Thanksgiving - Sweet Potato Casserole

I'm lucky to have wonderful friends here in Dubai that we're able to celebrate holidays with. We have several circles that we hang out with and were able to spend Thanksgiving with two of them. I was asked to bring a side dish to both and thought it would be a good idea to try making my mom's sweet potato casserole, even though I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes. She sent me her recipe and said I could halve it or just split it into two dishes, one for each Thanksgiving dinner. I decided not to do this (and thankfully I didn't!) because it was all eaten up at the first dinner. Made the full recipe for the second dinner and all of it was gone again! I was proud to report this back to mom. :)

Sweet Potato Casserole

• 3 cups mashed yams (sweet potatoes) – 1 really large can or two of the 1#-12oz cans. If using 3 large sweet potatoes instead of cans, bake for about 40 minutes until soft.
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup evaporated skim milk
• 1/2 stick margarine
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• Dash of vanilla

Topping

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• Pecans or walnuts
• 1/2 cup butter

Mix together casserole ingredients. Try to keep the sweet potatoes a bit chunky.

Mix together the topping until crumbly and sprinkle on top of casserole.

Bake at 325 for about an hour.

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I will admit that I didn't have very much of this.. a bite at most. It was alright, but sweet potatoes aren't my thing. I did however have someone say they hate their own mother's sweet potatoes but loved this. Other people described it as "custard-like" "sweet and creamy" and "completely heaven." So for those of you who are sweet potato lovers, give this one a shot.

Thanksgiving - Cheesy Biscuits

Have you ever been to Red Lobster? Then you're familiar with those heavenly Cheddar Bay Biscuits they tempt you with as soon as you take your seat. I didn't eat there very often (and not at all since I've moved to Dubai since there aren't any here) but these biscuits are wonderful. I made them last Thanksgiving due to an intense craving and decided to make them again for this Thanksgiving. I was able to find a copy recipe here.

Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits (my changes are in italics)

• 2 ½ cups Bisquick baking mix
• ¾ cup cold whole milk
• 4 tablespoons cold butter (1/2 stick)
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 heaping cup grated cheddar cheese

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• ¼ teaspoon dried parsley flakes (omitted)
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• pinch salt (omitted)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don't want to mix too thoroughly. There should be small chunks of butter in there that are about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and ¼ teaspoon garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.

Drop approximately ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt 2 tablespoons butter is a small bowl in your microwave. Stir in ½ teaspoon garlic powder and the dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Use up all of the butter. Makes one dozen biscuits.

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I'm not going to say anything other than YUM.

Italian Style French Bread

When Kevin bought a TV a few weeks ago, the store gave us a voucher to use so we ended up buying some things that we normally wouldn't buy for ourselves. Among those things was a bread machine! I've made several loaves so far and I'm really loving the machine. It makes bread making SO much easier.

Kevin was making spaghetti not too long ago and instead of buying the pre-made garlic bread at the grocery store I decided to make my own using this recipe.

Italian Style French Bread (my changes are in italics)

• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese (used 3 tbsp of romano)
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Add the ingredients to the bread machine per your bread machine instructions.

Use the French Bread cycle, medium crust, and 1 pound loaf.

Remove when done and cool before slicing.

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This bread was perfectly crusty with a soft inside. I mixed a dish of pressed garlic and butter then spread it on the bread slices while still warm. Way better than any mushy grocery store garlic bread I've ever had and went wonderfully with the spaghetti! If you have a machine, I'd recommend this the next time you're having Italian.

The Ramifications of Procrastination

I've been cooking and baking quite a bit recently because I love my bigger kitchen in the new villa, but had abandoned the blog out of sheer laziness. I kept telling myself I'd update it eventually.

Well, putting it off bit me in the butt big time. I dropped my iPhone (which I used to take photos) and lost 700+ photos, a lot of which were of the food I had made over the past few months. Yeah, I had procrastinated in syncing my iPhone with the computer as well. I'm really disappointed but the lesson has been learned. No more procrastination! I promise!

And with that, I'm going to take this opportunity to start blogging again and hopefully stick with it this time.

Mom's Breakfast Casserole

I rarely eat heavy breakfast foods, though I really, really love them. One of my favorites is something my mom throws together every now and then, her breakfast casserole. It's quite easy to make and I'm sure it's not original, but it's yummy just the same. :)

Mom's Breakfast Casserole

• 2 potatoes, diced
• 1 tube of breakfast sausage (used some other sausage since we can't find American breakfast sausage here)
• handful of shredded cheese
• 8-10 eggs depending on the size of your casserole dish
• onions, diced, optional

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cook sausage on stovetop until browned.

Spray casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Cover bottom of dish with potatoes. Layer the breakfast sausage on top. Sprinkle cheese over entire dish.

Whisk eggs in a separate bowl. Pour slowly filling in all the space between potatoes and sausage.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a knife comes out liquid-free.

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Home Sweet New Home!

The last two weeks have been so busy that I haven't spent much time on the internet as I usually do. Ok well, as much time before I spent the summer traveling. This hiatus was from looking around for a villa to rent. We've been itching for a bigger kitchen and figured moving to a villa instead of an apartment would be the only way to get it. (By the way, here in Dubai houses are called villas.) Well, after a week or so of looking, we found one!

I can't believe we're giving up our full Persian Gulf view for a house in the middle of the desert, but it's big and we'll have more room for our hobbies. Kevin has been wanting a kayak forever but never had the room for it and I have been yearning for a garden. Now we'll be able to have both.

So the last few days have spent looking for furniture. We were able to get most of the stuff we need (since we're coming from a furnished apartment) from Ramadan sales and expats leaving the country. We're having a lot of fun setting up house, and even though we are renting, it feels more like "ours." More pics once we get our furniture delivered next week!

We're Back!

Kevin and I are back from our trip to the States. We went to Seattle (where his family lives) but my mom and sister were able to fly up from Orlando for a few days. They had never been to Seattle before so we had a good time showing them around, as well as getting to see a good friend get married.

It seemed like a quick visit because a few days into the trip, I had my gallbladder taken out, and spent the rest of the time recovering. I've been needing this for awhile now (since 2006) and went for a surgery consult and the doctor fit my surgery in the next day. The gallstones were bigger and more plentiful than the 3 year old ultrasound showed so one of my incisions is much bigger than I expected. I'm still sore but no longer taking painkillers after the plane ride over here, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I'm still trying to figure out how this will affect my diet. I've been told it could go numerous ways. So for now I'm trying to eat as low-cal, low-fat, low-sodium, and sugar free as I can and gradually add things back and see what happens. I don't know if this will make cooking easier or harder, but I do expect to be cooking more because I won't be finding these foods by eating out. So hopefully, more blog updates soon!