Idaho® Potato Pierogi with Bacon and Cheese

When I lived in Montreal, one of my favorite meals that people often made for us were Pierogi. I'm not sure why they were so popular there but I fell in love. I even found a really good frozen brand that were easy to fry up on my own for a quick meal.

Homemade Idaho® Potato Cheesy Tater Tots

I started to make a list of everything that you can user tater tots for and I stopped writing after about 20 ideas. Tater tots are so amazing all on their own but they also make one of my favorite dishes in the world, Tater Tot Hotdish.

Then I realized that my kids really don't even eat them that often, if ever really! They take their own lunches to school and we really don't buy the frozen ones even though I love them. Whenever I crave them, I typically get them at work for lunch so we really don't have them at home very often.

Cheddar, Rosemary and Garlic Pull Apart Bread

Can you believe I've never made any kind of monkey bread or pull apart bread before? I honestly can't tell you why it's never come up but of course that had to be remedied. Typically you probably think of a sweet cinnamon sugar bread when you hear monkey bread but when Red Star Yeast said they'd love to have some new savory pull apart bread recipes, I was on it! I knew right away there had to be cheese and I knew that a good sharp cheddar would be perfect. Then I started thinking what herb would pair well with it and decided on some fresh rosemary. The garlic was a last minute addition but it ended up being the ingredient that pulled it all together and when the bread is toasted, the garlic makes it divine.

Loaded Baked Potato Bites

I had the opportunity last week to sneak into the local Fox 9 station as John McLemore, the CEO of Masterbuilt and his wonderful wife Tonya were filming a segment promoting their new book "Dadgum That's Good, Too". As I walked into the main building early that morning, I could smell the turkey almost immediately. I asked the security guard where to go and he laughed as he said to just follow the smell. The smell led me to the studio kitchen where a prep crew and John were busily working around the kitchen and two of John's indoor turkey fryers were happily frying away on the counter top.

Bacon Wrapped, Sausage Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers

The State Fair is over, school has started and it's already getting cooler. I'm going to reminisce though a bit with one of my favorite foods from the State Fair this year. I won't list everything I had this year, wait, sure I will: cheese curds, pina-colada, beef tongue taco, fried eggplant taco, chocolate chip cookies, puff pastry sausage, stuffed jalapenos, foot-long corn dog, mini donuts, poutine, red velvet funnel cake, fried green beans, strawberry smoothie and onion rings! Whew. Now, don't go thinking that was all in one visit. It was two. :)

Poutine

As a missionary I spent two years in the Montreal area of Canada. In each city that I lived in, one of our favorite things to do was to try and sample the Poutine from as many different places as we could to determine who had the best. For those not familiar with Poutine, it's a combination of french fries, gravy and cheese curds. Sounds pretty simple but there are so many variations and favorites that you almost never get the same thing twice.

Cheese Pretzel Bites with Jalapeño Honey Mustard

Just in time for the Superbowl, here's the perfect snack. Did you know, there are a few key criteria for determining the perfect Superbowl snack?

• Handheld
• Dippable
• Contains cheese and/or bacon

It took me a long time to develop that list and I think it's pretty conclusive.  I was pretty upset though when I typed this up and it put the little squiggly line under dippable, indicating that it was spelled wrong. How in the world is that not a word, especially since it was a key criteria? Anyway, I'm going with it.

Three Cheese BLT Macaroni

I was recently invited to come in to Noodles & Company to try out their Mac and Cheese dishes that they had brought back to their menu. I almost said no. I have hated Macaroni and Cheese for as long as I can remember.  Even when people try to make it fancy, there's just something about it that I don't like. But I figured the kids would probably like it so I told them we'd give it a go.

I was honestly pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It was a fun easy dinner and the kids loved it all. I have to say though, what made it memorable was the local manager, Kari. She treated us like royalty and brought us enough food and cookies to last a week. She wasn't just doing it for us either. I watched her the whole time we were there and she was visiting tables almost the whole time.

Turkey Taquitos

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday! I can't wait to tell you about my Willie Bird Turkey that I won from Williams-Sonoma but you'll have to wait just a bit longer for that post.

It's been a few days since the holiday, do you have some turkey around still? Tried to get rid of it and there's still some sitting in the fridge? I've got a fun dish for you that's just different enough that you won't even know it's leftovers. 

Emeril's One-Pot Blogger Party: Leek and Bacon Quiche in a Potato Crust

This Emeril Blogger Party is winding down but it's not over yet! After this post I'll have one more dish to share. I'm making it tomorrow and it's something that I've never tried cooking before! Stay tuned.

One of my favorite things to make is quiche. There are so many variations and they pretty much always turn out delicious. I've never quite made it like Emeril though. Instead of the pastry crust that I typically use, this recipe has you grate potato's, mix them together with some egg and spices and then press it into the bottom of a spring form pan. It's partially baked before the rest of the filling is added.

Emeril's One-Pot Blogger Party: Cheese Enchiladas with a Smoky Red Chile Sauce

This is the 7th post now in this Blogger Party celebrating the release of Emeril Lagasse's new cookbook Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders, which is available TODAY! You can get your copy today or keep reading below to find out how to win your own copy.

I've had the book in my hands now for just over two weeks, but if I showed it to you today, you'd think it's a copy I've had for years. Pages are bent down, stained pages abound and the spine is well worn. I can honestly say I haven't been disappointed yet and we've eaten quite well over the last two weeks. The variety of dishes will keep you going and you'll be surprised every time that you're cooking out of the same book.

Potato Gratin with Bacon and Thyme

I'm not a big casserole fan in general but every once in awhile there's one that looks really good to me. I think my dislike stems from one too many concoctions at church events that include just a little too much cream of mushroom and a lack of just about anything resembling flavor. The sad thing is that it's not very hard to make a good gratin with simple ingredients that tastes amazing and makes a great simple meal.