Yes, cooking is my passion and I would spend endless hours in the kitchen! But even better than that is when I get to spend endless hours in the kitchen with my daughter. There is something about that quality time as well as the teaching that is beyond all satisfaction!
Last night we were celebrating a late Christmas and New Year with a few members of the family, so I decided instead of dinner we would have High Tea…
I had come across a few ideas on Facebook about different ways to make traditional dishes so we decided to put 2 of those ways to a test.
Started off by making some Shepherd’s Pie Potato Skins, well that’s what they called them but as someone who lived in England I have to call them Stuffed Potatoes Skins 🙂 as there was no lamb involved in this process. But you can follow the above link for the original recipe.
Started by microwaving 6 potatoes for about 10 mins, 5 mins on each side. you want them cooked but not overly soft!
Then I sliced them in half and scooped out the insides, leaving enough potato for the skins to hold their shape.
While the potatoes were in the microwave I sautéed about a lb of Minced Meat (aka as Hamburger Meat in America), with 3 chopped onions and a few cloves of garlic. I like seasoning my meat in different ways every time, so this time round it got the following spices:
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Marsala Wine
- Salt and Pepper
- Dash of Cayenne Pepper
- Dash of Cumin
- Dash of Chinese Five Spice
Once it was nicely browned I stuffed each potato with a generous amount, there is nothing worse than being skimpy with your stuffing!
Then I sprinkled a little bit of freshly grated cheddar cheese and topped them of with mashed potato made from the potato IÂ scooped out. Make sure the mashed potatoes are nice and creamy for a yummy smooth finish.
A little dusting of parmesan cheese and paprika and into the oven they went at 350 deg F for about 15-20 mins or until golden brown. You can use the broiler too but I tend to do too many things at the same time which always turns into me burning things with the broiler 🙂
Whilst I was doing this, my lovely daughter Phoebe was busy putting together the second dish, a delicious Buffalo Chicken Crescent Ring.
For this she used:
- 1 whole cooked small chicken
- 4 oz of cream cheese
- 1/2 cup of reds hot sauce (we doubled the recipe amount on this ingredient as we like things spicy)
- 1 cup of Monterey jack cheese ( we used Mexican blend instead as I already had it in the fridge)
- 2 cans of pillsbury crescent rolls
- 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (had none in the fridge so left it out)
She mixed the cream cheese and hot sauce until it was nice and smooth. Then added the chopped chicken and cheese to the mixture and made sure that everything was nicely coated.
She then opened the cans of crescent rolls and separated the triangles and laid them out in a ring as shown below, then carefully placing the mixture and bringing the flaps over to create a ring.
This then bakes in a 375 deg F oven for about 20-25 minutes.
The result was amazing and we served it with some thick blue cheese dip!
To round up our Sunday Christmas New Year Celebratory meal, we prepared a Chocolate Raspberry Tart which is a favourite of the family.
Oh and I must not forget, whilst we were preparing all this yumminess, we treated ourselves to a drink that reminded me of my younger years at my neighbours house during the Xmas/New Year season, where they served champagne with sorbet!
Cheers to a great evening!