Bacon Potato Volcanoes!

The ingredients you will need are:

Russet potatoes
Bacon
Butter
Spices
Sliced turkey
Cheddar cheese
Barbeque sauce
Sour cream
Hot sauce
Green onion

Some toothpicks will also help out so grab some!

The best part about this fun potato volcano is that there are no exact amounts of anything. You may use however much of any ingredient that you wish.

The first step is to poke the potatoes with a fork. This allows for hot air to get inside they potato when they are baking in the oven. The potatoes only need to be baked until they are soft inside.

Once they have cooled off a little bit from coming out of the oven, you can go ahead and cut off the ends of each potato.

The next step is gutting the potatoes into a mixing bowl. The goal is hollowed out potatoes with their insides sitting in a bowl, waiting to be turned into a tasty masterpiece!

Now here comes most people’s favorite: bacon. Wrap the bacon strips around the hollowed out potatoes. You can fasten the bacon strips in place by using toothpicks.

Getting back to the bowl of potato insides, add as much butter, spices, and sliced turkey as you desire. Once all of these ingredients are mixed well together, you can fill the potatoes with the scrumptious mixture.

Sprinkle some cheese on the top of the potatoes and let them bake again for five minutes.

Next, it’s time to smother these babies in barbeque sauce! Add another layer of cheese and stick the potato volcanoes in the oven one last time.

Lastly, add as much hot sauce, sour cream, and/or chopped green onions as you’d like and enjoy your new tasty snack!

Chow Chow

5 cups coarsely chopped green tomatoes
5 cups coarsely chopped cabbage
1 1/2 cups finely chopped yellow onion or sweet onion
2 cups coarsely chopped bell pepper, at least 1 red for color
1/3 cup kosher salt or pickling salt
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste, optional
Combine the chopped vegetables in a large nonreactive kettle or bowl. Add the salt and stir to combine thoroughly. Cover and let stand for 4 hours or refrigerate overnight. Drain the vegetables and rinse thoroughly. In a large nonreactive stockpot bring the vinegar, brown sugar, and seeds and spices to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and continue simmering for 5 minutes. Add the drained vegetables and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, pack the vegetables into prepared jars. Cover vegetables with the pickling liquid, leaving about 1/4-inch headspace. With a clean dampened cloth, wipe the rims of the jars. Place the flat lids on the jars then close caps with screw-on rings tightly, but do not over-tighten. Arrange the filled jars in the canner and add more water, as needed, to be at least 1 inch above the jars. Bring to a full boil. Cover and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Remove the relish to a rack to cool completely.

Hobo dinner

Take a half pound of hamburger, and pat into a thick burger. THEN smack down in the middle of a piece of tinfoil. Then you cover it with onions and THINLY sliced potatoes covered with fresh (well uncooked) mushrooms and a "Dollop" of butter.
Cover with another piece of tinfoil and fold all four edges over to form a seal.
Place into a 400 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes, remove and let set for about 5 minutes then you can eat it from the foil or put it on a plate.

Be sure and use plenty of salt and pepper and any other spices you like as if you don't it will come out pretty bland. I guarantee you won't go away hungry!

Sounds good, other than the onions. They tear me up, which is why we use powdered onioon on foods.

I think that powered onion would work nicely. Oh and we use Celery salt. Neither one of us like celery but DO like the flavor the salt adds.

Celery salt IS good!

Yup, that it is.

We tried the Hobo Dinner earlier this week and it was pretty good.

Our Next tin Foil Foray.

Bacon & Onion Foil Packet Potatoes

2 to 3 sheets of heavy-duty foil
1 packet onion soup powder
10-12 baby red potatoes, thinly sliced
12 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon
1 small onion thinly sliced and diced
1 cup cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
Sour cream for serving (optional)

Spray each sheet of foil with cooking spray. Top each piece with equal portions of potatoes, bacon, 1 packet onion soup powder and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to each serving. Wrap securely.

Grill for 20 to 30 minutes. Or you can bake it in the oven, at 350° for about 35 minutes or till done. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve in foil, topped with sour cream if desired

OH man this sounds good, and you should see the pictures!

Coca-Cola Glazed Ham with Brown Sugar & Dijon

1 10-12 pound bone-in, cured ham*(See note at bottom)
1 extra large (or “turkey size”) oven bag (holds 8-25 lbs)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup dijon mustard
1 large orange, washed and cut into 6 wedges (optional)
1 can Coca-Cola

Trim any excess skin and/or fat from the ham. Using a sharp knife, score the ham in a diamond pattern making 1/4-inch deep slices. Don't fret over getting this perfect - mine certainly wasn't!

Place the ham (on its side – not face down) in the oven bag set in a large roasting pan. Roll the sides of the bag down so that the bag is open wide and you can get your hands around the ham easily.

Combine brown sugar and dijon mustard in a small bowl and stir until thoroughly combined. Rub sugar mixture all over ham.

Place orange wedges in the bottom of the bag around the ham. Pour the coke into the bag (don’t pour the coke over the ham or it will wash the sugar mixture off – just pour it in near the bottom of the ham).

“Puff up” the bag a little by gathering air or blowing into the bag so that the bag isn't touching the ham. Making sure to keep a “loose fit” around the ham, close the bag tightly with the provided tie. You should end up with what looks something like a two-day old mylar balloon with a ham inside it. Using a small, sharp knife, make three small slits in the top of the bag for ventilation (don’t skip this step or the bag will burst wide open and the ham won’t be able to self-baste).

Move your oven rack just low enough that the bag won’t touch the upper elements in your oven then bake at 350 degrees for 2-2.5 hours (2.5-3 hours if using a 13-15 pound ham) or until nicely browned and caramelized.

Remove ham from oven and rest, inside the bag, for 30 minutes before serving.

*Do not use a spiral sliced ham with this recipe.

Chicken with Creamy Garlic Sauce
Serves: 4-8

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ cup half-and-half -OR- light cream
1 - 1½ cups Italian flavor bread crumbs
2 tbs olive oil (divided)
Sauce:
2 tbs butter
2 tbs finely minced garlic
2 tbs flour
½ cup chicken stock
1 cup cream (heavy cream preferred)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 oz softened cream cheese
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp white pepper

Instructions

Using a meat mallet (smooth side), pound each breast between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to ¼-inch thickness. This will give you a pretty large piece of chicken, so what I do is cut each pounded-down breast in half lengthwise.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat; add 1 tbs of the olive oil.
Dip each piece of chicken in the cream, letting excess cream drip off, then dredge in the Italian bread crumbs. You will probably have to cook the chicken in 2 batches.
Place chicken in hot skillet, browning well on each side, about 5 minutes each side, until chicken tests done (175 degrees F or juices run clear when you cut.
Add remaining 1 tbs of oil and repeat browning with remaining chicken.
Place chicken on a platter, cover and keep warm in a 200 degree F oven.
Wipe out the skillet, if desired.
Melt the butter over medium heat and add the garlic.
Cook garlic until it becomes fragrant--about 3-5 minutes--don't let it brown!
Add the flour and blend it well into the butter/garlic. Let this cook about 1 minute.
Slowly add the chicken stock stirring constantly until there are no lumps.
Slowly blend in the cream then add the salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the Parmesan and cream cheese and stir until the cream cheese melts and blends into the sauce.
Pour sauce over chicken and serve immediately.
Serves 4 hearty appetites, 8 light appetites

We're gonna have this for lunch today in about a half hour. Wish me luck!

Tin Foil Shrimp Boil

Ingredients

2 small pieces (half an ear) of corn, either fresh or frozen*
2-4 small red potatoes, quartered
2 pre-cooked all natural chicken sausage links, cut into chunks {We used Cajun sausage, half pound per packet}
32 pieces of uncooked shrimp {peeled if you'd like, but isn't necessary We used the frozen 30-40 shrimp per pound, half per packet}
Olive Oil
Old Bay Seasoning
¼ Cup Chicken broth {half for each packet}
Lemon Wedges for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In the center of a 12x17 inch piece of foil, place corn, potatoes, sausage pieces, and shrimp. ** I made two packets.
Drizzle lightly with olive oil and liberally sprinkle with Old Bay Seasoning.
Fold the foil over the contents, then repeat for the other packet, sealing the sides tightly, and place on a sheet pan.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Carefully {the steam will be hot!} unfold one packet to check potatoes for doneness.
Serve in packets with a lemon wedge or pour onto a plate.

Notes
*I cooked the frozen corn beforehand by boiling for 6 minutes.

25-30 minutes my back side! Either that or those people use a different clock than I do. But it MIGHT have been the fact I started out with frozen shrimp and used ten golf ball sized potatoes. I let them cook for an hour and they turned out just right.