Red Potatoes with Feta

Scott has a couple of things that he likes that make on the grill, and these feta potatoes are a one of our family's favorites. Enjoy!

Red Potatoes with Feta

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs small red-skinned potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare your grill for indirect cooking over high heat.
• This means, turn one side of your grill up to high heat. Leave the heat turned off on the opposite side of the grill and this will be the side that you put your grill pan for cooking the potatoes. Scott often makes this recipe along side some steak meat, and you can use the high heat side of the grill for cooking the meat alongside your potatoes.
2. Preheat grill pan over indirect high heat for about 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, oil, and salt. Stir to coat evenly.
4. Add your potatoes to the pan and grill them with the lid closed as much as possible until they are golden brown and tender, about 30-40 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times.
5. Place potatoes in a large serving bowl and toss with feta, parsley, and any additional salt and pepper to taste.

Here you can see Scott cooking meat over the direct flame and then doing the potatoes over the indirect heat.

Easy Slow Cooker Cheesy Potatoes and Sausage

Tried this recipe and it was easy, tasty, and a nice change for our slow cooker rotation. Enjoy!

Easy Slow Cooker Cheesy Potatoes and Sausage

Ingredients:

• 28 oz bag frozen diced potatoes
• 12 oz package large link sausage of your choice, sliced or diced
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 ranch seasoning packet
• shredded cheese of choice

Directions:

1. Spray your slow cooker with non-stick spray.
2. Add your potatoes, cut up sausage, cream of chicken soup and ranch packet. Stir.
3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or until everything is heated through and soft.
4. 10 minutes or so before serving, top with your desired shredded cheese of choice.

Marsha's Notes:

I used a package of chicken and diced them into smaller pieces, but you can cut them into rounds if you like and use any kind of sausage you want. You can also use the frozen diced potatoes that have peppers and onions in them.

Bangers and Mash (St. Patty's Day)

For St. Patty's Day a few years ago, from friends came over for dinner and made us "bangers and mash". What is that, you may ask? Well, according to Wikipedia, "Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional British (Irish) dish consisting of sausages and mashed potato. It may consist of one of a variety of flavored sausages made of pork, lamb, beef, or a meat alternative. The dish is usually served with onion gravy, but may also include fried onions and peas."

I found a highly recommended version of the recipe from the site "Belly Full" to try, and while I liked the end result, I felt like it didn't make enough gravy for us, plus it left me with half a carton of beef broth with no purpose. So, I am going to rewrite just a bit of the recipe more to our family's liking. Enjoy! For the original recipe, click here: https://bellyfull.net/bangers-and-mash-recipe/

Bangers and Mash

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 10 sausage links of your choosing (I used two 16 oz packages (5 links per package) of Hempler's bacon and white cheddar smoked sausage)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4-6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 32 oz carton beef broth
• salt and pepper, to taste
• mashed potatoes, for serving
• sweet baby peas, for serving

Directions:

1. Warm oil over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add sausages and cook, until browned all over and cooked through (rolling frequently to prevent burning), about 10-12 minutes, trying to get as much drippings and brown bits in the bottom of the pan for the gravy. Remove from pan.
2. Add butter; once bubbly, add in the onion and stir to coat. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes until the onions are translucent, golden, and begin to caramelize.
3. Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
4. Add flour and mix through until completely combined.
5. Slowly add beef broth and mix into the onion so it becomes a sludge. Then add remaining beef broth and mix until combined.
6. Simmer, stirring, until the gravy thickens but is slightly thinner than you want – it will thicken more as it sits.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Transfer the cooked sausages back to the pan just to warm through.
9. To serve, mound some mashed potatoes on a plate, top with 2 sausages, drizzle with gravy, and some sweet baby peas on the side. Yum!

French Fries with Pulled Pork and Cheese

For William's birthday, he went through my cookbooks and picked some recipes for us to try. One recipe was for French fries with pulled pork and cheese. Everyone really like it, and the pulled pork was delicious!

French Fries with Pulled Pork and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbl vegetable oil, for cooking
• 1 Tbl brown sugar
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 3 lbs boneless pork roast, cut into 2" cubes (or pork chile verde precut from your meat department)
• 1 1/4 cups beef broth, divided
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups barbecue sauce, divided
• 2 regular bags (or 1 extra large bag) frozen French fries of your choice
• 1 can nacho cheese sauce
• extra barbecue sauce

Directions:

1. In a pressure cooker (Instapot), heat vegetable oil  on the "sauté" function until hot.
2. In a big bowl, mix together brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and cumin. Toss in pork cubes and coat.
3. Add pork to the pressure cooker with hot oil and saute until meat starts to brown on all sides and brown bits start to form on the bottom of the cooker.
4. Remove pork from cooker and deglaze the pot with 1/4 cup beef broth, scraping all the cooked bit up from the bottom of the pot.
5. In a large bowl, mix together vinegar, (only) 1 cup of barbecue sauce, and remaining 1 cup beef broth.
6. Add pork back to the pressure cooker and pour sauce over the top. Cover and set to "pressure cook" on "manual" for 40 minutes. Allow cooker to naturally release pressure for another 10 minutes before doing a quick-release of remaining pressure.
7. Dain off most of the liquid that might remain from cooking (but all of it), and then shred the pork (I used a hand mixer to shred). (See Image)
8. Add additional barbecue sauce to pork as desired.
9. Cook frozen French fries in an air fryer (or by your own desired method of cooking) as per package directions, cooking in batches if necessary.
10. Heat nacho cheese sauce up on stove or in microwave.
11. Layer cooked fries with hot pulled pork and hot cheese sauce. Serve.

Cooked pork, but not drained.

BBQ Potatoes

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

BBQ Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 4 medium red potatoes, cut into cubes
• 1 Tbl. oil
• 2 Tbl barbecue dry seasoning
• 1 large onion, cut up (opt)

Directions:

1. Toss potatoes with oil in large bowl. Add seasoning, toss to coat evenly.  
2. Place potatoes on large, wide sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil sprayed with non-stick spray.  Place onions evenly on top of potatoes.  Bring up foil sides; double fold top and ends to tightly seal packet.  
3. Bake at 400-425 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until potatoes are tender, turning halfway through cooking time.  

Marsha's Notes:

You can also mix things up by adding cheese and Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning instead of the barbecue.

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes With Ham

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 lb round white potatoes (about 4 medium), peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 lb fully cooked ham, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups) 
• 1 cup shredded American-Cheddar cheese blend (4 oz)
• 3 tablespoons Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pint (2 cups) half-and-half

Directions:

1. In 4 quart Dutch oven, or large pan, melt butter over medium heat.   
2. Cook garlic in butter 1 minute, stirring occasionally, until softened.  Remove from heat.  
3. Stir in potatoes, ham, half of the cheese, all of the flour, pepper, salt and bacon.  
4. Pour half and half over potato mixture.  
5. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat; reduce heat to low.  Cover and simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender.  If your potatoes are not cut thin enough, it could take longer to cook, or you can microwave your potatoes before you add them, to cook them part way first.  
6. Top with remaining cheese, if desired.

Funeral Potatoes

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Funeral Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 bag (24 oz.) frozen hash browns 
• 3 Tbl. melted butter  
• 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar
• 3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 2 Tbl melted butter
• 3 Tbl parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Either thaw hash browns, or allow for a longer cooking time.  
2. Place potatoes in a 9x13 pan.  
3. Pour 3 Tbl. melted butter over potatoes.  
4. Mix together in a separate bowl cream of chicken soup, sour cream, milk and sharp cheddar cheese.  Pour over potatoes, do not mix.  
5. In a separate bowl mix bread crumbs, 2 Tbl. melted butter and parmesan.  Sprinkle bread crumb mixture over potato mixture.  
6. Bake for about 30 minutes at 325 degrees or longer for frozen potatoes, or until potatoes are cooked and mixture is hot and bubbly.

Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

I have made several batches of potatoes in the Instant Pot now, and last night's were by far my favorite. So here are the things I have learned and how I made last night's batch. Unless I figure out a better way, this is my new go-to for Instant Pot Mashed potatoes.

Marsha's Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 5 lb bag russets, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces.
• 1 can chicken broth 14-15 oz.
• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• salt and pepper
• garlic salt
• milk
• sour cream

Directions:

1. Wash, peel and cut potatoes and place them in the pot. 
2. Add the chicken broth and cook on high for 9 minutes. Do a quick release for pressure. 
3. Drain off most of the chicken stock. 
• I drained everything I could out of the pot by tilting the liner pot over the sink and holding the potatoes back with a wooden spoon up to the point that potatoes were going to fall into the sink. Hard to say how much was left in there, but not much. 
4. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper and add butter (or the equivalent of garlic butter). Then take a hand-mixer and start smashing the potatoes with the beaters. Then turn on the mixer and mix to the desired consistency. If they are not already creamy enough, you can add milk a little at a time, or sour cream. Taste test and if they need more flavor, add a sprinkling of garlic salt until they are perfect!

Marsha's Notes:

I tried to use small yellow potatoes a couple times and they can be too hard to peel if they are too small. I tried putting them in with some peel but we didn't like that in our mashed potatoes. The yellows also didn't seem to hold up to the pressure as well, so you might have to cook them a little less amount of time.

Russets are bigger and easier to peel and gave us a better overall result.

You can also adjust the flavor by using less chicken stock and more water, and some recipes say to put milk right in the pot before cooking... other sites say that milk goes wacky in a pressure cooker and to add it afterwards. It's up to you. I've done it both ways and never noticed a problem. Depending on the flavor you like, adjust the milk/broth/water/sour cream/butter/garlic butter ratios.

If you don't want to scratch you liner, don't beat the potatoes in the liner. Transfer them to another safe dish. I have already done this so my pot is scratched, but it doesn't seem to be getting worse or impacting anything, so I just keep doing it for convenience. I'll report back later if that was a bad idea. Ha, ha!

Marsha's Smashed Roasted Cheesy Potatoes

I stumbled across a recipe for smashed roasted cheesy potatoes, but, in typical Marsha-fashion, I tweaked a few things to make it fit my family a little better. For the original recipe, go here, otherwise, scroll down for my version.

Marsha's Smashed Roasted Cheesy Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 7 fist-sized yukon gold potatoes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1.5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) freshly grated Monterey Jack / Colby cheese
• bacon bits
• sour cream

Directions:

1. Rinse and gently scrub the potatoes under cold water.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
3. Fill a medium pot with water. When it comes to a boil, add two tablespoons salt.
4. Place potatoes into water and boil for 15-30 minutes, until fork tender.
5. In a small microwavable bowl, melt the butter. Add the minced garlic, Mrs. Dash seasoning, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Mix well.
6. Drain the potatoes and pat dry if needed so that the olive oil will adhere to the skin.
7. Pour the 3 tablespoons olive oil into a large bowl, add salt and pepper to taste and add potatoes. Toss gently to coat.
8. Place potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet
9. With a heavy bottomed glass/coffee mug, flatten each potato so that they are about 1/2-inch thick or so.
10. Using a pastry brush, brush each potato with the butter mixture.
11. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes.
12. Using 1 tablespoon of the chives, sprinkle each potato.
13. Place an equal amount of grated cheese and bacon on each potato.
14. Sprinkle the remaining chives on top.
15. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes.
16. Top with a dollop of sour cream.

Tornado Potatoes by Tasty

When this recipe popped up on my Facebook feed, I just had to try it out. I am an Idaho girl by birth, so potatoes are one of my favorite foods. This link is complete with the recipe and a how-to video. Ours turned out great, but I will say, cutting the spuds turned out to be trickier than I originally expected and will either take some practice, or a spiral cutting machine (I found one on Amazon for $20... click here). I think this recipe would be great for carrots, squash and other veggies too.

Tornado Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 5 small white potatoes (or Yukon Gold)
• 4-6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese, grated (the "powder" kind, not flakes or sticks)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2-1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2-1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF/160ºC. 
2. Insert a skewer into the potato and gently push the skewer all the way through it. 
3. Hold a sharp, thin knife at an angle and cut in the opposite direction you are turning the skewered potato. 
4. Gently fan out the potato down the length of the skewer, until you have an even gap between the slices forming the spiral. 
5. Melt the butter and brush it all over the potato. 
6. In a medium bowl, combine parmesan cheese, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and salt. 
7. Place the skewered potato over the bowl and shovel the mixture all over the potato until it is entirely coated. 
8. Rest potatoes on a baking sheet so that it is hovering over the bottom of the sheet. 
9. Bake for 25-30 (+) minutes, or until nicely browned and soft. 
10. Garnish with additional parmesan and parsley. 
11. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. 
12. Serve warm and enjoy!

Marsha's Notes:
Update: I got a spiral machine for Christmas (a little different and more expensive than the one I liked above), and it worked SO GREAT! So, so, so much easier than cutting by hand. If you get one like mine, just take the metal spike that comes with the machine to pierce the potato. Then, insert a bamboo stick (the machine didn't come with very many, so you might want to pick up another bag of bamboo sticks) into the hole you made in the potato. Thread one end of the stick into the hole above the cutting blade, and place the other end into the hole in the "holding arm" of the machine. Slide the potato towards the holding arm until the little "arms" pierce the bottom of the potato to hold it steady during cutting. Using the release lever, slide the handle of the cutter all the way forward until the potato makes contact with the cutting blade. Then, let go of the release lever and start turning the handle. Your potato should start to cut and spiral as you turn the handle. About a 1/4 inch or so of the bottom of the potato won't be able to go through the blade (the part of the potato that is being held by the "arms") and will need to be broken off and discarded.

Here's the link to the one I got: https://smile.amazon.com/RioRand-Manual-Stainless-Twisted-Vegetable/dp/B00QLHBGAE/ref=sr_1_8?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1516070028&sr=1-8&keywords=spiral+cutter

If you find that it's too well seasoned, drop the seasonings down to tsp instead of Tbl.

Marsha's Irish Loaded Potato Soup

I was looking around for some recipes for St. Patrick's Day because I got invited to a pot luck party. I ended up trying three new things that I saw on Pinterest and they all turned out great! I have actually made this soup twice now because it was so good... but I did change the original recipe just a touch. If you want to see the original recipe, click on the link below, but be warned that the instructions (as of this post) are rather poor. It appears that some parts were copy-and-pasted multiple times, making things confusing:

http://www.examiner.com/article/meatless-irish-potato-soup-can-be-enjoyed-during-lent-or-st-patrick-s-day

I have no idea what makes this soup "Irish" other than its base is potatoes. Either way, it is a delicious treat. You could add other veggies that you like, such as corn or diced onion instead of onion powder.

Marsha's Irish Loaded Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 cups peeled, diced potatoes (tiny bite-sized)
• 1 celery rib thinly sliced
• salt and pepper to taste
• Onion powder (to taste, 1/2 tsp)
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot
• 1/4 cup pre-cooked crumbled bacon (1/2-1 pkg precooked bacon)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• 3-4 ish cups milk
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• Garlic salt to taste
• 2 cups freshly shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. In a large pot, add butter, potatoes and celery. Cover and cook over medium heat until potatoes and celery are tender. While cooking, season with salt, pepper and onion powder. 
2. When you think your potatoes and celery are a couple minutes from being done, add your carrot, bacon, and garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes. 
3. Add flour. Stir to coat veggies in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes to reduce the raw flour taste. (The flour will probably soak up any liquid in the pot.) 
4. Add bouillon, 3 cups milk and parsley. 
5. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened almost to your perfect consistency. (Remember that you will add cheese later and it will continue to thicken some.) If the soup tightens up too quickly, add enough additional milk to loosen things up before adding your cheese. 
6. Right before you add your cheese, you will want to taste-test the soup. At this stage, I often find the soup lacking and a light sprinkling of garlic powder over the entire pot adds so much great flavor. Stir and test again. Once you are happy with the soup, remove the pot from heat and stir in the cheese. Once cheese is melted and incorporated, serve.

Marsha's Notes:
Be careful with the salt at first because you will be adding cheese later that can up the salt flavor, plus the garlic salt at the end. Dice your potatoes and celery small, thinking that you will be eating this with a spoon. If you like it chunkier, use bigger pieces. The first time I made it, I did larger pieces. It was kind of hard to eat, so I tried smaller the second time. I liked it smaller better so I could fit several pieces on my spoon at once and the soup cooked a lot faster with the small pieces.

If your carrot is shredded, it should cook up really fast and only need to be added at the last minute with the bacon and garlic. If you use bigger chunks of carrot, then you will need to add them at the beginning with the potatoes and celery. I used shredded carrot because I could shred it really fast with my Salad Shooter.

I am lazy, so I keep a jar of minced garlic in oil in my fridge, and it is great for recipes like this.

Do not continue to boil the soup after the cheese has been added or the soup will go grainy because you cooked the protein in the cheese. For the creamiest soup, use freshly grated cheese and do not add it until you take the soup off the heat.

Pillsbury's Cheesy Potatoes

I might have had them earlier, but the first experience I remember at having "funeral potatoes" was at a marching band banquet in college, possibly my first year.  When Scott and I got married and I found out that his mother had a recipe for them, I jumped on the chance to get it for my collection.  We made them for several years and loved them.  Then, a few years ago, I found this recipe for cheesy potatoes.  It is a lot like "funeral potatoes" (same great taste) but they are a little less work, which is always a plus for me.  One big difference, there is no bread crumb/potato chip topping.  We make these all the time now, and my family loves them.  Enjoy!

The picture and recipe came from the Pillsbury website.

Cheesy Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 bag (32 oz.) frozen diced potatoes/hash browns
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 2 cups shredded cheese (8 oz.)                                
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 container (16 oz.) sour cream                                
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1 can (10 ¾ oz.) cream of chix soup                        
• ¼ cup chopped onion (optional)
• 2 Tbl. Chopped fresh parsley (use less if using dry parsley)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Spray 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.  
3. In large microwave bowl, defrost potatoes 12-15 minutes, or until thawed, stirring once or twice.  
4. Stir in remaining ingredients, except parsley.  Spread in baking dish.  
5. Bake 30-45 minutes, or until browned and bubbly around the edges.  Sprinkle with parsley.

Marsha's Notes:

If using dry parsley, I just add enough to have little green flecks running through my potatoes and I mix them into the sauce before I bake everything instead of sprinkling them on at the end.  I also like to use the frozen potatoes that are tiny cubes, just like the ones in the picture.  It's just a little different than the grated potato hash browns.

Betty Crocker's Cheesy Ham-Potato Scallop

Scott and I tried a new recipe to use up some left-over ham we had hanging around.  It was pretty easy and quite tasty.  I thought I would share.  The picture and recipe came from the Betty Crocker website.

Cheesy Ham-Potato Scallop

Directions:

• 1 1/2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (opt.)
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (4 cups)
• 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cheddar cheese soup, or cream of chicken (or celery or mushroom) soup with shredded cheese added (see recipe below)
• 1/2 cup milk
• pepper
• 1/4 cup find dry bread crumbs
• 2 Tbl. snipped fresh parsley
• 1 Tbl. margarine or butter, melted

Directions:

1. Spray baking dish with non-stick spray (1 1/2 quart casserole dish).  In a large bowl, combine ham, onion, potatoes, soup, milk and pepper (to taste).  (If using a cream soup, instead of the condensed cheddar cheese soup, we like to add about 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese to make the potatoes cheesy and increase your milk by another 1/4 cup.)  Once well combined, pour into greased baking dish.   
2. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until potatoes are tender.  In another bowl, combine bread crumbs, melted butter and parsley (if not using fresh parsley, then just add dry parsley until it looks pleasing to you, but you will probably need a lot less than 2 Tbl.).  Sprinkle over top of potatoes.  Bake, uncovered, for 15 more minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Serves 4