Crash Hot Potatoes

I'm always on the lookout for new potato recipes. I found this one on Pioneer Woman Cooks and thought I'd give it a try. We were having london broil on the grill and these potatoes sounded like they would compliment the meat nicely.

I was right. :)

I followed Pioneer Woman's recipe exactly except I used a mix of small potatoes from Trader Joe's and added red pepper flakes with the fresh herbs.

Check out her website for the recipe and her step by step instructions.

Stuffed Shells

I know I posted this recipe back in November but I've made a few changes I'd like to share. I tried the cottage cheese instead of the ricotta and it's soooo much better! It has a very creamy texture - I will only use cottage cheese from now on! I have this cooking in my oven right now as I type and it smells delicious!

I love stuffed shells. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and made a few changes to spice it up a bit. I added spinach and hot sausage and also halved the recipe and it still fed us two nights in a row. I made 10 shells the first night and saved the rest of the cheese mixture & sauce for the next night. I used up the rest of the mixture and froze the shells we had left over.

Ingredients:

1/2 (16 ounce) package jumbo pasta shells (I usually cook 12-14 shells)
2 cups cottage cheese
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 eggs, lightly beaten
pinch of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 jar spaghetti sauce
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
half of small package frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
1 package ground, hot Italian sausage

Cook shells according to package directions. Place in cold water to stop cooking. Drain.

While shells are cooking start cooking the sausage in a skillet until cooked all the way through. Remove as much grease as you can.



Mix together cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, egg, spinach and garlic powder. Rub the dried herbs in the palms of your hands to pulverize them, and stir into the cheese mixture. Spread 1/3 cup of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a baking pan.



Stuff cheese mixture into the shells. Place shells open side up, and close together in pan.



Add the remaining sauce to the sausage mixture. Stir to combine & pour remaining sauce over top of the shells. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese & a handeful of mozzerella cheese for good measure. You can never have too much cheese. :)



Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes, or until bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.



Serve with garlic bread & salad. Enjoy!

Surprise Peach Tea

Surprise, it has Bourbon in it!

Jordan's mom gave me this recipe a few weeks ago. She makes it during the summer and I've never had it until this year. I don't like iced tea so I've always steered clear from it. I finally got the nerve to try it - and guess what? It doesn't taste like tea at all!

The original recipe calls for a package of Crystal Light Peach Tea. Crystal Light has aspartame in it and makes me feel kind of sick. I bought regular peach tea and added about 3-4 tablespoons of sugar to the hot water while the tea was seeping. (My house smelled wonderful while it was seeping by the way!) I used the 4 1/2 cups of water with 6 peach tea bags. We took this to a Memorial Day BBQ so I doubled the batch and almost all of it was gone by the end of the evening. It's a nice drink to have on a hot summer day!

Ingredients:
1 container Crystal Light Peach Ice tea mix
4 1/2 cups of water
1 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup bourbon (We thought it needed more like 1 cup)
Garnish with orange slices if desired

Directions:

Mix together and refrigerate. Give a good stir and serve over ice with a slice of orange.

Give it a try, it's very refreshing!