Candied-Bacon Sweet Potato Souffle

It may not look like much in this photo, but this is truly an amazing and different dish. I am a huge sweet potato fan. I lived out in Arkansas for about 4 1/2 years and 3 of those years, I lived with my grandmother who was also a big sweet potato fan. She made them often with dinner for us and I learned a lot about different ways to cook them. There's the traditional sweet potato casserole topped with marshmellows that most people have at Thanksgiving. However, Jason decided we needed bacon somewhere on the menu. I came across a recipe for a candied-bacon sweet potato casserole, but when it came down to this Thanksgiving week, I could not find the recipe anywhere! So, I have made it up. I'm combining a sweet potato souffle and putting the candied-bacon in it, on top of it, and even in between the souffle and topping itself. I hope you enjoy it and make it too one day because it sure is amazing! The candied-bacon alone is super easy and addicting - so be careful if you want to watch your waist-line! :) The recipe:

Ingredients for the Souffle:

4-5 medium cooked & mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1/2 Tsp. light salt

4 strips of candied-bacon, chopped

4 strips of candied-bacon, whole

Ingredients for Topping:

1 cup Splenda brown sugar

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter (1/2 stick) cubed at room temperature

1/2 cup self-rise cake flour

4 strips of candied-bacon, chopped

Ingredients for Candied-Bacon:

12 strips of Center Cut Bacon

Splenda Brown Sugar

Make it:

1~ Preheat oven to 400 degrees while you prepare the bacon; (I like to use center cut) and cook the sweet potatoes to prepare them to mash.

Peel and cut in half each sweet potato;

Cover in salted water and bring to a boil until soft; drain and mash;

Place wire rack on cookie sheet; make sure to spray rack well with Buttery Pam Spray

Roll/smear brown splenda sugar on both sides of 12 strips of bacon;

Place strips of bacon on wire rack;

Cook for 8 mins.;

Remove from oven and completely cool;

2~ Keeping oven at 400 degrees; lightly grease 8 inch baking dish;

In a large bowl combine mashed sweet potatoes, sugar, egg, milk, butter, vanilla extract, and salt; once combined, chop 4 strips of candied bacon and put into mixture. Pour into the baking dish;

3~Place 4 whole strips of candied- bacon across top of souffle;

4~In a separate bowl combine all ingredients for the topping and pour over sweet potato souffle and whole strips of candied-bacon in baking dish.

5~ Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Enjoy!

~Created and Made by: Holly

Corn Casserole

I think this is the easiest recipe anyone could ever make for a casserole. If you love corn, then you'll love this tasty, easy recipe for a casserole! So without any further chit-chat, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

1 (8.5oz) pkg. dry corn bread mix

1 (15oz) can of whole kernel corn, drained

1 (14.75oz) can of cream corn

1 cup of sour cream

Make it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees;

Lightly grease 9x9 inch dish;

Combine all ingredients above;

Bake 45 minutes or till golden brown on top.

See, now wasn't that easy?!

~Made by: Holly

Cranberry Sauce

I LOVE cranberry sauce. It's an obsession almost. I can't live without it at Thanksgiving. I'm big on just buying the sauce that comes out shaped like the can, but this year I'm making it from scratch. I like that this is another dish I can make ahead of time. I'm never been a big fan of the berries in the sauce so I always got the smooth stuff in the can, but WOW! I will NEVER buy the canned stuff again! DE-LIC-OUS! Thanks Fiona for sharing your wisdom! So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

Bag of cranberries

3 Cinnamon Sticks

1 large orange

Make it:

In sauce pan, dissolve over medium heat, 1 cup sugar in 1 cup of water;

Bring to boil to make a simple syrup;

Add bag of cranberries;

Cook till they "pop" (about 8-10 minutes);

While it's boiling down squeeze half of fresh orange juices into sauce;

Cut up rest of orange and place whole slices into the sauce along with cinnamon sticks;

Once it's boiled down (additional 5 mins. after cranberries "popped" and look soft, remove from

heat; Remove orange slices and cinnamon sticks with tongs.

Then you can transfer cranberry sauce into your container of choice, cool completely before covering and placing in refrigerator.

The cranberry sauce will gel up in fridge over night - and/or - for a couple of days.

~Made by: Holly

~Recipe from: Fiona Bowden

Swirled Pumpkin Cheesecake

I decided to start with dessert for the Thanksgiving preparation! This cheesecake you can make up to 2 days in advance if you would like. So it's completely ideal that I made it tonight and it to be firming up in the fridge until it's time to indulge tomorrow afternoon! I'm pretty excited about this new dessert. Some people call me crazy because I just don't care for the taste of regular pumpkin pie. At first I thought it was because I just hadn't tried a good one, but after trying them for years now, I just don't like them. HOWEVER, combined in a cheesecake?! Now that sounds like something I could handle! And boy, oh boy am I excited because it taste AMAZING!!! Apparently, I didn't have a 9 inch. pie plate because I had some filling left over, but I made a crust-less cheesecake in a mini meatloaf foil pan!

If the mini version taste as good as the main one I created tonight....I don't even know what to say besides YUM-O. I can not wait to try it with the home-made gingersnap crust. So here we go - recipe time!

Ingredients for crust:

24 Gingersnap Cookies (you can also add 1/2 cup pecans, but I just forgot to get some)

2 Tbsp. sugar

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Ingredients for filling:

3/4 cup sugar

2 pkg (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 Tbsp. flour

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 cup pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling), from 15-oz. can

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Make It:

1~ Crust: Heat Oven 350 degrees

If you don't have a food processor, a regular mixer works fine.

Pulse gingersnap cookies (and pecans if you like) until finely ground;

Add sugar;

Add butter and pulse to combine;

Press mixture evenly into bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate.

*I found if you just pour your crust mixture into your pie plate, shake plate and then push buttery crumbs up around the sides of the pie plate to create thick border of crust around sides, then flatten the rest of the crust to the bottom of the pan is the best way.

Bake crust for 10-12 minutes

2 ~ Filling:

Pulse together sugar and cream cheese until combined;

Scrape down sides and add eggs, milk, flour, and salt; process until smooth;

Save 1/3 cup of filling off to side;

Add pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice to rest of the filling until fully incorporated;

Scrape mixture into the baked crust (no need to cool crust);

Spoon the reserved cream cheese mixture over top and use a knife to swirl.

3~ Bake until the center is set but still trembles, 30-35 minutes.

4~ Let cool completely, then refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

~Made by: Holly

Thanksgiving 2010 Has Arrived!

I am VERY excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow. It's one of my favorite holidays that I look forward to participating in some way each year. This year I will be spending it with my husband, Jason, and his family: mom, dad, and brother along with my mom and sister. Jason, his mom, and I are all splitting up cooking duties this year. I just put in my first pie of the night and the cooking continues....so stay tuned for more deliciousness coming your way! I will be taking photos and posting recipes of things Jason and I make this evening before the big day and will take more photos tomorrow. To get your mouth's watering - here's what's on the menu:

Appetizers:
Deviled Eggs
Shrimp Cocktail
Sausage Balls

Main Course & Sides:
Turkey
Giblet Gravy
Dressing
Cranberry Sauce
Ham
Ham Sauce
Baked Beans
Green Bean Casserole
Corn Casserole
Candied-Bacon Sweet Potato Souffle
Potatoes Au Gratin
Roasted Veggies
Potato Cheddar Chive Rolls

Desserts:
Swirled Pumpkin Cheesecake
Lemon Meringue Pie
Pecan Pie
Apple Crisp

Stay tuned!
~Holly

My Version of Swedish Meatballs

We've had A LOT going on in our lives since June and realize it's time to put up some new stuff and get back to work on the site. One of Jason's favorite dishes is Swedish Meatballs and I've been holding out on him making it from scratch...so to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago, I made it for dinner. It turned out AMAZING, however, I forgot to take a photo! So you'll just have to trust me and cook it up and enjoy in the feast of amazing-ness!

Ingredients:
1 package of Egg Noodles
3/4lb ground beef
1/2lb ground pork
1/2 cup minced onions
3/4 cup fine bread crumbs (I used Italian Style)
1 tbsp. minced parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp. canola oil

Gravy Ingredients:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika
2 cups boiling water
3/4 cup sour cream

Make It:

1.) Make egg noodles according to package. When done, put to side; make sure to EVOO the noodles so they don't stick while you fix the rest.

2.) Combine meats, onions, bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, worcestershire, egg and milk.

3.) Shape into balls the size of a walnut (I like to use an ice cream scoop so they are all the same), brown meatballs in oil in a skillet, reserve drippings, place meatballs in an oven proof skillet when browned.

4.) Stir flour, salt, garlic powder, pepper, paprika into the hot drippings left over from the meatballs; stir in boiling water and sour cream. Pour gravy over meatballs in oven proof skillet, and add egg noodles.

5.) Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes and Voila!

~Made by: Holly

Baked Artichoke, Red Pepper (Sun-dried Tomato) Spread

Ok, so everyone loves that hot artichoke dip you find in restaurants, right? Whether it's artichoke & spinach, artichoke and Parmesan cheese, ect...I recently made Roasted Red Pepper and Artichoke Spread, and then tonight wanted to make it again, but didn't have any red peppers so I decided to use sun dried tomatoes instead. All I can say is YUM-O! No matter what you want to do with the artichokes, it seems to turn out great. I suggest trying them both. I'm even considering trying to combine all three ingredients and see how it turns out. The plus side to this recipe? NO SALT! For those who are trying to limit the intake of salt (as most of us probably should), this is a great little appetizer to snack on while you are waiting on the Swedish Meatballs!

Ingredients:
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
14 oz. artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 whole red pepper, finely chopped OR/and sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped

Make It:

1.) Combine parmesan cheese, mayo, cream cheese, garlic and process till smooth

2.) Add artichokes and peppers and/or sun-dried tomatoes, stir in well

3.) Put mixture into small 8 inch. pan, Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes until browned on top.

~Made by: Holly