Slow Cooker Cheesy Potatoes

I mentioned on Facebook last week that I was making cheesy potatoes in the slow cooker for my Easter dinner.  One of my fans asked for the recipe.  I hadn’t posted it before because it’s a pretty basic recipe and I wasn’t sure it was interesting enough to post.  These potatoes are often called “funeral potatoes” and yes, I have made them for funeral dinners!  They work well for potlucks because they stay warm in the slow cooker and I love them for Easter dinner because the oven is tied up with the ham and roasted asparagus.  You can find this recipe a million places online, but here’s how I make mine.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Potatoes


Ingredients:
32 oz. bag frozen cubed potatoes, thawed
¼ cup butter, melted
1 can condensed cheese soup
1 cup French onion chip dip
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded


Directions:
Place thawed potatoes in a slow cooker.  Combine melted butter, cheese soup, chip dip, and shredded cheese in a bowl and then pour over potatoes.  Stir to combine.  Cover and set to low.


Cook for 4-6 hours.  Mine take 6 hours, but start checking them at 4 just to make sure they aren’t over cooking.  Stir them every hour or so during the second half of cooking.  


Makes 8 servings.

Super easy, but I did manage to find a way to mess them up.  I accidentally bought “fat free” chip dip instead of regular, but didn’t have time to go back to the store.  So I used it anyway.  Here’s the result:

It actually took me a while to realize why they turned out so dry and clumpy looking.  They weren’t creamy at all like they usually are.  Then I remembered about the chip dip.  Duh!  They were still edible, but not as good as usual.

You can certainly use sour cream instead of the chip dip, but I love the oniony flavor the chip dip lends without having chunks of onion in there.

I have only ever cooked these on low, so I don’t know how long they would take on high.  Maybe I’ll do them on high next time and see how long that takes.

Eggs Benedict Casserole

This is the dish I made for our Easter breakfast at church this year.  At first, I couldn’t decide what to make, but then Pinterest helped me out!  I get an email whenever someone repins one of my pins, and this recipe was constantly getting repinned, so I really wanted to try it out.  Usually I like to chose “tried and true” recipes when cooking for church events, but I decided to take a chance with this one, and I’m glad I did. It was the perfect Easter brunch dish and it turned out beautifully.  It’s a Taste of Home recipe.

Eggs Benedict Casserole

Ingredients:

10 oz. Canadian bacon, chopped

6 English muffins, split and cut into 1” pieces

8 eggs

2 cups 2% milk

1 tsp onion powder

½ tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika, divided

1 tsp shallot salt

4 egg yolks

½ cup heavy whipping cream

2 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp Dijon mustard

½ cup butter, melted

Directions:

Place half of the Canadian bacon in a greased 9×13” baking dish; top with English muffins and remaining bacon. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, onion powder, garlic powder, ½ tsp smoked paprika, and shallot salt; pour over the top. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 375°.  Sprinkle with remaining ½ tsp smoked paprika. Cover and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover; bake 10 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

In a double boiler or metal bowl over simmering water, constantly whisk the egg yolks, cream, lemon juice, and mustard until mixture reaches 160° or is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Reduce heat to low. Slowly drizzle in warm melted butter, whisking constantly. Serve immediately with casserole. 

Makes 12 servings.

The only thing I changed was that I added a little bit more seasoning to the egg mixture, because some other reviewers said it was a tad bland.  I really loved the Hollandaise sauce and will probably use it the next time I need Hollandaise sauce for another recipe.  It was really easy to  make.

 If I was making this at home, I would put the Hollandaise sauce in a gravy boat and let each person pour out as much as they wanted.  But since this was being served at a buffet, I just poured it all over the top of the casserole and served it that way.  That worked out really well.

The casserole was a hit at the Easter breakfast.  One lady told me it was the best dish there.  There was only enough leftover for me to have a little bit for breakfast the next morning.  Sounds like a success to me!

This recipe was shared at:

• Newlyweds Blog Recipe Linky
• Totally Tasty Tuesday at Mandy’s Recipe Box
• Tastetastic Thursday at A Little Nosh

Easter Goldfish Carrots

Here’s a cute Easter snack idea for you.  I made these for my daughter’s preschool class last week.  I got the idea from Pinterest, originating from the blog Loralee Lewis.  She used icing decorator bags for hers.  I was going to do the same thing, but I couldn’t find bags that didn’t have a huge Wilton logo on them.  Does Wilton have a monopoly on decorator bags, because all I could find were Wilton!  So I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, when one of my bloggy friends, Debi from Recipes for My Boys, posted a similar idea using quart sized Ziploc bags instead.  It wasn’t until I read her post that I realized that the Wilton bags would be way too big anyway.  The quart sized bags would be just perfect and a lot cheaper!  They don’t turn out quite as long and skinny as the decorator bags, but hey, there are short, fat carrots too!

Here’s how I made them.

Get some cheap dollar store zipper bags.  Don’t get Ziploc brand because they have a logo on them too.

 Lay out the bag.

 Cut the zipper off on a diagonal line.

 Fill with Goldfish crackers.  I bought the giant box (30 oz.) of Goldfish crackers and I got about 12 little bags out of it.

 Twist the top.

 Cut out 11″ lengths of green ribbon.

 Tie the tops with green ribbon.

 These are really simple to make and are perfect for stuffing into Easter baskets.  It’s kind of refreshing to have an Easter treat that isn’t loaded with sugar!

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

Glazed Ham

My 2009 ham with cranberry spice glaze.

I have made a ham on Easter three years in a row now, but every year I forget how I made the ham the year before. So I am recording it here, more for my benefit than yours really, but you might enjoy knowing how I make ham also. It’s basically this method I saw in Food Network Magazine.

Glazed Ham

Ingredients:

9 – 10 lb. bone-in fully cooked smoked ham (butt or shank half)

1½ cups glaze

Directions:

Remove the ham from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325°.

Trim off any skin from the ham. Use a sharp paring knife to score through the fat in a diagonal crosshatch pattern without cutting through to the meat.

Put the ham, flat-side down, on a rack in a roasting pan. Pour ¼” water into the bottom of the pan. Transfer to the oven and roast until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the ham registers 130°, about 2½ hours (about 15 minutes per pound).

Increase the oven temperature to 425°. Pour half of the glaze over the ham and brush to coat. If the water in the bottom of the pan has evaporated, add more. Return the ham to the oven and roast, basting every 10 minutes with the remaining glaze, until glossy and well browned and 140°, about 45 more minutes.

Makes 12 servings.

Pretty easy. Hams are already fully cooked, so you’re basically just warming it up and browning the outside. I always forget what temperature ham is supposed to reach when done, so now I have it in writing so I won’t forget next year!

The first two years I used Cranberry Spice Glaze and this year I used Mustard Orange Glaze. They are both super tasty and I highly recommend them both.

My 2011 ham with mustard orange glaze. (Forgot to take a pic before carving. Oops!)

Mustard Orange Glaze for Ham

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a nice holiday. It’s always the busiest time of year for us, but we had a great day yesterday. The weather was actually very nice and we had family in town to help us celebrate the holiday. It was my third year making an Easter dinner; a nice tradition I have started. I go pretty traditional with my Easter menu: ham, some sort of cheesy potato dish, green bean casserole, bread, and sometimes a carrot side dish too. The first two years I used the same ham glaze, Cranberry Spice Glaze for Ham, but Food Network Magazine had four different ham glaze recipes in this month’s issue so I was inspired to try a new one this year. They all look great and I want to try them all eventually, but I started with the mustard orange one.

Mustard Orange Glaze for Ham

Ingredients:

1 orange

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup brown mustard

9 – 10 lb. bone-in ham

Directions:

Zest and juice orange. Combine orange juice and zest with brown sugar and mustard. Pour half of glaze over ham when ham registers 130°. Brush with remaining glaze every 10 minutes until ham registers 140°.

Makes 1½ cups glaze.

It was really good. I had to take a picture of the ham after we carved it because I forgot to while it was still whole. But if you click on the picture, you can see the glaze on the edges of the ham.

It’s the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. It’s a nice twist on the usual honey mustard flavor profile. The original recipe called for dijon, but we like brown mustard better. I didn’t have quite enough of that, however, so this one ended up being half brown mustard and half dijon.

It was a hit with my family, so it is definitely going to my ham glaze rotation!

Melissa from I Was Born To Cook chose to make this recipe when she was assigned my blog for the Secret Recipe Club in November 2012.  Click on the button below to check out her post!

Mini Weenie Wraps

So, I forgot to blog about the appetizer I made for my Easter meal.

It’s a mini version of the thing where you wrap a hotdog with a crescent roll. I’ve heard them called Weenie Wraps or Crescent Dogs, or Pigs in a Blanket, or whatever. Got it from Recipezaar.

Mini Weenie Wraps

Ingredients:

1 package Little Smokies sausage

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

parmesan cheese

garlic salt

Directions:

Preheat oven according to directions on crescent roll package.

Unroll but leave intact 2 triangles of crescent rolls.

Pinch seam together and cut lengthwise into 5 strips and then cross-wise to make 10 strips.

Roll each strip around one sausage and place in baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Sprinkle each one with parmesan and garlic salt.

Bake according to crescent roll package directions.

I totally forgot to sprinkle them with parmesan and garlic salt, but they were still good. And so darn cute!

Lemon Cream Cake

This isn’t a recipe, but I wanted to share what we had for dessert with our Easter dinner. My mom knew that our favorite restaurant dessert is the Lemon Cream Cake at Olive Garden. I had noticed that Sam’s Club had a knock-off, so she was going to bring that. Well, apparently Sam’s has discontinued theirs (grrrr!), so without my knowledge, Mom went out and bought a whole cake from Olive Garden! If you have not tried this dessert, you should. It’s really nice because it has nice light flavors and is a nice alternative to a big, heavy chocolate dessert. And with a very light lemon flavor, I thought it would be perfect for our springy-themed Easter dinner (I do not bake, so whenever anyone offers to bring something, I say “Dessert!”)

It doesn’t come with the bunny and eggs; those are candies Mom made and used them to garnish the cake. Cute! And oh so yummy!

Chocolate Nests

A simple, fun dessert perfect for Easter. This is adapted from one I found on Recipezaar.

Chocolate Nests

Ingredients:

2 cups chocolate chips

2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

4 cups chow mein noodles

cooking spray

Directions:

Heat water in double boiler over medium heat and add chocolate chips to top portion. When chocolate begins to melt, add peanut butter and continue to stir until creamy. Add chow mein noodles, stirring until completely coated.

On spread-out wax or parchment paper, drop a generous spoonful of the chocolate-covered chow mein noodles for each nest. Garnish with candies (I used M&M eggs) and Peeps.

Makes 10-16, depending on how big you make them)

The original recipe I read said to form the nests inside a muffin tin. I think free-forming them like this looks more realistic.

I was going to put a nest on each person’s plate at the table, but before I could, my husband carved up the ham and started putting it on plates. So, I just served them with dessert after the meal.

Easter Carrots

Okay, so this isn’t really a recipe, but I just had to share. I got the cutest carrot-shaped serving dish at Hobby Lobby and served carrots in it. Cute, huh?

I saw someone on TV (Claire Robinson on 5 Ingredient Fix on Food Network) make baby carrots that still had the top attached and I thought they would be perfect for Easter dinner. But I couldn’t find the baby kind at the store, so I got these. I just steamed them in a glass dish in the microwave and sprinkled them with salt. Then each person cut them up themselves on their plate.

Twice-Baked Potatoes

One of my Easter side dishes.  It’s not so much a recipe (I don’t have amounts, sorry!), as a method.

Twice-Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

6 large baking potatoes (Russets work best)

olive oil

kosher salt

milk

salt

butter

finely minced onion

shredded cheese

cheese crumbles or small chunks of Velveeta

Directions:

After scrubbing potatoes and patting dry, rub each one with a small amount of olive oil then sprinkle them with salt.  Poke a few holes in each and bake them directly on the rack at 350° for about an hour.  Remove from oven and cut an oval-shaped hole in the top of each.  Discard the skin and carefully scoop out the flesh into a large mixing bowl.  Put the empty shells back in the oven while preparing the filling.

Mash up the flesh of the potatoes and add whatever you do to your regular mashed potatoes.  I seasoned mine with salt and added some butter and milk.  Then I added a couple of things I don’t add to regular mashed potatoes.  I put in a few spoonfuls of finely minced onion (I keep a small jar in the fridge) and some shredded cheese.  I think I used either a cheddar or a monterey jack.  

Take the shells out of the oven and fill each one with the mashed potato mixture.  Top each with the cheese crumbles or Velveeta.  Put back in the oven and bake an additional 15 minutes or so until the stuffing is warmed through and the cheese melts.  

Makes 6 servings.

Yummy!  A nice alternative to regular baked or mashed potatoes (and kind of a combination of both!)