Twice baked Sweet Potato Casserole with Bacon

Here's what to do with all those sweet potatoes you've got lying around :)  I LOVE sweet potatoes, but not everyone does.  I'm the only one in our family who does.  Tim will tolerate them but that's it.  Well I found this recipe in the Pillsbury Annual Recipes 2010 cookbook and I just had to try it!  I mean come on it has bacon in it!  It was awesome!  It made me love sweet potatoes even more!  The kids ate it ok but Tim actually liked it!  I give this recipe a 5!  As always my variations will be in red.

Ingredients:

6 lb dark-orange sweet potatoes (9 large or 12 medium)

8 oz bacon (8 to 10 slices)  (I used real bacon bits)

1/4 cup Progresso® panko crispy bread crumbs or Progresso® plain bread crumbs

1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 medium green onions, chopped (2 tablespoons)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
1 Heat oven to 350°F. Line 15x10x1-inch pan with foil; spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Pierce sweet potatoes several times with fork. Place in pan. Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes or until tender. Cool 10 minutes. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel potatoes and cut out any eyes or dark spots.

 2 Meanwhile, cook bacon as desired until crisp; chop. In small bowl, mix bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon butter; set aside.

 3 In large bowl, mash potatoes with potato masher. Stir in chopped bacon, sour cream, 1/4 cup butter, the onions, salt and pepper until well blended. Spread mixture in baking dish, or form individual servings in dish with 1/2-cup ice cream scoop or measuring cup. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over top.

 4 Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated and bread crumbs just begin to brown.

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.