Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

 

I don’t usually make mashed potatoes. :/

Honestly when I have made mashed potatoes I’ve used the Idahoan (dehydrated) mashed potatoes.  Always roasted garlic, four cheese or butter and herb because I don’t really know how to make gravy. 

I’m not so sure why I’ve been so hesitant to make them. They really aren’t that hard. I’ve watched my mother-in-law make the most delicious mashed potatoes and gravy several times now. She always uses a hand mixer and they turn out so smooth with little effort! So I decided to give it this recipe a try! Super yummy and SO easy!

One day I’ll give gravy a try. ;)

Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

This recipe is so easy, and my whole family loves this one!

  I love slow cooker dinners, and this one is a real winner because it literally takes probably 15 minutes to throw everything in and you’ve got dinner in the bag!  Use gluten free soy and oyster sauces (or all soy if the oyster sauce scares you) for an easy gluten free conversion!recipe and image courtesy The Recipe Critic

Thai Basil Fried Rice

Recently, I was looking for a simple side dish I could make to go along with my Thai Chicken Enchiladas.  I saw this one and it looked simple enough, so I decided to try it.  recipe and image courtesy Wine and Glue

This recipe, as it turns out, while simple to make, has a beautiful and very authentic complex Thai flavor profile.  I know this is one I will make again and again.  We liked it so much I might consider adding some extra chicken and making it a meal in itself next time.  I would also like to try subbing rice noodles for the rice and shrimp for the chicken sometime.  Yum!

Thai Chicken Enchiladas

Thai is by far my favorite of the various Asian cuisines.  There’s something about the combination of flavors that just sings to my palate.  Delicate, creamy coconut combined with the powerful heat of jalapenos or chilis.  Fresh, earthy cilantro or strong, licorice-y Thai basil.  The closes thing to flavor Heaven is certainly for me found in an authentic Thai restaurant.  image courtesy and recipe adapted from How Sweet Eats

I thought these Thai Chicken Enchiladas sounded kind of weird the first time I saw them, but at the time I was in the process of trying to learn more about replicating those restaurant Thai flavors in my own kitchen, and the ingredients list wasn’t full of things I didn’t have, so I decided to give them a try.  Boy, am I glad I did!  The Saucy Mister and I loved them but discovered that they got soggy too quickly for our liking.  I decided I wanted to try them again and try to prevent the sogginess we had trouble with last time.  I had made a note to either try them “eggroll-style” (by baking the tortilla-wrapped enchiladas without the sauce) then heating the sauce and serving it on the side for dipping, or to fry them like chimichangas and just spoon the sauce over the top just before serving.  This time when I made them I tried them both ways, and both ways turned out better (in my opinion) than the way the original recipe calls for them to be made.  Frying them in oil gives them a nice crisp, but I still like the lighter flavor of the baked ones better.  I just really prefer to bake them without the sauce on top and spoon it on there right before serving. 

Brown Butter Salted Snickerdoodles

I read that this recipe had been named “The Recipe of the Year” a couple years ago (by whom I can’t remember) and knew I had to try them.  I have made them several times exactly how the original recipe requests, using quartered caramel squares.  This, frankly, is a giant pain in the butt. 

 

While out grocery shopping during the holidays, I saw the Kraft caramel bits with new eyes, wondering if they would work in this recipe in place of the quartered caramel squares, and I’m glad I tried them.  They were so much nicer than unwrapping, cutting, and carefully placing all those squares.  Forget that!  Toss the bag of caramel bits in the mixer and consider them done.  That's what I did for the cookie tins for The Messy Mister's coworkers, and these were another much-loved favorite.

 

I’ve never really much liked the super sticky chewiness of the caramel in these cookies once they’ve cooled (the caramel is nice when they’re warm).  I decided to try a batch without any caramel whatsoever, and I discovered that I actually much prefer them without it.  Go figure!  So, bag the squares and use the bits instead, or forego the caramel altogether and enjoy them without it.  They’re good any way you make them!
recipe and image courtesy Two Peas and Their Pod

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies

I have a thing for chocolate and mint, and I love the flavor of peppermint during the holidays.  I knew I had to try these dark chocolate peppermint crunch cookies, and once I tasted them, I knew they would be the perfect addition to the cookie tins we made for The Messy Mister’s coworkers. 

I once watched Giada De Laurentiis on the food network claim you should never make anything chocolate without adding some coffee to flavor it.  Now I know why.  The coffee granules in these cookies add a depth and richness to the chocolate.  I wasn’t sure about adding peppermint on top of all that, but it really is very nice.

image courtesy A Kitchen Addiction; recipe courtesy back of the Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips bag

Chewy Ginger Cookies

These ginger cookies are a year-round family favorite, though the flavors lend themselves particularly well during the Christmas season.  The recipe is an old family favorite that came from a neighbor of my grandmother’s.  Sharon is the sweetest friend of my grandma’s, and she used to run the best daycare/babysitting service in town.  She would cook up gigantic batches of these cookies and keep them in old ice cream containers right by her front door, so that when your parents came to pick you up she could send you out the door with one of these.  I don’t know how we got our hands on the recipe, but I’m sure glad we did!  Everybody who tries them just loves them!image courtesy Life Made Simple

The half batch is like a regular batch of cookies, and will make around 48 cookies.  The gigantic original batch will feed an army.  Try freezing them, though.  Perfect to toss in school lunches; they will be thawed out and perfectly chewy just in time for lunch!