Slow Cooker Ham and Beans

Those simple slow-cooker recipes are irresistible, and get pinned a lot. This ham and beans recipe from Plain Chicken looks so easy: just throw some dried beans in the slow cooker with ham, water, and seasonings.

I made it with the chopped ham option instead of ham bone, hocks, or shanks. I also added some fully-cooked pork sausage I had on hand. We had it with cornbread muffins and salad on the side.

I tasted it before serving, and found it both a bit bland, and strangely bitter. So I added about a cup of pureed sweet potato. That improved things, but it was still met with frowns at the table. Everybody ate it, but nobody really loved it.

Maybe if you used the ham hocks or shanks it would be better. But with the chopped ham, it's just a bland bowl of beans. I don't think I'll go through the effort to find hocks/shanks. Slow cooker recipes are really hit-or-miss, and I think this one's a miss.

Verdict: Pass on this one.

Bacon and Egg Risotto

Bacon: ever popular on Pinterest. This bacon and egg risotto from pepper.ph looked not-exactly-healthy-but-delicious. I had to try it. We could have a salad on the side, right?

It's not a traditional risotto, where you stand at the stove forever and gradually stir liquid into pan-toasted rice. It's sort of like a cross between risotto and fried rice. You saute bacon and aromatics, add stock and cream, then add in cooked rice, peas, and parmesan. Top with a fried egg.

I subbed half-and-half for heavy cream. Because cream, bacon, eggs, cheese.... it's a heavy recipe, for sure. And it worked fine with the half-and-half. In fact, it was delicious.

Oh, and I made the eggs basted instead of sunny-side-up, because my guys prefer less-runny yolks.

Verdict: Very, very tasty, but something to only have every once in a while. This is Paula Deen level of fatty deliciousness.

Ranch Dressing Mix

Dry ranch dressing mix from 5 Dollar Dinners is a very popular pin - it's a homemade replacement for those ranch dressing packets.

You just mix up some spices and toss them in a jar. When you're ready to make dressing, whisk together mayo or yogurt with milk, and add the mix. You can shift from indulgent to healthy by changing the ratio of mayo to plain yogurt.

Parsley, dill, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, ground black pepper. That's it. I used fresh parsley because I didn't have any dried on hand. This is how it came out:

And I mixed it up with 1/2 plain yogurt, 1/2 mayo.

I don't use the packets, so I can't compare the flavor, but this made a delicious dressing. It had a much fresher taste than the ranch dressing you get at restaurants or from the bottle. And it was incredibly cheap. It was a huge hit with the family, a nice break from the standard vinaigrette.

Verdict: If you ever use ranch dressing, you need to make this and have it on-hand.

Mug Desserts: Red Velvet Mug Cake

Mug desserts seem too good to be true. Five minutes + ingredients I have at home + microwave = delicious warm dessert? It couldn't possibly be that easy.

These quickie one- or two-serving desserts have taken over Pinterest lately. I've pinned a bunch, including this list of recipes from My Happy Place.

I pinned this image, and tested a few of the recipes. This is the first post in a series.

I chose the Red Velvet Mug Cake for my first attempt, mainly because I had all the ingredients. You just mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder) with wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk, egg, red food coloring) and nuke for a minute and a half. The buttermilk is easily made by adding some white vinegar to milk and letting it sit a few minutes. Then you make some frosting by whisking butter, cream cheese, and sugar.

I did make one change: I halved the frosting amounts. I wasn't willing to eat 2 tbs each of butter and cream cheese with a half cup of sugar as a mid-day snack.

And it came out.....

...perfect! It was moist, tasty and delicious.

It was also a LOT of cake. I made it again a few nights later, and split it into two servings in little bowls (still 1/2 a frosting recipe). My husband and I had these for dessert after the kids went to bed.

Perfect.

You really need to eat it right away, though, it wouldn't be a good idea to try to make a bunch of these in a row for company or something.

Verdict: I'm now a believer in the potential of single-serving microwave desserts.

30-Minute Meals: Skillet Chicken Pasta with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This is the second in my series reviewing 30-minute meals from Mel's Kitchen Cafe (previously: coconut shrimp curry). This time I tried skillet chicken pasta with broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes.

It's one of those recipes where you add dry pasta to a sauce, and (in theory) the pasta absorbs just the right amount of liquid to cook and leave a nice sauce. In this case, you saute some chicken (remove it from the pan), saute aromatics, add liquids and pasta, and cook. Add the veggies towards the end so they don't overcook, and finish with cream, Parmesan, and the chicken.

I was a bit skeptical, thinking it might be bland or watery. It was great, though.

Very flavorful, and super easy. The husband and kids all loved it. I think you could bulk up the veggies a bit if you wanted to - maybe add some peas and artichoke hearts? It's really good as-is, though.

Verdict: Success! Quick, easy, and yum.

Sweet Potato Fries, Take #1

I've had a hard time finding a baked sweet potato fries recipe that doesn't just result in limp pieces of baked sweet potato. This recipe from The Art of Doing Stuff promised to make them crispy and fry-like, and included sriracha mayo.

You cut up the sweet potatoes, soak them, coat in cornstarch and oil, and bake.

Here's what mine looked like right before going in the oven:

And when done:

As part of a meal with crockpot jerk chicken and citrus slaw:

They were NOT a hit (except for the sriracha mayo, that was tasty). The cornstarch made the fries gluey and gave an off taste. They were definitely not very crispy. The recipe says you have to play with the cornstarch and oil proportions - and I also thought I might have cut them too thick - so I tried again on another night, with thinner fries, less cornstarch, and more oil. I also baked them longer. The results were similar - mushy and gluey.

Verdict: Didn't really work. Maybe you could do batch after batch and find just the right methods, but I'm not going to keep trying. On to the next sweet potato fries recipe....

Double Recipe Test: Crescent Rolls and Kentucky Hot Brown Bake

This crescent rolls recipe is a very frequent pin. I was totally excited to find that it's from the Nomemade blog, from my way-back-when hometown of Nome, Alaska.

Less frequent, but still intriguing, is a pin for "Kentucky Hot Brown Bake" a casserole-style take on the Kentucky Hot Brown sandwich from Eat at Home. The recipe calls for canned crescent roll dough, so I thought I would try the homemade version and do a two-fer recipe test. These are the images I pinned:

The crescent roll recipe is a simple yeast bread recipe. It calls for powdered milk, and I've heard that you can't sub fresh milk. Something about the powdered variety makes the rolls really tender.

The Kentucky Hot Brown Bake is dough layered with turkey, bacon, tomatoes, and Swiss, with beaten eggs poured over.

The crescent dough came together really easily. One issue: the dough was waaaaay too sticky. I ended up adding almost an entire additional cup of flour.

Once that was resolved, everything went smoothly. I made crescent rolls out of half the dough, and saved the other half for the bake. 

Size discrepancies due to lots of "helping" by a certain 3-year-old. 

They came out GREAT! They were absolutely delicious, tender and fluffy. They just disappeared off the table at dinner. The batch that you see above was eaten in one sitting by three adults, two preschoolers, and two babies.

Next application: Kentucky Hot Brown Bake.

The recipe is simple: layer uncooked dough with sandwich ingredients, pour over beaten egg, repeat layering, pour on more beaten egg, then bake. This is it before I baked it:

I was leery that it might be overly rich and greasy or soggy, but it actually turned out quite well. I think it might be best suited as a brunch dish.  At the very least, you want a nice green salad on the side to make a more balanced meal.

Verdict: Crescent rolls = delicious, a real keeper. Kentucky Hot Brown Bake = A tasty and different brunch dish.