Potatoes Romanoff

Chef John's Youtube channel "Food Wishes" is one of my favorite cooking shows. Not only does he cook great food, but his sense of humor is just my style.

Last week, I came across  his video for Steakhouse Potatoes Romanoff and decided to cook it for Christmas. Usually I do mashed or scalloped potatoes, but this was a winner hands down. 

A few changes I made: 

1. I used Yukon Golds from our garden. They were smaller and so probably took 2-3 times as many as the russets. I put them in a 13x9 pan covered with foil rather than individually wrap them. Cooked for 1 hour then refrigerated overnight. The cold potatoes worked best for grating. 

2. Easy on the white pepper and cayenne if your guests aren't fond of spice. 

3. I used shredded Mexican cheese blend. Next time, I'll take Chef John's suggestion and shred my own white cheddar. 

4. I added mild - it's likely that my sour cream was too thick, but the milk helped thin it out and mix everything together. 

5. I forgot to buy shallots, so yellow onions worked fine. [Next year hoping to use onions from our garden.] 

1 teaspoon butter, or as needed

3-4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed

¼ cup minced shallots

3 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste

2 ½ cups grated sharp white Cheddar cheese

1 ¾ cups sour cream

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/276526/steakhouse-potatoes-romanoff/ 

Slow Cooker Refried Bean Soup

So, we had a new tradition for Thanksgiving this year. I was asked to make burritos. I made tortillas, spanish rice and refried beans from scratch. However, the beans had too much liquid and ended up being a little runny, and I made too much (a whole pound of pinto beans!). So, I was looking for a good refried bean soup recipe and as always, Taste of Home had a great one!

Some changes I made were to substitute the stewed tomatos with rotel. Also added bacon, garlic and fresh, chopped yellow onion. I was out of canned black beans and didn't take time to soak and cook so I used canned Canellini beans instead. It worked out well. Also added redmond salt, pepper and, at the end, topped with broken tortilla chips, sour cream, shredded cheese and fresh cilantro. 

The great thing about the slow cooker is you can keep it on the counter overnight and have leftovers the next day. 

*See separate posts for the tortillas, spanish rice and refried beans recipes. 

Refried Bean Soup

1 can (16 ounces) spicy fat-free refried beans

1 can (15-1/4 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained

1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (14-1/2 ounces) chicken broth

1 can (14-1/2 ounces) stewed tomatoes, cut up

1/2 cup water

1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chiles

1/4 cup salsa

Tortilla chips

Air Fryer Chicken Chimichangas

Holy moly! I didn't think I would ever get to eat these again since fired food is off the menu. Air Fryer Chimichangas are the bomb! Super easy to make. Here are some of my mods: 

1. Make double the amount of sauce when cooking the chicken - it tastes amazing poured over top of them when they come out of the air fryer. 

2. It's ok to use cream cheese if you don't have Neufchatel-it's what I did. :)

3. We had a ton of green chilis in our garden this year so I added fresh ones to the mix. Yum! The rest went into my canned tomatillo green chili recipe that I use for chicken enchiladas. [I ended up with 17 quarts!]

4. I added some shredded cheese to the tops while cooking-nice touch!

5. This works best with an upright air fryer with trays that looks like a mini oven. [Also comes with a rotisserie attachment.] Worth the extra dollars.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/278702/air-fryer-chimichangas/?fbclid=IwAR2CnzKUgy3h1YCrnGLNQZCMvg-xZBJzI5OmquljLhr-TIS4-r-EBuYiR-s

Creamy Blueberry Gelatin Dessert

I love my inventory app. It alerts me to what’s expiring in the  pantry. This week it was grape jello so I went to Pinterest for ideas. I found this classic that I can’t believe I’ve never tried! I ended up making my own blueberry pie filling with fresh blueberries (quick and worth it!). With the crushed pineapple and cream cheese/sour cream topping with walnuts-this was crazy good. I mean, I’ve never had a dessert like it. The hubby said it is now his number one dessert-knocking blueberry pie to number 2. That’s saying a lot!

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/creamy-blueberry-gelatin-salad/

Pecan Chewies

What's expiring this week? Pecans and self-rising flour. What can you do with those ingredients? Pecan blondies! Don't make these if you're trying to lose weight. The brown sugar/pecan combination is ADDICTING! It was hard not to eat a half a pan in one night. I will definitely be keeping this one in my recipe box to bring to a party. Your guests will thank you-or not if they eat too many. Haha.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/77030/pecan-chewies/

Wild Rice Chicken and Mushroom Soup

Moving forward, my blogs will be based on expiring inventory and the recipes that I find to use up those items. Wild rice and mushrooms were on the list this week. I chose to use a crockpot rather than my InstantPot because wild rice takes so long to cook at 6500 ft elevation. I ended up adding heavy whipping cream instead of the flour roux and some pepper. So, so good. :)

https://pinchofyum.com/instant-pot-wild-rice-soup

Broiled Thai Sweet Chili Salmon

I've recently started using a pantry inventory app and now know what I have and when it's set to expire. One of those items was a bottle of Thai Sweet Chili. This recipe made one of the best broiled salmons I've had in a long time. I ended up throwing some cauliflower on the pan with the salmon and using the extra sauce over the veggies, then served over a bed of rice. Yum!

https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/broiled-salmon-with-thai-sweet-chili-glaze.html