Creamy Pesto Potato Salad

I had some red potatoes that I needed to use up. I also still have some garlic scape pesto in the freezer to use up. So I decided to make a creamy pesto potato salad over the weekend. I remembered seeing a good looking recipe on A Good Appetite last summer, so I went searching for that. I found it and had all the ingredients, so I made it up quickly over the weekend. This was very tasty! I thought it might seem a little bland, with so few ingredients, but it wasn't at all. The garlic scape pesto just gives it so much flavor.

Picture to come soon.

Creamy Pesto Potato Salad

2 lbs waxy potatoes, washed & cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 - 3 T Garlic Scape Pesto
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c mayonnaise
salt & pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork tender about 7 - 10 minutes. Drain.

Mix the pesto, sour cream & mayonnaise together. Season with salt & a generous amount of pepper. Mix in with warm potatoes.

Serve warm or chilled.

Cheesy Potatoes

I wasn't going to post this since everyone makes these already, I think. At least pretty much everyone I know has made some version of hash brown cheesy potatoes. But I figured I'd post it anyway. These are very good and super easy to prepare. I made some yesterday to go with our ham and lamb chop dinner with my cousins. These are pretty versatile in that you can use whatever cream soup you have on hand. I've used cream of broccoli, potato, celery, and mushroom in the past. My favorite is with cream of celery, so that's what I used yesterday (an organic cream of celery). I'm hoping to make my own homemade cream of celery one of these days, and I imagine these would be even more tasty with some homemade ingredients.

I didn't take a picture b/c I didn't plan on posting it.

Cheesy Potatoes

1 30-oz bag frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
2 cans cream soup
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded cheese

Mix all ingredients together in a 9x13 casserole dish. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes.

German-Style Warm Potato Salad

This recipe comes from my February 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times. I had some potatoes to use up, I had most of the ingredients on hand already, and this sounded pretty good, so I thought we'd try it. This was a very quick, simple, easy-to-prepare, meatless meal... oh yeah, and it tasted pretty good, too! We all really liked it a lot. And like I said, its very quick to prepare - the entire meal from start of chopping to being ready to eat only took about 15 minutes... now that's my kind of dinner on a work night!! :) This is great as a meatless main dish - and this is actually vegetarian, too, which most of my meatless meals are not truly vegetarian. This would be a great side dish, as well. Everything I used was organic - which is pretty typical these days, but I just realized I never say what is and what isn't anymore...

German-Style Warm Potato Salad

8 oz baby red potatoes, cut into 1" x 1/2" pieces
4 oz green beans, cut in 2" pieces
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3 green onions, white and pale green parts, chopped
2 Tablespoons white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or dill (I used dill)
4 cups loosely packed baby spinach leaves (I used a baby greens mix)

Cook potatoes in pot of boiling water, salted, for 8 minutes, or until tender. Add green beans during last minute of cooking.

Meanwhile, heat oil in skillet over medium heat, stir in vinegar.

Drain potatoes and beans. Toss with oil mixture, parsley, tarragon. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Serve warm on a bed of spinach.

Crockpot Pork Chops with Mustard-Sauced Potatoes

On Tuesday, I tried another recipe from 365 Days of Slow Cooking for pork chops and mustard-sauced potatoes. This was very good! I used my home-canned, homemade cream of mushroom soup and some of the pork that my BFF Sara's brother raised last year, all-natural, hormone/antibiotic-free. Good quality meat makes such a difference, but honestly, this dish would probably still be excellent with the pork chops you buy at Meijer or Kroger or something, too. The chops get so incredibly tender in the crockpot - they were falling off the bone and were so nice and moist. The potatoes were very good, too. Great flavors!

Pork Chops with Mustard-Sauced Potatoes

6 pork loin chops, cut 3/4 inch thick
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup dijon-style mustard
1 tsp dried thyme
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp pepper
6 medium potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 medium onion, sliced

In large skillet brown pork chops on both sides in hot oil. Drain off fat. (I didn't do this b/c I didn't have time in the morning). In large mixing bowl combine soup, chicken broth, mustard, thyme, garlic, and pepper. (I just did this in the crockpot, rather than dirtying a bowl). Add potatoes and onion, stirring to coat. Transfer to a 3 quart slow cooker (I used my 6-quart b/c its the only one with a timer). Place browned chops on top of potatoes. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 7-8 hours. (Mine cooked for about 9 hours on low, then it switched to Keep Warm for another 2 hours.)

Thanksgiving Leftovers Shepherd's Pie

After thinking we wouldn't end up with any Thanksgiving leftovers this year, we actually ended up with a lot of them. We brought home all of the remaining turkey (enough to make this and fill three freezer containers!), mashed potatoes, and corn that the rest of my family didn't want and we had a ton of roasted veggies (brussels sprouts, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cauliflower) leftover from dinner at Kevin's mom's house. So I decided to make a shepherd's pie. I made an Emeril recipe for shepherd's pie using Thanksgiving leftovers last year. I was tempted to just do the same thing this year, but decided to make it super simple and just use a pint of my homemade and home-canned cream of mushroom soup. This was very good - all three of us really liked it. Carson ate two helpings and Kevin just wants me to make another one tonight using the rest of the leftover roasted veggies and corn. I didn't follow a recipe, just used what I had.

Thanksgiving Leftovers Shepherd's Pie

1 pint cream of mushroom soup
leftover veggies (I used corn and roasted carrots/sweet potatoes/brussels/cauliflower)
leftover mashed potatoes
leftover turkey
shredded cheese

Use whatever quantities of each to your liking. I used way more veggies than meat... I probably only used about 1 cup of chopped turkey, the rest was all veggies. Mix your soup into the veggies and meat in a 9x9 glass casserole dish. Spread out evenly. Top with mashed potatoes and sprinkle some shredded cheese on top. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Crockpot Lamb Chops

We had my in-laws over for dinner last night. Kevin's brother had planned to come over to help Kevin work on some of the north fence - fixing some problems so that Jet doesn't get out anymore... I had some very scary nights last week with Jet getting out and disappearing for 10-45 minutes at a time... thankfully he wasn't hit in the busy road we live on! Since we found out Friday that Kevin would be gone for a while now, I figured it'd be a good opportunity to have his parents over to eat with us after the boys were done working on the fence. So I just threw some lamb (rib) chops and potatoes into the crockpot and let it cook all day. They turned out sooooo good! Super tender, falling off the bone, and such great flavor. Every time we eat any of our natural, grass-fed lamb, we think how much better it is than any other lamb we've bought at the grocery store. I missed out on ordering another lamb this fall, so we'll have to wait till next year to replenish our stock of lamb in the freezer... and the stock is dwindling... we just have a few packages left that will need to be used up soon. Anyway, this was the first time my in-laws had knowlingly eaten lamb - my mother-in-law loved it, but I think my father-in-law may have raided the refrigerator when he got home. :) Lamb has a unique flavor and you either love it or hate it. Kevin, Carson, Danny, and I all loved it, too. This really isn't a recipe, but here's what I did.

Crockpot Lamb Chops with Potatoes

potatoes
lamb chops
seasoning
1 cup water

Layer the potatoes in the bottom of the crock. I used some red and yellow potatoes from our garden, didn't peel them and just cut them in half. Pour the water over the potatoes. Season your chops with whatever seasoning you prefer - I used a grill seasoning. Mid-eastern seasonings would be awesome, and I almost used them, but figured I'd play it safer with the in-laws coming over and knowing they don't really eat mid-eastern food. Layer your chops over top of the potatoes. Cover and cook on low all day. Mine cooked on low for about 9 1/2 hours and it was awesome!

Arabic Baked Chicken with Potatoes

This recipe comes from my BFF Jaime's Aunt Pati... and its absolutely delicious!! I made this last Sunday for dinner - it was the perfect meal! It filled the house with awesome smells from the arabic spices and wow did it taste good!! We all loved it. Carson ate his entire first serving and wanted more potatoes and chicken! Definitely a keeper and it'll be a regular thing in our house, for sure! Thanks for the wonderful recipe, Aunt Pati!!! :)

I used one of my organic, free-range whole chickens. I just thawed it and butchered it up. And I used a mixture of yellow and red potatoes from our garden. The arabic spices can be found at your local arabic store.

Arabic Baked Chicken with Potatoes

1 pkg Pick-O-Chicks chicken or whole chicken cut up
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spices
1 1/2 teaspoon ground sumac
1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
1/4 teaspoon pepper (to taste)
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 small onion cut in rings
1 1/2 - 2 pounds baking potatoes washed (no need to peel)

Preheat oven to 400F Wash chicken and place in large bowl. Add spices, sumac, salt, pepper, garlic. Let stand covered for 3 or more hours, refrigerated. Meanwhile, wash potatoes and slice. You can slice them like french fries or slice thin like for potato chips (I sliced mine thin). In a shallow baking dish, at least 13X9 (may need a larger pan - I used my huge cast iron lasagna pan) lightly grease the bottom with a slight amount of olive oil. Place onion rings in pan, then place potato slices. Lightly salt the potato layer. Place marinated chicken on top of potatoes and place on lower rack of oven for approximately 1 hour. Turn chicken about half way through cooking time.

Herb Roasted Lamb with Roasted Veggies

Our good friends, Jeff and Jaime, came over for dinner tonight. I made a roasted leg of lamb and roasted veggies. It was all soooo good! I think we all went back for seconds (and some even for thirds and fourths!). I used a Barefoot Contessa recipe for Herb Roasted Lamb. It was very tasty and definitely a keeper for future legs of lamb. I just roasted veggies in the same pan as the lamb - potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and garlic. I had been a little nervous about making a leg of lamb for the first time - and making it for guests - but it was actually very easy and turned out very well! I cooked it a little longer than the recipe says to - none of us like our meat bloody. This was a little pink in the middle still, probably would be considered medium-well. It was so tender and flavorful - so yummy! I also should note that the lamb is all-natural, hormone-free, grass-fed. I also used organic carrots, parsnips, and garlic (not potatoes, though).

Herb-Roasted Leg of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables

12 large unpeeled garlic cloves, divided
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves (I just used my home-dried rosemary from my garden)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (I totally forgot this part!)
1 (6-pound) boneless leg of lamb, trimmed and tied
4 to 5 pounds small unpeeled potatoes (I used probably 8-9 medium-sized russet potatoes)
2 tablespoons good olive oil
(I also added 5 parsnips, peeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces and about 8 carrots, peeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces.)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven so the lamb will sit in the middle of the oven.

Peel 6 of the cloves of garlic and place them in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the rosemary, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and butter. Process until the garlic and rosemary are finely minced. Thoroughly coat the top and sides of the lamb with the rosemary mixture. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Toss the potatoes and remaining unpeeled garlic in a bowl with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Place the lamb on top of the potatoes and roast for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the lamb is 135 degrees (rare) or 145 degrees (medium). (I cooked mine for just about 2 hours total and it registered a heat of about 154 degrees for medium-well.) Remove from the oven and put the lamb on a platter; cover tightly with aluminum foil. Allow the lamb to rest for about 20 minutes. Slice and serve with the potatoes.

Gorgonzola Filled Meatballs and Garlic Spinach Mashed Potatoes

On Friday night, I tried out a couple Rachael Ray recipes for Gorgonzola Filled Meatballs and Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Spinach. I thought everything was awesome! Kevin really liked everything except the gorgonzola cheese. He'd never had gorgonzola and didn't know if he liked it or not... well he doesn't. I love it, though I bought some very good, expensive stuff rather than the cheaper stuff, so it did seem a bit stronger than the cheaper stuff. I'll make these again for sure, just will probably fill them with a different cheese that Kevin likes - havarti or mozzarella most likely. Anyway, these were so easy to make and tasted so yummy! I'll update later with pictures.

Gorgonzola Filled Meatballs with Bay and Onion Creamy Tomato Gravy

1 1/2 pounds ground veal
1 pound ground beef (I just used 1 pound total of ground meat - and used Laura's Lean)
Salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
2 handfuls grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 handfuls plain bread crumbs
3 tablespoons sliced or finely chopped sage leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces Gorgonzola
1 tablespoon butter
2 fresh bay leaves
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place meat in a mixing bowl and season with salt, pepper, add in garlic, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs and sage. Mix meat, roll into 8 large balls and arrange in a baking dish. Coat balls with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil. Using the end of a wooden spoon, make an indentation half way into each ball and fill the cavity with some Gorgonzola. Bake until golden and cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil and butter in a sauce pot over medium heat, add bay and onions and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken stock and tomatoes and heat through, stir in cream, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer to thicken slightly 8 to 10 minutes.

Ladle sauce into shallow bowls and top with big stuffed meatballs and potatoes alongside, if desired.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Spinach

4 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced
2 boxes chopped spinach, defrosted
4 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup cream
Salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Salt water and boil potatoes until tender 12 to 15 minutes.

Squeeze the water from spinach in a clean dish towel.

Drain potatoes and melt butter in the hot pot, then add the garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in cream, add the spinach, separating the greens as you do. Season greens with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add potatoes to the pot and mash to desired consistency.