Potato Pancakes

I love taking leftovers and giving them a makeover for their second appearance at the dinner table. Potato pancakes are one of my favorite ways to use up leftover mashed potatoes.

Potato Pancakes with Mustard-Dill Sauce

*Serves 4

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

- 2-3 cups day old mashed potatoes
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Vegetable or canola oil for pan frying
- 1/3 cup sour cream

- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

- 1/8 teaspoon dried dill (double if using fresh)


Potato Pancake Directions:

1. Mix the tablespoon of flour into your mashed potatoes to help stiffen them a bit. If yours are really mushy, you may need to add a little more flour.

Any McRib fans out there?

I confess I’m not a fan of them… they kinda weird me out to me honest. However Brent loves them and will order two at a time when they are available. And every time he does, I comment about how I “don’t understand the fascination” with them. It annoys him that I always say this.

Photo from Delish.com

Don’t get me wrong! I enjoy a little fast food on occasion, it’s just that Taco Bell’s Cheesy Gordita Crunch is more my style. But that is a post for another day…

Back to the point!

If you are a McRib fanatic, you’ll be happy to learn that the McRib is back starting today (Nov. 2) for the next six weeks – at EVERY Mickey D’s!

If you aren't a McRIb fan, do you have one fast food kryptonite?

Italian Style Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers are an easy comfort food that I happen to enjoy a great deal. I think they make a great dish for the coming (or already here for you readers up North) months. I actually do several types of stuffed peppers and this one is my take on my mother’s Italian style.

Italian Style Stuffed Bell Peppers

* Makes 4 peppers – serves 2 or 4 depending

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

- 4 large bell peppers, any color

- ½ cup diced onion

- 1 lb ground beef

- 2 cups white rice, already cooked

- 2 ½ cups your favorite red pasta sauce, I like to use a chunky vegetable one

- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

- Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Start by cutting tops off bell peppers and clean out inside seeds and ribbing. Clean with cold water and pat dry. Remove stem from the cut off tops and chop the tops up to add to the stuffing. (Please tell this made sense!)

2. Brown your ground beef in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Add garlic, onions, and peppers when beef is almost thoroughly browned. Remove from pain when no longer pink, and drain away excess grease. Allow to cool.

Happy Halloween!!!

My favorite holiday of the year! Where adults can act like a kid again and play dress up, and kids get to run around accepting candy from strangers. Something your mom always told you never to do!

It's our first Halloween in this neighborhood so it will be interesting to see how many kids we get. In our candy bowl we have: Reese's PB cups, Skittles, Kit Kats and Big Sour Gummy lifesavers.

I've been good and only had two so far...

What's in your candy bowl? Do you have any favorites?

Beef and Cheese Empanadas

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone that voted last week in the appetizer poll. It was really interesting and fun to see what everyone voted for. When I added empanadas to the poll, it was really just an afterthought. I didn’t think anyone would really vote for them. I was surprised that so many people did! I liked the idea of you guys chiming in on what you’d like me to make, and will most likely do some more polls in the future.

The empanada recipe below is not the one I was planning to make. Not even close. Don’t get me wrong, the ones I did end up making are pretty tasty and I shamelessly devoured 4 of them. Still, I was personally disappointed that my original recipe didn’t pan out.

I’ll save you the long drawn out story of all the things that went wrong… but let’s just say that Sunday morning after 3 trips to the grocery store, 4 hours in the kitchen, and failed empanadas stuck to the walls of the kitchen… I ended up sitting on my kitchen floor crying hysterically with flour, dough, cheese, and meat stuck all over me while my puppy was sitting in my lap trying to lick the tears from my cheeks, and my poor boyfriend just looked at me trying to figure out why I was having a complete nervous breakdown over empanadas.

Looking back at that scene now, it’s pretty amusing.

Monday night I came home from work armed with new ingredients, and an easier method to make what I am affectionately calling now “Fakepanadas”.

Beef and Cheese “Fakepanadas”

*Makes 30 empanadas

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

- 1.5 lbs ground beef

- ¾ cup beef broth

- 1.25 cups medium salsa

- ¾ teaspoon garlic powder

- ¾ teaspoon cumin

- ¾ teaspoon dried cilantro
- Salt and pepper
- Couple of pinches red pepper flake
- ¾ cup bean dip or refried beans
- 1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 12oz cans of biscuits, 10 biscuits in each can, butter or buttermilk – not flakey layers
- Cooking spray

Directions:
1. Brown the ground beef in a large sauté pan over medium high heat until fully brown and no longer pink. Drain in a colander to remove grease and return to sauté pan. Over medium low heat add to the beef: salsa, beef broth, garlic, cumin, cilantro and red pepper flake. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a low simmer, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove lid and continue to simmer until all the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.