Mashed Potato Soup in the Crockpot

We have a LOT of mashed potatoes left over from a meal a few days ago.  I wondered if some of them could be used to make a soup in the crockpot.

I found a very basic recipe and added to it.

The basic part is one can of cream of mushroom soup
                                          1/2 pound of mashed potatoes
                                           3 cans of water (using the soup can)
                                           1 cup of milk
                                         

I have no idea how to measure one half a lb of mashed potatoes, so I  think I used more  than that.

These are my additions: minced garlic
                                    minced onion
                                    dried dill
                                    garlic pepper
                                       and maybe one more spice that I cannot recall
                                    grated Muenster cheese (about half of a regular sized block)
                                    about a half cup of barley (not sure if instant or long cooking) but it went in about half way through the cooking time.

I put it on high to get things moving and then turned it down to low.  At the end of the cooking time (I chose about three )........I stirred in some leftover cooked carrots and several slices of crumbled bacon.

I decided to do dumplings since I had a can of Pillsbury Grand Biscuits in the frig.  I used four out of the seven in  the can.  I cut each one into eight pieces, then sprinkled cornmeal on them, and dropped them into the soup and sprinkled some parsley on top.  Put the top back on quick and it took about a half an hour to cook the dumplings.   I baked the rest of the Grands biscuits and had one with butter and jelly with my bowl of soup.

NEXT TIME: I would stir in an extra cup of milk BEFORE adding the dumplings because this soup turned out VERY thick (my grandaughter ate two bowls and said it was more like a stew).
Also, I would add some salt at the beginning.  It DID need a bit of added salt.

Baked Grape Tomatoes

I served these with stuffing/turkey/gravy casserole
four bean salad and
homemade cranberry sauce tonight

(its a recipe I made up, on the spot)



spray a small casserole dish with PAM
put in the tomatoes (washed and dried)
some minced garlic
some pieces of pepperoni (chopped up)
sprinkle liberally with parmesan cheese
put top on casserole and bake
at 375 for twenty minutes
in the meantime cut some of your favorite
cheese (I used am Amish smoky flavored cheese)
 into small chunks
take casserole out of oven and stir in
the cheese and bake another five minutes
then take top off and put under the broiler for
a couple of minutes


next time I would use more pepperoni
and less cheese

crockpot creamed asparagus

I washed the asparagus, broke off the "woody ends" and cut the asparagus into inch and a half pieces and put into the crockpot with some butter, salt and pepper, a bit of lemon juice and I sprayed on some garlic.  Cooked on high for 15 minutes and then switched to low.  When it was
almost done, I stirred in some flour to coat the pieces and then some milk, and continued cooking.
The liquid thickened up a bit.  Next time, I might add a can of mushrooms.

Tomato/Potato Soup

inspired by Sylvia Jorrin who wrote SYLVIA's FARM, I decided to try a new twist with potato soup, using a tomato sauce base instead of a milk/cream base.

A couple of potatoes cut into bit size pieces
Two carrots, sliced thin
a glob of butter
some minced garlic
A couple of small onions chopped
Two cans of Progresso Recipe Starter (fire roasted tomato)
one can of onion soup (Aldi's brand)
    and a half can of water
few tablespoons of sweet pepper relish

I let this cook all day in the crockpot
when I got home around four p.m. I
added a can of white northern beans and
some pancetta (one package, Aldi's brand) and
kept the crockpot on low for a couple more hours.
I took a couple of cups of the soup out and pureed it
in the blender and then added it back into the crockpot
(to thicken the broth a bit)

DELICIOUS!!!!!!

Spaghetti Pizza Casserole

Pizza Spaghetti Casserole !!

 1  lb. Ground meat (I like turkey)
 1 box uncooked spaghetti noodles (I did not use the whole  box, maybe 3/4)
 ½ teaspoon salt
 ½ teaspoon Oregano
 ½ teaspoon garlic powder (I stirred these into the sauce before adding to the casserole, and I also            put in some brown sugar to cut the acid in the tomatos
 One Cup Milk
 Two Eggs
2 ounces sliced pepperoni (I used more)
 1 (26 ounce) jar pasta sauce plus one extra cup of sauce
 can diced Italian  style tomatoes
 ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese (I used more, at least 1/3)
 1 (8 ounce) package shredded Italian cheese blend
 Any other pizza toppings, you can add like Black olives,
 sausage, onions, green peppers, etc... (I added fresh mushrooms)
Directions: Boil water & salt for Spaghetti noodles, once
it starts boiling, add noodles. Brown meat in a separate
frying pan. Once noodles are cooked, drain and put in a
casserole dish. In a separate bowl, combine milk & egg
& whisk. Poor over pasta & add jar of sauce, can of
tomatoes, garlic powder, & oregano. Mix all together well.
 On top of pasta mixture, layer the ground meat, then add a
 layer of pepperoni's. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese, & Italian
cheese. And layer more pepperoni. Bake in the oven at 350 for
 30 minutes.

Fruity Biscuits

I prepared eggs and hash and fried potatoes for lunch today, but then I realized I did not have any bread, so I could not make a piece of toast to go with it.  I decided to experiment with BisQuick and  a can of fruit cocktail

2 and 1/4 cups of bisquick
one can of fruit cocktail and a handful of dried cranberries
couple tbsp of brown sugar

this seemed a bit thick, so I added a bit of apple cider
to thin it a bit.

I baked the biscuits at a cooler oven than the BisQuick biscuit recipe calls for
probably 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  They did not really brown up on top, I
took them out of the oven when a toothpick inserted into them came out dry.

DELICIOUS!!!!
They did not even need jelly or butter on them.

Cucumber Salad

Inspired by Linda, I prepared a fresh cucumber salad tonight.

I started by cutting a cucumber up (getting rid of most of the seeds).  I cut up one very small red pepper and sliced up one onion, and I also added some shredded carrot.

For the dressing:  

1/3 cup of sour cream

about 2/3 cup of light Miracle Whip

one McD's packet of ranch dressing

a few pieces of the cucumber 

some milk 

a bit of dried dill

some mustard seed

lemon pepper

garlic pepper

blended all of that up and stirred into the chopped vegetables.

Very good!