Intro: Hey everybody. Welcome in. My name is Susie Weinrich and I am the voice behind the podcast, let’s Make Dinner. I am also the recipe developer, photographer, and writer behind this website, Mom’s Dinner. 

Susie Weinrich: We’re going to  do things a little bit different today on this episode of Let’s Make. I wanted to go over some tips and tricks on how to best use the mom’s dinner website and make sure that you’re taking advantage of all of the features within the website, as well as within the recipe cards when you are cooking and making and saving the recipes from momsdinner.net.

Navigation Tips : So I want to start by going over some navigation tips. When you are on the homepage of momsdinner.net, you’re going to  see a navigation bar right at the top of the page. Anytime you’re navigating the website, you can always click on that little icon on the top that says Moms Dinner, and it will take you right back to the homepage.

The next tip is using all of these navigations right there at the top. If you hit all recipes, that will take you to a very large category page and you can search by category. So breakfast, dinner, side dishes, drinks, desserts. You can even search by ingredients. So beef, chicken, and seafood. Then we get into some more specific categories like holidays and then grilling, casserole, soup, one pan. It gets even as specific as enchiladas, lasagnas, meatballs, chilis, things like that. So you can use this page really well to navigate to a category of something that you want very specifically. Right at the top of the all recipes page, there’s also an option to click here, and that will take you to all of the recipes in chronological order, so you can see what’s been posted when. 

Now, let’s say you found the recipe that you want to make, and in this case, I’m going to go to my lasagna recipe. So in this lasagna recipe, there are a few different ways to use, not only the page in general, but the recipe card. If you’ve made this and you want to come and comment and rate the recipe, right at the very top, it will say five comments or however many comments there are, or it will say, leave a comment. You can click that and it will jump you right down to the comment section. 

There’s another button that you should definitely take advantage of, and it’s called Jump to Recipe. Of course, I want you to read the full post because I put a lot of really good tips and tricks and time into writing really robust posts so that you are successful in the kitchen. But if you’re like me, I am already a seasoned cook, okay? Then you can just hit that jump to recipe button and it will jump you right down to the actual recipe card where it gives you all of the information you need. Cook time, prep time, ingredients, instructions, everything that you need. 

I want to give you a few tips on using the recipe card. So let’s say we’re looking at this homemade lasagna recipe and it serves 10 people. Let’s say you need to double that and you have 20 people coming. What you can do is hover over that serving section right there at the top, and then a little slider will appear. That slider can be moved up or down so that you can make this for 20 people or you can make it for five people. When you do that, what will happen is all of the ingredients down in the recipe card will also change to suit the number of people you’re trying to serve. 

Another tip that I love about this recipe card is that there is something called cook mode, right in between the ingredients and the instructions. This should be available on desktop as well as your phone. Now, I know there are some iPhones that don’t allow this cook mode button, but if you have it, you definitely want to use it. So you know when you’re cooking and you’re going back and forth to your phone and reading the ingredients and instructions and your phone goes dark. Your hands are dirty. Now you’ve got to get your phone back on. If you click this cook mode button on, it will prevent your screen from going dark while you’re cooking, and that is the best thing ever. 

Another great feature that I have just started implementing, and I do have to go in and do it manually, so it’s not available on all recipes, but you know when you’re making a recipe and you’re in the instructions and then it says add the oregano, and you’re like, oh my God, how much oregano? Scroll back up. How much oregano? Okay, scroll back down. Where do I add it? 

So with my recipe card, a lot of recipes will have the actual ingredients right under the instruction step that it’s associated with. So, like I said, I do have to add those manually so it’s not available in every single recipe yet, but we’re working on that. 

Two last things I want to tell you about with the Moms Dinner website. Saving and pinning and printing your recipes is something you’ll want to do. So there are three different places where you can pin the recipe. Right at the top, there’s a little pin icon, and then as you’re scrolling down the page on the left hand side, there will be another little pin icon. Then as well as in the recipe card, there’s a little pin icon. If you click it, the pin that I created for the recipe should actually populate into Pinterest, and you can just pin it to whatever board you want.

Another way to, I guess, to save the recipes is you can always print the recipe. There’s a print button right in the recipe card, and if you click that, it will take you right to a little print screen. If you can choose at the top what you want to print. So do you want to print the recipe image? Do you want to print the notes? Do you want the nutrition label and how many people are you serving for? So you can make all of those changes right there in the print screen. Then go ahead and print it and put it in your recipe box. The other nice thing when you print the recipe, it actually puts my website right down at the bottom. So if you print it and then you’re like, wait a minute, where did I get this recipe? It will tell you right at the bottom of the page where you printed it from. 

The very last thing that I want to tell you about this website is that we love to get your feedback on our recipes. Rating and reviewing the recipe is the very best way to give us your feedback and to connect with us. There’s a few different options, like I said in the beginning here. At the top of the recipe, you can hit how many comments there are and it will jump you right down to the comment section. Or if there are no comments, It will say, leave a comment and you can click that and it’ll take you right down there.

Another option is right at the top of the recipe card, there’s a little rate button and you can click that and it will jump you right down to the comment section where you can give it hopefully five stars, and leave a comment for me. Then the last is right down at the bottom of the recipe card. There’s a jump to comments button, and that will again just jump you right down to the comments so that you can leave a rating and a review of the recipe you made. 

So those are all of my tips and tricks for using the mom’s dinner recipe website. I hope that these help you navigate the entire website as a whole, as well as the recipe card.

If you have any suggestions for things that would make the mom’s dinner site a little more user friendly, please reach out. You can always email me susie@momsdinner.net. Or like I said, you can leave a comment on a recipe. I check those every single morning, or you can connect with me on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook.

Outro: All right, that’s all I have for today. Until next time, I hope these tips help you in the kitchen. See ya.

Intro: Happy holidays everyone, and welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: So today I’m just popping in real quick. We’re not making a dinner recipe. This is a little bonus episode. I am going through the full recipe to make a holiday punch. 

Tips and Tricks:It has flavors of pomegranate and orange and cranberry that pair perfectly either with a party or any type of holiday celebration. One of the bonuses of this recipe is that you can have it without alcohol or you can add alcohol. Now, if you have a group that’s mixed kids and adults, what I recommend doing is just putting the alcohol on the side and adults can pour in as much or as little as they want. Then the kids can drink straight from the punch bowl or the pitcher and be totally safe. 

Now, if you have a complete adult party and you know everybody is going to want to have cocktails, then I recommend pouring in one cup of either a white rum, silver tequila, a vodka, prosecco, mixing it in the punch, giving it a taste, and then adding more as you like. 

Holiday Punch Recipe: To make this punch recipe, you only need four ingredients, plus maybe a couple garnishes if you want to keep it really festive. All you need is four cups of cranberry juice and what I recommend here is buying, this is going to get confusing 100% juice, Cranberry juice. I’m emphasizing the word juice. The one that you don’t want to buy is a hundred percent pure cranberry juice. The 100% juice Cranberry juice is sweetened. It’s delicious. It’s not a cranberry juice cocktail. It’s exactly what you want. The hundred percent pure cranberry juice is that really tart, like burn your tongue cranberry juice. That’s not what you want. Okay, so make sure you get the right cranberry juice. You’re going to need four cups. 

Then you need three cups of OJ. I personally love a heavy pulp orange juice, but when you’re making it for a crowd, I recommend doing pulp free. Then you need two cups of pomegranate. and three cups of ginger ale. You can also sub like a Sprite or a seven up, any kind of lemon lime soda for the ginger ale. So all you do is pour all of that into a pitcher, give it a stir, and it’s ready to serve. 

If you want to make your punch before a party or before a dinner, you can mix the cranberry juice, the orange juice, and the pomegranate juice together, pop it in the fridge for a few hours, and then right before it’s time to serve, then pour in the bubbly, the ginger ale or the lemon lime soda. 

Some fun garnishes that you can think about for this punch are orange slices, pomegranate seeds, and fresh cranberries. You can even do slices of lime, so you have the red and the green for Christmas would all be beautiful. 

If you’ve got a lot of kids at your party, I also recommend maybe putting out a little bowl of maraschino cherries for the kids to put in their drinks and actually the adults are probably going to like that too, cause they’re delicious. If you have a really large crowd that you’re trying to serve this punch to, you can actually double or triple the recipe no problem at all. It will absolutely work. However, you will want to have an actual punch bowl that you’re going to serve it in. Let me tell you this little tip. You’re not opposed to going to thrift stores or going to estate sales, punch bowls and glasses are plenty at those locations, so there’s no reason to go out and buy something new and expensive to serve your punch in.

Another tip though, I will tell you this. So if you have a trifle bowl, that can absolutely work as a punch bowl. I actually have a cake stand from Pottery Barn that doubles as a punch bowl. It’s crazy. So the base gets turned upside down and the lid gets turned upside down and fits into the base. So see if you have one that will work like that too. 

All right, so that’s the full recipe for this holiday punch. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season. As always, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about right in the show notes so you can make it, save it, find it when you’re ready to have this punch recipe.

Outro : Until next time, I hope this recipe makes your holiday time a little sweeter. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining me today. So I am sharing a fancier recipe today. We are going to make a braised tri-tip. This is kind of like a roast, so you might think of it like a pot roast, a chuck roast, roast beef. It’s a recipe that’s going to take a little bit more time. So this maybe isn’t something for a Wednesday night, but it’s great for a Saturday night entertaining dinner, maybe a holiday dinner or a Sunday family dinner, a special occasion. It is delicious. So you’re going to roast the whole entire tri-tip, and actually you’re not roasting it, you’re braising it. Those are two different things. So you’re going to braise the whole tri-tip in a red wine sauce and then it slices into these beautiful tender slices. Then you’re going to reduce down that braising liquid and make the most delicious red wine glaze that gets served over top.

So you can see it’s a little bit fancier than we normally do here, but definitely simple and definitely delicious. 

Tips and Tricks: You may be asking yourself, what in the world is a tri-tip? It is a cut of beef that is very specifically in the shape of a triangle, which is how we get the tri-tip. It has three tips that make it in the shape of a triangle. `It is cut from the bottom sirloin, so it’s a leaner cut of beef. But it has a wonderful beef flavor. So think of it like a chuck roast, or maybe even like a brisket, but it’s going to be cheaper than a brisket. So this is also maybe a little bit of a more economical cut. When you’re looking for a tri-tip in the grocery store, you  make sure that number one, it has a decent fat cap on one side. What that is, a fat cap is just basically a layer of white fat.

Then when you’re looking at the actual meat side, you want to see that it’s pretty well marbled. Because it is a leaner cut, to have a little bit more marbling of fat throughout the tri-tip is going to be a little bit tastier. 

Another little fun thing I  talk about with this recipe is we are actually braising, and you may think, okay, braising versus roasting. What’s the difference there? So with this recipe, we’re actually braising the meat. We’re going to brown it at a really high temperature, and then we’re going to cook it in the oven, low and slow with some form of liquid. So with this recipe, we’re using red wine. If you’re roasting, that usually means that you’re just using hot air like in an oven to cook a piece of meat with very little or no liquid. So with this recipe, we’re going to  braise it low and slow with that red wine, and it’s going to  be super delicious. 

As always, when you’re cooking with red wine, I like to use something that I’m also going to drink. This recipe calls for one cup of red wine, so you’re going to have about three quarters of the bottle left that you can drink. So of course I recommend choosing a red wine that I also will drink for dinner. You’re going to use a Malbec, a Cabernet, Shiraz, Zinfandel, Merlot. Something that is pretty hearty, that has a lot of flavor that’s going to  stand up to the beef. In my experience, you can get like an eight to $12 bottle and have it just be absolutely fantastic and you’ll enjoy drinking it. It will taste great with your beef. Recently, I think it was Cook’s Country or America’s Test Kitchen. They did a test actually with a cheaper red wine. Then a more expensive red wine and the taste testers couldn’t tell the difference. So you can absolutely use a cheaper wine. 

All right. I don’t know that I have a lot of other tips. I think the only other tip that I’m going to  talk about and I’ll talk about at the end is how you cut a tri-tip. Because of where it’s cut from, it actually has two different grains. If you’re familiar with cutting beef, you always want to cut against the grain. So when you’re cutting the tri-tip, you actually have to cut in two different directions. So we’ll talk about that at the end. 

Braised Tri-Tip Recipe: But for now, let’s get on to actually making the full braised tri-tip recipe. This is going to serve about five people, and you’re going to use a three pound fresh tri-tip that has good marbling and a full fat cap. Some other equipment that you’re definitely going to need is either a roasting pan or a six quart dutch oven, and then some parchment paper.

You’ll start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Now, like we talked about before, you’ll  look at that fat cap and make sure that there’s no silver skin and that you have a half an inch or a quarter inch of fat cap. If you are finding that your fat cap is larger than that, you may  trim off some of that so your dish doesn’t get too greasy.

Then you’re going to  take a fork and prick the fat cap down to the meat. Or you can use a sausage pricker if you have that. This will just help the fat render down a little bit more and get a nice crust. Then you  generously salt and pepper the tri-tip on both sides. With the salt, I always recommend using a kosher salt, not iodized table salt. You’ll lightly rub that into the meat. Then you’re going to place your dutch oven or roasting pan over medium high heat on the stove and add two tablespoons of oil. So you can use canola oil or you can use olive oil here. Let that oil get nice and hot. Then you’ll place the tri-tip in the pot fat side up in that hot oil and brown the first side. You’re going to  want to be patient with this. It’s going to  take at least five minutes to brown that first side. Then you’re going to flip it over and brown the other side, which is that fat cap. You want that fat to get nice and rendered down and get a nice little crisp crust on it. So again, five minutes.

You’ll  remove that tri-tip now to a separate plate, and we’re going to  take that empty pan and we’re going to  add a base layer of flavor and braising liquid. So you’ll need one yellow onion that is sliced. Two carrots that are just rough cut into like one inch pieces. Two celery stocks that are also just rough cut into one inch pieces. Three garlic cloves that are either chopped or you can just crush them with the blunt side of a knife, half a teaspoon of kosher salt and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. None of this needs to be beautiful because you’re not actually serving any of that. This is just to flavor that braising liquid and to flavor the roast while it cooks.

So you’re going to soften that and lightly brown it for about 10 minutes. Now you can add in one tablespoon of tomato paste and just stir that around the pan. Then finally, you’re going to stir in one cup of beef broth and one cup of that red wine that we talked about. This is going to further deglaze the pan, so make sure you take a wooden spoon or a spatula or something and start scraping up any brown bits that are on the bottom of the pan.

Then you’re going to lay in two bay leaves and two to three sprigs each of thyme and rosemary. Now you have your braising liquid all delicious and ready for the tri-tip. So you’re going to  take that tri-tip and you’re going to  nestle it in fat side up into that braising liquid. 

Now what you do, I said that you’re going to need parchment paper. You’re going to take a piece of that parchment paper and just put it directly over the roast. What that’s going to do is help the braising liquid work its magic on the tri-tip. So as that liquid starts to steam up, that parchment paper is going to make that braising liquid come back into the pot and into that tri-tip and just flavor it so beautifully.

So then you’ll cover the pot with your lid. If you’re using a roasting pan and you don’t have a lid, you’ll just  cover it tightly with foil. You’ll place it in the oven to braise for two and a half hours. That’s what I talked about at the beginning. This is not like a quick Wednesday dinner. This is a long, low, and slow cook.

So then at the end of that two and a half hours, you’re going to remove the tri-tip from the pot to a separate plate or a wooden cutting board or something. Cover it with foil and just let it rest for about 15 minutes. While that’s resting, you’re going to make that red wine glaze that we talked about at the beginning.

So after you remove that tri-tip from the pot, what you’ll have left is a lot of liquid, the onions, the herbs, all of that. What you're going to do is place a fine mesh strainer over just a bowl or a large liquid measuring cup, something that will catch the liquid. You’re going to strain those solids from the braising liquid. Keep the braising liquid, and discard the solids. Now you’ll  take that sauce pan and put it back over just medium high heat on the stove top. Pour that liquid back and then you’re going to add just a touch, one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. So that braising liquid has all of the savory and salty and warm flavors. It’s so beautiful and delicious, but usually when you have something that is that deep and savory, you need a high note, and that’s where this apple cider vinegar comes in. So don’t skip that step. Put one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in there and then let it simmer for about five minutes. When you are simmering it, if any brownish, tannish bubbles, it’s also called scum, which is a terrible word, but if it rises to the top, you can skim that off and discard it. 

Okay, so after it simmers for about five minutes, you’re going to make something called a beurre manié. What that means, it basically means needed butter in French, and it’s a liquid thickener. So you’re going to  take two tablespoons of softened butter and two tablespoons of all-purpose flour, put them in a little bowl and take a fork and just mash them together until they completely come together. That’s called a beurre manié. What you’re going to do is put that into the braising liquid and whisk it in so that it is completely dissolved into the sauce, and then it thickens. You’re going to  absolutely love it. This is a great way to thicken any sauce without using cornstarch and after the sauce is already put together. So once it’s nice and thick, you’ll pull it from the heat. Taste it for seasoning, always. So if you need a little more salt, if you want a little more vinegar, if you want some more herbs, go ahead and add that. At this point, your tri-tip should be nice and cooled and all of the juices have redistributed and it’s perfect and ready to cut.

Like we said before, you have two different directions that your tri-tip fibers are running, so you always  cut against the grain. So start at the really skinny tip of the tri-tip, and you’ll just cut perpendicular with that tip. Then as it starts to widen, you’re going to  be about three quarters of the way up. You’re going to turn your knife about 45 degrees and then cut across from there. So if this sounds super confusing to you, there is a link to a video of somebody cutting a tri-tip that shows it perfectly. If I can, I will actually link that right in the show notes for you. If not, you can click through to the entire post and you’ll find that link in the post for the recipe. 

So once you have it all cut into nice half inch thick to one inch thick slices, then you can pour some of that red wine glaze over top. Then when you serve it at the table, put a little bit extra red wine glaze on the table just like you would a gravy, and people can add a little bit more to their plates.

As far as serving side dishes go with this, I absolutely recommend just classic mash potatoes, they would be perfect. The recipe that I have on my site for Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes or Yukon gold Mashed Potatoes would be wonderful with this. Then you can add a roasted veggie. So roasted asparagus or roasted carrots would be great.

As always, I will link all of these recipes and hopefully that video for you to check out right in the show notes and you can save it, pin it, have it whenever you’re ready to make this for dinner.

I would love to have you all subscribe and follow this show in your preferred podcast player. It’ll just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes and future delicious recipes right in your podcast feed.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Okay, you guys, I have such a bizarre recipe for you today. We’re making Ham Balls, which is actually a recipe that is geographically specific to Iowa and Nebraska. I grew up in Iowa. I have a friend that grew up in Nebraska and we both know what hamballs are, and the recipe is almost identical. It is one of the most bizarre recipes you will ever find, and you just have to trust that it’s super delicious. I mean, even from the sauce that goes on them to the mix-ins that go into the meatball, super weird. But it all comes together in this delicious meatball recipe. 

Tips and Tricks: Let’s go over a couple tips when you’re making Ham Balls before we get to the full recipe. Number one, you want to make sure that you’re using ground ham. Ground ham is not the same thing as ground pork. You have a couple different options when you are looking for or making ground ham at the grocery store. Sometimes you can ask the butcher there to grind up ham for you. If you live in Iowa, Nebraska, Northern Missouri, Northern Kansas, or maybe even Southern Minnesota or South Dakota, you might be able to actually find ground ham in the grocery store, which is great. Go ahead and buy that. 

The other option, if you are not in those areas, is to buy a ham steak at the grocery store, so you’ll need a one to one and a quarter pound ham steak. Cut it up into two inch cubes and then put it in a food processor and you’ll just pulse it about 40 or 50 times and it actually makes perfect ground ham. It will resemble ground beef, so it will grind up to that texture. 

The other option is if you have a meat grinder attachment for your stand mixer, you could do it that way as well. But you just want to make sure that you’re using ground ham, not ground pork or ground sausage. It’s not the same thing. Ham has a very specific, smoky, salty flavor that you want in your Ham Balls. 

Another super bizarre ingredient that you’re going to use for your hamballs is graham cracker crumbs. Now, usually when you make any kind of meatball, you make a panade to make sure that your meatball stays nice and juicy as it cooks through. Which is usually like bread or saltine crackers or Ritz crackers. In this recipe, we’re using graham cracker crumbs, which sounds super weird, but I promise that that flavor is the perfect balance to the really salty ham. Then in the sauce you’re going to add a ton of vinegar, and so it balances perfectly.

Okay. Another super weird ingredient, I mean we could just go through the whole thing and be like, and this ingredient weird and this ingredient is weird. It just is super weird, but it comes together perfectly. So another ingredient is tomato soup. The hamballs have a sauce that cooks over top of them, and part of that is a can of condensed tomato soup. I promise you it works. The other thing you’re adding to the sauce is a half a cup of white vinegar. That is going to seem an obscene amount of vinegar, but again, I promise it all works together. 

Ham Balls Recipe: So now that we’ve got some of those tips out of the way, let’s go ahead and get into the full recipe for Ham Balls To start this recipe, you’re going to want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees and then grab a 9 x 13 baking dish.

You’ll start by making your meatballs. So what you want to do is grab a big bowl and add in one cup of graham cracker crumbs, one egg and three quarters cup of milk. So this is going to be considered your panade. Go ahead and give that a stir together. Then you’re going to add one pound of ground beef and one pound of ground ham. Stir that all together, either with a fork or with clean hands. Then you’re going to form your meatballs. You will make a larger meatball, so it’s about a third of a cup of the hamball mixture for each meatball. Then you’ll place them into the 9×13 baking dish. You’ll have about 12 to 15 meatballs when you’re done.

Now, in a separate bowl, you’re going to whisk together the sauce. So that is just one 10 and three quarter ounce can of condensed tomato soup, one cup of brown sugar, half a cup of white vinegar, and one teaspoon of dry mustard. Whisk that all together so it comes together nice and smooth, and then you just pour that sauce over all of the Ham Balls.

You’ll bake it in the oven uncovered for about one hour. If you have time and you can remember, I always like to go in and baste the tops of the Ham Balls with the sauce, maybe once or twice during cooking. Then you’ll pull them out of the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes and then it’s time to serve.

What you want to plan on is maybe two or three Ham Ballsper person. Then the side dishes that go fantastic with Ham Balls are mashed potatoes, and then some kind of veggie. Either roasted asparagus, roasted broccoli, oven roasted carrots would be great. I also have a garlic green bean that’s done on the stove top that would be excellent.

So that is your really bizarre recipe for Ham Balls, but trust that it’s absolutely delicious. I’ve even had some people comment that they used to eat these at their grandparents’ house, but over the years they’ve lost the recipe, and when they make this one, it’s exactly the recipe that their grandma used to make. This is a great one. I hope you guys will make it. 

Of course, all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode, I will link right in the show notes for you so that you can find it when you’re ready to make it. I would love to have you all rate and review or follow or subscribe to this show, Let’s Make Dinner. As a newer show, it just helps all the podcast platforms show these episodes to new people. So thanks in advance. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro:Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Okay, we are going to be making a yummy little comfort food recipe today on this episode. I’ve said this in a few episodes, but I’m going to say it again. I usually try not to date my recipes on here and my episodes. I try to keep them pretty evergreen. However, this recipe is for Turkey Pot Pie, and this is an excellent recipe for your leftover Turkey at Thanksgiving or at Christmas or any holiday that you’re celebrating. However, if you don’t have leftover Turkey, you can absolutely use baked chicken, rotisserie chicken, leftover chicken, in this pot pie recipe.

So if you have never had pot pie before, I’m sorry. You need to make pot pie immediately. It’s the number one comfort food. It’s right up there with chicken and dumplings or something like that. What it is, it’s basically a savory pie, so it has a bottom crust and then it has a really thick and creamy filling that’s almost like stew. It’s mixed in with Turkey meat, chicken, meat and then a bunch of vegetables like carrots, celery, onions, sometimes mushrooms, peas, things like that. Then it has a top crust on it and it’s baked together. It is so absolutely delicious. 

Tips and Tricks: I don’t think I have a ton of tips for this actual recipe, so I think we’re just going to go ahead and get into making it and any tips that come out are just going to be extra bonus. There are two pieces of equipment that you’re going to want to have to make this recipe. You’ll need a nine inch deep dish pie pan. I will link to one in the show notes so you can check it out if you don’t have one. The other thing that maybe isn’t totally necessary, but I highly recommend using a rimmed baking sheet underneath your pie pan because more likely than not, this pot pie will actually kind of bubble over a little bit, and so you want that to catch the spills in your oven. The other option is to place a piece of foil or something down around the bottom of your pie pan to catch any spills. Make sure you have those two things before you get started, and let’s get started with the recipe. 

You’re going to preheat your oven to 425 degrees, and then you’re going to turn your attention and make the filling. I guess I’m going to back up here just a little bit. You have two options for the crust. You can make a pie crust, which I’m not going to actually go over here in this episode. Or you can buy just a pre-made, two crust, store bought pie crust, and use that. Either one will work. Or if you have your own pie crust recipe, absolutely use that.

Turkey Pot Pie Recipe: Back to making the filling. In a large saute pan over medium heat, you’re going to melt four tablespoons of butter. Then you’re going to saute one yellow onion that’s been diced, three garlic cloves that are minced, half a cup of celery that are just in a medium dice, one carrot that’s also in about a medium dice, so the same size as the celery basically. Get that all sauteed until it becomes slightly softened. So we’re talking probably about seven to eight minutes here. Then once that’s done, you’re going to add a quarter cup plus one tablespoon of all-purpose flour and whisk that and stir that around the pan just for about one minute. Then you definitely want a whisk for this next part. You’re going to whisk in two cups of chicken stock, one heaping tablespoon of chicken base and one teaspoon of kosher salt and half a teaspoon of black pepper. You want to whisk that pretty good so that there’s no lumps. You want it really smooth and creamy. You’ll bring that to a boil. So if you need to turn the heat up a little bit, you can, and you’ll simmer it until it’s thickened. That’s about three to five minutes. 

Now at the end of that time, you’ll remove it from the heat and stir in a quarter cup of heavy cream, two tablespoons of fresh parsley that’s been chopped, and then one heaping teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves that have been chopped. If thyme is not necessarily your favorite herb, you can absolutely sub in fresh rosemary that’s been chopped in its place. Then you’ll also add in three cups of cooked Turkey or chicken that’s diced or shredded. Chicken and Turkey will both work, whatever you have left over, whatever you have made. If you got a rotisserie chicken, you can use that. All of that will work. The last thing you’re going to stir in is one cup of frozen green peas.

Now give everything a really good stir and then just set that aside and let that cool for a while. We’re going to go ahead and grab that nine inch deep dish pie pan, and we’re going to get the crust laid in there so there’s no need to grease your pie pan. What you want to do is just press one crust down into the pan and make sure you have a little bit of overhang. If you don’t have overhang, you might need to roll the crust out a little bit more so it’s a little bit bigger. Then you’re going to pour that slightly cooled filling into the pie crust. Then you’re going to take the second pie crust and put it on top. So what will happen is you’re going to have extra crust kind of hanging over the edges. You’ll fold that over the outside of the bottom crust, and then you take your thumb and your index finger and your index finger on the other hand, and you seal it shut. So I know that’s kind of confusing, but if you go to the full post, there are actually pictures of this being done so it will make more sense once you actually see the picture.

So you’re going to crimp that completely shut all the way around, and then you whisk together one egg and one tablespoon of water. This is called an egg wash, and it just helps the crust brown and crisp up just a little bit and makes it nice and glossy, which is beautiful. You’ll brush that all over the top of the crust.

Then the final step, this is very important. You want to cut a few slits into the top of the pie crust, and what I usually do is just make a cross on the top. What this does, it allows the steam to vent out of the pie. Otherwise, your pie will blow up in the oven and you don’t want that. That would be a huge mess. 

So like I said before, it’s nice to have a rimmed baking sheet that your pie pan will fit on top of because that can catch any spills right in the oven. So place your pie pan on a baking sheet that’s rimmed and bake it for about 30 to 40 minutes at 425 degrees until the crust is deep golden brown, and the filling is kind of bubbling up around the edges. While it’s cooking, if the crust starts to get really brown or you’re getting nervous about how brown it’s getting, you can take some foil and make a tent and place it over the pie. That doesn’t allow the direct heat to actually brown the crust. It just lets the ambient heat still cook it without browning it too much.

So once it’s all cooked through and you are ready to remove it from the oven, you’ll want to take it out and let it rest for at least 15 to 20 minutes before you cut it into individual portions. So what happens there is it sets up and congeals together just like you would with a lasagna. You want that to set for a while and come together before you cut it and serve it. 

So what to serve on the side with pot pie can be kind of difficult because really it has everything. It has the starch, it has your veggies, it has your protein, it has everything you need. So what do you add to the side? What I recommend is serving a side salad that has a tart vinaigrette on it since the pot pie is so rich and creamy and savory, a side salad, like a crisp cold side salad with a really tart vinaigrette is a perfect balance. Then some kind of traditional dinner roll is great. Now if you want to add a few more side dishes to kind of bulk up your dinner, I’ve got a great recipe for a broccoli bacon salad that goes perfect. So you could do the side salad, the broccoli bacon salad, the dinner rolls, and then a raspberry jello fluff. I love this dish. So it’s just a super classic jello salad recipe. But it’s a great little sweet balance to all the savory dishes that you’re going to serve here. 

So that is it. Now, in the actual post, I’ve got instructions for preparing and freezing and baking from frozen. So if that’s something you want to explore, you can absolutely head over to the post and check all of that stuff out.

As always, I will link all the recipes that I talked about right in this episode in the show notes for you, so you’ll have them to save, pin, look at, print, whatever you need when you’re ready to make Turkey Pot Pie for dinner. 

One request I have of you as you’re listening to this show, I would love to have you rate and review this show in your preferred podcast player, especially if you’re listening in Apple Podcasts and you can actually write a review, I would love to hear what you think about the show. 

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Again, I’m going to say to you guys, I really try hard not to date these episodes. So I like to keep them pretty universal for the entire year. However, we are right at the holidays and there’s a lot of recipes that are so specific to the holiday season or to winter, and this is one of them. Today we are making a Pumpkin Trifle that is so impressive and so delicious. If you’re not a pie person and pumpkin pie is coming out for Thanksgiving, this is an excellent alternative to making pie.

You’re still going to get all the flavors, the pumpkin, the whipped cream, but in more of like a mousse special dessert feeling. So if you’ve never made a trifle before, it’s basically a layered dessert. I think it’s a traditional English dessert. It’s generally layers of pudding or whipped cream and cake. It’s also served in what’s called a trifle bowl, so that’s usually a stemmed bowl that has tall sides and it’s just round. Of course, I will link a trifle bowl in the show notes for you so you can check that out and see exactly what you need. 

For this dessert, you could absolutely make it in individual cups as well, if that’s something you want to do. If you want to just serve individual cups, that totally works. But for a really knockout presentation, that Trifle bowl is so great. So the flavored layers here are not going to be pudding and cake. Instead, what we’re doing is we’re layering biscoff cookies, which I’ll explain later, and then a cream cheese pumpkin mousse and whipped cream and then you’re going to top it all off with these toffee chocolate bits. It’s just the most perfect, delicious mixture ever.

Tips and Tricks: Let’s get into a few tips for this recipe before we go through all of the instructions and the ingredients. This is a recipe that you’ll want to plan ahead for. So after you make it, it needs to refrigerate for four to 24 hours to set up and get a little bit firmer so you can scoop it out and serve it in the layers.

Then let’s talk about a couple of the ingredients. Number one, the Biscoff cookies. It sounds like an exotic ingredient, I guess not one that you’re probably buying every day, but you can absolutely find them in the cookie aisle of your grocery store. It comes in a red package. They’re called Biscoff Cookies, and it’s like a really thick graham cracker that has a cinnamon brown sugar kind of molasses flavor. So it pairs perfectly with the pumpkin.

I think if biscoff cookies are not your jam, you could absolutely sub in ginger snap cookies could work in this place, especially because they’re kind of firm. So when they soak up the liquid from that pumpkin mousse, they would soften just a little bit. So that could work too. 

During the holiday season, usually in the baking aisle, near the chocolate chips, you can find something called Heath milk chocolate English Toffee Bits. If you know what a Heath candy bar is, it’s basically that, but crumbled up into bits. That is the perfect topping for this recipe. Now, if you go to your grocery store and they don’t have those, then you can absolutely just buy two or three Heath candy bars and just crush them up. That will work perfectly fine.

All right. One last ingredient I want to talk about is the pumpkin. There are two options in the grocery store when you’re buying pumpkin puree. There’s going to be a pumpkin pie puree, and a hundred percent pumpkin puree. You want to make sure that you’re buying a hundred percent pumpkin puree. It doesn’t have all the extra spices and seasonings, so it’s what you want for this recipe.

Pumpkin Trifle Recipe: All right, so I think the rest of my tips will come out during the making of this recipe. So let’s go ahead and get started. There are a couple pieces of equipment that you’ll want to have to make this recipe. Number one is the trifle bowl, if you are going to use that. Then you’ll want to have either a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a handheld mixer with just two beaters. Then you’re going to need two gallon size Ziploc baggies. So once you have all that, then you can go ahead and get started. 

In the stand mixer or in a bowl, you want to beat the cream cheese until it’s completely fluffy. You need two eight ounce packages of cream cheese that are completely softened. When I say completely softened, I mean all the way through to the middle. So you want that cream cheese to be really soft so that when it blends up, there are no lumps or pieces left. You want it to be completely smooth. Actually cream cheese softens pretty quickly at room temperature and to speed up that process a little bit more, if you didn’t think about that ahead of time, you can actually cut your cream cheese into small one inch cubes and it should soften very quickly.

So you’re going to go ahead and beat those two eight ounce packages of softened cream cheese until they’re nice and fluffy. This could take a couple minutes, and that’s okay. Now you want to gradually add in one cup of brown sugar and mix that until it’s completely smooth and incorporated. Finally, you’re going to add in one 15 ounce can of a hundred percent pure pumpkin puree. Again, don’t get the pumpkin pie filling. Two teaspoons of vanilla extract, one and a half teaspoons of ground cinnamon, one teaspoon of ground ginger, a quarter teaspoon of ground nutmeg, a pinch of ground clove. I love clove, so I probably put in a super healthy pinch and then an eighth of a teaspoon of kosher salt.

Go ahead and mix that up together until it’s fully combined. At this point, you can set that aside, and now we’re going to make the whipped cream. So when you are whipping cream, if it is very cold and the bowl is very cold, it’ll whip up faster and creamier. So I like to make sure that the cream stays in the fridge until it’s time to whip. So what you’ll want to do is take 16 ounces of heavy whipping cream, so that’ll be about two cups very cold. Go ahead and whip that either with your handheld mixer or the stand mixer and take that until about a soft peak forms. So a soft peak is when you can pull the beater out of the whipped cream and it will make a peak and just dissolve right back in pretty quickly.

Now you’re going to gradually beat in a third a cup of powdered sugar. You want to continue to beat the whipped cream until about a medium stiff peak forms. So when you pull the beater out, it will make a little peak or like a little wave, and it will stay there for a good amount of time. That’s when you know that your whipped cream is done but you haven’t created butter. You don’t want to take it past the whipped cream stage into butter. 

All right, so once that’s done, you can set that aside and now what we’re going to do is get to the Biscoff cookies. So you want to unwrap all of the Biscoff cookies. You’re going to need two 12.3 ounce packages. So usually they come in the 12.3 ounce packages, so you just need to buy two at the grocery store. Unwrap all of those. Put one package in one Ziploc bag, put the other package in the other Ziploc bag. It will just make it easier for when it’s time to assemble. So either with a meat mallet or a gosh, what’s it called? A rolling pin. Name escapes me. Go ahead and smash all of those Biscoff cookies until they’re just tiny bite size pieces. You don’t want to crush it into powder, but you also don’t want really big pieces. Somewhere in the middle is really good, just like a bite size. Now that you have all of the pieces created, it’s time to actually assemble your trifle. So grab the trifle bowl and what you’re going to do is start with one of the Ziploc bags of biscoff cookies, pour it into the bottom of the trifle bowl and spread it evenly across the bottom.

Then you’re going to top those cookies with half of that pumpkin cream cheese mixture and spread it so that it’s a really nice, even big layer across those cookies. Then you’re going to top the pumpkin with half of the whipped cream mixture. Again, spreading it all the way to the edges so that you have a nice smooth layer. Then you’re going to repeat that. You’re going to top that with the crushed biscoff cookies, then the rest of the pumpkin, then the rest of the whipped cream, and then you’re going to finish by sprinkling on a third cup of those toffee bits that we talked about, right over top, and those are super, super delicious.

You have it all layered and it’s ready to go. You’re going to cover it just with a little plastic wrap or whatever, and refrigerate it for at least four hours up to 24 hours. Then when it’s time to serve, you can bring the whole trifle bowl to the table, bring a serving spoon and plates for people. Like I said, that little extra bowl of those toffee bits is just that extra little touch of deliciousness.

So I hope you enjoy this pumpkin trifle during your holiday season or whenever you’re craving a little pumpkin dessert. This is perfect. So of course I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you. I’m also going to link to my Thanksgiving recipe category so you can find all of the Thanksgiving and holiday recipes when you need them.

Here’s my only request for you. I would love to have you out there, rate and review the show in your preferred podcast player. As a newer show, it just helps other people find Let’s Make Dinner and love all of the recipes that you’re loving. 

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, make your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Susie Weinrich: What’s up everybody? This is Susie with Let’s Make Dinner, and I wanted to come on before this episode starts and give you a little disclaimer. 

So normally when I start these episodes, I do a lot of starting and stopping and I’m checking my audio. Tonight I am recording this late and I just went straight through, recorded the whole thing, and then realized at the end that it actually did not record with my microphone. It was recorded with my computer. Which is significantly lesser quality audio. So I just want to give you a heads up with this episode that it’s not my usual audio quality, but we are going to move forward with it and hope that it sounds okay. So enjoy this episode everyone. 

Intro: Happy holidays. Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: You guys, happy holidays! So normally I try not to date my episodes and I try to keep it pretty neutral, but today we’re talking about Sausage Stuffing, and that’s pretty much as holiday as you can get. We’re talking about the traditional side dish for Thanksgiving, but we’re adding a little mix of flavor here by adding some sage Sausage stuffing. That’s a mouthful. So we’re adding some sage sausage and some cranberries and fresh herbs. This stuffing is super pillowy and buttery and soft on the inside with just a ton of flavor and texture. Then the top is golden and crispy. It is the best of both worlds. It’s exactly what you want. I’m going to share the full recipe with you here on this episode. 

Tips and Tricks: So first of course, we’re going to talk about a few tips for this recipe. The very first thing that I want to talk about is the bread that you’re going to use for your stuffing. So if your bakery has large cubes of dried out bread, you can absolutely buy that. Now, if you’re going to buy the pre-packaged like Peppered Farm stuffing bread cubes, those tend to be so tiny. Some of it even crumbles into a powder. It just isn’t exactly what you want if stuffing is really important to you. What I recommend is buying really quality bread. So we like to use, I believe it’s Pepperidge Farm Hearty White, or the Sara Lee Artesano White Bread, and then I’ll cut it into one inch cubes and then you dry it out. So basically you’re removing the liquid from your bread so that when you add back the liquid, it’s the flavor of the stuffing, it doesn’t turn the bread into mush. 

So there are two different ways that you can dry out the bread after you’ve cubed it. The first way is the overnight method. So take the bread, lay it out on big rimmed baking sheets, and just put it on the countertop and let it sit out. Definitely overnight, maybe for a day and a half even. The other option is to turn your oven onto a low temperature of 250. Again, lay those cut bread cubes onto a rimmed baking sheet and just let them dry out in that oven for about 30 minutes. You’re going to toss them every five or 10 minutes so that it doesn’t actually brown. You just want to dry it out. You don’t want to actually brown it. So those are the two methods for drying out bread and making sure that you are getting a really quality stuffing. 

The other ingredient tip is to make sure that you’re using fresh herbs. Dried herbs are not going to give you the same flavor profile as these fresh herbs are. So for this recipe, you’re going to use fresh sage, rosemary, and Italian parsley. There’s also something in the recipe called poultry seasoning, and that is a dried seasoning that you’ll just buy in the spice aisle. But everything else is fresh. 

Okay. The other ingredient that I want to talk about before we get started with the full recipe is the pork sausage. So for this recipe, if you can find it, Jimmy Dean makes a great pork sausage called sage pork sausage. It will come in the tube or the roll. Sometimes it’s frozen and that’s something that you want to look for early. Because right around Thanksgiving or Christmas that goes like hot cakes. So if you can find that sage pork sausage, grab that for sure. Otherwise any of those Jimmy Dean rolled pork sausages will work really well. 

One last thing before we get to this recipe. Don’t be trying to save calories when you’re making your stuffing people. It calls for a lot of butter and there’s a good reason for it. It adds a ton of flavor. It gives you the right texture, and it gives you that crispy topping. It’s the holidays. Nobody’s trying to save calories during the holidays, Ok?

Sausage Stuffing Recipe: All right, so let’s get on to making this full recipe for sausage and herb stuffing. It also has cranberries in it. It’s delicious. So this is going to be made in a nine by nine baking dish, and it’s going to serve about eight people. You can absolutely, if you’re having a bigger Thanksgiving or Christmas or holiday celebration, you can double this recipe and make it in a nine by 13 dish. The baking time should still be roughly the same. 

So what you want to do is of course, make your breadcrumbs stale. However, you’re going to do that. That is step number one. Step number two. You’re going to preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and then you’re going to prep that baking dish by rubbing it with one tablespoon of softened butter.

That will just make sure that the bread and all the yummy stuffing bits don’t bake to your pan. You want them to bake together. All right, so then in a large skillet, you’re going to melt an entire stick of butter. Again, do not skimp on the butter. You want all of that flavor. So just do that over medium low heat because you don’t want to brown the butter.

Then you’re going to add one large onion that has been chopped and one cup of celery that has been chopped. This isn’t a mince, but it’s definitely a rough chop into bite size pieces, so you’re not biting into a big piece of celery in the middle of the stuffing. You just want it to be mixed in there.

So you’re going to saute that in butter until it’s softened. This is going to take like 10 to 15 minutes. Once that is nice and softened, you will go ahead and add that one pound of the bulk pork sausage. There is a tool that you can buy and I will link it in the show notes for you, but it is, I think the actual name of this is Meat Masher. What it is, it’s on a handle and then it’s a bunch of Xs, like spatula Xs that make it really easy for you to crumble meat, especially pork sausage that is super sticky. If you work with a lot of Turkey, like ground Turkey or ground pork, it’s a great tool to have in your kitchen. 

So go ahead and add that pork sausage and break it up so that it’s crumbled in the pan and that it is cooked through and no longer pink. Now at this point, if you have a ton of extra grease in the pan, you want to drain any excess grease.

All right, so remove that pan from the heat, and then you’re going to stir in four large garlic cloves that are finely chopped, one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt. Half a teaspoon of black pepper, one teaspoon of that poultry seasoning that we talked about at the beginning. You can find that in the spice aisle of your grocery store. Then two tablespoons of chopped fresh sage, one tablespoon of fresh chopped rosemary and a quarter cup of fresh chopped parsley. You can use Italian or curly. Both will totally work. Then you’re going to finish that by stirring in one cup of dried cranberries. So we’re talking about the sweetened dried cranberries. A popular brand is Ocean Spray, who makes Craisins. So that’s what you want to use here. So stir that all together, make it a nice little delicious mixture, and go ahead and set that to the side. 

Then to a really big bowl, you want to add your 12 cups of dried bread cubes, and then you want to pour that sausage, onion, celery, herb mixture over top of the breadcrumbs, and then give it a really good stir to coat everything. You’re going to set that aside. Then in a liquid measuring cup, if you have one, if you don’t have one, just use a bowl, whisk the chicken broth and the eggs together. You’re going to need two large eggs and one and a half cups of chicken broth or stock. The difference between broth and stock – broth is made generally just from the meat. The stock is made from the bones and the meat, and your stock will have more flavor than the broth. Take that mixture of the chicken broth and the eggs and pour that evenly over the bread cube mixture, and then toss everything again so that everything is moistened and it’s just barely holding together.

So then you’re going to transfer what is now your stuffing to the prepared nine by nine pan. At this point, you’ll have two tablespoons of butter left over. You’ll want to cut that into eight even cubes, and then pop that on top of the stuffing. Now at this point, if you want, you can cover it and refrigerate this stuffing for 24 hours, and then you can pop it in the oven when you’re ready to have dinner. When you’re ready to have your holiday dinner. Or you can go ahead and cover the stuffing with foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Then you’re going to remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes, and that’s it. Your stuffing is done. 

However, if you want a more golden, crispy top and edges, you can absolutely turn the broiler on for the last minute or two. That’s it. That’s the full recipe. Now what I do want to tell you is that this is a stuffing with meat. If you want more of a traditional stuffing recipe, I have one of those as well on momsdinner.net, and I will link that for you in the show notes so you can check that out. I will also link to my full Thanksgiving category so you can check out all the recipes and make sure that your Thanksgiving holiday, Christmas, whatever you’re celebrating. This is a great side dish, so make sure that it’s delicious and on your table. 

So that does it for today. Like I said, I will link all of the recipes and the equipment that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you. 

As always, I would love it if you guys would subscribe or follow this show in your preferred podcast player. Then also, tell somebody about this show and about the Mom’s Dinner recipes. I would absolutely appreciate it. It would really be a present for me. So thank you in advance. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya. Happy holidays. Happy holidays to you. .

Intro: Welcome, welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, let’s read a little, what do I want to call it? A comment, five star comment from this recipe that we’re making today. “Very delicious period. No leftovers.” I think that’s a good sign. 

Super good, super delicious, super balanced flavors. We are making a savory mashed sweet potato recipe today. I think that we’re all used to the really sickly sweet mashed sweet potatoes that are loaded with brown sugar topped with marshmallows. It can taste a little bit more like dessert than a savory dish that you would serve with dinner, and so I set out to create something that was super balanced and really rounds out the flavor of the sweet potatoes. I’ll tell you, this recipe accomplishes it in spades. I absolutely love this recipe. I will tell you I’m not even a huge, sweet potato fan, but I absolutely love this recipe.

Savory Mashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe: So no tips today. We’re just going to get straight into it and go over everything, how to make your savory mashed sweet potatoes. One difference with this recipe. A lot of mashed sweet potato recipes out there call for you to boil the sweet potatoes. We’re not doing that. We are going to develop their natural sweetness and their really deep, beautiful flavor by roasting the sweet potatoes first before mashing.

So, what you want to do is preheat your oven to 400 degrees and you’re going to grab a nine by 13 or larger baking dish, or a rimmed baking sheet. What you’re going to do is cut your sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, lay them cut side up on that roasting pan, and then you’re going to drizzle them with about three tablespoons of olive oil. You could also use canola oil here. So some type of, you know, just neutral oil will. 

Then on that same tray, you’re going to take a small head of garlic, not one clove. We want a whole entire head of garlic. You just need a small one. You’re going to trim the very top of that head of garlic off, discard the top. Then you’ll take a small piece of foil, hold it in your hand, put that whole entire head of garlic cut side up in the foil, drizzle just about a teaspoon of olive oil over the top, and then close it up so that it makes a nice little pouch for your garlic. What you’re doing is roasting that garlic and we’re going to add it to the mashed sweet potatoes, which is, Ooh, so good. If you love garlic, you’re going to love these. So pop that in the oven and you’re going to let that roast for about 15 minutes. Pull the sweet potatoes out, flip them over, and this is going to help caramelize the top of the sweet potatoes, which is so delicious. Pop them back in the oven for about another 20 minutes.

Now after that’s done, you’re going to want to make sure that your potatoes are cooked through. So take a fork and just poke it into one of the sweet potatoes. If it just goes in without any resistance, except for of course the skin, then they’re done. If you meet any resistance, you’re going to want to pop them back in the oven for five minute increments. However, before you do that, take the garlic off of the tray because you do not want to burn your garlic. So once they’re cooked all the way, you just want to let them cool for a little bit because you’re going to actually handle them with your hands or with a towel and you don’t want them to be smoking hot. 

So as soon as they’re cool enough to handle, what I usually like to do is take a towel, like a clean kitchen towel and put it in my hand, and then I’ll pick up a potato and then over a bowl where I’m going to mash the potatoes, I squeeze the inside of the potato, out of the potato skin. It usually works perfectly. Now, of course, if you don’t want to do it that way, you can just hold the potato in your hand, take a large spoon, and scrape all of the sweet potato out of the skin of the potato. Put it into just a large bowl, and then repeat that with all of the sweet potatoes.

Then you want to take that head of garlic, take it out of the foil packet, turn it upside down over those sweet potatoes, and just give it a squeeze. All of the roasted garlic should squeeze right out, and it will be so yummy. It will smell so good. So when you roast garlic, It becomes kind of sweet, but still savory and really takes off that bite of the garlic and so you can add an entire head into your sweet potatoes.

Now, here’s where we’re going to round some of the flavors out. You’re also going to add one tablespoon of brown sugar. That’s going to enhance the natural sweetness of the sweet potato, so it rounds that sweetness out. You’re going to add four tablespoons of salted butter, one tablespoon of milk, or half and half, and one teaspoon of kosher salt.

Now this is the part that I absolutely love. You’re going to add two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar in with those potatoes and that just adds that high note that the sweet potatoes need. Sweet potatoes have a very flat flavor, and when you add that tangy balsamic vinegar, it just is perfect. 

Now, either with a potato masher or with a handheld mixer, you can mix everything together. I will tell you the handheld mix works really, really well. So mix those all up until they are at your desired consistency. 

Now, of course, before you serve this dish, you want to give it a taste. So taste it, see if you like a little more balsamic vinegar. See if you want them a little sweeter. Do you want some more salt, whatever’s going to make them right for you, add just a little dash of whatever it needs. 

One thing that I do love to do when I serve these. I’ll put them in a shallow serving dish, take the back of a spoon and make some swooshes and some divots in there. Put a pat or two of butter on top so that it melts over top and keeps it looking super delicious. Then I will take some flaky sea salt. In my kitchen I have Maldon flake sea salt, and actually in the recipe card and in the show notes, I will link that product for you. It’s literally flakes of salt that are kind of crispy, and that makes such a wonderful garnish on top of these sweet potatoes, you’re going to love it.

Now you don’t need any gravy. You don’t need anything or any marshmallows or whatever topping for these sweet potatoes. So you can serve these right alongside any protein, roast, holiday table, wherever you need a starchy side dish. These savory mashed sweet potatoes will work perfectly. 

So that does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Of course, I will link all of the recipes and products that I talked about right in the show notes for you so you can save it, pin it, make it whatever you need when you are ready. 

Always my request, I would love to have you guys subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player and then also share this podcast and the Mom’s Dinner recipe with your friends, your family, a loved one. I would appreciate it. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, make your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. Hi, I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: I’m super pumped about this recipe today. We are making a no dripping gravy and if I had to categorize this recipe on my site, I think I would put it under the heading helpful content. I guess I have that top of mind because Google just did an update where they said, if your content is not helpful, we do not want to show it. So hey Google, this is super helpful content. You know, you have the holidays and let’s say you roasted the Turkey or the chickens and now it’s time to make the gravy, and you’re supposed to make the gravy out of the drippings. What if you don’t have sufficient drippings? Or what if you have a really heavy mix of greasy drippings and now how do you separate it? What do you do with it? What tools do you need? Sometimes making gravy can be extremely stressful and you don’t want to end up with lumpy gravy. There are so many levels of gravy stress, I can’t even tell. But this recipe for no drippings gravy, it’s consistent. You know how much you’re going to get. It’s not lumpy, it’s crazy flavorful. You can change the flavorings depending on what you’re serving it with. If you want a chicken gravy, a brown gravy, if you want Turkey gravy, you can totally change it up to suit the dinner that you’re making the gravy for.

I also just recently made this recipe on PinTV, so I will link in the show notes for you where I make Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes, and then I finish with making this no dripping gravy. So besides just listening to this recipe, you can actually also watch me make this recipe on PinTV.

Gravy Recipe: Usually at this point in the audio recipe, I will go over some tips to share with you about the recipe. But I think I’m going to do that while I’m going through making the actual recipe so you can hear how things work out as you’re making this. One thing I will say is that this recipe does take a little bit of time. So of course you could just make gravy with butter, flour, and chicken stock. Sure. You’ll have fine gravy, but we’re not making fine gravy. We’re making outstanding gravy. So we’re going to develop layers of flavor before we add the broth and really punch up the flavor of your gravy. To start off, you need a large, high sided skillet and you’re going to place that over medium low heat. You need one full stick of butter, so eight tablespoons of butter, and get that melting on the stove top.

Now, you want to take yellow onions. It is preferred here, it’s a little bit sweeter, so grab a yellow onion if you have it, and slice it into about quarter inch thick slices. Place that in the butter. Here’s where we’re going to take our time. You’re going to caramelize the onions. So if you pump the heat up, you’re going to burn the butter, you’re going to burn the onions, and the flavor is not going to be the same. Keep it on medium, low to maybe a medium, and you’re just going to let the onions sit and caramelize. Stir it about every five minutes. Keep an eye on the pan, but you can also just let it do its thing. 

The onions will start to get a golden brown color around the edges, maybe about 15 to 20 minutes in. This is where you’re going to add one full sprig of rosemary. There’s no need to chop it. Actually it’s better if you don’t chop it, because we’re going to remove that later. So one full sprig of rosemary, and if rosemary is not your jam, you can absolutely sub thyme here. Or you can do both. I’ve even added a sprig of sage, and that’s delicious.

So pop that in there. Then you want to crack three garlic cloves. You’re not mincing it, you’re not chopping it. Just crack them open so that they can release their oils and their flavor into the gravy. But you’re not going to end up with pieces of garlic in the gravy. 

Now let that saute and simmer and caramelize for about another 15 minutes over that medium low heat. That’s your flavor base of heaven. I’m telling you, it will smell so good. That’s the flavor you’re infusing into your gravy. Next you’re going to add another big flavor punch. So there’s something at the grocery store called Chicken Base. It’s going to be by the Bouillon, but it’s like a grownup version of Bouillon. It comes usually in a jar or a tub, and it’s a paste form. It makes this gravy stand out. So you’re going to add one and a half teaspoons of chicken base. I personally like the Better than Bouillon brand. It seems to be just a true, really good flavor without being overly salty. 

Now, if it’s during the holidays, you can absolutely add a dash of ground sage and ground poultry seasoning at this point, just to punch up the flavor a little bit. Stir that chicken base in, and it should just melt right into the onions and right along with that butter. 

Also, this is where you can change up the flavor profile. The better than Bouillon Brand has, just about every base from lobster to ham. Everything you need. If you want beef, Turkey, chicken, whatever you want your gravy to match, then change up the base that you’re adding here.

Alright, now you’re going to add in one third cup of all-purpose flour. This is making a roux. A roux is basically flour mixed with a fat that thickens a sauce or a liquid. Stir that flour into that butter mixture and just stir it around the pan for about one minute so that you get rid of that raw flour flavor.

Next, you’re going to slowly whisk in three cups of stock or broth. Again, this is where you can change up your flavor profile. So if you’re using chicken, beef, Turkey, change up the broth or stock to match what you’re serving. Once that is completely whisked in and everything looks smooth, it’s going to look really liquidy. Don’t be nervous. What you’re going to do is crank the heat up to medium high and let that simmer just for a few minutes until it thickens up perfectly. If you want to make it extra. Luscious and shiny and delicious. You can stir in a little bit of heavy cream at this point, or add another pat or two of butter.

But the very final step you want to do is strain the gravy. So you still have some onion pieces in there. You still have the garlic chunks, and you have the rosemary or the herbs that you added in. You want to strain all of that out. So what you’ll do is take a fine mesh colander, place it over a large bowl and strain all of those solids out. So I usually just pour it all right into that colander and then take my whisk and stir it around in there. Make sure you scrape all of the gravy off the bottom of the colandar so that you get every last bit. Give it a taste. See if you want more salt, see if you want more cream. If it gets too thick, you can pour in a little extra broth. If it’s not thick enough, you can put it back on and simmer it for a little bit longer. Right in the post I have all of the troubleshooting things that you need to make sure that your gravy is absolutely perfect. Because for some people they say that mashed potatoes are just the vessel to carry the gravy. So you want to make sure it’s perfect and delicious. 

So that does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Of course, I will link the recipe for no drippings gravy right in the show notes for you, as well as a couple really killer mashed potato recipes that you can use to carry your gravy. That’s it.

So I would love to have you guys follow and subscribe to your preferred podcast player and also tell a friend, a loved one, a family member about this show and about the Mom’s Dinner recipes. I would appreciate it. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: You guys, I am so excited to be recording this episode. So last night, which I’m going to date this episode, it was November 8th. I did a PinTV live making these Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes, and it went so well. So within the show notes of this episode, I will also put a link to that PinTV episode so you can actually watch these Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes being made as well as listen to the full recipe here on this podcast episode.

Obviously we’re in November when I’m recording this, so Thanksgiving is right around the corner and mashed potatoes can sometimes be the star of the table. For me, it’s the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the corn casserole, and the cranberries. Those are the things that I want to eat at Thanksgiving. Turkey, it’s fine, right? Turkey’s just okay in my mind. I love ham. I actually might make a ham this year, but enough about Thanksgiving. This is not supposed to be a Thanksgiving episode. It’s just on my mind because here we are. But you can make these Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes year round. They go great with burgers. They go great with pot roast. They go great with Swedish meatballs. Anything that calls for a mashed potato side dish, these are knockout. They are not your traditional butter and milk mashed potatoes. This recipe has cream cheese, sour cream, butter, kosher salt, a little raw garlic, and it is just knockout. They do not need any gravy. But if you want to make gravy, I have a great no dripping gravy recipe that I will link in the show notes for you. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s go over a couple tips when you’re making these Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes. Number one, the recipe calls for Russet potatoes. You could try to make it with Yukon gold potatoes, but that is such a different potato compared to a Russet. The recipe was really written for Russet potatoes because what you end up with is, the Russets are a very nice starchy, sturdy potato. They hold up to the instant pot. Then the amount of liquid and cream and butter and sour cream. Everything that you’re adding makes them this just velvety texture where they’re still thick enough so they hold up to all of those mix-ins. So I would highly recommend this recipe, you stick with the Russets. However, I do have a recipe for Yukon Gold mashed potatoes. They’re not made in the Instant Pot, but they’re made on the stove top and I will link that recipe for you as well if you want to check that one out too. 

At the very end of this recipe, you add raw garlic. The recipe is made with three pounds of potatoes and you’re adding one raw garlic clove. Don’t be scared that the raw garlic is going to take over the entire dish. It does not. It’s just the right amount to flavor the mashed potatoes with the most delicious garlic flavor. It is perfect. 

Two other add-ins that we are adding. Well, actually three other things we’re adding. We’re only adding a half a cup of water, so these mashed potatoes are no drain mashed potatoes, which is amazing. You don’t have to use a colander. Everything’s done in one pot. Another add-in is your sour cream. Use full fat sour cream. It’s just going to make things creamier and more delicious. You could maybe get away, maybe, I don’t know. You could maybe get away with using a Greek yogurt, but sour cream is really where it’s at. 

The other add-in is your cream cheese. You want the cream cheese to be slightly softened, so leave it at room temperature for a while while the Instant Pot is coming to pressure and cooking the potatoes. If you leave it out at room temperature, it’s going to soften just enough so that that cream cheese mixes in with the mashed potatoes really well, and you don’t end up with clumps of cream cheese, which wouldn’t be terrible, right? But it’s better if it’s nice and mixed in, nice and smooth. Those are all my tips for your Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes. Let’s get on to making this recipe. 

Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes Recipe: I think I have this recipe actually memorized, so I’m not even going to open up a recipe card to move through this with you. What you’re going to do is start with three pounds of recipe potatoes. You’re going to get those peeled up washed. Here’s another little tip for you actually. I’m going to sprinkle a few tips throughout this recipe. If you’re making these for the holidays and you need to get your potatoes done ahead of time, you can absolutely peel your Russet potatoes a couple hours ahead of time and just put them in a cool water bath and they’ll stay fine and ready for you to use in a couple hours. That water will keep your potatoes from browning, so that’s a great tip anytime you have to make mashed potatoes and you have to peel a lot of potatoes. 

So you’re going to start with those three pounds of Russets, peel them up, and then you’re going to cut them into two to three inch pieces. What that’s doing is making sure that all of your potatoes have an even cooking time in the instant pot. Pop all of those into your instant pot, and then you’re going to pour in half a cup of water, and then you’re going to sprinkle in two teaspoons of kosher salt. It’s going to sound like a lot of salt, but potatoes require quite a bit of salt and butter and flavor to be delicious. So that’s where we’re starting with this one. You’re going to pop the lid of the instant pot on, turn that pressure valve to seal and set it to cook manual setting. So manual pressure, normal heat, high pressure for 11 minutes. Let it do its thing, and then finish with a natural release.

Once all that pressure is released, you’re going to open up the Instant pot. Your potatoes are going to be cooked perfectly. Like I said before, there’s no need to drain. You only put a half a cup of water in there and you can leave it in. You’re going to mix it in with the potatoes. Now you’re going to add your mix-ins. You’re going to add four tablespoons of butter, half a cup of sour and four ounces of cream cheese. Now it’s time to mix them up. So you can use a handheld potato masher, but what I like to do is use my handheld mixer just with the two beaters and whip the potatoes up. It whips them perfectly smooth and creamy. After that’s all mixed up, what you’re going to do next is chop up one raw garlic clove. Give it a really good mince so it mixes throughout the potatoes. Add two tablespoons of milk or half and half. Give it one last mix and your potatoes are ready. 

Guys, it’s the easiest recipe ever, and I’m telling you, you don’t need gravy. You don’t need extra butter, you don’t need anything. They are super, super delicious, just as is. 

So, of course you can find the full recipe on my website momsdinner.net, and I will put a link right in the show notes that can take you directly to that recipe. You can print it out, you can pin it, save it, make it, whatever you need to do.

So that does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. If you’re enjoying these episodes and these recipes, I would love to have you follow and subscribe to your preferred podcast player as well as tell a friend or a family member or a loved one about this podcast and about the Mom’s Dinner recipes. I would love you for it.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya. 

Okay, you guys, one tip that I totally forgot to add in the episode, so we’re just going to add it here at the end. We’re just going to keep it casual. When you are serving mashed potatoes, you want to plan to make half a pound of potatoes per person. So in this recipe, we’re using three pounds of potatoes. You’re going to get six servings. All right, use that tip. See you guys later.

Intro: Hello, hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes and holiday recipes that you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Ooh, you guys. Cuddle up. Let’s talk about the holidays a little bit. I’m super excited. So I’m recording just before Thanksgiving. So we’ve got all of the traditional holiday recipes on the top of our minds, and one that I absolutely love that is always a pop out for me are the cranberries. So it was just, to me, the cranberries, of course when I was little, I hated them. Like how disgusting were cranberries when you were little. But as an adult, it is such a flavor balancer for the holiday dinner. So everything is super rich. You know, you have potatoes and gravy and Turkey or ham and stuffing. Everything is so heavy. Then you put those tart, fresh, cold cranberries on your plate and it just balances everything out. It’s like the palate cleanser you can keep coming back to after you’re like, okay, I’ve eaten all the mashed potatoes. Okay, let me take a few bites of those cranberries. It’s cold, it’s refreshing. So good. 

So if you’ve never made cranberries before, of course there’s a few different options that you can go here. You can just buy jellied cranberries from the grocery store. It’s what you think of when you think of EW cranberries, the whole thing dumps out in one piece. You can still see the ribs of the can on it. You slice it into slices and for some people that is what cranberries are, and it’s traditional. It’s kind of funny. People love it. However, there’s another option in the canned variety. You can buy whole cranberry, cranberry sauce. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Of course, you can make cranberries with fresh cranberries, which is great. But if your grocery store is out of fresh cranberries and you need to make cranberry sauce, go to the canned aisle and grab a can of whole berry cranberry sauce. We love the Ocean Spray brand, but use whatever they have available at your store.

What this is going to be are basically whole cranberries. There’s still going to be pieces and whole round cranberries within the jellied cranberry sauce. The thing that this lacks is depth of flavor and multiple layers of texture. So you can take two cans of whole berry cranberry sauce from the grocery store and zhuzh it up and make it so incredibly delicious. So let’s just jump right into this recipe. 

Tips and Tricks: I don’t have a ton of tips around this recipe. It’s really just an easy way to have super delicious cranberry sauce at your holiday table. Here are the ingredients you need to make your canned cranberry sauce recipe. You need two 14 ounce cans of whole berry cranberry sauce, an eight ounce can of crushed pineapple in juice. You want to make sure that you buy the one in a hundred percent juice and not a crushed pineapple in syrup. Then you’ll need one navel orange, just a fresh orange, medium, or large size. You’ll need some ground cinnamon and then some ground clove. 

Canned Cranberry Sauce Recipe: All right, so what you’re going to do is you’re going to take a large saucepan and put it over low heat. You’re going to pour in the two whole berry cranberry sauce cans, the whole can of eight ounce crushed pineapple and juice, the zest of one full orange, then a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a really healthy pinch of ground clove. You just warm that together for about 10 minutes over low heat, and you want to give it a stir occasionally, and that’s it.

Susie Weinrich: Now the key here is, tasting for your preference. If you like your cranberry super sweet, you can absolutely add in a little brown sugar, a little white sugar. Give it a stir, let it melt in. Now, if you like your cranberries a little more tart like I do, then you can squeeze in just a little bit of lemon juice. Of course, taste as you go because once it’s in there, you can’t take it out. If you added too much lemon juice and now it’s a little too tart, sprinkle a little sugar in and it should balance out perfectly. 

You’ll remove this from the heat and let it cool for about 15 to 20 minutes. It’s up to your personal preference if you want to serve your cranberries warm, or if you want to make them ahead, you can make them up to three days ahead, pop them in the fridge, and then serve them cold. 

So during the holidays when you’re making all of those dishes, I highly recommend making your cranberries a couple days ahead so that you don’t even have to worry about it. It’s already done. If you have some cranberries left over after the holidays, try eating this cranberry sauce over vanilla ice cream. I’m telling you guys, it is such a delicious treat. I know the tradition is to put it on Turkey sandwiches, but just give it a try over vanilla ice cream and let me know what you think.

You can always connect with me in the comment section of the actual recipe on momsdinner.net. So if you have anything to say about it. That’s where you need to meet me. 

That does it for this episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Of course, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about right in the show notes so you can find them, make them, save them, pin them, whatever you need.

I would also love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player or tell a friend, a loved one, a family member about this show and about Mom’s Dinner recipes. I would absolutely love you for that. 

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner Makes your dinner time a little easier. Happy holidays, everyone.