Robert Reed's Beef and Biscuit Casserole

Let me start off with saying, Thank You to everyone for your kind words last week after my father-in-law passed away, it really meant a great deal to me and my husband. Now let’s get back to some fabulous food, the last recipe from my new cook book, “The Dead Celebrity Cookbook” comes from Robert Reed. We all grew up watching Robert play Mike Brady on the hit TV show “ The Brady Bunch “, I myself simply loved this show and never missed an episode. My kids grew up watching the re-runs that are still on to this day. Robert Reed was a classically trained Shakespearean actor and Northwestern University Alum, rumor has it that he beat out Gene Hackman for the part of Mike Brady and I am glad he did.

1 Lb. - Ground Beef

1/2 C. - Chopped Onion

1/4 C. - Green Chilies

1 (8oz) - Can Tomato Sauce

2 Tsp. - Chili Powder

3/4 Tsp. - Garlic Powder

3 Tbs. - Dried Minced Onion

1 (8oz) - Can Grands Flaky Biscuits

1 1/2 C. - Shredded Monterey Jack & Cheddar Cheese

1 /2 C. - Sour Cream

1 Egg (lightly beaten)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees… Brown the beef, chopped onion and green chilies in a pan; drain grease. Stir in the tomato sauce, chili powder, minced onion and garlic powder then simmer. Separate the biscuits into 10 biscuits then separate again into 20 biscuits. Place 10 of the biscuits into the bottom of an 8x9 greased baking dish. Combine 1/2 c. of the cheese with the sour cream and egg, mix well. Remove the meat mixture from the heat and stir in the sour cream mixture; spread this mixture on top of the biscuits. Place the remaining biscuits on top of the meat mixture and cover with the reaming cheese. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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We Miss You & Will Always Love You Dad !

Due to a Death in the family this morning, we will not be posting today.
We will return next week, see you then...

Thank you for your understanding!

Michael Jackson's Sweet Potato Pie

This week’s pick out of my new Dead Celebrity Cook Book was by my husband. He simply loves Michael Jackson so it was a given that he would choose his recipe to blog this weekend. Michael Jackson was an adorable little boy while performing with his brothers in the Jackson Five, to becoming the King of Pop in the 80’s; he truly was one of the most recognized iconic figures of our time. He will certainly be missed by many, but all that choose to listen to his infamous songs like Thriller and make his below recipe will keep Michal alive in their hearts.

3 - Eggs

1/2 C. - Sugar

1/4 C. - Butter (melted)

1/2 Tsp. - Salt

1/3 C. - Milk

1 Tsp. - Vanilla

1 Tsp. - Ground Cinnamon

2 Tbs. - Lemon or Orange Juice (we used lemon juice)

2 1/2 C. - Sweet Potatoes (mashed) (fresh roasted or canned (we used canned))

1 Tsp. - Nutmeg

1/2 C. - Pecan Halves (optional (no nuts for us))

1 Unbaked - Pie Crust

Place the sweet potatoes and juice into the bowl of a kitchen aid mixer, mix together. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, and then add the butter, salt, milk, vanilla, and spices. Blend egg mixture and mashed Sweet potatoes and juice mixture, mix until fully combined. Pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust and garnish with the pecan halves. Bake 10 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven then reduce oven temperature to 375 and bake for another 40 minutes. If the edges of the pie start to get too dark brown, then cover with small strips of aluminum foil. Serve warm, room temp or cold from the fridge with some whipped topping.

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Irish Stew with Soda Bread

Happy early St. Patrick's Day everyone !..... This year I wanted to try my hand at something, I have never eaten or made before for St. Patrick's Day, don't get me wrong I love the Fruit Glazed Corn Beef that I usually make, but I wanted something a little different this year. My husband and I both had a hand in making this year’s St. Patrick's Day dish, I really do love being in the kitchen cooking with my husband.

1/4 C. - Olive Oil

1 1/4 Lbs. - Stew Meat

3 Tbs. - Minced Garlic (Heaping Tbs.)

6 C. - Swanson Beef Stock

1 C. - Guinness Beer (I used the entire bottle)

2 C. - Barefoot Red Moscato Wine

2 Tbs. - Tomato Paste

1 Tbs. - Sugar

1 Tbs. - Dried Thyme

1 Tbs. - Worcestershire Sauce

2 - Bay Leaves

2 Tbs. - Butter

3 Lbs. - Potatoes (cubed)

1 - Small Onion (diced)

2 C. - Baby Carrots

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Heat oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat, lightly salt the beef and brown in batches. Once all of the meat is nicely browned, place it all back into the pot and sauté with the garlic for 1 minute. Then add the stock, beer, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, bay leaves and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine, and then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low then cover and cook for 1 hour stirring occasionally. While the meat and stock is simmering, melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add potatoes, carrots and onion. Sauté the veggies until golden in color, about 20 minutes then set aside until the 1 hour has past for simmering the broth. Then add the veggies to the simmering stew and cook uncovered for another hour. After the second hour discard the bay leaves and season with salt & pepper. At this point you can serve or as I did use some corn starch and water to thicken the stew then serve.

Soda Bread:

3 C. - Flour

1 Tbs. - Baking Powder

1/3 C. - Sugar

1 Tsp. - Salt

1 Tsp. - Baking Soda

1 - Egg (lightly beaten)

2 C. - Buttermilk

1/4 C. - Butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x9 baking dish. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend the egg with buttermilk then pour into the flour mixture. Mix just until moist then stir in butter. Pour into baking dish and cook for 65 - 70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack. My husband decided to cook the bread in his Traeger smoker, it cooked at the 325 for 60 minutes and it was simply perfect. The bread had a slight smoky flavor from the pellets and it really enhanced the bread. This bread was a wonderful addition alongside the Irish Stew.

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Isabel Sanford's Boston Chicken

My husband bought me a new cook book that we will be featuring this month, The Dead Celebrity Cook Book. This book is so cool, it has some of my all time favorite people and their famous recipes listed in it. It has people like Lucille Ball, Johnny Cash, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, and more, it features over 145 stars of stage and screen. My first pick from the book is Isabel Sanford (1917-2004), We all grew up watching her play Weezy on the Jefferson's. I loved how she always kept her cranky husband George under control, she is truly missed.

4 - Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (the book calls for 8)
4 - Whole Russet Potatoes (washed)
1 C. - 1000 Island Dressing
1 C. - Apricot / Pineapple Jelly
1 Packet - Instant Onion Soup Mix
1 Dash - Cinnamon
1/4 C. - Grated Onion
Cooking Spray

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spray a baking dish with some cooking spray then lay the chicken in the dish, cut the potatoes in half length wise and place around the chicken. In another dish mix the rest of ingredients together and spread evenly over the chicken and potatoes. Cover the entire dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil, turn up the oven to 375 degrees and bake for another 15-30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Plate the chicken and potatoes and serve more sauce drizzled over the top. This dish when we read it sounded very odd and kinda creepy strange, but then we thought hey let’s try something different. To our surprise this dish was actually very good , the flavors really went together nicely.

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Carrot Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week I am going back to my roots with Quick & Easy Semi-Homemade Recipe Ideas. My husband and I take cookies in our lunch every day so today I utilized a fabulous cake mix to make some outstanding cookies for next week. These turned out awesome, they are very moist with a cake like texture and that is how we like our cookies to be. I like that this recipe can be adjusted with so many different add-ins to make them just the way you would like them to be. You could add nuts, oatmeal or any kind of dried fruit you would like...do with them what you will, and they are great frosted with cream cheese or left plain.

1 - 21.40 oz. - Duncan Hines Classic Decadent Cake Mix
2 - Eggs
1 - Stick Butter (soft)
1 C. - Hot Water
1/4 C. - Mini Chocolate Chips
Duncan Hines Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Hydrate the carrot and raisin packet (from the cake mix box) in the 1 cup of hot water for 5 minutes. Drain and squeeze out the extra water. Beat the butter, cake mix and eggs until just combined then add the carrots and raisins and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips until well combined, using a small ice-cream scoop place cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Using a knife or offset spatula smooth the top of the cookies. Bake for 12 minutes then let cool on baking sheet for 1 minute before transferring to a cooling rack. Once cookies are completely cooled frost with some cream cheese frosting or eat plain.

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Stromboli

My husband and I were watching Big Daddy's house the other day and he was making Stromboli, I was telling my husband about the amazing meat Stromboli I had in Pennsylvania many years ago and he told me that he has never had it and was not sure what it was. We watched the show and my husband thought it sounded awesome but of course we knew that we could create our own version that would be even better. We started to play around with filling ideas and dough ideas and came up with for us a winner winner Stromboli dinner....

1 - Sheet Puff Pastry (thawed)
4 - Deli Thin Sliced Black Forest Ham
5 - Deli Thin Sliced Roast Beef
3 - Deli Thin Sliced Roasted Cajun Turkey Breast
5 Slices - Bacon (cooked)
1/4 C. - Shredded Pizza Blend Cheese
1 - Egg
1 Tbs. - Water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees…

Lay down a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper onto the counter, unfold the pastry and lay it on top of the paper. Top with another section of wax paper; use a rolling pin to just thin the dough slightly and to take the creases out then remove the top sheet of paper and lightly prick the pastry with a fork so it does not rise too much when baking. Lay down the ham then top with the roast beef then the turkey and bacon, cover the entire thing with the cheese. Use the paper to help roll the pastry into a log, lay the seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet, mix the egg and water in a small dish then brush the top of the Stromboli. Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown, this makes enough for 2. Slice in half and drizzle with your favorite Alfredo sauce, marinara sauce or eat it as is.

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Chicken Enchilada Chowder

Were Back !!!

With Tuesday being Valentine’s Day I thought it would be a good idea to spice things up at the dinner table so then maybe, we could have some carry over heat for later in the night..... This simple slow cooker recipe will do the trick nicely. This is amazing and very flavorful chowder that even someone who normally doesn't do spicy food will love. I simply adore doing anything in the slow cooker, place everything inside, turn it on, and walk away while it does all of the work. That gives you the rest of the day to be with your special someone doing whatever your heart’s desire.

1 - 15oz. - Can Black Beans
1 - 14.5oz. - Can Fire Roasted Tomatoes (diced)
1/2 C. - Chopped Onion
1/2 C. - Chopped Yellow or Orange Bell Pepper
1 - 19oz. - Can Enchilada Sauce
2 - 10 3/4oz. - Can Cream Of Chicken Soup
2 C. - Milk
1 - 14.75oz. - Can Cream Corn
1 - 4oz. - Can Green Chiles (chopped)
1 - Small Jalapeño (chopped)
2 - Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 C. - Monterey Jack Cheese (shredded)
1 C. - Cheddar Cheese (shredded)
Sour Cream
Tortilla Chips

In a 5 quart slow cooker combine black beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, peppers and chilies. In a large bowl mix together the cream of chicken soup and enchilada sauce, gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Lay the chicken on top of the veggie mixture and top with the soup mixture, cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. When the chowder is ready pull out the chicken and shred the meat, then place the meat back into the slow cooker and stir in the cheese. Let the chowder cook until all of the cheese is melted. Ladle into bowls and top with sour cream and tortilla chips.

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On Vacation

I hope everyone's 2012 are off to a good start, my husband and I have decided to take a mini vacation from our cooking blog for a little while. We need a chance to regroup and come up with some new yummy semi-homemade recipe ideas. Please keep stopping by and looking at all of the great recipes we have posted since 2007 such as our most popular Posh Piggies and our most talked about Krispy Kreme Burger. We will be back soon with something great to share, I of course will be stopping by all of my friends blogs to see what fabulous things you all will be cooking.

Grape Salad

We went to my mom's house the weekend before Christmas for the family celebration, she had a friend of hers join us for dinner and he made a salad that I had never seen or heard of before. This was so tasty, the entire family loved it, and he was kind enough to tell us where he got the recipe. When we got back home I goggled the salad and found two versions, my husband really liked the sound of both recipes so we chose to mix the two recipes into one fabulous simple salad.

2 Lbs. - Green Grapes (seedless)
2 Lbs. - Red Grapes (seedless)
1 8oz. - Whipped Cream Cheese
1 8oz. - Sour Cream
1 7oz. - Marshmallow Creme
1 Tsp. - Vanilla Extract
2 Tbs. - Brown Sugar

Wash and dry the grapes. In a large bowl mix the cream cheese, sour cream, marshmallow creme, vanilla, and brown sugar until smoot>h. Stir in the grapes and mix until well combined, refrigerate until ready to serve…SOOO EASY! And yet DELISH!

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