Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

 At work we have a tradition of holding a potluck lunch on an employee's last day. We had an opportunity for one last week. Another co-worker offered to bring gorditas. Having never tried them before, I was looking forward to it! Knowing what she was bringing, helped me pick what to bring. I scoured my saved recipes on Pinterest and saw this one for Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad. 

The recipe was super easy to put together and turned out really good! I even received compliments from my two Mexican-American co-workers. Yes! 

Because this dish is served cold, it is a perfect one for a potluck. Bring some extra cotija cheese for everyone to sprinkle on top of their portion and your serving bowl will be empty before you head home. Or if you're lucky like me you'll have just enough to have a portion later. 

*Because I'm not a fan of onions or cilantro, I left those out and it still tasted really good.

Tamale Pie

I have posted about this recipe in the past, but it was just a link to the original recipe I found through Pinterest. This has become one of my go-to recipes and it is so delicious! It's warm, gooey and packed with flavor so it is great anytime of the year. It's fairly easy to put together, but if you choose to cook the chicken in advance like I do, it takes a little bit of prior planning. My suggestion is to cook extra chicken so you have some for tacos, too! For tamale pie, three chicken breasts is sufficient for the recipe. 

You could also try the recipe with shredded pork or beef, but chicken is my favorite. 

Cheesy Beef and Pasta

Do you ever try new recipes, save them and then completely forget about them? That is the case with this recipe. I was looking through recipe files on my computer and saw this one. I honestly cannot remember even making it, but because I took the effort to create a recipe card for it, it must have been tasty. Make it and let me know what you think!

Creamy Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

Need a good potato side? I've got you covered!

Brie stuffed garlic bread

Potlucks always push me to try new recipes! I love to search Pinterest for new ideas and often come across some real winners. I hosted an event at my house and wanted to make something with brie cheese, but did not want the standard baked brie with crackers. I came across a recipe for brie stuffed garlic bread and it was perfect! So cheesy, gooey and delicious!

Beer (or hard cider) cheese

The very first time I made this recipe was for an Oktoberfest party we hosted. I made it again last year for a St. Patrick's Day themed bunco game night. My friend Alysha liked it so much that she has requested it several other times since then. It's so easy to put together and tastes amazing! You can serve it in a fondue pot or right from a stove top sauce pan.

It tastes delicious served with pretzels, bread of any kind, broccoli and green apple slices. Really you could dip old tennis shoes in this and it would taste amazing!

Croissant Breakfast Bake

I recently spent the weekend in Asheville, North Carolina with nine ladies from the Alpha Omega Alumni Chapter. We had our first ever Alumni Retreat. It went so well and we had a fantastic time! We stayed in a cabin which allowed us to cook a few of our meals. 

For breakfast, I made a variety of muffins, but I also wanted something savory. I searched Pinterest and was originally going to make an egg casserole. Then I stumbled upon a recipe using croissants. Automatic winner! It was easy to make and everyone loved it! The original recipe is from Just a Pinch Recipes.

Bacon wrapped pimento cheese stuffed okra

I grew up mainly in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Because neither of my parents are Southern, I did not eat a lot of Southern cuisine when I was a kid. I probably would not have enjoyed much of it anyway because I was such a picky eater. I'm a quarter Italian and I did not even like spaghetti sauce for the longest time!

Over the years my palette has expanded greatly. One food item that I did not give a chance until a couple years ago was okra. It took living in California and having dinner with a friend from Washington state for me to try it. And it was delicious! Of course, it was the fried variety, so how could that not taste good?

Fast forward to moving back to the South... We have planted our vegetable garden and I included okra. It has been growing quite nicely lately and I have amassed a lot of okra from it. I did not realize the plant has such beautiful, delicate flowers.

Having never cooked it before, I searched Pinterest for some recipes. I found one that sounded perfect... bacon wrapped stuffed okra! The actual recipe calls for a shrimp filling. I'm still a picky eater; I don't eat seafood. But I was planning on making pimento cheese with our homegrown pimento peppers. Wouldn't that taste amazing stuffed inside a bacon wrapped piece of okra? I think so!

Fourth of July gave me the perfect opportunity to try this dish. It was easy to assemble and tasted FANTASTIC! It is just as good as fried okra...if not better.

For the pimento cheese, I kind of followed the recipe from Eleven Magnolia Lane. It's OK, but I've had better. I just have to find the recipe! Feel free to use your own favorite recipe or store bought (if you have to).

For the okra, I followed the instructions from I Heart Publix. The recipe suggests using regular bacon and not thick cut bacon. I happened to have thick cut and it worked out just fine.

K's Breakfast Casserole

I am a baker. That means I love following recipes...to a T. Cooking, where you make stuff up as you go along, is not my thing. However, I'm finding that the more I cook the more comfortable I am taking some liberties with recipes. Is that a sign of being a grown-up?

I recently hosted a Coffee & Coloring social for some friends. I wanted to offer a food item. At first I was thinking almond poppy seed bread or some other sweet item. But someone else offered to bring banana bread. Then I thought breakfast casserole! So many recipes included hash browns or potatoes which I didn't have in the house. I finally found one that was potato-less. I decided to alter it a little and it came out delicious!

K's Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup (ish) salsa
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
6 large eggs
Splash of milk (it was around 1-2 Tablespoons)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown meat in skillet with salsa. (I used a peach salsa which is yum, yum, yum! I also love salsa with pineapple in it.) Drain fat and let cool.

Mix cheese, eggs,  milk, salt and pepper. Stir in meat mixture. Pour into 9 inch baking dish or pie plate. Bake for 45-55 minutes.

Creamy Cheesy Polenta

I have a spouse social coming up and was trying to decide what to serve. Sometimes we do potluck style, but lately I have been enjoying menu planning and cooking. I know not everyone has the time or expendable income to bring something. I was thinking about making polenta, but I have never made it before. So I made it for dinner to try it out.

It turned out to be really easy and a yummy side. I found the recipe on Pinterest and it is from Shared Appetite.

Creamy Cheesy Polenta

Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 to 3 cups water
1 cup cornmeal
3 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 cup cheese, shredded
Salt
Black pepper

Directions
Bring the milk, 2 cups of water and a large pinch of salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to a low simmer and add cornmeal in a slow and steady stream, constantly whisking to prevent lumps.

Polenta should be at a bare simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture gets too thick, add water 1/2 cup at a time.

Remove from heat, stir in butter and olive oil. Then stir in cheese. I used a mixture of cheddar and pepper jack. Season with salt and pepper.

For the cornmeal, the Shared Appetite author suggested medium grind. I have no earthly idea what grind I had. I store everything in containers and lose the bag. But I think pretty much any kind of grind will work.

Homemade pizza

One of my all-time favorites pizzas is the Hula Hula at Spinoza's near Dayton, OH. The thing I love the best about that pizza is the crunchy macadamia nuts on top. I decided to try my hand at re-creating it (kind of).

I used a bread machine pizza dough recipe from Mom on Timeout. Her recipe gives both a one pizza and two pizza option. Below I am just sharing the recipe for the one pizza option.

 

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 T butter, softened
1 T sugar
1 t yeast
1 t salt
1/2 cup plus 2 T water (105 to 110 degrees)

Directions
Add all ingredients into your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Make sure the water is warm enough to proof the yeast.

Turn your bread machine to the dough setting and let it do its thing. After a couple of minutes check on your dough to make sure it is not too wet or too dry. You can add water or flour a teaspoon at a time if your dough is too dry or too wet.

After the bread machine is done, dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and work it until you have your desired shape. It was hard for me to make it perfectly circular and that's OK!

If using a pizza stone, dust with cornmeal. If using a another type of pan, you make want to grease it a little, too. Make up your pizza and bake at 425 degrees for 18 to 25 minutes. 

 

For my pizza, I started with Newman's Own marinara sauce. For the cheese, I used mozzarella and cheddar; I'm not exactly sure how much of each I ended up with. Just eyeball it to your desired cheese level. Then I spread freshly cut pineapple and freshly cut tomatoes (that we grew in our backyard!) and slightly chopped macadamia nuts. It was so delicious!

Gilmore Girls Party: Burgers from Luke's

I love planning parties. One of my favorite things to pick out is the food that will be served. Pinterest has made this both easy and difficult. Easy in that a myriad of recipes are available at your fingertips. Difficult in that sometimes it is hard to choose because there are just sooooo many options out there!

In planning my Gilmore Girls 30th birthday party, food was a big consideration. The Gilmore Girls ate so much junk food throughout the series. They also had the weekly Friday Night Dinners. Sooke St. James is a chef and made a bunch of delicious dishes. What to choose???

I knew immediately that burgers of some kind would have to be made. They ate countless burgers at Luke's Diner. I saw a recipe for easy cheeseburger sliders and this was the perfect chance to try it out!

Luke's Cheeseburger Sliders

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1/4 cups oatmeal (or seasoned bread crumbs)
3/4 cup chopped onions (I just used dried onions from the spice aisle because I hate chopping onions)
1/2 t garlic or regular salt
1 package Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls
6 slices cheese of your choice

Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine beef, oatmeal, onions and salt. Gently press mixture in a 9x13 inch pan so that it makes one large patty of even thickness. Poke holes throughout the meat using a fork (I forgot to do this and it turned out fine). Bake for 30 minutes. As it bakes, the meat will shrink away from the sides and the liquid will accumulate around the edges of the pan.

When fully cooked, remove pan from the oven (keep oven turned on) and carefully drain off the liquid.

Top the meat with an even layer of sliced cheese; return pan to oven for about 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes. Cut into 2 inch squares (or the size of the buns used).

A weekend in the Bay area

For the long President's Day weekend we headed down to the Bay area. It was absolutely gorgeous the whole weekend. I keep forgetting it is still February with the sunny, warm weather we have been having. I'm not looking forward to the summer if it's already like this.

We started off the weekend with a visit to Point Reyes. On the way we stopped at the Marin French Cheese Factory for a little picnic. My father-in-law introduced us to this place a couple years ago when we first visited California together. At Point Reyes, we saw the lighthouse, elk, elephant seals and beautiful landscapes.

It is about 300 steps down to the lighthouse. It was a little tough coming back up.

The elk is taking a stroll down the path.

The next day was spent in San Jose. We went to the Tech Museum of Innovation which was a lot of fun. We enjoy going to museums with interactive displays. We also saw an IMAX film.

That evening we attended a San Jose Sharks (hockey) game. They lost, but I didn't care either way. They were playing the Tampa Bay Lightning so I didn't have an affiliation with either team.

We also visited the San Jose Muncipal Rose Garden. There were only a couple blooms, but I imagine this park is amazing when the roses are in full bloom.

The Bay area is so beautiful with rolling hills and green everywhere. I wish we lived just a little bit closer so we could go more often.

Potato Wedge Nachos

On Sundays, Charles and I typically do low-effort dinners. We lean towards homemade popcorn and nachos. This weekend we mixed it up a little with Potato Wedge Nachos. I adapted the recipe from this pin: Cheesy Potato Fries.

Photo borrowed from blog: Oh So Delicioso

Ingredients:
Potatoes cut into wedges--I used a bag of baby sized potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
Paprika, to taste
Chedder cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Sour Cream
Salsa

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash potatoes and cut into wedges. With the baby potatoes, it was hard to get similar sized wedges since some potatoes were really tiny and others were larger. It didn't really matter. Some were a little more done than others. Place on baking sheet or in baking dish.

Pour on olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Toss potatoes.

Bake potatoes for 40 minutes.

When finished baking, remove from oven. Plate up and sprinkle with cheeses. Garnish with sour cream and salsa. Enjoy!

Frisco Bay

Charles and I recently returned from a trip to San Francisco, CA. The circumstances of our trip were not ideal, but the trip was a good opportunity to meet new people and see new things. The reason for going was that Charles' grandfather passed away, so we went to his memorial service. But I was able to meet all of Charles' aunts and uncles on his Dad's side (13 in all), his grandmother, and a few other people.

We saw a lot of neat things and decided again that we do not like big cities. Too many people! But it was fun seeing all the San Francisco landmarks (and learning about a few that I had never heard of before). Here are some pictures from our trip:

Cable Car Museum

Alcatraz in the background

Musee Mecanique (reminds me of the Princess Diaries and basically the main reason I wanted to find this game in the museum)

Pier 39 sea lions

Golden Gate Bridge (north side)

Samuel P. Taylor State Park (Redwoods)

Marin French Cheese (The Cheese Factory)

House boats

Dessert Cheeseball

I love cream cheese! My husband, however, thinks cream cheese is gross. For the Friday before Christmas, we had a mini potluck at work. This gave me a great excuse to make a cream cheese based dessert--Chocolate Chip Cheeseball. Everyone at work loved it! (It is pretty tasty, if I must say so myself). It's probably been around blog world a million times, but just in case, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (it's OK to use regular chocolate chips if that is all you have)
3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add sugars; beat until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

After two hours, place mixture in plastic wrap and shape like a ball. Refrigerate for an hour.

Before serving, roll ball in pecans (optional). Serve with graham crackers. (Or just eat it straight...it's that good).

Garlic Knots

As part of my Christmas dinner, I made Garlic Knots. I found the recipe on a blog; I honestly do not remember which one, though. There was an Italian restaurant called Italiano's that we frequented often when we lived in Texas. They served the best garlic knots. These were pretty good, too!

Garlic Knots

Ingredients:
40 mini refrigerated buttermilk biscuits or 20 regular refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup canola oil
6 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling after baked
3 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons dried oregano
3 teaspoons dried parsley flakes

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Open the canned biscuits. On a dry work surface or cutting board, take 1 biscuit at a time and roll each biscuit into a long rope. Gently tie the biscuit rope into a knot and tuck the ends under. Place two inches apart on a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Once baked, remove the knots from the oven. Place them on a wire rack with a paper towel under them to catch the excess oil.

In a bowl, combine the canola oil and seasonings. Brush the knots with the oil and garlic mixture while they are still hot. Sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese.

Time for Dinner

I wanted to share the past two meals I’ve made because they were really delicious and pretty easy to make.

Quick & Easy Chicken and Dumplings (for 2-3 people)

1 cup biscuit mix (I used Bisquick Heart Healthy)

1/3 cup milk

1 T flour

3 cups chicken stock (try to get the reduced sodium kind so it’s a little healthier)

1/8 cup water

1 bay leaf

¼ t each of salt and pepper

1 cup frozen veggies

1 cup cooked, shredded chicken (like a rotisserie chicken)

In a small bowl, stir biscuit mix and milk until just combined. Set aside. In a medium pot, combine stock, bay leaf, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. In a small dish, whisk flour and water and stir into chicken stock. Add chicken and veggies. Drop dumpling batter into boiling stock. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Cover and cook an additional 10 minutes.

Parmesan Pasta with Chicken (for 4-6 people)

12 oz pasta (it called for orchietta, but I used mini ziti because the store didn’t have that kind and I already had the ziti)

1 3-4 lb rotisserie chicken

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ t each of salt and pepper

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Shred the chicken (this step was already completed since I used 1 cup of the chicken in the chicken and dumplings). Discard the skin and bones. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 ¼ cups of the water. Return the pasta to the pot. Add reserved water, chicken, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Stir over medium low heat until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.

Creamy Parmesan mashed potatoes

1 lb red potatoes (about 4) cut into ½ inch chunks

1 cup chicken broth

¼ cup sour cream

2 oz cream cheese

1 ½ T grated Parmesan cheese

Place potatoes in a large saucepan. Add broth. Cover. Bring to a boil on high heat. Simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring after 8 minutes. Uncover, stir potatoes. Simmer, uncovered, 5-6 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and most of the broth is absorbed.

Add cream cheese. Reduce heat to low. Mash potatoes slightly until cream cheese is melted. Add sour cream and Parmesan. Mash until potatoes are smooth (we left it a little chunky) and heated through.

Enjoy!