Potatoes, Spuds, Russets - whatever you call them they deserve to be baked, scooped, mixed with bacon and spooned back into their skins.
I'm talking about making up a pile of twice baked potato and here's how I make it happen.
Twice Baked Potatoes (large batch style)
10 pounds Russet or Baking Potatoes
1 pound bacon (save the grease)
1 stick butter
2 cups sour cream
1-2 cups milk
chopped onion to taste (1/2 - 1 cup)
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt & pepper to taste
Start by baking the potatoes in your usual fashion. I baked mine at 350 for 1 hour + until they were tender. Allow potatoes to cool just enough to handle them. Slice in half the long ways and scoop out potato. Don't worry about cleaning it out perfectly. Leaving a little potato behind will keep the potato skin sturdy.
Fry up the bacon until it's fairly crisp. Save the grease because you're going to use it later. You're welcome.
Add butter, milk, and sour cream to potatoes and mash well. Stir in chopped bacon, onion, cheese, salt, and pepper.
Now comes the fun part. Pour in some of that bacon grease you've been saving. Not all of it, just enough to add good flavor.
Spoon back into the potato skins. Sprinkle with a little cheese. Set on large cookie sheet and flash freeze. Once solid place in zip top bags.
To use immediately: Bake at 350 until hot and slightly bubbly - about 20-30 minutes.
To use from frozen: Thaw slightly and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.
Meatloaf sure does get a bad rap. But it shouldn't. If you haven't had meatloaf since childhood it's time to give it a try now as an adult. There are so many yummy recipes out there for meatloaf, but if you like cheese as much as I do this is the one you'll want to try.
If you've been following along with me on YouTube you'll know that I rarely make a single recipe of anything. This is another large family sized recipe. Enough to make some for tonight's supper and then flash freeze the rest. Pull those out of the freezer on an exceptionally busy day for an easy supper.
Mini Cheddar Meatloaves (makes 42-48)
7 pounds ground venison (or meat of choice)
6 eggs
4 1/2 cups milk
6 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 cups oatmeal
3 cups onion
6 tsp. salt (regular, seasoned, garlic - whatever you like)
Mix together in giant bowl with clean hands. Shape into small oval loaves.
Place on parchment paper lined baking sheets and freeze. Transfer to freezer bags.
If making some tonight. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheets and top with ketchup topping.
Topping: (enough for about 8 loaves)
2/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. yellow mustard
Whisk together and spread over mini meatloaves. Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 350 degrees.
If preparing from frozen I set out a bag at lunchtime to thaw slightly. Make ketchup topping and bake at 350 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until internal temperature reaches 170 degrees.
And if you love pie as much as I do you are going to want to learn how to make them homemade because have you looked at the price of a bakery pie? OMG - they are crazy expensive or unthinkably small.
Does baking a pie scare you? It shouldn't. It definitely isn't difficult, just a little time consuming. In an effort to be always efficient today we made TEN pies at once. It helps to enlist a few extra hands and in my case I grabbed three unsuspecting TV watching nappers and put them to work. It wasn't long and we were filling the freezer with rhubarb pies.
Let's talk about crust. It needs to be flaky and light. The best way I've found to get the most desirable crust is to use lard. Yes, lard.
This recipe makes enough crust for 2 double crust pies or 4 single crust pies. It also freezes well so if you don't use it all just shape a crust size amount of dough into a small round, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months.
Best Ever Pie Crust
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup + 2 T. lard
5 T. water
1 T. vinegar
1 egg
Combine dry ingredients. Cut in lard until crumbly. Whisk wet ingredients and stir into flour mixture. Stir together just until mixed. Divide dough and roll out using a little extra flour.
That's it. I'm sure you can do it, just don't over mix or you'll get tough dough.
On this particular day I made two different rhubarb pie recipes so we could compare and see which one we liked better. Since this was my first time freezing rhubarb pies I wasn't sure if they would get too juicy and need a little extra flour. (They didn't)
Rhubarb Pie
3 cups sliced rhubarb
1 cup sugar
sprinkle of nutmeg
1 egg
3 T. flour
Mix all together and pour into unbaked pie crust.
Topping:
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
Mix flour and sugar; cut in butter until crumbly. I use my food processor to make quick work out of this. Spread over rhubarb mixture. Place in 2 gallon freezer bag and freeze. May stack after all pies are froze solid.
(Repeat for each pie you're making.)
Rhubarb Nut Pie
3 cups rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup flour
Layer rhubarb, nuts and brown sugar in unbaked pie crust. Beat together eggs and melted butter. Add white sugar and flour. Mix well and pour over rhubarb. Place in 2 gallon freezer bag, freeze, may stack once completely frozen.
Baking frozen pies
Do not thaw. Place frozen pie in 350 degree pre-heated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Turn off oven; leave pie in for another 10-15 minutes. Both pies can be served warm, room temperature or cold - whatever you prefer.
If you'd prefer to watch the making of these pies in action check out my YouTube video. Click here.
Tell me, are you a pie baker? What's your favorite pie?
OR
Haven't you taken the plunge into baking pies? Why not?
Hey there! 😀 I'm in the kitchen AGAIN and this time I'm making Salisbury steaks. Really they are just seasoned flattened hamburger or meatloaf patties. It's been a family favorite for a long time and super simple to make. They're also so easy to transport I always take this meal when we go on winter family vacations to a cabin up North. I make the meat mixture ahead of time and then form the patties and broil when we get there.
I've had to adapt this recipe many times since the original makes 2 servings. We definitely need more than that.
Salisbury Steak (large family style)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup dry bread crumbs (Progresso are only $1 at Dollar Tree)
4 tsp. dried minced onion
2 Tbsp. Better Than Bouillon beef soup base
Mix well to make a slurry. Add 4 pounds ground meat (venison or beef or even turkey) and mix well until everything is combined well. Shape into flattened oval patties about 3/4 inch thick. Place on greased broiler pan or rimmed baking sheet. Broil 3-4 inches from heat for 7 minutes per side. Mine take a little longer in my gas oven compared to when I had an electric range.
The easiest way to make the gravy is to use 2-4 brown gravy packets. Cook according to directions and serve with mashed potatoes and green beans for a delicious filling meal that just screams, "My mom loves me!" If you like a tangy gravy add a squirt of yellow mustard. I don't, but the original recipe calls for that.
These can be prepared and frozen raw, too. Just flash freeze the patties and then store in a zip top freezer bag. Thaw before broiling.
Do you cook with venison? I'd love to hear about your favorite recipes. Share those in the comments. Join me on Instagram. I'm taking part in the #megamotherhood photo challenge. Posting every day in June something related to motherhood.
I don't know about you, but bedtime at our house can turn into complete chaos in an instant. Take last night for example. The evening was moving along normally. I was planning out next year's curriculum so Warren took the four youngest fishing. Emily was gone. Nick was working on his truck and Amber was working. The house was QUIET!!!
I was working at wrapping things up so I could get out the pajamas and put toothpaste on the toothbrushes when Peter came running in with a full bucket of Perch. He and Maria were each telling stories about fish caught and lost and how they out-fished Dad...at the same time. It was loud and completely disrupted my nice peaceful evening.
One look at the clock told me it was going to be a late night. There were fish to clean, toys to pick up, and bodies to bathe. All while the kiddos were hyped up and reliving every fish's story.
Warren cleaned each and every fish while Peter jabbered a mile a minute, the toys were put back onto the shelves and I filled the tub with kids and soap disregarding age and gender. Everything got done.
The kids know we always read bedtime stories so they each had a pile of books, but I just wasn't up for it. The clocked showed it was past 9:00 and I still had a few things on my to do list. Joseph opened a book and said, "read, Mama." So I described a few of the pictures and then it was prayer time and lights out.
But you know what, it didn't feel right. I missed our snuggle time where they dishevel my bed blankets and whine about their book being read first. A routine is a routine and life doesn't feel the same when that routine isn't followed.
Tonight we're going to sit down to a pile of books (even if it's late I keep telling myself). One of the books we'll definitely read is Go to Sleep, Sheep! It's a super cute book about sheep who just don't want to go to sleep. They're not tired, they're hungry, they're thirsty, they want tuck in time. Sound familiar??? As Mama urges them to go to sleep they meet up with all the other barnyard animals, too. But, after they pray and snuggle in the hay they finally fall asleep.
We love farm books so this board book, although new, is already a favorite. Maria especially loves it.
Frontgate Media sent me a copy to review and they also have 5 copies to giveaway on 6/10/18.
