top of butter.

- Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Miss Kelly's Baked Beans

When we first moved to town we found a great Sunday School class. We made some friends that I hope we'll continue to be friends with our entire lives. And we often go together potluck style with everyone bringing a dish. Kelly often brought baked beans which we loved but I always forgot to ask for the recipe. Last Saturday we had Kelly and Tripp's going away party and we served bbq and asked people to bring sides and desserts. I decided that I would make Kelly's baked beans! They were a hit and everyone asked me to post the recipe for Recipe Wednesday. So, without further ado, Miss Kelly's Baked Beans!


Miss Kelly's Baked Beans
Makes 1 9x13 dish

1lb ground chuck, cooked & drained
3 1 lb cans of pork & beans (add last)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
3tbsp mustard
2tbsp worstechire sauce
1 med onion, chopped & microwaved until tender (I just used a good amount of onion powder since Jason doesn't like onion pieces)

Mix all together. Cover & bake at 375 for 1 hour.

Sweet Potato Fries

Grow Alabama has started delivering sweet potatos again and not being a big fan of sweet potatoes I've been at a loss at what to do with them. So this week I set out to make something other than sweet potato casserole and so I searched Tasty Kitchen and came up with this recipe for Sweet Potato Fries. I made them last night and they were even tasty for me! Charlotte thought they were too spicy though so tomorrow when I make some more since we have sweet potatoes coming out of our ears I will omit the seasoning on a few for her. But this was a really easy recipe that didn't require a lot of work and the fries came out really great. And one of the best parts was that they were baked so they were a relatively good way to eat veggies.

Sweet Potato Fries
Serves 2

2 whole sweet potatoes
3 T Olive Oil
1 t Salt
1 t Pepper
1/2 t Smoked Paprika (couldn't find this at the grocery store so just used paprika, use less than 1/2 teaspoon!)
2 T Brown Sugar
- Preheat oven to 425
- Peel potatoes (if desired). Cut into wedges until you get the size fry that you want.
- Put potatoes in a bowl. Combine with other ingredients and mix thoroughly with your hands so that every wedge is covered.
- Set a wire rack on a baking sheet and spray with non-stick spray. Lay wedges on the wire rack. Bake for 25 minutes. Rotate pan and put back in for 20 minutes. (Time is approximate, cook them to whatever your desired doneness level is.)

Simple Spanish Rice

I made this rice a few weeks ago as a side to chicken and it was really good.  The rice tasted like the rice that you get at a good Mexican restaurant.  I will definitely be making this again!

Simple Spanish Rice

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

½ whole Onion, Chopped
1 cup Long Grain White Rice
1 pint Chicken Broth
¼ pounds Tomato Sauce

1. In a medium-sized pot, heat the olive oil (or your oil of choice). When hot, add the onion and rice. Cook, stirring frequently, until rice is light golden brown.
2. Add chicken broth and tomato sauce to the rice; stir to combine (this is the only time you’ll stir it). Bring just to the boiling point and immediately reduce heat to low. Cover and cook on low for about 20 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.
3. Remove from heat. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Potato Salad with Bacon and Parsley

 

This recipe is from Real Simple's June 09 issue.  It was a feature on "Summer Vegetable Sides" but potatoes are always in season -- at least you can always get them at the grocery store -- so I think this is a year round recipe.  This differs from the "traditional" Southern potato salad with a mayonnaise base.  Since Jason isn't a big mayo fan I thought this would be a good recipe.  We enjoyed the recipe but I didn't have as many potatoes as I was supposed to and so the ratio of sauce to potatoes was a little strong.  If you are cooking less potatoes than the recipe calls for I would recommend mixing the sauce in a separate bowl and just putting in enough sauce to lightly coat the potatoes.  My potatoes also cooked a little too long, so make sure you don't overcook them or they'll start falling apart when you're trying to mix in the sauce!

Potato Salad with Bacon and Parsley

Serves 6 Hands-On Time: 10m Total Time: 25m

• 1 1/2 pounds new potatoes
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 4 slices bacon
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1. Place the potatoes in a pot with water to cover and 1 teaspoon salt and simmer until tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to cool. Cut into quarters.
2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to paper towels. Crumble when cool.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the oil, vinegar, mustard, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Toss with the potatoes, bacon, and parsley.

Smashed Potatoes with Stir Ins

Yummy! This picture makes me hungry all over again! I had never tried making any form of mashed/smashed potatoes until I tried this recipe but now that I know it's so easy I will definitely be making it again and soon! I got this recipe from an "Easy Meals" magazine from Woman's Day. I couldn't find the recipe on their website though so I can't link to it. Anyway, it was really good and a really great side dish. You can change out what you put in the potatoes to make them go with any meal!

Smashed Potatoes with Stir Ins
Serves 6 (2/3 c servings)

2 pounds (4 cups) medium red potatoes, washed, cut into quarters
1 teaspoon salt
Water
1 cup Half and Half
1/4 cup Butter, cut into chunks
1/4 cup Sour Cream
1/2 teaspoon Salt
5 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1. Place potatoes and 1 teaspoon salt in a 3 quart saucepan; cover with water. Cook over high heat until water comes to a boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook until potatoes are tender (15 to 20 minutes). Drain potatoes, return to saucepan.
2. Meanwhile, heat half and half in 1 quart saucepan just until warm.
3. Add butter to potatoes; mash potatoes until about two thirds are mashed and one third remain lumpy. Gradually add half and half to potato mixture; mix well. Stir in sour cream, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper (if desired), and bacon. Serve immediately.

Variations:
- Ranch Smashed Potatoes: Omit 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir in 2 tablespoons dry ranch salad dressing mix and 1/4 cup chopped green onions with sour cream.
- Chipoltle, Green Chili, and Cheddar Smashed Potatoes: Stir in 1 teaspoon chopped chipotle chili in adobo sauce, 1 (4 ounce) can well drained diced green chilis and 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Note:
I didn't use all of the liquid with the potatoes because mine were getting soupy quickly. Just keep mixing until you get a consistency that you like.

Also, make sure you don't get too many of the potatoes smashed before you start adding liquid. The stirring with the liquid smashes the potatoes quickly.

Baked Corn with Sour Cream

This is one of my absolute favorite side dishes. It is so good and fairly easy to make! It is always a big hit when I take it to gathering's and Jason always gets excited when I say that I'm making it! The only thing is that it doesn't make a ton so if you're planning on taking this for a pot luck or for a lot of people I'd double the recipe. The recipe says that is yields 8 servings but in my experience people take really large servings because it's so good! This is another recipe from Cotton Country.

Baked Corn with Sour Cream
Yields 8 servings

6 strips Bacon
2 T Chopped Onion
2 T Butter
2 T Flour
1/2 t Salt
1 c Sour Cream
2 12-ounce cans Shoe Peg Corn
1 T chopped parsley (optional)

1. Cook and crumble bacon.
2. Cook onion in butter, blend in flour and salt.
3. Add sour cream gradually, stirring to keep smooth.
4. Bring just to a boil and add corn. Cook until heated through.
5. Fold in half of bacon and pour in greased baking dish.
6. Garnish with parsley and remaining bacon.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Pineapple Casserole

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been so busy I almost forgot that it was Wednesday! This is one of my favorite side dishes and something that I take almost every time that I need to take a side somewhere. It is really good and I don't even normally like pineapple's! I thought it might be a good recipe to share with the holiday's approaching. Enjoy!

Pineapple Casserole

1 16 oz can of Pineapple Chunks

5 T Pineapple juice

4 T Flour

1/2 c Sugar

1 c Medium Cheddar Grated Cheese

Ritz Cracker Crumbs

1 stick melted Butter

Pour into a greased 8x8 baking dish. Melt 1 stick of butter and mix with Ritz Cracker crumbs. Spread on top of dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

What's your go-to side dish? I'd love to have the recipe!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

I've been told before that some people have never heard of Strawberry Pretzel Salad. I, for one, think that that is in outright shame! Strawberry Pretzel Salad is fantastic and can be considered by some (like me!) to be a fruit and a healthy dessert due to the strawberries in the jello! So next time you want to whip up a great dessert that's great to take to family gatherings or potlucks try this, you won't regret it!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

1/4 c Light Brown Sugar
2 1/2 c Crushed Pretzels
3/4 c Melted Margarine

Mix and spread in a lightly buttered 9x13 dish. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes and cool in refrigerator.

1 6 oz package Strawberry Gelatin
2 c Boiling water
2 10 oz package Frozen Strawberries

Dissolve jello in hot water. Add berries. Chill until partially set.

8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1 c Sugar
1 8z container of Cool Whip, thawed

Combine sugar and cream cheese. Fold in cool whip. Spread mixture over cooled pretzel layer, sealing edges well.

Pour jello layer over cream cheese layer. Chill until set.

Let me know how it turns out!