Tag: Side Dishes

Twice Baked Potatoes

We always used to make this with just cheese on top, but lately we’ve added green onions with the potato in the middle. And it’s been a delightful addition. It’s great either way–it just depends what you’re in the mood for.

And this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Twice Baked Potatoes

  • Servings: 8?
  • Difficulty: easy
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Pretty easy, but it takes a little time to make.

Ingredients

  • 8 Potatoes (or however many it takes to fill half a cookie sheet)
  • 1 (+) can Evaporated Milk
  • ½ c. Butter
  • Salt and Pepper, to taste
  • 1 bunch Green Onions, chopped (optional)
  • Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

Bake potatoes on cookie sheet at 400° for about 1-1 ¼ hours OR at 350° for about 1 ½ hours, depending on size. Cut potatoes in half and scoop out middles into a bowl, such as a stand mixer. Salt the remaining skins. To the potato middles, add and mix milk, butter, salt and pepper to taste, and green onion if using. You can even add a handful of cheese to the mixture and stir in, if desired. Spoon mixture back into skins on foil-covered cookie sheet and sprinkle potatoes with cheddar cheese. Broil till cheese melts and browns slightly.


Stuffing

Stuffing is great in general, and when you add sausage, it’s amazing. This recipe is for stuffing a Thanksgiving turkey. We always get the red bag of Pepperidge Farm–the cubes. If that’s not available, we’ve used Mrs. Cubbison’s as a substitute.

If you’re making this gluten free, you’ll want to use a gluten free stuffing mix or try making stuffing rice instead.

Make it a meal with:

Stuffing

  • Servings: 12?
  • Difficulty: easy
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Sausage is the key to an amazing stuffing.

Ingredients

  • Pepperidge Farm Seasoned Cubes (the red bags–2 packages for a big turkey) (or gluten free stuffing mix)
  • 4 c. boiling Water or Chicken Broth
  • 1 lb. Jimmy Dean Sausage
  • ½ c. Butter
  • 1 – 1 ½ c. Celery (small chop)
  • 1 – 1 ½ c. Onion (chop a little finer than for spaghetti)

Directions

Brown the sausage and add cube of butter to melt. Add celery and onion (usually chopped in food processor), and cook a little. Add all this to stuffing cubes, then add boiling water. Stir well but gently, being careful not to mash the stuffing. Make sure not to make too wet because turkey has juice. See turkey recipe for instructions on stuffing the bird. With leftover that won’t fit in turkey, place in microwave dish for later and refrigerate. When ready to heat the stuffing from the smaller dish, add chicken broth or water and microwave for 10 minutes.


Pistachio Salad

This is a fun, sweet side for summer BBQs or a green side for Halloween. Even though the idea of a pistachio side may sound weird, it’s always delicious and a crowd favorite. The picture makes it look whiter than it really is–it’s usually a nice light green.

And this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Pistachio Salad

  • Servings: 12?
  • Difficulty: easy
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A sweet, green side for summer or Halloween.

Ingredients

  • 1 box Pistachio Pudding Mix
  • 1 pt. Cottage Cheese
  • 1 container Cool Whip (or homemade whipped cream)
  • 1 can Pineapple Tidbits (drained except a small amount of juice)

Directions

Mix together cottage cheese and pudding mix in a bowl. Then add pineapple and a little bit of juice, to keep from getting too dry. Stir in whipped cream and chill.


Potato Wedges

Very simple and delicious, potato wedges are also very popular and sure to go quickly. I love them so much.

And luckily the Morton seasoned salt is gluten free, so this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Potato Wedges

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
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Simple, delicious, and a crowd pleaser.

Ingredients

  • About 4 Potatoes (or whatever it takes to fill a cookie sheet)
  • 1/4 – ½ c. Butter
  • Morton Season All Seasoned Salt

Directions

Melt butter on cookie sheet in oven. Cut potatoes into thin wedges. Dip potatoes in butter, sprinkle one side with seasoned salt (not too much or it gets overwhelming). Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes until golden brown.


Spinach Pear Salad

We don’t have this salad as much anymore, but for a while we always used to make it with the pears from the Harry and David basket we’d get from our uncle and aunt at Christmas. A nice, fresh salad in the winter.

And luckily the salad dressing is gluten free, so this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Spinach Pear Salad

  • Servings: 8?
  • Difficulty: easy
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A nice departure from regular iceberg salad.

Ingredients

  • 1 bag Spinach
  • 1 fresh Pear (sliced small)
  • 6 slices cooked Bacon, chopped
  • ¼ c. Onion, chopped
  • ½ c. Pecans, chopped
  • ¼ c. Craisins
  • ½ bottle Brianna’s Poppy Seed Dressing

Directions

Toss together all ingredients in large bowl.


Raspberry Pretzel Jell-O

This Jell-O is more like a dessert than a side dish, but we always have it as a sweet side for Thanksgiving or special Sunday dinners. It takes a bit of time to make, but it’s deliciously like a cheesecake. And oddly enough, the best part of it is the buttery pretzel crust.

Usually for Thanksgiving, we make the crust the night before and the rest of it on Thanksgiving morning (so the crust doesn’t get soggy and the Jell-O doesn’t soak down into the filling).

If you’re making this gluten free, make sure to use gluten free pretzels.

Make it a meal with:

Raspberry Pretzel Jell-O

  • Servings: 12
  • Difficulty: medium
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A sweet, cheesecakey side for special occasions.

Ingredients

Crust

  • 2 c. crushed Pretzels (or crushed gluten free pretzels)
  • 3 Tbsp. Sugar
  • 3/4 c. melted Butter

Filling

  • 8 oz. Cool Whip
  • 1 c. Sugar (powdered sugar makes less grainy)
  • 8 oz. Cream Cheese, room temperature

Top Layer

  • 2 c. boiling Water
  • Large box of Raspberry Jell-O
  • 20 oz. frozen Raspberries

Directions

Crust: Mix all ingredients and press into a 9×13 pan, and bake for 8 minutes at 400°. Allow to cool.

Filling: Whip together all ingredients and gently spread over cooled crust, being careful not to incorporate crumbs into filling.

Top Layer: Pour boiling water into Jell-O powder and whisk until dissolved. Mix in frozen raspberries, then let thicken slightly in fridge (just a few minutes or it will set completely). Pour over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until completely set.


Sparkling Potatoes

Sparkling potatoes in a Dutch oven are a camping classic, and I have many memories of having them during our camping excursions growing up. Or at Scouting events. We basically never go camping anymore, but it’s still fun to make these potatoes at home in the oven. Whether you’re having a “camping at home” night with s’mores or a Dutch oven night, they’re lots of fun. They do tend to be a bit greasy with all the cheese and bacon, so you may want to serve this with a less greasy main course or a nice fresh salad.

We’ve also made sparkling potatoes with leftover New Year’s ham instead of bacon. It’s pretty good and very similar to the regular kind, but bacon does make it better.

And of course this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Sparkling Potatoes

  • Servings: 8?
  • Difficulty: easy
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It takes a bit of time and it’s fairly greasy, but it’s delicious.

Ingredients

  • 8 Potatoes, sliced (peeled or not, depending on your preference)
  • 1-2 Onion(s), chopped
  • 1 lb. Bacon
  • 1 tsp. Salt
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 (+) can Sprite
  • Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

Fry bacon and onions in bottom of pot. (If you want it less greasy, you can remove some bacon grease.) In same pot, add potatoes, salt, and pepper. Pour in Sprite. Sprinkle on a thick layer of cheese. Bake at 375° for about 1 hour or until potatoes are tender and cheese starts to brown.

(To save time, lately I’ve been cooking everything in a big ovenproof skillet beforehand to get the potatoes mostly done before putting it in the oven. Then I just pour in the Sprite and top with cheese, and basically cook until the cheese is melted and starting to brown a little.)

For cooking with charcoal: Dutchovendude.com says for a 12″ Dutch oven to be at 375°, place 20 coals on the lid and 6 under the oven. Don’t forget to rotate the oven every 10  minutes or so 1/4 turn.


Potato Salad

When I worked at MCA, we’d occasionally have potlucks. One time, they asked people to sign up for salads, so I thought I’d bring a potato salad like my mom always made (since no one else was going to bring one). At that potluck, one of the owners said it was the best potato salad he’d ever had, and after that potluck, I kind of got volunteered every time to bring the potato salad. Haha, I even had to do an assignment in college where I had to ask former coworkers for feedback on my strengths, and one of my coworkers jokingly ended by mentioning my potato salad.

I’m glad they liked it, but it does take quite a bit of time, and you have to adjust flavors a lot. So I basically only make this once a year in the summer. This recipe is an approximation of the final amounts, but you really do have to test and adjust. I’ll pay closer attention to quantities next time I make it.

If you’re making this gluten free, just make sure that you use a new jar of mayo or one dedicated gluten free, so you don’t get bread crumbs from previous double-dipping from making sandwiches.

Make it a meal with:

Potato Salad

  • Servings: 20?
  • Difficulty: hard
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This recipe isn’t necessarily the hardest, but it takes a lot of time and requires adjusting flavors. Make the night before for best flavors.

Ingredients

  • 5 lb. bag Red Potatoes
  • Mayonnaise (Not miracle whip) (a few big spoonfuls and add more as necessary) (or from a new jar)
  • Sweet Pickle Relish (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls)
  • Hard Boiled Eggs (8 or 9. Make more if you want to decorate the top with egg slices)
  • ~1/2 tsp. Mustard
  • Dried Minced Onion (about 3 heaping Tbsp.)
  • Milk (just a little to give it some moisture)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste (it’ll probably require a fair amount of salt)

Directions

Steam the potatoes (about 15 minutes when cut in half), peel, and cube them into a big bowl. Add remaining ingredients and adjust flavors as needed. For eggs, use an egg slicer to cut them into tiny cubes. For onion, place them in a small bowl with a little milk and let it absorb for 5 minutes before adding to potatoes. Make the salad a little more wet than wanted because it will absorb as it sits. Best if salad is made the night before, then covered and refrigerated. You may need to add more salt and milk the next day. For garnish, you can add egg slices to the top and paprika.


Mashed Potatoes

Jeff is the mashed potato king. Whenever he makes them, they’re so buttery and creamy and amazing. The secret is adding sour cream or cream cheese, in addition to all the regular delicious stuff. If you don’t have sour cream, we generally do two sticks of butter instead of one. The measurements below aren’t precise yet, but we’ll measure more carefully next time we make mashed potatoes. And usually we’re too lazy to peel the potatoes–we just wash the potatoes and then cut them–but frankly it’s nice having the extra texture and fiber from the peels.

Of course this one is naturally gluten free–just make sure that your sour cream hasn’t been contaminated by previously spooning onto flour tortillas or anything else with gluten.

Make it a meal with:

Mashed Potatoes

  • Servings: 8?
  • Difficulty: easy
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The secret ingredient is sour cream.

Ingredients

  • 5 lb. bag Potatoes (peeled or not)
  • About 2 tsp. Salt in water
  • 1/2 c. Butter (or 1 c. Butter if not using any sour cream)
  • About ¼ c. Milk (or canned milk)
  • About 1 c. Sour Cream (optional, but delicious)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Peel and cut potatoes into about 1” cubes. Boil in salted water till tender but not mushy (about 15 minutes) OR bring to boil, turn off heat, cover, and let stand 2-3 hours. Drain. Add butter, milk, and sour cream and mash till smooth. For creamiest potatoes, use a hand mixer to mash. Add salt and pepper to taste, and more milk if you want a creamier consistency.

(For gravy, take drippings from pan and combine with about ¼ – ½ c. flour or corn starch and 1 – 2 c. water. Whisk smooth and bring to a boil–add more salt, flour, or water as needed.)


Mello Jell-O

The idea of this is fun–hot pudding that you melt Jell-O powder into. Then add cold water and chill. It’s getting harder to find cook-and-serve puddings, though. I’ve made it with a large box of cook and serve lemon pudding because I couldn’t find a small one, and it still turned out great (almost imperceptibly different). Instant pudding might work okay, but we tried it once with cheesecake instant pudding and raspberry Jell-O, and it didn’t set up. It was just a sweet soup, basically. Blech.

But in college, my roommate and I experimented with different flavors for fun, all of which turned out pretty well. We did vanilla pudding with strawberry Jell-O (tasted like strawberry wafer cookies), lemon pudding with raspberry Jell-O (tasted like raspberry lemonade), and chocolate pudding with raspberry Jell-O (tastes like chocolate raspberry, obviously). But the original is lemon pudding with orange Jell-O, and it’s amazing.

And good news, it’s naturally gluten free!

Mello Jell-O

  • Servings: 12
  • Difficulty: easy
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A sweet, orange side for special occasions.

Ingredients

  • 1 small box cook and serve Lemon Pudding (large box is ok too)
  • 2 Egg Yolks
  • ½ c. Sugar
  • 1 large box Orange Jell-O
  • 3 c. cold Water
  • 1 container Cool Whip
  • 1 can Mandarin oranges

Directions

Prepare lemon pudding as directed on box (with yolks and sugar). In hot pudding, stir orange Jell-O powder. Stir in cold water. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or until set. Top with Cool Whip and oranges.