Living Insanity's Loving Food

  I made this for Christmas Eve which is held at the boyfriend's family home with tons of people.  I still had leftovers, but it was a big hit!  I had a few problems making this because I only have almond milk.  My instant pudding didn't set up, but once I added all the other ingredients and chilled it all by placing my mixer bowl in the fridge, it did come together.   This is a Paula Deen recipe ! Ingredients 1 (12-oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream 1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk 1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened 2 cups milk 1 (5-oz) box instant French vanilla pudding mix 6 to 8 bananas, sliced 2 bags chessmen cookies Directions Line the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top. In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smo...

 

 I ended up making two of these for my party.  Caprese was very popular.  I had a nice balsamic vinegar served on the side.  

 Ingredients: 1 roll of refrigerated puff pastry 1 jar of pizza sauce Shredded mozz and provolone mix Hormel mini pepperoni Thinly sliced and diced green pepper Directions: Using a tree cookie cutter, cut puff pastry and place on parchment paper. I got about 16 trees out of 1 sheet of dough. Top with toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. I had absolutely none of these leftover!  I will def make more for another party.  I prepped all of these the morning of the party and just kept the pans in the fridge.  I baked one tray off early and one toward the end of the party for late comers.  

 Ingredients: 3 tablespoons butter, melted 1 10-ounce bag of marshmallows 6 cups rice krispies cereal 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt Directions: In a large pot melt 3 tablespoons butter. Add in the vanilla and salt, then the 10-ounce bag of marshmallows and melt until smooth. Quickly stir in the cereal and transfer immediately to a grease 13x9 pan. I greased the bottom of a 1 cup measuring cup and used it to smoosh the cereal into the pan.

  Ingredients: 2 rolls of crescent roll dough One large wedge of brie cheese cut into 24 pieces Original recipe called for whole berry cranberry sauce, but it is sold out everywhere and I used strawberry preserves.  No one minded Directions: Do not unroll the crescent roll dough.  Cut each roll into 12 slices.  Arrange in a circle pattern on a silpat or parchment paper.  Gently flatten each circle a little.  Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes.  Top with the brie pieces and bake for about 3 more minutes.  Add preserves after baking. I prepped this the morning of the party.  I cut and arranged the crescent roll on the silpat and cut the brie pieces.  

  Ingredients: Frozen spinach, thaw and squeeze all liquid out 14 ounce marinated artichokes, diced 8 ounce softened cream cheese 1/4-1/2 cup mayo 1/2 cup parmesan cheese 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese 1 clove garlic minced 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon dried basil salt and pepper to taste Mix all ingredients together and add to a greased casserole dip.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Serve with tortilla chips and crackers.  

  BBQ sauce 2 cups Heinz chili sauce (2 bottles) 1/2 cup vinegar 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons dry mustard 3 tablespoons chopped onion 2 cloves garlic 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce 2 drops Tabasco sauce 2 tablspoons butter 2 bay leaves Mix all together in a saucepan and simmer for an hour.  I then throw the meatballs and sauce in a crockpot on warm.  I serve with hoagie rolls and provolone cheese in case people want to make a sandwich or you can just put out toothpicks.   For the meatballs I use small frozen meatballs that I bake in the oven according to the directions.   I made the meatballs and sauce a day ahead of my holiday party so all I had to do was throw it in the crockpot on the day of.  

  I hosted my first holiday party at my townhouse. Ingredients: about 2 lbs ground beef 1.5 diced small yellow onion 12 tablespoons bbq sauce 6 tablespoons ketchup 5 ounces beef stock 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch Hamburger buns salt and pepper Olive oil Directions: In a large pot add a drizzle of olive oil.  While oil is heating, mix together the bbq sauce, ketchup, beef stock, and cornstarch in a small bowl.  Add diced onion to oil, stir until softened, and then add ground beef.  Add salt and pepper to the beef and brown the beef.  Drain excess liquid.  Stir in the bowl of bbq sauce mixture and stir until thickened, about 3 minutes.  Serve on hamburger buns.   I made the sloppy joe meat a day ahead of the party and kept it in a crockpot on warm during the party.

  Ingredients: 36 Oreo cookies, crushed in food processor 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened 1 package of ghiradelli dark chocolate candy melts holiday sprinkles Directions: Crush 26 Oreo cookies in a food processor.  Add the cream cheese and pulse cream cheese and cookies together until it resembles mud.  Scoop small amounts of filling onto wax paper and place in freezer.  Once frozen, roll scoops into balls and freeze again.  Melt candy melts using a double boiler.  Using a toothpick dip cookie ball into candy melt, place on wax paper, sprinkle with holiday sprinkles.  Place back into the freezer.

  Ingredients 1/2   cup   unsalted butter   room temperature 3/4   cup   sugar 1   egg 1/2   teaspoon   pure peppermint extract 1   tablespoon   whole milk 1 1/4   cups   + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/8   teaspoon   salt 1/4   teaspoon   baking powder 1 10-   ounce   bag Hershey's peppermint kisses green and red colored sugars red   green and white nonpareils Instructions Unwrap 36 of the peppermint kisses, place into a bowl and put into the freezer. This will help them hold their shape better when placed onto the warm cookie. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment. Cream the butter and sugar together until light, about 3 minutes in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix in the egg, peppermint and milk. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. add the flour mixture to the we ingredients and mix until well combi...

Preparing for the first holiday party at my house!  I started with decorating sugar cookies because they are the most time consuming.  I used a pouch of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix and followed the directions to make easy cookie cut outs. Easy Sugar Cookie Cut Outs Ingredients 1  pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker™ sugar cookie mix 3  tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2  cup butter, melted 1  egg Directions 1 Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, flour, melted butter and egg until soft dough forms. 2 On floured surface, roll dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with about 2 1/2- to 3-inch cookie cutters. On ungreased cookie sheets, place cutouts 1 inch apart.  I use a silpat. 3 Bake 6 to 9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely, about 15 minutes. Wilton Royal Icing with Meringue Powder Ingredients: 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 lb bag 3 tablespoons meringue powder 6+ tablesp...

  I bought Thanksgiving from Whole Foods this year.  We had the turkey breast, southern sides (green bean casserole, corn pudding, sweet potatoes, with orange cranberry sauce and turkey gravy).  I added mashed potatoes and stuffing to our order.  The green bean casserole and corn pudding were the favorites.  The sweet potatoes were very hard and not what we consider a sweet potato casserole.  I changed the mashed potatoes by adding sour cream, butter, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and mixing them in the mixer.  They tasted great after that!  The rolls were frozen parker rolls that I added butter and honey to the tops before baking and after baking.

  I ended up making some mashed potatoes to go with the leftovers

  Crockpot Red Cabbage   This needs to be started the morning of the party because it takes 6 hours on low to cook.  This photo is the before.  You will see the after photo a bit further down.   I had to double the vinegar, sugar, seasonings etc because the cabbage didn't have enough tang when I taste tested partway through the cooking process.   Ingredients for Crockpot Red Cabbage: 1/2 head  red cabbage  (chopped) 1 red onion (chopped) 3 cloves garlic (sliced) 6 tablespoons  apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon  white pepper 4 tablespoons water Hot German potato salad.  I have made this recipe before, but I ended up doubling it for the party!  This comes together quickly and needs to be done right before eating.  There are two steps that can be done ahead of time and that is the cooking of the bacon.  I cooked the bacon earlier in the day and left the bacon grease...

I invited my best friends over for a German Fest on Sunday.  I made a few menu items ahead of time, like this cucumber salad.  When you make this ahead of time it gives the vinegar time to mellow out the onion. This recipe comes from The Kitchn . Ingredients for cucumber salad: 2 washed, peeled, and sliced cucumbers (this was plenty for a group of 4) 1 small red onion, sliced 1/4 cup Sour cream 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon brown mustardSugar Salt & pepper 1/4 cup Fresh dill, chopped All of these ingredients get combined in a bowl and then refrigerate.  One tip is to set the sliced cucumbers in a colander in the sink and salt them.  Let them sit for about an hour to release water.  This will help prevent your dressing from getting too watery.   I also made this apple braid a day ahead.  We served it with whipped cream, the fancy kind from a can! The blog this recipe comes from has disappeared.  It was ...

  I have finally had a Gobbler from Wawa!  I added garlic aoli to my sandwich and it made the mashed potatoes taste like garlic mashed potatoes :) yum.  Boyfriend got the bowl with cranberry sauce.

I had a migraine at work.  I did take my meds and it went away, with time, but this lunch definitely helped!  I got the seasonal turkey cranberry croque with a side of the famous tomato basil soup.  I also had unsweetened iced tea.  I do hate that Williamsburg doesn't offer iced tea as a drink option. Get this lunch while you can!  It was very good.

  This is the black bean soup from HelloFresh with a ham, mustard, and munster panini pressed sandwich.  The soup was very good with smokey seasonings and I can finally taste food again :)

  I have season passes to Busch Garden's Williamsburg.  Even though I had been really sick, I still went on my vacation.  I had a negative Covid test.  Boyfriend got a sampler that included lasagna, I had grilled chicken pasta with mushrooms and tomatoes.  I found it bland, but again I wasn't able to fully taste when I was sick.  We loved loved loved the lemoncello cake for dessert!

This is a chicken burrito from the food truck in Harpers Choice near Safeway.  I was getting better from my cold, but I still couldn't fully taste.  The nice crispy outside gave me texture though.  

 This was a HelloFresh recipe .  I was still sick and couldn't taste it.  At least the pickles added texture.

 I had a very bad cold a few weeks ago.  My worst day of it I made chicken noodle soup for lunch and mashed potatoes for dinner.  I had lost my sense of smell and taste by this time :( Ingredients: Boiled potatoes, I like Yukon Gold and the boyfriend likes red skin potatoes Milk, I tend to have almond milk.  If you don't have milk you can use chicken stock. Butter Salt Pepper Garlic Salt Sour cream sometimes Everything gets mashed in the Kitchenaid mixer.  

  Beer brats with peppers, onions, kraut, potato salad and macaroni salad. For beer brats you need to boil about 2 cans of beer and water (enough liquid to cover a package of sausage).  Boil the sausage for about 10 minutes with sliced onion and pepper.  Then pour into a strainer.  Place the sausage in the air fryer to get a nice brown crisp outside and place the peppers and onions in a bowl to use as a topping.