4th of July Potato Salad

Happy 4th of July!  I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes.  It is the best potato salad ever and one of my favorite side dishes to bring to a BBQ.  So if your heading to a BBQ this weekend and you need a recipe, this one will deliver!  Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Ingredients
• 2 pounds red new potatoes, quartered and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1-2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (add each tbsp. per taste preference)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions, plus more for garnish
• 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, for garnish
Directions
1. In a large pot, cover potatoes with salted water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp paring knife, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain well.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together sour cream and mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar; add warm potatoes, and gently fold to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
3. To serve, season salad again with salt and pepper, if needed; fold in scallions. Garnish with bacon and more scallions, if desired.

Just a few side notes:  If you don’t want to bother with frying your bacon, cook it in the microwave, oven or you can buy it already cooked. This recipe was adapted from a Martha Stewart’s recipe; I changed the sour cream and mayo to regular from light and added the apple cider vinegar. I have made it in the past with light mayo and light sour cream… still good but not as rich in flavor. I’ve also made it with half- light sour cream and regular mayo, still great. All depends on your dietary preferences.  Lastly, this recipe makes a small serving, I always double or triple this recipe so there is plenty to share.  It never goes to waste.

Hungarian Hot Sausage and Lentil Stoup

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE TO EAT!  Since I love to eat and wish to eat a lot... I do try to make the most out of what I eat.  That is, I try to eat healthy, so I get the most out of each calorie.  I wouldn't say this recipe is the healthiest(due to the pork fat), but it is delicious!  My husband and I loved it and are adding it to our regular menu list.  I followed the exact recipe this time around and thoroughly enjoyed it, but next time I am going to change things up a bit and healthy it up even more.  In the original recipe, Hot Italian Pork Sausage is called for... which was amazing!  But ideally I'd like my fat intake in this recipe to be a little lower.  So next time I am going to buy a spicy turkey or chicken sausage, rather than pork.  I am also going to try the recipe with low-fat or fat-free chicken broth or even vegetable broth, I really don't think it will affect the flavor all that much.  The rest is great for you:  carrots, portabella mushrooms, potatoes, fire roasted tomatoes, lentils (a great source of iron, fiber and protein) and KALE(can we say Cancer Fighting Properties!!!)!  I don't know about you, but this is one leafy green I don't get very much of and I am short on recipes for, so I was thrilled to squeeze this great whole food into my diet.  I will say this recipe did not go over well with my kiddos it was just too spicy for them.  I could change it next time and cook it with a mild sausage and even turkey burger.  But this is one of those dinners where I bend the rules a bit and play short order cook and make my kids something just for them, so we can have the spice!  It's a win-win!  Try it, you'll love it and the left-overs are even tastier!  I am sure it would freeze well too.  My kind of dish!  

Hungarian Hot Sausage and Lentil Stoup

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Serves:4 servings

•2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan

•1 1/2 pounds bulk hot Italian sausage

•3 cloves garlic, chopped

•1 medium onion, chopped

•2 portabella mushrooms, gills scraped out, chopped

•1 cup pre-shredded carrots, available in sacks in produce department of the market

•1 cup lentils

•1 large starchy potato, peeled and chopped

•Salt and pepper

•1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

•2 teaspoons smoked paprika (or substitute a mix of 2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika and 2 pinches cayenne pepper)

•3 sprigs fresh rosemary, in tact on stems

•1 (14-ounce) can fire roasted chopped tomatoes, such as Muir Glenn or, regular diced tomatoes

•6 cups chicken stock

•4 cups kale or chard, a small bunch, veins removed and chopped

Heat a medium soup pot over medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, then add sausage to pot and brown and crumble it, then add garlic, onions and mushrooms. Cook a few minutes, then add carrots, lentils, potato, salt and pepper, bay leaf, paprika or substitute mixture and rosemary (leaves will fall from stems as stoup cooks). Add tomatoes and broth and cover pot then raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Uncover pot and place heat back a bit but keep stoup at a good rolling boil. Cook 15 minutes until lentils and potatoes are tender. Wilt in greens in small bunches, remove rosemary stems and turn off heat. Let stand 5 minutes. Serve in shallow bowls with bread and butter to mop up stoup. Reheat leftovers thinning it with broth or water.

Original Source:  Rachael Ray



Creative Kiddo Cookin' in the Kitchen

What do you do when it is cold and gloomy outside and your kids are climbing the walls and swinging from the curtains to the chandeliers? Create something in the kitchen! When Avery gets her creative juices flowing there is no stopping that girl! She is quite the little chef and would single-handedly cut up everything in my kitchen if I let her. Her and her cute little "knife". (It's a lime green, plastic butter knife). She orders me around the kitchen, as the "Head Chef" requesting ingredients. Some that I cringe at the near future prospect of taste testing. But she is in 7th heaven! She is quite the sweetheart while cooking in the kitchen with me. She repeatedly tells me "your the best mommy ever" and how much she loves me...smacking her lips for another kiss. What can a momma not love about that!? Deal with the mess or being slathered with praise and love from your darling preschooler. Either way....it's mostly a wonderful moment we share together. Not that there are not moments of chaos and huge messes. But I have learned boundaries: the when’s, how, and what’s of cooking with her. The biggest one....don't cook when your tired. As I want it to be an enjoyable moment, where we are building joyful memories, not a moment of impatience and frustration. So under the right circumstances, we usually end up with a "tasty" treat to serve daddy when he gets home from work (LOL), a creative activity to erase away the boredom blues and some fun memories. And usually the only real big mess we end up with is....an adorable 15 month old terrorizing my kitchen cabinets...cause you know...he wants to cook too! Today we actually made something I think daddy might enjoy. Mommy made the stuffed mushrooms and Avery made mushroom bowls (extremely tiny pieces of mushrooms, with little pats of butter, topped with a garlic butter breadcrumb mixture and parmesan cheese). Yummo!

Avery's "Concoction"...it was actually quite tasty!

BAKED STUFFED MUSHROOMS

(I don't drink much...so I left out the Vermouth due to not having any and used fresh garlic instead of garlic powder).  This is simple and a tasty little appetizer! 

1 stick butter
1 small onion, minced
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup sweet Vermouth
1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1 lb. mushrooms (remove stems and finely chop)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano

Melt butter in skillet. Cook onion until translucent. Add chopped stems. Stir in bread crumbs, seasonings, and cheese. Brown lightly. Add sweet Vermouth last. Toss lightly to combine well. Stuff mushroom caps with mixture. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Resource: Cooks.com

I call her my "little chef". And she giggles with great pride and says, "Like Ratatouille!"

Of course Ben had his own "recipe" working too... stinky boy!