Bacon Ranch Potatoes

How can you go wrong with potatoes? I love them! Trying to get inspired about what to make for dinner tonight, visions of sliced potatoes kept dancing through my mind. So I looked in the fridge to see what I could use and I found some good things, so here we go.

*About 4 medium baking potatoes. (*The potatoes I recently got at Costco are HUGE, so I only used 2.)

6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 green onions, chopped into approx. 1/4 inch slices

1.5 Cups grated cheese of your choice (I used cheddar)

1/2 C sour cream

3 Tbsp Ranch dressing (in a bottle)

1.5 Tbsp milk

A dash (or 2) cayenne powder

1 tsp. dill weed

If you like more creaminess and more Ranch flavor, double the sour cream, Ranch and milk portions.

These make terrific leftovers, so depending on how many you are cooking for, you could double the recipe to have leftovers.

Pre-heat oven to 350. Place bacon slices on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes in the oven. (Thinly sliced bacon works best for preparing in the oven.) While the bacon is in the oven, put on a pot of water to boil the potatoes in, adding a dash of salt to the water. Then slice the potatoes very thin, using a mandolin slicer if you have one. You want your potatoes no more than about 1/8 inch thick.

When the water has come to a boil, add the potatoes and boil for only 4-5 minutes. Drain the potatoes and place in a generously greased (buttered) baking dish, laying out as much as you can, although it is OK to have them overlapping. A 9X13 may be too big for this dish, but use whatever you want. (I used an oval dish that is about 8X10.)

In a bowl, mix together the sour cream, Ranch, milk, cayenne & dill. Poor over the potatoes. It will not be enough to cover them all. Top with the cut green onions, crumbled bacon and grated cheese.

This is before the cheese was added.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Crab Dip

This is one of the best things I've come up with in a long time, in my opinion,and I've made it about 5 times in the last 2 weeks. But you first have to like crab, or Surimi.

Surimi is also known as fake crab, although it is made with real fish products - it's just a fraction of the price of real crab.

You can find Surimi in the seafood section at your supermarket, usually in small portions (possibly 6-10 "crab legs", which might be about a cup of meat.) I also found a 2.5 pound bag of it at Sam's Club for less than $7.00 - a great deal, since that makes about 6 batches of this dip. (I separated it out into 6 batches and then froze 5 of them.)

1 to 1.5 Cup of Surimi (or real crab if you want to splurge) chopped into small pieces

A generous half cup of Mayonnaise

1/4 Cup sour cream

1 or 2 Tbsp onion, finely chopped (I have used white, red and green onions at different times and they all were good.)

1 or 2 tsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp dill weed

1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne

1/8 tsp coarse black pepper

Mix it all up - it is ready to serve immediately, however, if you let it sit for awhile in the fridge, the onion flavor will come out more.

I use this with all kinds of crackers, crostini and party breads.

Chicken & Mushroom Crepes

Whenever I think of crepes I think of something sweet on the inside with a sprinkling of powdered sugar on the outside. But....I'm not eating sweets right now, so when I had an urge to make crepes I decided they needed to be with something savory inside.

Looking at the leftovers in the fridge...."hey, there's the rest of that rotisserie chicken from the deli; let's use that!"

I decided to make a chicken gravy, sort of, that I usually make to put over rice. I thought that would go good inside the crepes, and I was right.

Gravy recipe:

1/2 C Poultry gravy mix

3/4 C milk

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon dill weed

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

1/4 to 1/2 C dried mushrooms (or fresh, or canned)

1/2 teaspoon chopped rosemary

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 C cut up chicken, already cooked

Some grated cheese to use as a topping later on

Put the gravy mix and the milk in a skillet and turn onto medium or medium/low heat. Add everything else except the mushrooms and stir to smooth out the lumps. This will cook up fairly fast. When the lumps are out and it's thickened, add the mushrooms and the chicken and stir to cover, then remove from heat.

Crepe recipe:

2 C flour

4 eggs

1 C milk

1 C water

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 Tbsp butter, melted

In a mixing bowl (a stand mixer works great) whisk together the flour and eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, combining well. Add the salt and butter and beat until smooth.

Heat a griddle or frying pan to medium or medium/high and lightly grease it. Pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of batter for each crepe. If using a frying pan, use a medium sized one so that each scoop of batter will coat the bottom of the pan.

Cook the crepe for only about 2 minutes or until you can see the bottom turning light brown. Take a spatula and turn the crepe over to cook the other side, which will take only 1-2 minutes. Remove crepe to a plate and put a paper towel or piece of wax paper in-between each crepe. This will make about 6-8 crepes.

When you are getting almost to the end of your batter, turn your oven on to bake at 350.

When the crepes are done, take a smaller casserole (less than 9X13) and lightly grease the bottom of it with whatever method you choose. Spray butter or real butter works fine.

Count how many crepes you have and then eyeball the gravy so you can use even amounts of gravy inside of each crepe. Spoon the gravy mix into one crepe at a time, then roll it up and place in the casserole dish. (Be careful with the crepes as they are dainty.) Repeat until your crepes and gravy are gone.

(This was before the cheese was added on.)

Lightly sprinkle some grated cheese over the top and bake in your preheated 350 oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

These were good at the time they were done, but I have to say the leftovers were even better!

PS - these aren't thick like a burrito. They are fairly thin with only about 1/4 cup of mixture inside each one.

Burrito Bowl (like Chipotle's)

I love the burrito bowl at Chipotle Grill and order it every time I go there. Which isn't often enough. Tonight I was thinking about Chipotle Grill and decided to make my own burrito bowl. This wasn't exactly like Chipotle's but it was similar and really good.

This will serve 2 people, with a little meat and rice leftover. Maybe.

2/3 C rice

1 1/3 C water

1.5 pounds hamburger, browned and drained

The juice of one small lime (about 1.5 Tbsp.)

1/2 head of lettuce, shredded

A handful of chopped cilantro, or if you have the frozen kind - 6 cubes*

1 packet taco seasoning

1 can of beans (kidney, black or refried.) Tonight I used kidney.

Tomato, onion and cheese for topping at the table

Sour cream, thousand island and hot sauce (all optional) at the table

*If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, in the freezer section they have frozen cubes of cilantro, as well as garlic and other things. These work great for this type of meal.

Start browning your hamburger in a skillet over medium heat. Then put the rice and water in a small pot over high heat. As soon as the rice water starts to boil, put a lid on it and turn it down to low. Set a timer for 18 minutes.

Drain the hamburger when it is done browning, and then add a packet of taco seasoning. Add just a little water and stir the seasoning into the meat. Let it simmer on low. If you chose black beans or kidney beans, you can add them to the meat now.

When the timer for the rice goes off, fluff the rice with a fork, then add the cilantro and the lime juice. Stir to mix completely and let it remain on low heat for 2 more minutes.

On a plate or a large-ish bowl, add the lettuce, rice, meat & beans, and then your toppings.

Goopy Potato Salad

My Aunt Florence made the best potato salad ever. I was always so happy as a kid when Auntie Florence was cooking. Potato Salad, Greasy Beans, Baked Beans, etc.

When I got older and began to cook for myself I wanted to learn how to make potato salad that tasted like Florence's. Through a lot of trial and error I came up with this recipe. Florence always made it so the sauce was on the goopy side - which I loved! Her son-in-law Vance, called it potato salad soup. No matter, I loved it! This isn't exactly like hers, but it's very similar and the texture is just like hers - goopy!

5-6 medium potatoes, peeled and boiled soft. You don't want them crunchy, but cooked only long enough that they are fork tender and will still hold their shape.

5 eggs, boiled, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 3/4 C mayonnaise

3/4 C sour cream

3 Tbsp prepared mustard

2-3 medium pickles, chopped fine

4 Tbsp pickle juice

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1/2 C white sugar

1 tsp horseradish

3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 white or yellow onion, chopped fine

1 tsp dill weed

A Splash of lemon juice

Peel the potatoes and boil as mentioned above. Boil and peel the eggs as mentioned above. While the potatoes and eggs are boiling, mix all of the other ingredients together for the sauce (dressing). Add salt & pepper as desired.

When the potatoes are done, run under cold water to stop the cooking process, then cut into small bite-sized pieces. Add the potatoes and the eggs to the sauce. It will be quite runny to begin with but as the potatoes absorb some of the sauce it will thicken. But, it will still remain goopy. Yay!

Note: This will have a nice dill pickle flavor, which I love. If you don't want so much dill flavor, eliminate the dill weed, cut down on the amount of pickle and a little of the pickle juice.

Here is what you'll need for the sauce.

Salmon in a packet (for the oven)

First of all, let me say this: Blogger has changed the format for creating posts and I do not like it. I'll get used to it but for now, please pardon me if things aren't laid out like you're used to seeing here.

Orange Sherbet Jello Salad

Several years ago my Aunt Pearl made this yummy jello salad and I thought I had the recipe for it. But I couldn't find it, and it's not in our family cookbook so I went by memory to recreate Pearl's salad. I'm sure this is pretty close and it's delicious. Thanks Pearl!

1 3 oz. package orange jello

2 cups orange sherbet

1 C whipped cream (or Cool Whip)

1 small can sliced tangerines

1 banana, sliced

Mix your packet of jello with one cup of boiling water. Stir until dissolved - about 2 minutes. Add all other ingredients and gently stir to mix. Place in fridge until set. You can call this a salad or a dessert. It's great either way!