Barbecue Hamburgers (aka Sloppy Joes)

Don't you love it when a sound or smell or taste takes you back to a specific place and time?  This is one of those recipes.  When I was a kid, my grandmother used to participate in the Utah Shakespeare Festival and I loved the end of the season because she would always make and bottle her own yeast-fermented root beer a few weeks before, and on the last day she would make a huge batch of her "barbecue hamburgers". 
(Everything with my grandma sounded a lot more glamorous than it really was.  Kind of like when I'd stay at her house and she would wake me up at 5:30 to go to the church house and "stretch" with her and her friends.  "Stretching" was this super intense old lady aerobics.  As a fat kid, I didn't appreciate her trying to trick me like that.  Back to these burgers though). 
Barbecue hamburgers was her fancy way of saying "sloppy joes".  Either way, these are a crowd pleaser and every time I make them I'm transported to Cedar City in the mid-'80s, helping my grandma load all those bottles of homemade root beer into the back of her Caddy.

The recipe says this makes enough for 12-15 people, but that's a lie. This is the exact amout that feeds my family of 7, with no left overs.

Recipe altered slightly from my grandma, LaVeve Whetten

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1 cup diced onion
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1 tbsp vinegar (I've used both white and cider vinegar in this and both are just fine)
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

Heat about 1 tbsp oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add onions and ground beef and cook until the meat is browned.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour over the meat and onions.  Simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Served over warmed hamburger buns (we do some condiments like cheese, lettuce, pickles tomato, etc).  This could easily be made ahead, stored in the fridge in an airtight container, then heated in a stock pot before serving.

Southwest Pasta Salad

Lately I'm the queen of looking at a recipe, saying, "This would be awesome in that" then making it happen. There's this dressing in the Our Best Bites cookbook that I make probably once every 3 weeks.  This dressing is like the nectar of the Gods.  You could put it on a shoe and it would be good.  I was browsing their site today and ran across a corn salad that uses the blessed dressing, and I thought it would be so great to switch it up a little and add some pasta.  I was right.

Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients

(for the dressing)
4-5 cloves garlic, roughly minced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice (from 2-3 juicy limes)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1/2 cup vegetable oil (plus possibly 1/4 cup more)

(for the salad)
1/2 pound small, bite-sized pasta - cooked al dente
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced small
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and very finely diced
2 cups frozen (thawed) or fresh corn
5 oz cotija cheese, diced or crumbled

Cook pasta according to package directions, only to al dente.  While the pasta is cooking, Make the dressing.  To make the dressing, combine all ingredients except the oil into the bowl of your food processor.  Pulse a few times until the garlic is finely chopped.  Add cilantro.  Pulse again.  With the food processor on, slowly pour the oil into the food processor until the dressing is completely emulsified.  When the pasta is cooked, drain and pour into a large mixing bowl.  Add dressing while pasta is still hot.  Stir. After the salad has cooled, add the remaining salad ingredients and stir again.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  When ready to serve, if the salad is too dry, add oil, 1 tbsp at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency.  (You may not need any additional oil; however, since you're putting the dressing into the hot pasta, the pasta will absorb some of the liquid). 

The salad can be made a day ahead.  Simply store the pasta mixed with the dressing in an airtight container, then add the rest of the ingredients about 30 minutes before serving.

"Dead-On" Funeral Potatoes

I was trying to think of the most polite way to describe what funeral potatoes are, but there kind of isn't one.  Here's the deal.  This dish is a homemade take this hilarious but all too accurate recipe, which is something always served at the family dinner after a Mormon funeral.  Ask any Mormon in North America.  They all know funeral potatoes and they all love them.  Promise.

Casey loves funeral potatoes (as do I).  Once every few months I'll try out a new recipe for these because although I've always ALWAYS loved them, before I met Casey I had only made them once or twice.  I tried the semi-homemade version about 10 times before I just decided to make them from scratch and when Casey took a bite he looked at me and said, "These are dead on!"

"Dead On" Funeral Potatoes
Recipe by me

6 cups cooked shredded potatoes -

Sauce –

¼ cup butter

¼ cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

¼ cup dried minced onion

2 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed

1 cup water

2 cups milk – whatever you have on hand

3 cups shredded medium/sharp cheddar cheese

Topping

2 ½ cups panko bread crumbs (or lightly crushed corn flakes if you want a more authentic funeral potato)

4 tbsp melted butter

¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

In a soup pot, melt butter and add flour.  Cook, whisking constantly over medium heat, for 3-5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, bouillon, minced onion, water, and milk.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in cheese, one handful at a time, until melted and gooey and delicious.  Stir in potatoes, one cup at a time, making sure to coat the potatoes well.  Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking sheet.  Mix all three topping ingredients.  Spread evenly over the top of your potatoes.  Bake them at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until golden and brown and bubbly and awesome.

You can make these a day or two ahead without the topping (to avoid it getting soggy) if you keep it well-covered.  Then before your event, take them out of the fridge and add your topping about 30 minutes before baking.

You *can* use frozen shredded hash browns; however, I've tried them both with fresh potatoes I boiled and shredded myself and frozen shredded hash browns.  Even following the exact same sauce recipe, the frozen potatoes yielded an inferior result.  It's not a huge amount of work to just boil and shred your own.  To do this, pierce 8 medium russet potatoes (about 6 large, about 10-12 small).  Place them in a pot and cover them with water.  Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to medium-high and continue to boil until fork tender (approx 15-20 minutes).  Drain.  Once the potatoes are still hot but cool enough to handle, rub the skins off the potatoes with your hands.  Then either shred your potatoes with a cheese grater or the cheese grater attachment of a food processor.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Confession:  I love muffins.  I especially love muffins that are made with banana, pumpkin, zucchini, or anything else that will make for a dense, moist texture.  These are the muffins that stay good for days on the counter top or months in the freezer.  Add chocolate to any of those muffins and I'm sold.  I also love google.  I had some spare bananas and wanted to bake a new twist on an old favorite.  Google lead me here.  Having failed miserably almost every time I've tried to make a quick bread, I now adapt all the quick breads I make into muffins.

Chocolate Banana Muffins
Adapted from joyofbaking.com

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mashed (approx 1 lb)
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (pick your favorite sweetness-I almost exclusively choose semi-sweet/dark)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. Fold in the chocolate chips.  Spoon batter into prepared tins until ½ full. Bake until muffins have risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18-22 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the muffins from the tin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield approx 15 muffins.  These muffins freeze beautifully!

The Best Banana Muffins (Nutella or Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins)

Weekday mornings, I often find that we have a kid or two running a little slow to get ready.  By the time we are finally in the car, I've been yelling  letting the kids know that we're "walking out" for about 10 minutes and surely there's a kid or two who hasn't had time to eat.  Rather than freaking out (my natural instinct), I've found that having a stash of frozen muffins is a quick, easy, stress-free solution to a hectic morning. And they're totally more delicious and nutritious than a bowl of Captain Crunch.  I pop a couple in the microwave for 45 seconds and we're on our way.

Without further ado, here are the muffins that are currently in the lead as the favorite breakfast treat in the Bowden household.

Ingredients:
Wet -
5-6 ripe bananas, smashed (the browner the better.  I usually just put them in the stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, then turn it on medium until there is mostly banana goo with a few little chunks)
3/4 cups sour cream
3/4 cup Nutella or peanut butter (or any combination of both)
4 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled to lukewarm
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
(those last two aren't wet, but they get mixed with the wet before the dry goes in)

Dry-
(In a large mixing bowl, sift/whisk together the following:)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1/2-1 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (any sweetness - I prefer semisweet), set aside

This can be done in one muffin tin.  I prefer to use two, because otherwise it feels like you're doing nothing but lining and filling for 2 hours.  So, line two muffin tins with paper or foil liners.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, add the banana, sour cream, and Nutella/peanut butter and mix until well combined.  Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until well combined.  Add sugars, butter and vanilla and mix again.

Make a well in the bowl of your dry ingredients, then dump the wet ingredients in the center.  With a rubber spatula, fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just incorporated.  Do not over-mix.  Add the chocolate chips and fold again.

Fill muffin cups until about half full.  Bake (one pan at a time) at 350 degrees 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the middle muffins comes out clean or with a few crumbs.  Cool slightly in the pan (only until cool enough to quickly handle...think "hot potato"), then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.  This recipe yields a LOT of muffins (about 40).  Place any leftovers in freezer-safe containers (I use gallon size Ziploc bags) and store in freezer.  They're good for a few days (2 or 3) when kept covered, and they freeze beautifully.  I would guess they'll keep in the freezer for a few months, but ours never last more than a couple of weeks.