Recipe To Try - Corned Beef, Cabbage, Colcannon...it's not just for St. Patrick's Day

I've made this meal the past two St. Patrick's Day.  I love it because it's all cooked in the crock pot at the same time, yet it turns in to three separate dishes. 

I found the recipe on Pinterest and here it is.  The only way I didn't follow the recipe was I didn't glaze the corned beef - only because I didn't have any apricot preserves laying around.  The corned beef turned out fabulous anyway.  I was surprised that even my pickiest eaters loved the meat.

The cabbage was all mine because nobody in this family will touch it with a ten-foot pole.  Eating all that cabbage also makes for a nice, peaceful evening alone because for some reason or another, nobody wanted to be in the same room with me.  I consider that a win/win - lol!

 

And then here's the delicious colcannon which oddly enough my husband ate even though it has cabbage in it...maybe it's because he didn't know there was cabbage in it.  I'm sneaky like that. 

Party-Pleasing Appetizers

This weekend we celebrated our daughters' birthdays.  We had a get-together at our house and I made lots of crowd-pleasing appetizers.  Everything turned out pretty dang good if I do say so myself.  Here's what I made:

First up, this yummy Creamy Peanut Butter Fruit Dip from Southern Plate.  One of the party-goers told me it was the best dip he'd ever had in his life.  Now that's some statement, isn't it? 

Also from a reader of  Southern Plate is this Taco Rex dip.  This is always a favorite at our house.

Another favorite at our house are these Mexican Pinwheels from Just A Pinch.  I've been making these for years and everybody always looks forward to eating them when we have get-togethers.  Instead of the red pickled jalapenos (which are sometimes hard to find) I used green pickled jalapenos - gave the pinwheels a little extra kick.

I also made these Bacon Cheeseburger Puffs from Plain Chicken.  They turned out good too.  They weren't quite as puffy as the ones pictured on Plain Chicken, but they still tasted good.  I also made some ranch dressing to dip them in.

Also from Plain Chicken, I made Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls.  This turned out really good too.  It was kind of hard to eat, so I just wound up cutting the bread up into pieces after it was cooked.  It didn't look very pretty after I did that, but dangit it was good!

I also made Paula Deen's Garlic Cheese Biscuits.  These are, like, my favorites y'all.  They even make you start talking like Paula, y'all.  I mean, really, y'all. Y'all, I'm serious, y'all.  I could be the next Deen Team Blogger, don't y'all think?  These are delicious and I could eat about five pounds of them at any given time.

I also made this Strawberry Champagne Punch from Allrecipes.com.  I used two bottles of champagne and one 2-liter bottle of ginger ale.  I also used one bag of frozen strawberries and one bag of mixed berries.  I realize this is not really an appetizer, but I did make it for this party because what person doesn't need an adult beverage while at a child's birthday party?  I mean, come on!!

And last but certainly not least, the star of the show:  The Country Cook's Crock Pot Party Meatballs.  These were by far the easiest appetizers I made and they were, if you ask me, the best.  Nobody can hold a candle to these balls - they were awesome!

And there you have it - pictures and links to all the appetizers we had at my girls' birthday party this past weekend.  I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you find all the links useful.  If you get a chance, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  Love to hear from y'all!

Linking up with these great parties:




and

Recipe To Try - Mississippi Roast

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Mississippi Roast (I totally was just singing M-I-Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, I as I typed that!)

I found this recipe on Pinterest - where else?  The recipe comes from A Perfectly Lovely Ordinary Day.

It is delicious.  My husband has already asked me to make it again, which is, like, a total miracle because he very, very rarely requests anything, which is one of the thousands of reasons why I married him - heh, heh.

Easy Crock Pot Beef Tips & Noodles

Easy Crock Pot Beef Tips & Noodles
(Please see *** below)

I've always wondered if it would be possible to put uncooked noodles in the crock pot with whatever it was that I was cooking.  Is that, like, against the law or something?  Well, I experimented with it and it worked.  Hallelujah!  Trumpets roared and angels sang and I did a little happy dance.  No more will I boil my noodles separately.  Never again will I dirty up another pot.  It's all going in the crock pot, baby!

For this recipe I used one of those cute little tubs of Knorr Homestyle Stock.  Normally I probably would have used a couple of cans of beef broth or a can of beef gravy, but I had a $2 off coupon for the Knorr Homestyle Stock and I wasn't going to let that sucker go to waste.  I think the Knorr Stock really gave this recipe great flavor.

Easy Crock Pot Beef Tips & Noodles

Now:
3 cups water
1 lb. stew meat (Mine were frozen solid)
1 tub Knorr Homestyle Beef Stock
2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder

After 4 1/2 hours:
8 oz. UNCOOKED wide egg noodles (more or less)
1 cup water (more or less)

30 Minutes after that:
4 oz. cream cheese, cubed
salt and pepper to taste

Spray crock pot with nonstick spray because if your crock pot is anything like mine and it cooks like two degrees hotter than the sun, you'll want to be prepared.  Pour 3 cups of water in crock pot, followed by stew meat (and mine was frozen solid), tub of Knorr Homestyle Beef Stock, minced onion and garlic powder.  Set crock pot to low.

Cook for about 4 1/2 hours.

Pour in uncooked egg noodles and add  cup of water.  You might have to add a little more than just a cup.  Just keep an eye on it.

Cook for another 30 minutes.

Add cream cheese.  Turn crock pot to warm and let sit a bit, just enough for cream cheese to melt.  Salt and pepper to taste.

**My crock pot tends to cook very, very hot even on low, so you might have to adjust your cooking times.

Let me know how it turns out.


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***12/15/12 - After making this recipe a time or two, I've realized that when you put noodles in with the meat that it tends to make the noodles sort of goopy and not-so-appetizing. So now I cook the beef tips in the crock pot using about a cup and a half of water and then I just cook my noodles separately.***