Broccoli Salad Supreme

Broccoli Salad Supreme

We attended a Christmas concert December 1 that was followed by a family get-together potluck. The concert, by the way, was a wonderful way to start of the Christmas holiday season.  This recipe is cold which makes transporting easy and it serves 20. For transporting and serving, a crockpot liner/top is very convenient. The recipe can be downsized by dividing it in half .... most of the ingredients are easily divisible by two.

During the potluck, my brother told me this recipe "is a keeper" .... high praise indeed. At a potluck this past weekend, I had several inquiries as to ingredients and where to find the recipe, plus comments that it was  "delicious". The recipe is five-star rated on Taste of Home, also a sign of "success".

There are many similar recipes you can 'google' that have most of the ingredients in this particular recipe or some variation, but this is the one I settled on because I liked that it was scaled for 20 servings and I especially like the flavor and color combinations. The specific ingredients in this recipe are:

Broccoli florets
Grapes - red make the nicer color contrast/presentation
Bacon
Green onion (scallions)
Celery
Slivered Almonds
Mayonnaise (Hellman's works well)
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar

The link to the actual recipe is HERE. (Taste of Home: Broccoli Salad Supreme)

Cooks Notes:

• I've made this a day ahead both times I've made it. There is washing, chopping, frying of bacon, toasting almonds, etc. The broccoli florets keep for a couple of days in a gallon zip-loc. The onions/celery are together in a plastic container. The bacon was wrapped in paper towels in a zip loc and the dressing was in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. The "day of", just mix it all together in a large bowl.

• The dressing is best not made at the last minute since the sugar needs time to dissolve, otherwise you get a 'grainy' texture. Overnight is fine and I suspect just an hour or two plus a couple of good stirrings in between would work as well.

• The amount of sugar (2/3 cup) was excessive to me since there are very sweet grapes also in the recipe. I cut the sugar in half to 1/3 cup and the sweetness seemed to be at a good level.

From the enthusiastic reception that Broccoli Salad Supreme has received thus far, it's quickly becoming a 'mainstay' in my recipe book for future potlucks and gatherings.  :-)



(Photo: Merlot)

Cranberry Pecan Salad

Great for potlucks - easy to transport ingredients separately and put together in a matter of minutes.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups mixed salad greens, rinsed & dried
• 1 cup glazed pecans (you can use plain toasted pecans, but glazed really adds to the salad)
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• crumbled feta cheese
• Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing (fat-free works fine) to taste - start with 1/4 - 1/3 cup & add more if the salad is too dry for your liking

Directions:

1. Combine all of the salad ingredients except vinaigrette in a large serving bowl. Just before serving, pour raspberry vinaigrette over salad and toss.
2. Salad is best if greens & vinaigrette are cold.

Cottage Potatoes

Cookbooks are something that I just love - I can sit down with a cookbook and spend hours reading through it, almost like a novel. Since I already have quite a collection, it takes something special for me to spend money on a cookbook ..... unless I'm at Goodwill where hard-copy books are only $3.00.

This recipe came from a Goodwill book find: Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Dawn Hall. Her "My Story" at the beginning of the book had me in tears.  The recipes are good - nothing fancy, but the kind of recipes that busy moms appreciate. Be sure and check out her website - she also has a section of "free recipes" for you to try out.  Here's the link to her home page:

Cooking for Busy People - Dawn Hall

I made this 'Cottage Potatoes' recipe for a club potluck and if the crock pot hadn't still been so hot, I think someone, maybe more than one someones, would have tried to lick the pot clean. As soon as the crock pot was set out, folks were helping themselves and I barely got a spoonful to see how it tasted ..... it was good. I wanted more ..... it was all gone!

Ingredients:

• 1 (2 pound) package of hash browns - shredded
• 1 (10-3/4 oz.) can cream of chicken soup (or 98% fat-free)
• 1 ( 8-ounce) package shredded cheddar cheese (or fat-free)
• 2 cups sour cream (or fat-free)
• 2 Tablespoons butter/margarine, very soft (use your favorite low fat spread)
• 1 small bunch green onions, chopped, tops and all
• 1 red or green pepper, chopped (I used red - more colorful)

Directions:

1. Spray a crock pot with cooking spray (you can use nonfat)
2. In the crock pot, mix together the hash browns, soup (can contents only - do not add water/milk), cheese, sour cream, butter/margarine, onions & pepper
3. Cover and cook on high until hot & bubbly, about 3 hours.

Yield: 16 (1/2 cup) servings


Recipe notes:

• Part of the appeal of this recipe is supposed to be that it's a one pot (mix/cook) dish; however, if you mix this in the crock pot, you get a lot of the soup/cream cheese, etc. high up on the sides where it tends to burn. I mixed everything in a large bowl, then put it in the crockpot - much neater.
• Also, the recipe did not specify if the hash browns should be thawed or not. I did not thaw them (but you could - might have to adjust cooking time down). I would suggest you mix all the ingredients except the hash browns first so they are thoroughly blended, then mix with the frozen hash browns, which are a little difficult to work with.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

The first time I made these meatballs it was for a large potluck supper/meeting with 80 to 100 people attending. I didn't feel like I needed to feed everybody, but a dish that served only 6-8 just didn't seem like the way to go. When I found this meatball recipe and saw that it could be doubled for a very large batch, I knew I was 'good to go'. Normally I would have made the (in)famous 'Wicked Wienies', but I didn't have the hours it was going to take for them to be at their most delicious, so meatballs it was. What I found out was that people like these meatballs ..... a lot. The crockpot was empty at the end of the evening.

Ingredients:

• 1 (10 oz.) jar of grape jelly
• 1 (14 oz.) jar of Heinz Chili Sauce
• 1 package of frozen meatballs

Mix grape jelly and chili sauce. I actually heated it in a sauce pan so the grape jelly would melt.
Put the frozen meatballs in the crockpot and pour the sauce over them.
Heat thoroughly on high.


Large batch quantities:

• 5 lb. bag of frozen meatballs
• 3 (12 oz.) jars of Chili sauce
• 1 (32 oz.) jar of grape jelly

Update (April 2013): Just made this for a small group (10) potluck .... got the 32 oz. Great Value (original) meatballs, 1 jar (14 oz) grape jelly, & 1 bottle (12oz) chili sauce. I had a little chili sauce left in another bottle so I was able to get a 50-50 split between the grape jelly/chili sauce. I started with frozen meatballs at 3:30 ... heated the sauce ingredients in a pan to melt the jelly & poured over the meatballs in the crockpot - by 6:30, all was ready to serve. The meatballs were a huge hit, as usual .... the Great Value brand worked very well ... tasty, right size .... right price! This was SO easy that I'll be doing it again soon. Just a thought .... I wonder how a little bourbon added to the sauce would taste?

Wicked Wienies

 

 

Wicked Wienies don't last long when you have them at a party or get-together, even if you have a crock pot full. The original recipe calls for heating them in a pot on a burner and you can certainly do that, especially for a small batch, but ..... something special happens to Little Smokies when you cook them in a crock pot for hours. They "de-plump". Seriously, they get skinnier, more dense and terrifically more delicious. To be more technical, I think a lot of the fat and juice cooks out of them and what is left is a most wonderful little wienie ..... and they are 'wicked good'.  For the de-plumping to occur, from my experience, they have to be in the crock pot for at least six hours and if they go longer than that, so much the better.

Making Wicked Wienies doesn't get much easier and once you get them going in the crock pot, you can forget them .... until it's appetizer time. I think these are my very favorite hot hors d'oeuvre .

Large Batch in the Crock Pot:

• 2 packages Little Smokies (50 per pack, total 100)
• 1 bottle (32 or 36 oz.) ketchup*
• 1 bottle (10-16 oz.) BBQ sauce*
• 1/2 cup bourbon*
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Mix all, add sausages, put in the crock pot on high for several hour, then switch to low for a couple of hours - total 6-8 hours minimum.

Small Batch for Pot or Small Crock Pot:

• 1 package Little Smokies (50 per package)
• 2 cups ketchup
• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Heat in a pot until good and hot or follow crock pot directions above.

*recipe note - I use cheap ..... store brand ketchup & BBQ sauce ... cheap bourbon. If you want to use Hunts/Heinz ketchup, Sweet Baby Ray's/Bone Suckin' BBQ sauce, and your Wild Turkey, feel free to do that, but I'm here to tell 'ya that after 8 hours in the crock pot, Great Value ketchup/BBQ sauce and a cheap bourbon blend just fine and I doubt you would be able to tell the difference.