A Day in the Life of Mosa

In the Kitchen – February Thanksgiving, part 2 but actually sort of part 3.

Last week I shared with you my dad’s recipes for our February Thanksgiving (here and here), which are all-time family favorites, classics and traditions.

This week I’m going to share those recipes that I have found on the internet from a few of my favorite food sites.

Up first – Pioneer Woman’s Mashed Potatoes.

I pretty much think these will be a staple for February Thanksgiving – and normal Thanksgiving – and well any dinner event with lots of guests.  The reason?  With this recipe – you can make these potatoes 1 (or even 2!) days ahead of time and then just bake them 30 minutes before your dinner – or do what I did – and put them in the crock pot the day of – which then erases the hassle of making mashed potatoes right before serving time AND marks one more thing off the laundry list of things to do when feeding large amounts of people.  And I sure do love checking things off my to-do lists.

Once they are all mixed upped (I opted to use a hand mixer for a smoother texture), just throw them in your baking dish or a tupperware container and you can take the potatoes out of your brain until just before showtime!  Woo!

(And you best believe I licked that beater clean!)

Plus, these potatoes are really good – they include butter (butter and more butter), cream cheese and half and half.  AND seasoned salt.  I also sure do love seasoned salt.  Another benefit?  Well you know how leftover mashed potatoes usually just don’t taste the same?  Not with these!  I was sad that there was only one serving left the next day!

Up next – Homemade Cloverleaf Rolls – from How Sweet Eat Is.

A little back story with these.  When I first saw the pictures of the rolls online, I was immediately brought back to elementary school.  I attended St. Bernard’s School, where all of our lunches were homemade.  (My classmates and I had quite the shock in 7th grade when we were introduced to public school lunches.  They call that food?!) Anyways – back to the rolls.  The lunch ladies of St. Bernard’s sure did know how to cook.  Pizza, tacos, churro sticks…rolls … ooooh their buttery rolls.  Soooo amazing.  And these cloverleaf rolls looked so similar.  I knew I had to try them out.  And I was so glad that I did.  These are heavenly rolls.  They puff up just like my childhood favorites.

The recipe did state that these are best made the same day…but I did make a little turkey sandwich out of one the next day – warmed one up in the toaster oven with some pepper jack cheese.  Oh baby.  Good stuff.  These rolls will be made again.

And finally – Olive Garden Sangria – a copycat recipe found on food.com.

All you need is Cranberry Juice, Sweet Vermouth, Red Table Wine (like Lambrusco), Grenadine … and not pictured – Sugar Water and some fruit slices – like oranges and strawberries.

I started making this stuff a few years ago.  And now that I think about it, each time I have made it I doubled the recipe.  You can never have enough Sangria!  The first time I made it was a bit of learning process … or really just realizing what a dumdum I can be sometimes.  I knew I needed a large container and I just didn’t have anything I found appropriate to hold a massive amount of Sangria.  So I went to Target at about 8 in the morning on a Sunday to find the perfect tupperware container. I ended up grabbing this green storage container, went home and started making the beverage.  I soon found out that I 100% miscalculated how much room I actually needed.  Once everything was mixed together (and remember the recipe was doubled) the liquid only went about 4 inches up the sides of the container, leaving about 10 inches or so to spare.  To put it in perspective, this green container is now used to hold my cats’ 15.5 pounds of dry cat food.  Woops.  I have since learned my lesson and now often times just use the pretzel containers we get from Costco.  (They come in so handy!  I also use them for storage in the kitchen!)  With the added fruit – this drink is pretty …and delicious!

And I think that brings you up to speed with everything that I made for the 2nd Annual February Thanksgiving.

Can’t wait for next year’s!

Neither can the cats.