The Best Mashed Potatoes on the Planet!

This post is mainly for an assignment in my CIS 1070 class, but it is still a very important post. Who loves mashed potatoes? I know they are pretty much my favorite side dish (and sometimes main dish!)

First we need to figure out how many potatoes you need. I always say there is no such thing as too many mashed potatoes, but for those of you who are a little more conservative here is a general guide: 1 medium russet potato per person. For this recipe, I will be using 8 potatoes. I generally like to peel my potatoes first, then boil them, but I saw this video and decided to include it in case you wanted to try something new!

So after I have peeled  my potatoes, I cut them into 1 inch pieces and boil them in salted water for about 15 minutes.

If you followed the video, you might want to cut up your potatoes. Now we are at the same point...get ready to mash! I like to mash mine by hand to leave a little bit of chunkiness to my potatoes, this is a personal preference. If you like super smooth mashed potatoes, use a hand mixer for best results.But for my recipe, I use a potato masher similar to this...

 

Now I start mashing, I mash about halfway to how creamy I want the potatoes...

Now I add 1/4 cup margarine (I like country crock spread because it melts quickly and mixes evenly) and 8 oz cream cheese (I like the Great Value Neufchatel cheese, same great flavor with 1/3 the fat! )

Now I pour in milk and continue mashing until the potatoes are the right creaminess and chunkiness for my liking.

Now add salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder to taste! Mix it in well and enjoy!!!

Here are the steps in an awesome slide show!!!

Mashed potatoes

View more presentations from Staci Cobabe.

Home Made Egg McMuffins!

Ingredients:

1 English muffin, split and toasted
1 slice cheese
1 egg
1-2 slices of Canadian bacon or 1 sausage patty

First toast your muffin. While you are waiting, cook your egg. I like to scramble mine, then pour it into my awesome pan!
The wells are the perfect size for my muffin! If you don't like that much egg, you can use 1/2 an egg. Once the egg is cooked, place it on the muffin, top with cheese and your choice of meat
...voila!

YUMMY and Cheap!

Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are REALLY good, but they dry out quickly (3 days MAX)...so if you are going to eat them or give them away soon, these are the cookies for you!

Recipe makes 5 dozen, but can be cut in half.

Preheat oven to 350.

1 c shortening
1 c brown sugar
1 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Cream together ingredients, then add:

1 c peanut butter (I like to use crunchy peanut butter for the added nuts/texture)

Stir together the following ingredients, then add it gradually to the creamed mixture:

2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 t baking soda

Roll the dough into small balls. Roll the balls in sugar, place on a cookie sheet, then press a fork in a criss cross pattern to flatten the cookie. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Lemon Coolers

I don't know how many of us remember these tasty treats from Keebler (I think) called Lemon Coolers. They were like Nilla wafers covered in lemony powdered sugar. I could eat these by the BOXFUL! Anyway, they stopped making them (I don't know why...I hate it when they keep crappy stuff and get rid of the stuff you LOVE!) But I found a recipe that is REALLY close to the real thing! The only thing I would suggest is doubling the amount of lemonade in the powdered sugar. I made them from the following recipe and I would like them to be more tangy. Anyway...here's the recipe!

Cookie:
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c shortening
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/8 t salt
1 1/2 c cake flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 T water

Coating:
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 t unsweetened lemonade mix (Kool-aid mix) - this is what I would double in the future

Preheat oven to 325.

Lightly grease baking sheets.

Cream sugars, shortening, egg, vanilla and salt together. Add flour and baking powder. Add 1 T water and mix well until dough forms a ball. Roll dough into 3/4" balls and flatten slightly and place on baking sheet. Baking 15-28 minutes until lightly browned. Cobine the powdered sugar and lemonade mix for the coating in a ziplock bag. While the cookies are hot, place a few at a time into the bag and shake until well coated. Cool on racks.

I would recommend making the balls smaller so there is more of the coating on each cookie, but that's just the sugar-lover in me talking! hope you enjoy this treat!

I found this on a friend's blog, so I stole it for this site! I LOVE HONEY BAKED HAM! So I'll definitely be giving this one a try...

Raise your hands if you love the crunchy bits of heaven coating that yummy ham on your christmas table?ME ME ME ME ME ME! Raise your hands if you hate that a store can charge almost $80 for a ham!! YIKES!! Well here is a recipe that will flip your lid its so good! And you do need a blow torch for it to work!

Recipe makes 8 servings
Honey Baked Hams are basted in fruit juices and then glazed with a mixture of brown sugar and honey. Here is a copy cat recipe from Family Circle Magazine. Have to say, I love Honey Baked Hams. Makes 1 7 lb. ham.
SERVES 8


Ingredients
1/2 (7 lb) spiral cut smoked ham (@ 7 lbs. fully cooked)
1/2 cup pear juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1-2 tablespoons dijon mustard
few dashes of ground cloves
few dashes of cinnamon
Directions
1 Preheat oven to 375 ° F.
2 Place ham, cut end down, in a large baking pan.
3 Mix pear nectar and orange juice in a bowl.
4 Bake ham for 15 minutes basting frequently with juices.
5 Mix brown sugar and honey together in a small bowl.
6 Brush mixture over ham and bake for another hour or until internal temperature reads 140 °F.
7 Honey Baked Ham corporation uses a butane torch to carmelize the glaze to a crust.
8 The ham is placed on top of a huge metal drum covered with foil and carmelized

This can be done with a pre cooked spiral cut ham..... warm in over with all the sauce repeat basting, then torch it until the ham blisters and crunchy bits of heaven appear!! If you arent a Ham lover.... Honeybaked ham also has a honey baked turkey breast. And this recipe can be used on that too! Just go to the store and get a turkey breast and cook it as directed on the package..... and then continue with the carmelizing recipe!

Delicious Layered Chocolate Pie

I just used the Kraft Foods website's picture of their version (they used nutter butters) here's a link to their instructions. Kraft Pudding Pie

You'll Need:
1 graham cracker crust
2 small boxes (4 serving size)instant chocolate pudding mix
1 small tub cool whip
2 c milk
Middle stuff (reeses peanut butter cups, nuts, thin mint cookies, marshmallows, oreos, nutter butters, junior mints) It works best for eating the pie if the middle stuff is chopped or crushed up. I usually go with peanut butter cups and I use about 8-10 of them. 12 if I plan on topping the pie with some too.

Instructions:
In a small bowl, combine the pudding mixes with the milk. Whisk until well blended (it will be thick). Spoon 1 1/2c mixture into crust. Put your choice of middle stuff on top of the 1st layer. Stir 1 1/2 c cool whip into remaining pudding mixture. Once well blended, top the middle layer with the cool whip mixture. Refrigerate 3 hours. Top with additional middle stuff and/or cool whip and serve! Makes 8-10 servings.

Curious George Cake

I did this cake for Super Girl's Birthday, then Tasha did it (with a teeny bit of help from Moi) for Aubrie's Birthday. To be fair, Tasha's looked cuter. So I'll tell you how we did ours differently too!

You'll Need:
1 cake mix of your choice
2 round cake pans
muffin tin or 2 muffin liners (the aluminum kind)
1 can chocolate frosting
1 can caramel frosting
2 cookies for eyes (I used oreos, tasha used Thin mints with white frosting blobs and M&M's for the pupils)
Frosting for drawing the face (white, red, pink and black)

Bake the cake mix according to the directions except make 2 cupkakes and the 2 round cakes.
After the cake has cooled, stack the round cakes on top of one another (you may have to cut the top off the one on the bottom in order for them to stand securely, you can also put a layer of caramel frosting in between the cakes, you'll have enough for decorating still)
Frost the entire cake and the top of the 2 cupcakes with the chocolate frosting. Place the 2 cupcakes on the sides of the round cake for George's ears

Then make an 8 with the caramel frosting on the round cakes. It should cover most of the face. Also, make a small semi-circle on each cupcake with the caramel frosting.

If using oreos for eyes, either scrape out some of the middles, or put a circle of black frosting for pupils. If using thin mints or the whole oreo, place a large circle of white frosting on the cookie, and use a brown m&M for pupils! Make eyebrows, nose, ear creases, and outline mouth and face with black frosting. (Tasha used 2 brown m&m's for a nose and red m&m's for the smile.) Fill in the mouth with red frosting and use the pink frosting to make a tongue (optional).


I didn't like the look from just scraping out the middles for the pupil, so I added black frosting.


Then the frosting from George's mouth started to fall out of the outline, so I had to double it up.
I got the idea from this link...thanks PBS!

http://www.pbs.org/parents/parties/curiousgeorge/food_cake.html

There's lots of other cute ideas there for a Curious George Birthday, or for other PBS characters too (Arthur, Boobah, Clifford, Cyber Chase, Dragon Tales, It's a Big Big World, and Teletubbies)
Check them out at http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/ and click on the Parties tab!