Crockpot Barbecue Beans

Beans have a bad reputation.  I know it, and I'm here to stick up for them.  I love beans.  I love them in soup.  I love green beans.  I love chili beans.  I love white beans.  I love.. well you get the picture.  And they don't have to taste awful.  When you make beans for a cookout or bigger gathering they don't have to be the basic beans, brown sugar and pineapple concoction.  (No offense to them, my Grandma's were delicious.)  

Give this recipe a try, you won't be sorry!  (they do take a lot of time to cook, but after the initial prep they do the work themselves and people will rave about them.)

Crockpot Barbecue Beans

32oz dried pinto beans

2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained

1 c. crumbled cooked bacon

1 medium onion, diced

2 16oz bottles of Wegmans Carolina Style Barbecue Sauce (or make your own but I don't do well with liquid smoke so I rely on good old Wegmans)

1 c. Ketchup

1 1/4 c. Brown Sugar, packed

1/2 c. water

1 Tbsp yellow mustard

1/2 tspn ground cayenne pepper 

1/2 tspn salt

In a large mixing bowl, cover the pinto beans with boiling water and soak overnight (at least 8-10 hours) and then drain and rinse.  In the crockpot mix together all the ingredients.  Cook them on high for 8-10 hours, or until beans are soft, but not mushy.

If you like more kick, feel free to add more cayenne!  These are the perfect dish for a family gathering.  They are also full of protein so you could actually serve them along side a nice salad and roll for dinner.

Irish Nachos

With the passing of St Patrick's Day over the weekend I thought I'd share a recipe.  A restaurant in town makes something similar to these and we really like them. 

Irish Nachos

4-5 pounds of washed potatoes, sliced into 8 wedges each.

oil

2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 lb sliced corned beef from the deli

sauerkraut

sour cream

chopped green onions

Preheat the oven to 400* and soak the potato wedges in a mild salt water for a bit.  When the oven is hot, drain them, blot them dry with a towel and toss them in oil.  Spread them across a greased cookie sheet and bake them for 45 minutes.

While they are baking, chop up the corned beef into small chunks.  Heat up the sauerkraut in a pan on the stove until hot.  (no need to cook it, just heat it)

After the wedges are done, pull out the pan and sprinkle cheese and corned beef over the top generously.  Put the pan back in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly. 

Top the potatoes with sauerkraut and eat!  (We actually top ours with sour cream and green onions too)  I'm not a huge fan of corned beef and cabbage.. but this I can eat!

Fried Apples

This is a great recipe for those yummy fried apples you get at the great homestyle restaurant with the rockers on the porch :) . Yes I know even Paula might be shocked at the butter content but portions are supposed to be served sparingly along side a meat dish such as pork chops :)

6 firm peeled thick sliced apples

1 cup sugar

1 cup real butter (this is important!!!)

Melt 1 cup butter in a large fry pan. Add apples and cook stirring for about 10 mins. Stir in the sugar and cook till apples become transparent but not mushy and hold their shape.

Squash Apple Bake

Many, many moons ago I worked at a grocery store called Wegmans.  If you live on the east coast you may very well have shopped at Wegmans, but otherwise you wouldn't recognize it... yet.  (they are expanding at a fast rate)  Wegmans prides itself as being a shopping experience.  They often have great prices, but they also make sure they carry a huge variety of foods and they will make sure that incredible effort goes into the environment and quality of their stores and customer service.  Part of this customer service is to have a chef cooking during the day, giving out samples and teaching techniques. 

I was that person.  (back when I did it, they didn't require a culinary degree)  It was... interesting.  But I learned a lot, and picked up a few recipes along the way.  Often the recipes that they'd want taught were those that stretched the boundaries of how food is typically prepared in a home kitchen.  (I remember when I spent a month teaching how to properly braise different meats.. and you'd be shocked how many people don't do it effectively) 

One of the recipes that I taught was a Squash Apple Bake.  While I may not remember the exact recipe due to my habit of tweaking things along the way, I do know what I put in it now.  It's a butternut squash recipe, and the squash itself is sliced and cooked, giving it a slightly different texture than the mushy squash that you would typically find when one thinks of "sweet" winter squash. 

The other good things about it: butternut squash isn't hard to grow, keeps on the shelf for a long time, and is fairly inexpensive at roadside stands. The downside?  Squash is hard to "peel".  You have to take a really sharp knife and just slice off sections of the outside until all you have is the orange inside.  Don't cut yourself.  And then slice the pieces off, throwing away the stringy seedy section in the bottom.  It would confuse the texture of the dish if you kept the "guts" in there.

Try this recipe, you'll be glad you have.

Squash Apple Bake

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch thick pieces (discarding the stringy core)
2-3 McIntosh apples, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch thick pieces
1 small onion, sliced
1 stick of butter
1 cup of brown sugar, split in half
1 cup of apple cider (can substitute water)

Preheat your oven to 375*

In the bottom of a 13x9 pan, put a layer of squash, layer of onion, layer of apple and then scatter pats of butter on top.  Sprinkle one half of the brown sugar over this.  Repeat the process.  If you haven't used up all your ingredients after two tiers you can add a third.  It's not an exact science.  Then pour the cider over the top of it all.

Cover with foil.  Bake at 375 for about an hour, or until the squash is fork-tender. 

Home Made Rice-A-Roni

I like Rice-a-Roni once in awhile for a side dish and had a craving for it. I didn't have a box in the house so I improvised and it turned out good. I made it from what I had in my cupboard but I'm sure it would be good with chopped veggies or anything you would like to add for flavor. Or you could use canned chicken broth in place of the liquid and add salt and pepper and add your own seasonings.


2 cups Uncle Ben's Converted Brown Rice
1 cup spaghetti broken in small pieces
1/2 stick butter
2 cups water
2 packets instant chicken broth seasoning
1/2 tsp pepper

Melt butter on med. heat on a large fry pan.
Add dry rice and spaghetti and brown in the
butter while stirring it so it becomes golden brown.

Add liquid and broth mixes and cover.
Simmer about 20 mins. until rice is tender.
If it looks like you need more water add 1/2 cup
while it's cooking.

Marinated Vegetables

Combine these healthy vegetables in a clear glass bowl
for a pretty presentation.

1/2 head cauliflower, cut up
2 sliced carrots
2 sliced stalks celery
1 sliced green pepper
1 4oz. jar drained stuffed green olives
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbls. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup water


Combine everything in a large pan and bring

it to a boil stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Cool and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Drain before serving.

Makes 3 cups.

Creamy Hashbrown Potatoes

This recipe is for you Becca as promised !!!! I must give credit where credit is due so thanks go out to my niece Lisa H. for passing this one on a few years ago. She has the same appreciation for recipe sharing that I do so I know she won't mind a bit. This makes a nice dish to pass at parties.


Creamy Hash Brown Potatoes


1 2lb. package frozen hash browns
2 cups cubed American cheese (Velveeta )
2 cups sour cream
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 lb crumbled bacon
1 lg. chopped onion
salt and pepper

Place the potatoes in 5 Qt. crock pot Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and pour over and mix well. Cook on low 4 to 5 hours.

Buffalo Tater Skins

Don't these look delicious? I mean, mouth watering delicious? Our friend Rachel made these and posted about them on her blog. Being the nice friend that she is, she let me repost the recipe here. If you want to see all the pictures, then click the link and go read her original post..

As posted by Rachel:

For those of you who know of my addiction to practically anything with red hot sauce and blue cheese, I introduce to you another successful recipe including those two ingredients. When we went out to eat at Spragues, I got, as my main dish, a plate of buffalo potato skins. Now I know that that is a very healthy meal (introduce sarcasm at this point) but hey! they looked good! But of course, the fact of the matter is, anything good that I eat out is something I will try to replicate at home. So on with the experiment...
After checking the internet for ways to make potato skins,I settled on a method that didn't involvefrying in three cups of oil...

Start by baking the potatoes in the oven til tender.

Then when they have sufficiently cooled so that you cancut them in half and scoop out some of the insides,without burning yourself, do so...I scooped out enough potato to leave arounda quarter inch or so inside.That makes it so you're not eating justthe skin but some potato with it too.

Cut into wedges...I got about three wedges per half of potato...And then throw them back in the oven.I had mine set at 400 degrees.That will crunch them up for you.If you have a broiler handy, that would probablywork even better because it would crunch them up more.As it is, mine were ok, but I think the broiler wouldwork better.

When they're almost done baking,slather them with a melted butter/hot saucecombo and sprinkle with cheese.The cheese part is optional since you're gonna dunkthem in blue cheese anyway if you like it.But the restaurant had cheese sprinkled on theirsso I'm just takin' the idea and going with it.
All in all, I'd say they turned out pretty good! There weren't many left and they really aren't that hard to make. I took the potatoes that I scooped out of the inside and made mashed potato rolls with them for our hamburgers. So if you're creative, you won't waste any of the potato. That was one of my main concerns is that I'd make them but waste some part of the potato because you only use mainly the skins.

Broccoli Salad

Okay I know not everyone enjoys broccoli but if you do, this salad is very good. I like mine the consistency of a fine coleslaw while others prefer to leave it chunky. I do switch this up at times and use half cauliflower - half broccoli too.



2 bunches of broccoli
1 cup raisins
1/2 jar real bacon bits
1 small onion
2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbls. cider vinegar
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
Dash salt
Dash pepper

Cut the onion in half and put it in the food processor. Cut the ends off the broccoli stems and add broccoli in and process until it's all finely chopped like coleslaw.

In a covered dish add the broccoli to the rest of the ingredients and blend well . Chill for several hours or overnight.

Zucchini Au Gratin

I once had a squash dish like this many years ago at a wedding reception and it was very good so I happened to ask the server what was in it.:) Then like a mad scientist I went to work trying to make it like they did. If your fond of squash it's a great way to use up your zucchini that is so plentiful this time of year.
You will need:


4 medium peeled, sliced, zucchini
1 qt.half and half
8.oz cube sharp cheese,shredded
2 cups cheese flavored croutons
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp.Paprika



Place zucchini in a casserole dish. Salt and pepper the squash. Sprinkle the cheese over top. Pour the half and half over top of the cheese. Sprinkle the croutons around on top and then finish it off by sprinkling paprika over the croutons and bake 45 to 50 minutes until tender and the center is hot. Remove from oven and let set 10 minutes. The croutons help to soak up any excess juice from squash but you also can remove it with a turkey baster like I do or a spoon if necessary.

Easy Crockpot Potatoes

Our family are potato lover's for sure. Any way you slice, bake, fry, or mash them ! And what could make them better but some cheese? So I thought I would post a very simple recipe using a box of potatoes au gratin that I came up with one day while having a family cookout to cut corners and not use my oven. Hope you like them as well as we do.

Preheat your small crock pot on high. Add a box of potatoes au gratin and add the amount of hot water, milk and butter and cheese packet as directed on the box of potatoes. Set crock pot to low setting.


Add;
1/2 cup sour cream
1 small minced onion
1/2 jar real bacon bits
1 cup of any cheddar cheese, Velveeta, or Cheez Whiz , whatever you prefer to use.
1/2 cup hot water

Stir this together and cook about 3 hours on low stirring a couple times untill tender.
Recipe can be doubled for a larger group .