Buffalo Turkey Dip

I have leftover turkey (who doesn't?). I don't feel like cooking dinner tonight. The only way I will even walk myself into the kitchen is if I hardly have to do a thing. (Although now that I'm in here I see that I still need to clean the dishes from last night. Ugh!) Enter Buffalo Turkey Dip.

Originally I made/make this recipe using canned chicken, (it's another one of those recipes that I've made a million times before becoming a blogger) but I have turkey on hand to use so turkey it is. If you like hot wings, which we do, then you will love this dip. It is simple to make and easy to serve plus its hearty enough to be an entire meal. Yum! Oh and to brag on it a bit more I actually took this dip to my first Thanksgiving with BCakes' family and it has been requested by his cousin every year since. I think it is one of those "the way to a man's heart" dishes.

Baby Cakes always gives this one "10.5 thumbs up" and last night was no exception. So if you’re looking to use up turkey and are kind of tired of sandwiches give this one a try.


Buffalo Turkey Dip
recipe from FranksRedHot.com

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup chunky blue cheese dressing
1/2 cup hot wing sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 cups diced turkey
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the first 5 ingredients together until combined well.

Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and then top with remaining 1/4 cup of cheese and bake until melted.

Serve with crackers and celery.


I thought I would throw in a picture of what the dip looks like without cheese on top...

I really can't describe this dip well enough for you other than by saying it tastes like buffalo wings. Use a celery stalk to scoop some up and it really is uncanny. Enjoy, because I know that once you taste it it'll stay in your recipe files forever.

XOXO,

Twice Baked Sweet Potato Casserole

For the last couple of years I have been the bringer of the sweet potatoes during any family get together and this is not something that I take lightly. Anyone who loves to cook knows the satisfied feeling one gets from making a dish that everyone loves. There is something about bringing a dish over full and then seeing that it is the one dish empty by meals end that makes slaving in the kitchen worthwhile. This year after making the same recipe time and time again I thought I would make a tiny adjustment. I had no idea what a difference that tiny adjustment would make.

The above said adjustment are fresh sweet potatoes. I never gave them much thought in the past for many reasons; the number one reason is that I was raised on canned and the second reason was I was under the impression that it would be too much hassle. Now that I have had it this way I will never go back to the canned version again.

I would also like to note that in the past I have always just added a bit of this and a bit of that, I honestly had no idea of even the slightest measurements so making it yesterday took a bit longer but alas it is done and I now have a recipe to share.


Twice Baked Sweet Potato Casserole

8-10 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 block of cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. salt
¾-1 cup light brown sugar
1 bag mini marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the sweet potatoes directly on the wire rack and bake for 60 minutes or until done. Think baked potato but a bit softer. After they are done set them on a heat proof surface and cool until comfortable to touch. I find that it is easier to melt the butter and cream cheese into the mix if it is still slightly warm.

Scoop the sweet potato flesh into a large bowl and add the cream cheese and butter, stirring until completely melted.

Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, ¾ cups brown sugar and vanilla extract. Taste and add the last ¼ cup of brown sugar as needed.

Put into a 9x13 dish and bake for 15-20 minutes. Top with mini marshmallows and bake for 15 minutes longer or until the marshmallows are browned.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the casserole, during all the hoopla and lending a hand it just slipped my mind, so that post will just have to borrow a picture until a little later. The picture I borrowed looked exactly like mine except I use more marshmallows and baked it in a rectangle dish. I found the picture here. Not to worry I will be making this again, soon and posting the picture, my picture.

XOXO.

Pumpkin Cobbler

How was your Thanksgiving? Lovely I hope. Baby Cakes and I spent most of our day on the road going from point A to point B but at the end of the day but it was worth it. It was great to catch up with those family members who we only see during the holiday season. It was also great to have some quiet time with the hubby between families to reflect and share some couple time. I would have to say my favorite part was sitting around the table after eating lunch and listening to all the old stories about my Mother and Father in Law that I had never heard before. It was such a good time and so nice to hear the funny memories, it made me feel even more like family.

So now on to the Pumpkin Cobbler, I had to give this recipe out 3 times during the day, not to mention I got a recipe for a wonderful green bean dish to be blogged soon from Baby Cakes’ Aunt, it was a raving success. Baby Cakes’ Nanny asked “is this the dish from the church cookbook that I made and we had at my birthday?” and then it hit me that it is a lot like that dessert in the sense that it too was pumpkin and is topped with cake mix. However, it is actually a variation that I got from here so I guess what I am saying is that there are a millions of sites with this dish out there so although I can't take credit for inventing it this is my variation of it.

Oh, I almost forgot the most important person’s opinion, most important person to me anyway. Baby Cakes loves this recipe so much that he was trying to talk me out of taking the second dish to my families Thanksgiving dinner.


Pumpkin Cobbler

Filling:

15 oz. can pumpkin
12 oz. can evaporated milk
1/3 of an 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs, slightly beaten

In saucepan over low heat, slowly stir in the cream cheese, pumpkin, milk and all of the spices together. Reserve the lightly beaten eggs for the time being.

Once the cream cheese is incorporated into the pumpkin mixture remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes or until cooled. Whisk the eggs into the mixture as well.

Pour the mixture into a 9x13 dish.

Crust:

1 box of yellow cake mix
2 sticks of unsalted butter, melted
1 cup pecans, chopped

Sprinkle the entire box of cake mix over the top of the filling, top with pecans and then drizzle the melted butter all over the top.

Bake on 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

Serve with whipped cream.


It really is a fairly easy dish and I promise you will get cheers from everyone who tastes it.

Next up, Sweet Potato Casserole.

XOXO.

Brown Sugar Pork Roast

There seems to be a common theme with almost all of the recipes I make, have you noticed? They are either smothered in cream sauce or made with brown sugar in some variation, and I wonder why I have so much weight to lose. Ok I don't really wonder. Or really care. (I am women hear me roar! GRIN.)

Just recently I have come across some new blogs, not new per say but new to me and this recipe came from one of them. The Girl Who Ate Everything is a blog by Christy who happens to be a blogger after my own heart; she has two times the desserts on her blog than any other type of recipe. Love. I implore you to go check her out and certainly to try some of her recipes out for yourself.

Now I didn't read the recipe very well before the day came, today, to make this so I was a bit rushed on time and had to improvise and cross my fingers hoping that it worked. It worked, sort of. Mine ended up having an awful lot of liquid left and I couldn't get the deep brown color that hers had. Check out her original recipe and yummy picture Café Rio Sweet Pork over on her blog. I will be making it again and hopefully with a new crockpot (wink wink) because the only setting that works on my hand me down version is high. Luckily, even though I had to accelerate the cooking time, not to mention cook with a broken crockpot, it turned out tasting wonderful. I am thinking that shortening the cooking time is what made it not turn out “right” but I did cook it for the full 4 hours after the saucy stuff was added so I am kind of at a loss here. Oh well, the taste is really what matters for us anyhow.

Baby Cakes loves it and all he really said between bites was this meat is so versatile and that "seriously, you have to make this one again Megan". lol. He's the boss (or so I let him think). Wink!


Brown Sugar Pork Roast
original recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything

2-3 lbs. pork roast
2 cups root beer
15 oz. can tomato sauce
2 tbs. honey
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. cumin
pepper to taste

Salt and pepper the roast on both sides and place in a crock pot. Pour over 1/4 cup of water and turn the heat up to high. Cook in the crock pot for 6 hours.

Remove the roast from the crockpot and shred it into large chunks using a fork, removing any fat. Drain all the water left in the crockpot. Add the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot and stir. Add in the shredded pork and cook another 4 hours on low heat.


We ate ours like nachos. What can I say? I have a ton of baking to do yet and I have to work all day tomorrow. The name of the game for tonight and tomorrow night is quick and easy supper. However, Christy serves it in a salad form, that looks wonderful by the way. I really hope that you try this one in either salad, nachos or even sandwich form and I know that you are going to love it.

See y’all after turkey day and that reminds me I recently came across this picture, Norman Rockwell's A Mother and Son Peeling Potatoes, 1945, and instantly teared up. It makes me think of my brother who couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving this year.


So no matter who will be missed or who will be there I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving,

Cream Cheese Corn

This year I am having a hard time narrowing down what it is I would like to bring to our Thanksgiving meals. I know I am bringing a dessert dish to both places, actually the same dessert, Pumpkin Cobbler (coming soon!) but what side dish to bring for Baby Cakes' side of the family? My family requests, every single year, my sweet potato casserole (also coming soon!) so atleast I don't have to think about that dish...

For the last two years my co-worker Sherry has been telling me about a sweet corn and cream cheese dish that her mother-in-law makes. I have wanted to try it for some time but it always seemed to slip my mind. Last week Sherry reminded me about it again only this time I took action and asked her for the recipe. You guy's, this is a entirely diffrent version of "candy corn".

Baby Cakes say's that he could eat this everyday. I say that this is almost certainly the dish that I am taking to his side of the families Thanksgiving meal. It is so very good, lightly sweet and it has so much flavor. Truth be told I have a confession, we ate the entire bowl between the two of us. Yes, the ENTIRE BOWL!


Cream Cheese Corn
recipe from Sherry McShan's MIL

8 oz. cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 bag frozen corn
1/4 cup sugar
salt and pepper, to taste

In a medium size saucepan over low heat melt the butter and cream cheese. Stirring to combine, they want to seperate so stir until smooth and creamy and completely melted.

Stir in the frozen corn and sugar. Heat over low heat until corn is cooked and the cream cheese mixture is thin. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.

Serve warm.


This dish is going to be made time after time. It is wonderful.

Turkey Day is almost here! Gobble Gobble,

Salmon Chowder

Let me go ahead and share that this recipe started out as a soup from Mr. Food BUT after tasteing I decided that it was not worthy of my blog. This is the 3rd recipe now that I've made from that site that was bland, apparently he doesn't believe in seasoning. His original recipe called for only potato, milk, butter, dill, salmon, salt and pepper but I was hopeful. It tasted like lightly seasoned warm milk, pretty yucky. It really was not good. I knew I had to try try again so here we are today.

I started with his basic recipe and just played with it until it was perfect, according to me. So it's ended up kind of like an everything but the kitchen sink chowduh. It really is very good. It's not creamy per say but it is chunky and flavorful. It was actually Baby Cakes who gets the credit for the crawfish boil seasoning, he said he wanted spice and we had some left over from a crawfish boil we a had a few months back so TADA! It really worked with this dish. (Probably because the seasoning is made for seafood.) But no worries it's not spicy with the amount I added. It just lends some extra saltiness and flavor.

Baby Cakes loved this one and it has joined the list of recipes that I am allowed to make again. (lol, he's so cute thinking he has all the pull here, wink.) So either he'll eat anything, true, or I'm just a dang fine cook, also true (to toot my own horn).


Salmon Chowder

Ingredients
4 cups milk
3 cups heavy cream
2 cans salmon, drained and flaked (skin and bones discarded)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen carrots
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried dillweed
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon hot sauce
4-6 tablespoons seafood boil seasoning, powder not liquid

1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

In a soup pot, over medium heat, combine all ingredients except for the cheese and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 25-45 minutes, or until the potatoes are done, stirring occasionally.

Right before serving stir in 1-2 cups of shredded cheese.

Serve up with some crusty garlic bread and a a bit of seafood boil on the side to season a bit more with, if you'de like. Yum!


This was a lovely finalization to the end of a long, cold, rainy day. It is simple to make, warm and is so very good. Even if you don't like fish you'll have to try this one at least once. XOXO.

Mmmmm Chowduh,

Creamy Pumpkin Dip

When I came across this recipe my first thought was that it looks so easy to make and I was right it is very easy to make. The perfect quick recipe for Halloween or just the fall in general.

This recipe says it's supposed to be a mousse, as in Creamy Pumpkin Mousse and it is mousse-y, lol, but lacking in flavor or sweetness. Lacking in something. Perhaps next time I'll add some ginger or nutmeg, perhaps a bit of powdered sugar to the mix. Something. Anyhow, it's perfect to serve with a sweet cookie for dipping. So from now on in my eyes this recipe will be known as Creamy Pumpkin Dip. Hence my renaming it as such.

In all honesty I've noticed that this year I'm not really a fan of pumpkin dishes. I've had pumpkin candy, poptarts, ice cream, dips, cake, etc. and not been crazy about any of them except for Maggie's Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake which surprises me. My point being that I might not be a good judge of this particular recipe because I wasn't crazy about it.

However, Baby Cakes was. Everytime he would open the fridge he would use his finger to scoop some out and eat it. Also when it was on the counter, in his bowl, in my bowl... Needless to say "this is a keeper" says the hubby.


Creamy Pumpkin Dip
recipe from Mr. Food

Ingredients

1 can (16-ounces) solid-pack pure pumpkin
1 package (6-serving size) instant sugar-free vanilla pudding mix
1/4 cup low-fat (1%) milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups frozen light whipped topping, thawed

Instructions

In a medium bowl, with an electric beater on medium speed, beat the pumpkin, pudding mix, milk, and cinnamon until well blended.

Fold in the whipped topping until thoroughly blended, then spoon into a serving bowl. Cover loosely and chill until ready to serve.

I served mine topped with some pumpkin seeds and nutmeg along with some gingersnaps and vanilla cookies. Baby Cakes dipped a Snickers in it. To each his own, right?

All in all a super quick and tasty treat.

Trick or Treat,