Red-skinned Galic Mashed Potatoes

perfect with the grilled pork tenderloin!!

1-1/4 lbs red skinned potatoes, washed and quartered - do not peel
2-1/2 cups water or enough to cover potatoes completely
3 cubes chicken flavored bouillon
6 to 8 cloves of roasted garlic
3 oz package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
3 TBL butter
Half & Half or milk
2 TBL chopped fresh parsley

Place washed, unpeeled potatoes in large saucepan. Add water, bouillon and roasted garlic, bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender but not mushy. Drain well

Mash potatoes with a potato masher (or beat with electric mixer for whipped, I prefer mashed potatoes, not whipped) Add cream cheese and butter to potatoes. Gradually add enough half and half or milk to make potatoes light and fluffy. Stir in parsley and serve immediately.

**If you prefer a stronger garlic flavor, do not add the garlic to the water when boiling. Drain the potatoes, mash then add cream cheese, butter and garlic to potatoes.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

I love to grill in the winter :)

1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine (buy good wine, not the cheap cooking stuff)
3 TBL soy sauce
1 tsp grated fresh ginger or 1/4 tsp ginger
Dash of Chinese 5 spice (you can't skip this ingredient)
1-1/2 pound pork tenderloin
1 tsp cornstarch

Combine chicken broth, wine, soy sauce, ginger and 5 spice in a marinating dish or in a gallon zip lock bag. Shake until all ingredients are combined. Add pork tenderloin. Marinate at room temperature for 20-30 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator. Rotate 2 or 3 times.

Remove tenderloin, reserving marinade. Grill tenderloin for approximately 20 minutes or until slightly pink in the center; turn every 5 minutes to cook evenly. Remove from grill and wrap in foil to finish cooking and seal in the juices.

In a small sauce pan, bring remaining marinade to a slow simmer. Gradullay add the cornstarch. Serve over sliced tenderloin medallions. GREAT with garlic mashed potatoes.

Death by Chocolate

This is a dessert a co-worker of mine brings to all of our pot-luck luncheons. (We force him, he has no choice) The directions below are for a crowd, but you could cut it in half for a smaller group.

18oz box devil's food cake mix
7-1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup Kahlua
6 Heath candy bars
4 4-oz boxes of instant chocolate pudding
2 8-oz cartons of cool whip

Make the cake according to package directions. Bake in a 13 X 9 inch pan for 30-35 minutes. After cake cools, poke holes in the cake. Pour the Kahlua over the cake. Cover with a towel and place on counter overnight - do not refrigerate.

Layer 1
Cut the cake in half. Put half the cake in the bottom of a big punch bowl.

Layer 2
Combine the pudding mix and the milk. layer half on top of the cake

Layer 3
Break up the wrapped Heath bars until broken into smaller pieces. and place 3 of the bars on top of the pudding.

Repeat layers until all ingredients are gone.

Top with Cool Whip

Kettle Corn

1/4 cup virgin light olive oil (veg oil will work, but I like the taste of olive oil better)
1/2 unpopped white popcorn kernels
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar coarse salt

• Heat oil over medium high heat
• Add popcorn
• When the popcorn is sizzling in the oil, sprinkle sugar over popcorn.
• Stir quickly.
• Cover with a tight fitting lid.
• Move pan constantly over burner to prevent burning. (The sugar will burn quickly)
• Reduce heat to medium as soon as it starts popping, keep shaking the pan
• Remove from heat for the last few to pop, remove from pan quickly.
  
  Salt to taste (be careful, coarse salt is really salty LOL)
  

Alfredo Sauce

This is very similar to Olive Gardens and it it super yummy!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter (or one stick) use butter not margarine
8 oz of cream cheese
1 pint heavy cream ( I did 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup of half and half and it was fine don't use milk though)
1 tsp garlic powder
salt
black pepper
2/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Melt butter in med-large sauce pan
Add cream cheese and cook until soft ( I use a wire whip and kind of whipped mine to mix it better and make sure it was smooth)
Add heavy cream and season with garlic powder, salt and pepper
Simmer 15-20 minutes at least over low heat stirring constantly (the longer you can let it simmer the better)
Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan.

Super easy doesn't take much time! Serve over fettuccine noodles or whatever you want to serve it with. I served mine with sauteed shrimp :)

Cheesy Chicken Chili

Ha I feel like all I post is Mexican/Tex-Mex dishes. We eat a lot of them but that's ok because my family loves them and I do cook other things :)

The other night I had some left over Velveeta so I figured I needed to use it and wanted a chicken dish so I searched and found this.

Ingredients:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 cans with beans, drained
1 can chicken broth or 2 cups
1 can green chilies, undrained
1/2 pound (8 oz) velveeta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Directions:
Cook chicken and onions in a large saucepan sprayed with cooking spray until chicken in done (about 7 minutes), stirring occasionally.
Stir in seasoning and cook while stirring for 1 minute
Add beans, broth and chilies, stir
Bring to boil and then simmer on medium-low for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in Velveeta; cook until melted stirring frequently.

I made a double batch of this too and froze about 8 cups. It was spicy and oh so good! The girls really liked it too. We topped it with sour cream.

Taco Soup

Last night the girls and I had Taco Soup. Its super easy and I made a double batch and was able to freeze about 12 cups in addition to having it for dinner last night. I averaged out my cost and it ends up being about $2.25 for the whole meal for the 4 of us :) Not to bad at all.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup onions
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 16 oz can kidney beans
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
1 16 oz can corn
1 8 oz can tomato sauce.

Directions:
Brown ground beef in pot, add onion and cook until tender.
Add rest of ingredients, do not drain or rinse anything, just dump them in there juices and all. Heat through. Serve with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips or Fritos. Simple and so tasty.