Living Insanity's Loving Food

  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.  

 I made some wonderful turkey meatballs recently from the blog wellplated.com!  Ingredients: 1/3 cup grated parmesan, I used the cheap stuff in a shakable can. 1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs, I used Panko mixed with Italian seasoning 1 teaspoon Kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, I don't actually own onion powder so I skipped this ingredient 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 pound ground turkey 1 egg, beaten Olive oil for brushing the tops of the meatballs Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F Line a sheet pan with foil.  Spray with nonstick spray Mix all the cheese, breadcrumbs, and seasonings together in a bowl. Add the turkey and egg to the bowl and mix gently with your fingers. Form 20 meatballs and place on sheet pan. Bake for 15 minutes/ until meatball temp reaches 165. While the meatballs cook prepare sauce and pasta. Ingredients for tomato sauce: 1 jar triple mushroom pasta sauce Olive oil Garlic cloves, minced ...