Sweet Potato Biscuits (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Erin of Prudence Pennywise: Sweet Potato Biscuits. I love biscuits but have never seen anything like this, so I was eager to try this recipe.

I've never had any problems with making biscuits. The key is to use really cold butter and to not overwork your dough. When cutting the biscuits you also need to make sure you press straight down, as twisting the cutters can inhibit some of the rise in the biscuits.


This recipe presented a lot of problems for me though. Even though I used 29 ounces of canned sweet potatoes (instead of 30 ounces), my dough was super sticky and moist. Not sure where the extra moisture came from? It was so hard to work with; I had a lot of trouble cutting my dough into biscuits. Then after they went in the oven, they hardly rose at all. I know my baking powder isn't too old, so that wasn't the issue. I am not sure what went wrong, but my biscuits look pretty pathetic.

Thankfully, aesthetics aside, these tasted great :) I enjoyed them with some butter and brown sugar. These would be great to make the morning after Thanksgiving, when you want something besides leftovers but don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen.


Thanks Erin for picking this recipe, I loved it. If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you check out the TWD Blogroll, to see how everyone else enjoyed this perfect-for-fall breakfast treat.

* Recipes notes:
- Consider putting your butter in the freezer to get it extra cold before using it.
- For more tips, click here.

Blog Makeover & Southwestern Potatoes

I've been dying to do a makeover for my blog for quite some time now. Sure, it was very simple and classic looking, but I wanted something a bit more colorful and fun.

Thanks to my amazing friend Lisa over at Surviving Oz, I was finally able to give my blog a face lift! I am beyond thrilled with how everything turned out and I cannot begin to thank her enough! I still have to work on finishing up some additional content for the blog, but for now at least it has a new look :)

In honor of my blog makeover, I'm going to share with you one of the best recipes I have come across in a long time! I bookmarked this particular recipe several months ago. My only regret now is not making it sooner!! I promise that this is something you need to try! It's about as simple as simple gets. You simply slice some potatoes, toss them in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes. Next, top them with some barbeque sauce, cheddar cheese, and bacon bits. After a few more minutes in the oven, you've got the tastiest potato side or appetizer you've ever eaten!


I made these two times in two days they were so good! My husband calls them crack :) I would bring these to a party any day over the alleged "crack dip."

Southwestern Potatoes
from cooking this and that

1 package bacon bits, or 4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 unpeeled large potatoes, scrubbed

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 sour cream, optional (for dipping)

Line 2 large baking sheets with foil and preheat oven to 450 degrees. (I was able to fit it all on one baking sheet.)

Cut potatoes into 1/4 inch slices. Toss the potatoes, olive oil, garlic salt and pepper in a big ziploc bag to coat the potatoes.

Arrange potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheets. Bake until lightly browned, about 15-20 minutes.

Brush with barbecue sauce, then top with the shredded cheese and bacon bits. Bake until the cheese melts, about 3-5 minutes. Top with sour cream, if desired.

Yield: 4 servings (only 2 in our household!)

(Chicken) Meat and Potatoes...

This is a dinner I like to throw together in a pinch, as I usually have all the ingredients on hand. I usually like a lot of sauce/tomatoes with the chicken, so I make the recipe as is, but reduce the number of chicken breasts to just four. I also add a little brown sugar to the sauce to tone down the tang from the balsamic vinegar just a little bit. I'm not sure if you are supposed to drain the can of diced tomatoes or not, but I usually don't so at the end I make the sauce into a balsamic reduction.

I usually like to serve this with mashed potatoes, but tonight I decided to try a scalloped potatoes recipe I found in the November issue of Southern Living. These scalloped potatoes were so good! I only made a few changes, indicated below. The only other change I think I will make next time is I will probably substitute all of the cream with evaporated milk to make it a bit healthier.

Braised Balsamic Chicken
from Allrecipes.com


6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I only use 4)
ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced (I omit this)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch

Season chicken breasts with ground black pepper and garlic salt. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet, and brown the onion and seasoned chicken breasts.

Pour tomatoes and balsamic vinegar over chicken, and season with basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Simmer until chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 15 minutes. I usually remove the chicken and tomatoes and then add the brown sugar and cornstarch to the balsamic liquid and simmer until reduced.


Classic Parmesan Scalloped Potatoes
from Southern Living


1/4 cup butter
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 cups whipping cream (I used 1-1/2 cups whipping cream, 1-1/2 cups evaporated milk)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (I used 4 tsp dried parsley)
1/2 cup (2 oz.) grated Parmesan cheese (I used 3/4 cup)


Preheat oven to 400°F.

Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir in potatoes and next 5 ingredients, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring gently, 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack, and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Gnocchi Pomodoro

Gnocchi are Italian dumplings. They can be made of potato, semolina, flour, or even ricotta. I love gnocchi, and while I have been thinking making it myself at home, I saw some potato gnocchi at Sam's Club recently (made by Colavita) and thought I would give it a try. It's obviously not as good as homemade or what you'll find in a good Italian restaurant, but it was still good, very convenient, and I will probably buy it again in the future.

The recipe I found includes instructions on how to make your own gnocchi from scratch, but I just used the sauce recipe since I already had the pre-made gnocchi on hand. I've included the recipe for the gnocchi as well, in case anyone would like to try it.

Gnocchi Pomodoro
from FoodNetwork.com


Pomodoro Sauce:
1 (28-ounce) can whole Italian tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic (I used 2 tbsp)
Salt and pepper
Crushed chile flakes
6 to 8 large fresh basil leaves, chopped (I used about 12 - I love fresh basil!)
1/2 cup cream

Gnocchi:
6 large baking potatoes, like russets
2 egg yolks
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, melted
Pinch salt
Pinch white pepper
Fresh grated nutmeg
2 cups flour

Grated Parmesan, to serve

To make the Sauce: Take the tomatoes out of the can, cut in half, and remove the seeds. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces and reserve the juice. In a saucepan, add olive oil and garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and chili and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. If necessary, add the reserved juice. Add the basil. Finish with cream.


To make the gnocchi:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Bake the potatoes for approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until tender. Scoop each potato out of its skin into mixing bowl. Mash the potatoes to a fine consistency.

In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks, melted butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the egg mixture to the potatoes and mix together. Add flour to mixture, 1 cup at a time, and mix until smooth.

Scoop out and make finger sized rolls on floured board. Cut with knife into bite sized pieces. Roll each piece over the back of a fork to make a round form. In a pan, freeze until hard enough to handle, and put into portion sized bags.

Fill a large pot with water and add a pinch of salt and boil. Drop gnocchi into boiling water 3 or 4 at a time so the water doesn't stop boiling. The gnocchi is ready when it floats to the top. Drain gnocchi and scoop out into bowl and add sauce. Add fresh Parmesan and serve.

Baked Potato and Broccoli Soup

After I saw this recipe in Annie's Eats, I knew I had to try it because broccoli cheddar soup is one of my favorites (second to Tomato Basil). My experience creating this soup reminds me of a similar experience I recently had while visiting my sister-in-law in Washington DC. We always enjoying cooking/baking together, and during this particular visit, we decided to make strawberry ice cream. While we were making it, she joked about how horrible she is in the kitchen and how she always feels like she is messing up recipes. So to make the ice cream, she started reading off the directions for the recipe while I threw everything together in the kitchen. Well, it wasn't until after I had mixed all the sugar with the strawberries to macerate them, that she read off the part about dividing the sugar into two parts. So, in an attempt to salvage the recipe, we tried to pull out as much of the sugar out of the strawberry/sugar mixture as possible (we weren't very successful). Lesson learned: even if you're in a rush, always read the full recipe before starting. So when I made this soup I followed the instructions exactly. I started out and mixed the broth and flour until smooth. I proceeded to combine the remaining ingredients, as instructed, until I got to the line that read: "Gradually stir in flour mixture." OOPS! It was at that moment that I realized I was supposed to set the broth/flour mixture aside after creating it, and I laughed at myself and instantly thought about this previous ice cream mishap :) Luckily, I don't think it made much of a difference. However, I have modified the recipe instructions below to reflect this, to help other cooks avoid the same mistake ;) And although we keep our fridge/pantry fairly well stocked, I did not realize we were out of milk until I got to that step of the recipe (we always have milk!)... so I substituted 1 cup of half and half for the milk. The only other thing I did differently was with regard to the cheese. For convenience, we buy pre-shredded cheese. I'm not sure how many cups of shredded cheese can be produced from an 8 oz block of cheese, so I just continued adding shredded cheese until the soup seemed cheesy enough for me :) I did not have any problems melting the cheese, either, despite the note at the bottom of the recipe. This soup would be wonderful in a bread bowl, or served with some sourdough on the side.

Baked Potato and Broccoli Soup
from CookingLight

Ingredients:
¼ cup all-purpose flour
29 oz (2 x 14.5 oz cans) low sodium, fat-free chicken broth, divided
3 cups peeled, cubed potatoes (about 1.25 lbs)
2 cups broccoli florets, chopped (I used frozen for convenience)
1 small onion, chopped
1 ¼ cups 2% reduced fat milk (I used 1 cup half and half since I was out of milk; another time I used skim and it was still good)
1 (8 oz) block 2% reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (I used 2-1/2 cups shredded)
2% reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, shredded, for topping (optional)
Chopped green onions for topping (optional)
Fully cooked bacon pieces for topping (optional)
Freshly ground pepper (to taste)
Salt (to taste)

*Note: Freshly shredded cheese is recommended (versus pre-shredded) for additional creaminess and even melting.

Directions:
Whisk together flour and 1/3 cup chicken broth until smooth. Set aside for later use.

Combine remaining chicken broth, potatoes, broccoli and onion in a Dutch oven (or large saucepan). Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 8 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Gradually stir in flour mixture. Cook, stirring often, 5 minutes.


Stir in milk & 8 oz. of freshly shredded cheese. Cook mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until cheese melts. Add salt and pepper to taste (I found it to be too bland otherwise). Top each serving of soup with shredded cheese, green onions, and bacon pieces as desired.