Potato Salad

I'm not sure how you can make potato salad look good in a picture... but I promise, this is the BEST potato salad ever! I'm not usually a fan of potato salad, so the fact that I love this one is amazing :)

I got the recipe from a family friend. She always made this salad for BBQs and camping and I loved it so much I had to get the recipe!

1 egg to 1 potato
2 parts mayonnaise to 1 part sour cream
Relish to taste

• Hard boil eggs and boil potatoes until cooked through.
• Dice up eggs (I use the pampered chef egg slicer, slice the egg, turn it the other direction and slice again) and cut potatoes in to bite size pieces. Mix together.
• Mix together mayonnaise and sour cream, add to egg and potato mixture until you reach desired consistency.
• Refrigerate and serve cold.

Lemon Chicken with Garlic

This is a super easy and fast dish! My husband said he couldn't taste much other than chicken with his breast pieces, so I'm guessing to really get the flavor of everything else, you should use thighs. That's what I used for my portion and it was perfect :)

8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
10-15 whole peeled garlic cloves
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Place the garlic in a roasting pan and lay the chicken over the top. Top the chicken with remaining ingredients and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Roast in oven, turning occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and most of the juices have evaporated.
• Serve chicken with the roasted garlic cloves and lemon wedges.

Outback Bread

I got this recipe off of RestaurantRecipesBook.com. Surprisingly, it tastes a lot like the bread at Outback! I didn't notice that the recipe calls for DARK molasses, so I'm assuming that's why my bread didn't turn out as dark as it is in the restaurant. I'm also pretty sure my yeast is dead :( fortunately I used the rest of it on the bread I made today, so I'll be getting some fresh yeast for next time. I'm also thinking next time the dough should be shaped in to 3-4 loaves, it turned out to be really big.

2 packages dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
2 cups rye flour
2 & 1/2 to 3 cups bread flour (all-purpose flour works as well)
Shortening & cornmeal

• Soften yeast in 1/2 cup warm water, stir in sugar and let stand for six minutes or until it's bubbly.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast with remaining warm water, molasses, salt, oil, and rye flour. Mix until it makes a smooth batter.
• Work in the bread flour until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Knead for a few minutes.
• Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise until doubled. Grease sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Punch down dough and shape in to 2 large round loaves, place a few inches apart on the sheet. Sprinkle the top of the bread with cornmeal as well.
• Let rise until doubled and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Bake loaves for about 30 minutes or until crust makes a hollow sound when tapped.

Cracked Wheat Bread (Bread Machine)

I got most of my kitchen appliances either for Christmas my senior year in high school, for wedding presents, or with the money we got at our wedding. There were just a few that I didn't get, and I'd been wanting, but didn't really want to spend the money. For Christmas this year, my mom bought me this bread machine (pictured below), a food processor, and a steamer that stacks three levels high (great for veggies, fish, and shell fish)!



I hadn't had a chance to use the bread machine until this weekend. My husband takes sandwiches for lunch every day, and his favorite bread is cracked wheat. I did a search of bread machine breads online, and came up with quite a few, including this one!

1 & 1/4 cups water
3 cups bread flour (all purpose works as well)
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cracked wheat
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp dry milk powder
1 & 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 & 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

• Place ingredients in pan of bread machine in order recommended by the manufacturer.
• Select regular/light cycle and press start.