Grands! Barbecups

Last night I made this recipe from the Pillsbury website. It turned out great and was pretty easy to make. Then while Tim was eating, he told me at least 4 times how much he liked it and ended up having 3 cups! Even Aiden ate some of it. I give this recipe a 4.5!

1 lb lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
3/4 cup barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury® Grands!® Flaky Layers refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (3 oz)

1 . BROWN beef and onion; drain. Stir in barbecue sauce and brown sugar; cook 1 minute.

2 . PRESS or roll each biscuit to 5 1/2-inch round. Place 1 biscuit in each of 8 greased regular-size muffin cups (for 12-cup muffin pan, use 8 outside cups for best baking results). Firmly press in bottom and up sides, forming a 1/4-inch rim. Fill with beef mixture; sprinkle with cheese.

3 . BAKE at 350°F 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute, remove from pan.

Prep-Ahead Mashed Potatoes

Last night I made a regular home cooked meal complete with meat, mashed potatoes and vegetables and plenty of A1 sauce! The recipe I used for the mashed potatoes was amazing. I did all but the mushroom part...I'm sure that part is good but I just wanted mashed potatoes and I happened to have 5 perfectly good red potatoes sitting on the counter and I didn't want them to go to waste. So when I saw this recipe in the Kraft Food and Family, Holiday 2006 issue, I had to try it. I love mashed potatoes of all kinds and this one added sour cream and cream cheese to it, how could that be bad? And I got to use my potato masher for the first time! I was so excited! I just bought that masher a month ago (that's right I went through 2 1/2 years of marriage without a potato masher) because Tim decided it was one of those "kitchen gadgets" we didn't really need when we first got married. Needless to say we had some interesting times between now and then trying to mash up potatoes...forks just don't cut it. Anyway, my potato masher worked wonders...who knew mashing potatoes could be that easy? Well I did acutally...but was never able to have that "luxury" until now. Oh and Tim liked the potatoes, he actually was starving while I made dinner and since the potatoes were done first he decided to have a few scoops ahead of time. Then after dinner a couples hours later he decided to eat some more potatoes because he was still hungry! I definitely give this recipe (without the mushrooms) a 5! You'll have to try the mushroom part and tell me if it's good.

Ingredients(if you're just making the potatoes you need all but the last 3 ingredients)

3 lb. red potatoes (about 10 medium), cut into chunks
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1 pkg. (8 oz.) fresh
mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

(and do all but the last 2 steps if just making the potatoes)

PLACE potatoes in large saucepan. Add enough water to completely cover potatoes. Bring to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 15 min. or until potatoes are tender.

DRAIN potatoes; return to saucepan. Add sour cream, cream cheese and milk. Mash with potato masher to desired consistency. Spoon into microwaveable serving bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.

MEANWHILE, melt butter in large skillet on medium-high heat; add mushrooms. Cook 5 min. or until mushrooms are tender, stirring frequently. Spoon into small bowl; cover. Refrigerate until ready to use.

VENT plastic wrap covering potatoes. Microwave on HIGH 6 to 8 min. or until heated through; stir. Top with mushrooms. Microwave, uncovered, an additional 2 to 3 min. or until heated through. Sprinkle with thyme.

Perfect Apple Pie with No Fail Pie Crust

Tonight I'm giving you 2 recipes in one....this is my mother-in-laws recipe. We had her apple pie last night and I knew I had to have the recipe, it was delicious! I'm not very good at making pie crust though so when she told me that this recipe was really "no fail" I had to try it to believe it. She was right, this was the easiest pie crust recipe I've ever made. And my apartment smells like apple pie....mmmmmmmm! I give these recipes both a 5!

No Fail Pie Crust

Sift together:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp salt

Blend in well 1 cup shortening.
Beat together and add the following to the flour mixture.

1 egg
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1/4 cup water

It makes 2 one crust pies or 1 two crust pie.

Perfect Apple Pie

6 or 7 tart apples
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of salt
Pastry for 2 crust (9 inch) pie
2 Tbsp. butter

Pare apples and slice thin. Combine sugar, flour, spices and salt; mix with apples.

Line 9 inch pie plate with pastry. Fill with apple mixture. Dot with butter. Adjust top crust. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 400 for 50 minutes or until done. You can use 2 (number 2) cans of sliced pie apples instead of fresh apples.