Utah's Own Best Funeral Potatoes

Leave it to Utah to have a competition for the best funeral potatoes...eye roll.  With that said, I've had a lot of funeral potatoes in my lifetime, but these are by far the best!  Every time I make these I get rave reviews.  I remember growing up that we made our mom make hers without onions because they were crunchy and grossed us out.  These definitely need the onions for flavor and because you saute them in butter, the texture isn't crunchy, yum!  I must admit that I am lazy and use the canned cream of chicken, but I'm sure it's even more amazing with the homemade kind here.  Some day...  

 Utah’s Own Best Funeral Potatoes
By Jessica Yescas

Ingredients:
1 32 oz. package freshly shredded hash browns
2 cups cream of chicken soup (recipe below or 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup)
2 cups of shredded Monterrey and Cheddar cheese
2 cups Meadow Gold Sour Cream
1/2 cup of diced onion
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup of Meadow Gold Unsalted butter, divided
1 cup panko bread crumbs
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º. Melt 1/2 cup of butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until the onion is translucent. Remove from heat. Add the hash browns, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, cheese, salt and pepper and combine well. Add additional salt and pepper if necessary.
Spread the mixture into a 9 x 13 (or similar) dish. Mix the panko with ½ cup melted butter and top the mixture. Bake for 40 minutes covered with foil. Uncover and bake for an additional 5- 7 minutes or until golden brown.

Cream of Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 medium Spanish onion, chopped
2 stalks celery (with leaves), chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour
3 cups chicken broth
3 sprigs parsley
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 3/4 cups cooked, diced chicken
3 cups Meadow Gold heavy cream
Freshly ground black pepper to tastes
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Directions:
Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 12 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes more.
Pour in the broth and bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Tie the parsley springs, thyme, and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine and add to the soup. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat.
Whisk the heavy cream into the soup and season with pepper to taste. Remove and discard the herb bhundle. Divide among soup bowls, sprinkle the top of each bowl with chopped parsley and serve immediately.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

This chicken is amazing! 3/4 of my family loves it, which is saying a lot :).  I did change one thing though; the original recipe calls for apple cider vinegar and I changed it to white vinegar because the taste is the same, but the apple cider vinegar makes my house stink for the rest of the night!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

from melskitchencafe.com

*Note: if you like extra sauce, double the sauce ingredients - pour half over the chicken and follow the recipe instructions; pour the other half in a small saucepan and cook the sauce on the stovetop at a simmer for 8-10 minutes until it reduces and thickens. Serve it on the side of the chicken.

*Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken:

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt and pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

Sauce:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons ketchup

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar or white vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. While the oil is heating, cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Place the cornstarch in a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Put the chicken into the bag with the cornstarch and seal, tossing to coat the chicken. Whisk the eggs together in a shallow pie plate. Dip the cornstarch-coated chicken pieces in the egg and place them carefully in a single layer in the hot skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip each piece over to cook on the other side until nicely golden but not all the way cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl and pour over the chicken in the baking dish. Bake for one hour, turning the chicken once or twice while cooking to coat evenly with sauce. Serve over hot, steamed rice.

Pasta e Fagioli

I love me some Olive Garden, but I'm not willing to drive 30 minutes and spend the $50 for our family to eat there very often, so besides the Zuppa Tuscana, this is our other copycat soup that we love from there. Enjoy!

 

Pasta e Fagioli (from Olive Garden)

From Farm Girl in the Suburbs

1 lb. ground beef

1 small onion, diced

1 large carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart of tomatoes (or 2 14.5 oz. diced tomatoes)

1 15-oz. can red kidney beans (w/ liquid)

1 15-oz. can Great Northern Beans (w/ liquid)
1 15-oz. can tomato sauce

1 T. white vinegar

1 ½ t. salt

1 t. oregano

1 t. basil

½ t. pepper

½ t. thyme

½ lb. Ditali pasta

1.  Brown the ground beef in a large stock pot or Dutch Oven over medium heat.

2. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, and saute for 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

3. Add remaining ingredients, except pasta, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring often.

4. At 50 minutes into simmer time, cook the pasta according to package directions, until al dente.  Drain the pasta and add to the pot of soup.

5. Simmer for 5-10 minutes and serve.  Top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

Fish scares me to death when it comes to cooking it at home. I've never even bought it, so fortunately a friend gave me some tilapia, which I've then had to figure out how to cook. Here is the only way I've done it so far, but it's really good.

 

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

From All Recipes

The original recipe makes eight and I have scaled this to make two.

 

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon butter, softened

2-1/4 teaspoons mayonnaise

1-1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon dried basil

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon celery salt

1/2 pound tilapia fillets

 

1.	Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil.
2.	In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise and lemon juice. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. Mix well and set aside.
3.	Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes. Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

My kids hate most vegetables, but sweet potatoes are the exception, especially if you add sugar and butter.  I had leftover sweet potatoes from Thanksgiving, so I made this and they loved it!  I left out the walnuts...yuck.  And, instead of putting them back in the skin I just put them in a casserole dish, but they would be much prettier in the skins. To see pictures of the finished product, go to Lauren's Latest, which is where this recipe came from.


Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes with Walnut Streusel
yield: 5 servings
Ingredients:
3 large sweet potatoes
4 tablespoons packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
for the streusel-
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
Directions:
Prick sweet potatoes with a fork or knife and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until soft. You can also microwave the sweet potatoes on high for 13-15 minutes as well.
Once sweet potatoes are cooked, slice in half and scoop out the centers into a bowl leaving a 1/4 inch border of sweet potato with the skin. Mix in brown sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon until smooth. Using a large tipped pastry bag, pipe filling back into sweet potato shells. {Or spoon it back in.}
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for streusel and mix together until butter starts to warm and ingredients start sticking together. Top the filled sweet potatoes with the streusel and bake 20-30 minutes. Serve warm.

P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef

I love getting this at Pei Wei, but since there aren't any around, I break down every few months and make this. It's a little bit of work, but SO good!

 

P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef Copycat Recipe:

(Recipe adapted from Food.com)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup water
¾ cup dark brown sugar
vegetable oil , for frying (about 1 cup)
1 lb flank steak
¼ cup cornstarch
2 large green onions, chopped

Directions:

Sauce:
Heat 2 tsp. of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat.  Don't get the oil too hot.
Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches.
Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then increase the heat to medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat.

Beef:
Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.  Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef.  Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.  As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil). Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and sauté until brown. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly.  After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels.  Dab excess oil off meat with a paper towel and add to medium saucepan with the sauce in it.  Put the pan back on the oven over medium/low heat.  Add chopped green onions and let sauce simmer until warm. Serve over rice.

From Six Sisters' Stuff

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Hands down my favorite pumpkin recipe!  I love this bread and make it multiple times every fall.  I don't have three bread pans, so I use my two that I do have and then four mini ones that are great for giving away.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

• 3-⅓ cups unbleached all purpose Flour
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1-½ teaspoon Salt
• 2-⅔ cups Sugar
• ⅔ cups Softened Butter
• 4 whole Eggs
• 1 pound (or 1-30oz can or 2-15oz cans) Mashed Pumpkin
• ⅔ cups Water
• 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Cream sugar and butter until well incorporated. Add eggs one at a time and then add the mashed pumpkin. Alternate adding dry ingredients with water. Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour into three large greased bread pans and bake at 325 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Makes 3 loaves. That won’t make it very long at your house before being devoured.