Crack Potatoes

I read recipe after recipe for these potatoes on Pinterest but all of them called for frozen potatoes. So I decided to health it up a little, not by much but a little in my mind. I made these along side my BBQ meatballs and all loved them. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek this garden making morning!


Needed:


3 cups sour cream
2 cups cheddar cheese-shredded finely
1 pound bacon-cooked crsip and crumbled
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
1 Bottle Ken's Ranch Salad Dressing
4 pounds potatoes-washed and shredded *read note below

*Important note about your potatoes. Shred them into a big bowl of cool water and let them sit in the water for at least one hour. After 1 hour, pour water off and rinse shredded potatoes very well. This will remove the starch that makes potatoes mushy and not tasty when fried.

Combine first 5 ingredients, and now mix in shredded potatoes. Spread into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 400' for 45-60 minutes. Serve hot!

Broccoli Cheese Soup in Bread Bowls

This has always been my favorite soup! So creamy and "healthy", okay maybe not so healthy but it sure is creamy and cheesy. It is starting to look like Spring on Beaty's Creek but I still think old man Winter is going to come a knocking. I made this soup on the last cold spell that we had and everyone thought I was a boss, yes, a Boss! Email me and I can tell you why this is funny. Raine liked dipping her bread and Raven ate her bread bowl up before her second bowl. Give this a try before Spring has sprung and soup will be the last thing you want until next Fall. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek!

Needed:


1 stick butter
2 cloves garlic-smashed
1 small onion-chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups half-and-half
6 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
8 cups broccoli florets (about 2 heads)
2 large carrots-diced
4 cups cheddar cheese-grated

Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Now add the onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the flour and cook until just golden, then gradually whisk in the chicken broth until smooth. Now add bay leaves , salt and pepper. Add the broccoli and carrot to the broth mixture and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, until thickened, about 20 minutes. Take out the bay leaves. Puree the soup in the pot with a immersion blender until smooth, you'll still have flecks of carrot and broccoli. Now add the cheese and half and half to the soup and whisk over medium heat until melted and the consistency you want . Add up to 3/4 cup water if the soup is too thick. Serve in bread bowls. Recipe for bread bowls follows.

Bread Bowls

Needed:

2 T yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 t salt
2 T canola oil
7 cups flour


Mix yeast, salt, and warm water together in your Kitchen Aid Mixer. Let sit for 3 minutes. Now add in your oil and begin adding in your flour a cup at a time. Now knead in your mixer for 10 minutes. Cover and let rise for 1 hour. Once double in size cut dough in to 8 equal pieces of dough. Roll into balls and place in a parchment lined baking sheet. Let them rise for 30 minutes. Place in a 400' oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool slightly and then cut top off and scoop out some of the bread so you can fill with soup. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Cake

I am addicited to Pinterest and I am NOT ashamed...... Maybe I should be.... But I am not! A friend of mine pinned this recipe and I thought I would try it. I changed it a little here and there. This is so easy to make in the morning and is good reheated in the microwave for these cold February afternoons on Beaty's Creek. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

Cake
3 cups flour
1 t salt
1 cup sugar
4 t. baking powder
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 eggs
2 vanilla beans-scraped
1/2 cup butter-melted

Topping
1 cup butter-softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 T cinnamon

Mix everything together except for the butter. Slowly stir in the melted butter and pour into a greased 9x13 pan. For the topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes.

Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla


While warm drizzle the glaze over the cake.



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Peanut Butter Cookies

I have decided to not buy anymore store/boxed cookies this year. Have you looked at what is in their list of ingredients? Well I did and wished I had not, so I decided to make all of our cookies this year. Sounded good at the time.....Well it is still good but I am rather busy hee hee. Ransome is a little cookie monster to say the least and Raine loves cupcakes, so when I bake cookies, I then have to bake cupcakes. I forgot to mention Raven no longer likes store sliced bread and wants homemade bread for toast and sandwiches. NO problem right??? I have two really great recipes for sandwich bread that I will be sharing soon. Now back to the cookie post. I seem to always have peanut butter in my pantry, as I am sure many of you do, so peanut butter cookies it is. This time I added chocolate bells I had left from Christmas so these are extra good! This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek!


Needed:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup shortening
1 t baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 bags of kisses


Mix both sugars, peanut butter, and shortening. Now add baking soda to mixture. Stir well.
Stir in the eggs one at a time. Now add the flour. Roll dough into balls.
Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet. Press with fork to make criss-cross design. Bake at 350' for about 8-10 minutes. As soon as you take the cookies out place a chocolate kiss or in my case chocolate bell in the center.

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

I am sure you have seen those cute iced sugar cookies in the grocery store. You may have even bought them a time or two. Maybe....Well now you will NEVER buy them again. Why you ask? Because you can make them at home! In my oh-so-humble opinion they are better! This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek this Springlike Winter's day. Hate to curse it but....What is up with this weather?




Needed:

Cookies

4 1/2 cups ap flour
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3 sticks butter-room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
5 t vanilla
1 vanilla bean-scrapped




In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt, and whisk together to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until soft and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed. Blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients mixing just until incorporated and evenly mixed. Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour. Once chilled, make a golf ball size ball and flatten slightly place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350' for 10 minutes. Don't bake until crisp, you want them soft. They will be slightly golden around the edges only. Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes and then place on a cooling rack. Cool completely.

Frosting:

5 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter-melted
1 T vanilla
8 T milk-might need a little more and you might not. ;)
Food coloring
Sprinkles

Mix powdered sugar, melted butter,vanilla, and food coloring together. Stir in your Kitchen Aid slowly. Now add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until all has been added. Whip frosting until smooth. Now frost those cookies nice and thick. heehee Store the cookies in an air tight container and enjoy!!



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Date Cake

My love of dates has been as long as I can remember. They were my "candy" as a young diabetic, of course that was only 2 per serving, but I loved them sooo much! Now I eat dates all the time! I like to use them in my whole wheat bread as the sweetener. I enjoy them in my granola and I love this recipe for a delious breakfast type bread or cake if you will. To me this cake is moist like a fruitcake and would be great with dried cherries too. Give this a try and you will be glad you did! This is What's Cookin this 2012 morning on Beaty's Creek!

Needed:

4 large eggs-separated
1 pound dates-chopped
2 cups pecans-chopped
1 cup ap flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 T baking powder-I use a aluminum free
1 t sea salt
1 t vanilla

Position a rack in the lowest rack in your oven and preheat to 325'. Generously coat an angel food cake pan with butter. Line the bottom with a donut-shaped piece of parchment paper. This makes for the easiest removal of your cake. You will wonder why you have not done this before!

In one bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Set aside.

In a separate, very large mixing bowl, stir together the dates, pecans, flour, sugar, and baking powder. Mix together egg yolks, salt, and vanilla in a small bowl and mix until thick. Fold into the date-flour mixture. Now fold in your egg whites and mix until no more white streaks show up as you mix. It will be VERY THICK. Now place into your prepared angel food pan

Bake for about 70 minutes, or until browned and a tester comes out clean. Cover with lose foil after 1 hour to keep cake from getting too dark. Cool completely in the pan. Once cool, loosen with knife and romove from pan.






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Quinoa Salad

I am trying new ways to use quinoa in my everyday life. It is such a great replacement for rice in meals like stir fry and beans, give it a try. I will tell you to make sure and rinse your quinoa very well before cooking. If you don't it will have a bitter taste. Everyone really liked this salad but my husband thought the dressing was a little too sweet. It is like a sweet oil and vinegar dressing, if you don't like sweet you can leave the honey out. Everyone else loved it so there you go. I am still trying to get used to using quinoa, I just can't get out of my rice dependency, hee hee I am trying though. This is What's Cookin on this very windy Winter's day on Beaty's Creek.


Needed:


1 cup quinoa-rinsed and drained
1 t sea salt
1 garlic clove-minced
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup cherry tomatoes-cut in half
1 cup cabbage-finely shredded and chopped
1 cucumber-peeled and diced
Pepper to taste

Dressing

1/2 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 T local honey
2 T Dijon mustard
1 t cayenne pepper

To make Salad: Bring quinoa, salt, and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Set aside, covered, 10 minutes.

Bring 2 cups water to a boil in separate saucepan. Add corn and cook 1 minute. Drain and rinse under cold water, then drain again. Stir together corn, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumber, and quinoa in bowl.

Dressing: Mix all ingredients in a jar and shake until smooth. Stir into Salad.






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