Make ahead Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes

For Easter my side of the family asked me to bring a potato dish. So my dad and I talked about what I should bring.

He told me that there is this Chef's site he found and the guy is wonderful. He gave me the web address of course I had to check it out. The picture below is what the finished product looks like. Mine turned out just like this.

If you do what he says you can't mess it up. It's super fast to make, easy, and a great change up to the plain jane mashed potatoes.

Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes Source

Click here to go to his site.

 He has a video on his page of how he makes this. It's so wonderful. I think next time, I'm going to add some cooked bacon to the dish. That should be really delicious.

Don't get me wrong... this was great the way it was. But our family is a bacon family and I think it would have been even better.

I watched his short video and followed along exactly and it turned out great. If you need a good potato dish to take some where this is another good one. I recommend making it.

It's so light, fluffy, melts in your mouth, and has a wonderful flavor and texture.

Ingredients:

4 1/4 pounds russet potatoes

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

3/4 cup milk

1 egg yolk

Chocolate Goodness!

For Easter, like all family gatherings, the Hubby and I go to two place each holiday. Depending on what holiday it is depends on whose house we go to first.

Since Easter falls on Sunday every year, we are at church. So we get together with my side of the family immediately following services and eat with them. Then after lunch with them the hubby's side likes to get together around 2:00 and eat their lunch.

I asked both sides what I could bring to help out with food. My side said I could bring a potato casserole (click on potato casserole to see that recipe). Hubby's side said they wanted deviled eggs and a chocolate dessert. So, that's what I made. Below is the chocolate cheese cake that I took.

After church services we ate lunch with my side and then left after lunch to head to hubby's family's get together.


I changed the recipe up a little. I did a different toping then the one they have in the picture. I used a raspberry jelly with fresh raspberries.

Source

I got the cheesecake recipe here, but I tweaked it a little. I only used the core recipe for making the cheesecake.

Chocolate Cheesecake

• 2 (8oz.) packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
• 1/2c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 c. Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels (melted)
• 1 c. heavy whipping cream
• 2 tbsp. margarine (melted)
• 3 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Cheesecake:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Crush cookies into fine crumbs and add melted margarine.  Combine well and press into the bottom of a 9-Inch Springform Pan
• Beat softened cream cheese with sugar until smooth.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating in between each one.
• Add remaining cheesecake ingredients, beating until smooth.
• Pour into crust and allow to sit at room temp for 30 minutes.
• Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 60 minutes,
• Turn off oven, open oven door a little and allow to sit for another 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven and run knife around edge of pan.  Remove edge of pan. 
• Allow cheesecake to cool to room temperature before adding toppings.

* I used the Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels and it was great. Normally I like to use Ghirardelli, because of the wonderful cocoaness that is has, but the that would have ruined this recipe. So stick to the Nestle morsels. It's worth it.

**Make sure you don't do this at 9 o'clock at night when you are wanting to go to bed. It will make the whole cooking experience better. :)



Topping:

I got the topping recipe here. It's from Ina Garten. She makes wonderful dishes.

Her recipe is as follows:

1 cup red jelly (not jam), such as currant, raspberry, or strawberry
3 half-pints fresh raspberries (I only used 2 packages of raspberries. 3 was too many for me).

I heated the jelly on the stove at a low- medium temperature. You want it to get liquified and runny so it makes it easy to spread. 

Then I added one package of raspberries to it on the stove to warm it up. Then I mashed them so there were chunks in my sauce. 

I then poured the topping on my cheesecake and put it back in the fridge to harden. I also added the fresh raspberries on top for extra goodness.

Cut then serve.

This is how mine came out. It was delicious, chocolaty, smooth, and rich. If you love chocolate or cheesecake, then this is a great dish to take.

It was a hit to make, but boy did I learn my lesson. I had no idea that it took 2 hours to make a cheesecake!!

Happy eating!!

Chicken-Macaroni Casserole

If you need a quick and easy recipe, then look no further. This is a Pinterest inspired meal. I was in a pinch and needed something fast to make for dinner and this did the trick. 

If I had to pick a few words to describe this dish I would say, delicious tasty, cheesy, and yummy. 

I didn't have two cans of cream of chicken soup so I used one can of cream of chicken soup and one can of cream of celery. I couldn't tell a difference.

I would say that the Ritz crackers really made it. It added that little zip to the dish.

I will definitely be making this again.

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Chicken-Macaroni Casserole

(click on title to go to the site.)

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter or 3 tablespoons margarine, melted
2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup milk
3 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 1/2 cups cooked macaroni
salt
pepper
1/4 cup Ritz cracker crumbs

Directions:
1. In a large skillet over med-high heat, saute onions in butter until onions are tender.
2. Add in soup and 1 ½ cups cheese; gradually stir in milk.
3. Cook over medium heat until cheese melts; stir in chicken and macaroni; taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. Transfer mixture to a greased 2 ½ quart casserole; sprinkle with cracker crumbs.
5. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 30 minutes or until heated through.
6. Top with remaining ½ cup cheese and bake 5 minutes.

Soft & Delicious Almond Cookies

Two weekends ago I asked the hubby if he wanted some cookies and if he liked almond ones. He said that those and sugar cookies were his favorite.

Who knew after 2 years of marriage we both loved the same cookies?!? AND that it took us this long to find that out.

Well, I got to looking for a good recipe to make them and found it..... again.... on pinterest. 

This is exactly how mine came out when I cooked them at the right time. I think my oven is too hot so when I cooked them for 8 minutes, mine burned. But when they came out right, they were perfect!!!

I plan on making these again.... soon!!!!!

I didn't ice mine either, but I bet that would be delicious too. We just ate them straight out of the oven... hot..... steamy... delicious!!!!!

Below is the recipe. You can click on the title to go to her page.

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Almond Meltaway Cookies

Almond Meltaway Cookies

Yield: 32 Cookies

ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt (or can use regular table salt)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons almond extract

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk (or water)
2 teaspoons almond extract

directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and almond extract, mixing until combined. Add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until completely combined.

Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into small circles and then press with hands (or with the bottom of a cup) into a disk shape. Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes. The cookies will not look browned or cooked, but they are! Remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To Ice:

In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk and almond extract - until smooth.

Using a spoon, smooth icing onto the top of each cookie and let set for 10 minutes, or until hardened. Store in the fridge, let come to room temperature when ready to serve.