30+ Recipes for Deviled Eggs

Now that the Easter holiday is over I am sure many of you have an overabundance of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. I usually use our hard-boiled eggs to make egg gravy and serve it over toast. As for the deviled eggs, I've only ever made the traditional deviled eggs. I had no idea there were so many different ways you could actually make them! 

Check the recipes out.  I am sure you will find one, two, three or more you will want to try.  If you are finding this post well after the holiday make a new batch of hard-boiled eggs and chose one or two to serve.  You'll have a hit at your next sports party, family or church potluck! 

50+ Recipes for Leftover Ham

Most families have ham for Easter and there always seems to be leftovers.  Sure, you could eat it plain but I think the best way to have the leftovers is in a new dish.  Running low on ideas to use it up? I'm here to the rescue with over 50 delicious recipes to use up your leftover ham!!

20+ Awesome Cookie Swap Recipes from Iowa Bloggers

Mixers are mixing and ovens are heating up this holiday season.  If you are looking for some great recipes for your cookie swap or to keep for yourself, you've come to the right place. 

I am showcasing recipes from my fellow Iowa bloggers.  There is certainly something here for everyone!

Visit their pages for more yummies and crafts!

Make the best of everything

The Gingered Whisk

Ally's Sweet and Savory Eats

Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids

Been THERE, Baked THAT

Sawdust and Embryos

Simplify, Live, Love

donnahup.com

20+ Leftover Turkey Recipes

If your family is anything like my family there is always leftover turkey after the big Thanksgiving meal.   Every year it seems that it is the same ol' sandwiches or heated up leftovers. This year let's change up the sandwiches and meals!

I called out to the food blogging community and found many fantastic tasty ideas to use up  your turkey.  Some of them are chicken recipes but leftover turkey will do just fine.  Same goes for the turkey ones,  you can absolutely use leftover chicken.  

Bon appétit!

Lime Cottage Cheese Salad

That's the more technical name I suppose but our family always called it "Cottage cheese Jell-O" and everyone knew what it was.  My great grandma Pearl made this recipe and most times when it was made it was for a holiday meal.  I still enjoy this dish when my mom makes it for Easter or Thanksgiving.

There are many other lime cottage cheese salad recipes floating around that have pineapple, whipped topping, and/or mayonnaise as added ingredients.  In fact I came upon a wild spin off of it on a vintage ad site.  It called for vinegar and grated onion as added ingredients and was set into a round mold.  After the gelatin set, the center was filled with seafood salad. Thanks great grandma for not making it that way!  If you'd like to see the ad with the recipe, scroll on down to the bottom!

Lime Cottage Cheese Salad

3/4 cup boiling water
3 ounce packet of Jell-O gelatin
1 cup ice cubes
24 ounce container of cottage cheese, 2% or whole

Dissolve gelatin with boiling water.

Add one cup of ice cubes and stir just until cool.

There will be some big chunks of ice left.  Fish those out and toss them.

Stir in one container of cottage cheese.

Dump into 9 x 9" baking dish.  Put in fridge to set up.

Lime cheese salad, 1954. Photo by: Via nesbitsvintage.com

Top 10 Recipes of 2014

2014 is drawing to an end and I thought we should take a look back at some of the fan favorites.  Most of them are from this year but a few from last year snuck in. 

I hope you enjoy the look back with me. Click on the title to see the recipe or click on the "pin it" link to go right to Pinterest to re-pin for later!

Sweet Potato Casserole

Crispy topping and smooth and creamy custardy middle! We eat it as a side at holiday meals but you could serve it as a dessert. 

Sweet Potato Casserole                                                                             Printable Recipe

2-1/2 pounds sweet potatoes
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


5 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
7 Tablespoons flour
4 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Melting Snowman Hot Cocoa Toppers

My daughter is always asking for marshmallows for her hot cocoa and all I had were large ones. They don't melt nicely in hot cocoa unless it is super hot and we don't, for safety reason, heat ours that warm.  This uses whipped topping instead.  Even though it is frozen, the heat from the hot cocoa is just enough to melt it and if you did happen get your cocoa too hot it will help cool it.

Using the decorating design of some snowman cupcakes I made a few years ago I came up with these. I did skip the orange spice drop as noses  The thought of a gummy orange flavored candy floating (or maybe it wouldn't float) in my hot cocoa didn't sound great.  I used orange-colored whipped topping instead. 

Your kids can help you with the chocolate chips and if you need to you can use clean tweezers to place the mini chocolate chips.

Melting Snowman Hot Cocoa Toppers (makes approximately 10)

Small tub whipped topping, thawed
Regular size milk chocolate chips
Mini milk chocolate chips
Orange food coloring gel
Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

Turtle Thumbprint Cookies

 I love the classic “turtle”combination of caramel, pecans and chocolate so I decided to put them into a cookie!  I used the original thumbprint base, changed up the nuts, added caramel and then a finishing drizzle of melted chocolate.  Your friends and family will think you are a gourmet but won't believe how easy they are to make.  Bite sized and super delicious!

Turtle Thumbprint Cookies (28-30 cookies)                                   Printable Recipe

2/3 cup butter
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites, beaten
pecans, finely chopped
24 caramels
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup milk chocolate chips (or semi-sweet or dark if you prefer)

Pecan Tassies

These little darlings are great to add to your holiday cookie plate.  The crust is light and flaky and there is just enough filling to fix your sweet tooth without going overboard.  They are freezable so you can make them ahead and not be in a time crunch closer to the holidays.  

Warning though, if you think that freezing them will keep you out of them, I can tell you from experience that they are pretty tasty, and edible right out of the freezer.  I didn't even break a tooth trying to eat one. 

Pecan Tassies          makes 24                       Printable Recipe (with doubled ingredients)

Pastry:

4 ounces light cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (1 sticks) butter, softened

1 cups all purpose flour

Filling:

1 egg

1 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

Candy Cane Biscotti

Biscotti means twice-baked.  The traditional recipe uses no form of yeast or fat  but I added a little butter to my dough. These crunchy little beauties are great dipped in your coffee or hot cocoa or wrap them up and give them as gifts for others to enjoy.  

Candy Cane Biscotti                                                                                   Printable Recipe

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon mint (or peppermint) extract

2-1/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/16 teaspoon salt

6 candy canes

1/3 cup milk chocolate

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

2/3 Tablespoon shortening, divided

1 candy cane crushed (optional)

Turkey Pesto Panini

Thanksgiving Turkey is delicious but no matter how moist it was when it was served it can quickly dry out in the days following. Transform your leftovers with a little help from Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.   Hellmann’s Mayonnaise is made with real, quality ingredients; like eggs, oil and vinegar and will make turkey moist and delicious. 

This loaded panini is one of the perfect ways to use up your leftover Thanksgiving turkey!  You can even use up the leftover rolls (if there are any) to make smaller slider size paninis.

I wanted to use fresh sliced tomatoes and my husband suggested marinara so I made it both ways.  We tried bites of each of them and while he preferred the marinara I liked both!

Turkey Pesto Panini (recipe makes 2 sandwiches)                         Printable Recipe

1 Tablespoon Hellmann’s Mayonnaise 
1 teaspoon pesto, purchased or homemade
4 slices of bread (or 2 larger rolls cut in half)
4-6 tomatoes slices or 2 Tablespoons marinara sauce
leftover turkey (slices or manageable pieces)
2 slices mozzarella (or your favorite sliced melting cheese)
olive oil (optional)

Mix together pesto and Hellmann's mayonnaise.

Spread the mixture on the top slices of each sandwiches, using half for each.

Add 1 tablespoon marinara sauce to the bottom slice of bread OR slices of tomatoes - whichever is your preference.

 Add your sliced leftover Thanksgiving turkey to the top slices.

 Add your mozzarella to the bottom slice.  I used my shredded goat mozzarella.

My large bread rolls did not need any olive oil.  If I had used sliced bread I would have used some to aid in browning.  Brush on olive on to top outside piece and place face down in grill pan that has been pre-heated on medium.  Brush other outside piece with olive oil.  

Grill until the bread is golden and the cheese is melted, about 2-3 minutes per side. I used my bacon press to compress the sandwich like a panini maker. Any pan will do and you can use your pancake turner to press down on your sandwich. The only thing that will be missing will be the grill marks and ridges.  Your sandwich will still taste yummy!

The top two sandwich pieces in this photo have marinara and the bottom two I used fresh tomatoes.

Visit www.hellmanns.com to find more recipes to try! Don’t forget to add Hellmann’s Mayonnaise to your shopping list when you’re at the grocery store picking up items for your Thanksgiving meal– it’s the secret to great-tasting leftovers!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Modern Mom Insider for Hellmann’s. All opinions expressed are 100% mine.

Do-ahead Potatoes

Just as the name implies, it's a dish you can make ahead and bake another day.  The ingredient list is simple but the taste is phenomenal!  This recipe came from my great-grandma's hairdreser.  It was made it for many holiday meals.  I'm sure she used full on fat cream cheese and regular sour cream but I lightened it up a little but using the light versions of both.

Do-ahead Potatoes                                                                     Printable Recipe

8-10 medium size russet potatoes

1/2 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons grated onion

8 ounce package light cream cheese

1 cup light sour cream

About 2 Tablespoons butter

Peel and wash potatoes, chunk and boil for 15 to 20 minutes or until fork inserts easily into potato. Drain well.

Make mashed potatoes with your mixer out of the cooked potatoes, milk, salt and pepper. You may need more or less milk depending on how large your potatoes are.

Add cream cheese, sour cream, and onion.  Mix until blended.

Spread into 7x11"  or 8x8" baking dish.

Dot with butter slices and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

The butter will melt and the top will start to be golden brown.  It may be even more brown that this photo. This one arrived late to the Thanksgiving meal and we hurried this one along with the help of a microwave and broiler at the end.

Loaded Monster Cookie Bars

Every year it happens.  People buy bags of chocolate goodies to give out and they over buy. Not as many kids show up as they thought.  Maybe they did run out of goodies to give out.  So off to the next day to get hit the 50% off sale off of leftover Halloween treats.  Either way, this bar cookie is easy to make and will use up the leftover chocolate bars and candies or that "on sale" bag that just had to be bought.  If you have a lot of peanut butter and chocolate candies leftover try my Peanut Butter Candy Bar Brownies.

Loaded Monster Cookie Bars                                      Printable Recipe

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

Mini candy bars (IE. Snickers, Milky Way, Nestle Grand, Hershey’s Chocolate Bar)

2 small pkts M and Ms (or approximately 1/3 cup)

White Chocolate-Covered Strawberry "Carrots"

Everyone loves a treat now and then and how cute are these?  These carrot-shaped Easter treats won't please any bunny, but they will satisfy anyone with a sweet tooth. You can also make spring themed ones by using sprinkles.  Serve them up at your Easter or Spring Party celebration.

White Chocolate-Covered Strawberry "Carrots"

1 pound strawberries, cleaned, dried, with leaves left on
8 ounces Almond bark
Spring themed sprinkles
orange food coloring (I prefer paste)

Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party #86

Welcome to the Foodie Friends Friday 

St Patrick's Day GREEN Recipes Party!!

Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party #82

Welcome to the Foodie Friends Friday 

VALENTINE SWEET TREATS Party!!

Hot Cocoa Mix

Hot Cocoa Mix

10 1/2 cups* instant milk (powdered)
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
16 ounces plain dry coffee creamer
2 pounds* chocolate drink powder (like Nestle Nesquik)
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Mix together and store in airtight container. 

To use: Mix 3 Tablespoons (give or take) into a cup of hot water.  Add marshmallows on top if you like. 

Great to give as gifts.  Mix and spoon into treat bags or decorative quart jar/container. 

*Products change sizes over the years.  The chocolate drink doesn't come in 2 pound containers anymore but comes in smaller or larger sizes that work.  You can reduce or increase your other ingredients to match. 

Ham and Pickle Roll-Ups

These yummy bites are always a hit at the party.  You'll never make enough!

One day I decided I was tired of trying to get these to stay together after it was rolled up since nothing ever wants to stick to the pickle, then they like to come undone.  If I didn't shove the whole thing in my mouth I ended up with the whole piece of pickle in my mouth and nothing for the rest so I end up shoving it all in my mouth anyway.  So, I diced the pickle and mixed it in the cream cheese.  Problems solved!  I can take one bite and still have pickle left and it stays all rolled up in a pretty pinwheel!

Ham and Pickle Roll-Ups

8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
sliced dill pickles, med jar
4-5 tortillas
pkg of thin Ham slices

Dice pickles and use about 2/3 of the whole jar(more or less as you like)

Mix with cream cheese

Spread cream cheese on 3/4 of tortilla (the cream cheese will smoosh as you roll it so you don't want it coming out the edge.)

Lay down 3 slices on ham.

 Add a little more cream cheese, this will act like glue and hold it all together.

 Roll tightly.

When you get to the end, smooth on a little cream cheese (that is if your cream cheese mixture didn't already squoosh out the side!)

 Wrap in plastic wrap. Put in fridge for a few hours to firm up. 

Slice into pieces about 1" or so wide.  Eat the ends, they never look nice for the plate. Stack the rest and serve!

You can also chop thicker slices of ham, the pickle and mix with the cream cheese and use it as a spread on crackers.  Just as good but with crunch!