Creamy Mashed Potatoes

I love mashed potatoes, but the ones I made in the past were never that amazing.  I finally decided to search for some mashed potato making tips and I finally found the key to creamy mashed potatoes! Cream cheese.  Truly - so delish!  I saw this tip on Pioneer Woman's blog and she used a lot more butter and cream cheese than I did (she's a little fearless on the fat front...), but I still added both and it was so yummy.  I added whole milk, cream cheese, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  I think other toppings like chives and bacon bits would be delicious additions, but this was great on its own too.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/delicious_creamy_mashed_potatoes/

This was, by far, the most popular pie I made for Thanksgiving this year.  Jeremy loves it and has reminded me several times to print the recipe.  The original recipe used a regular pie crust, but I did it on a graham cracker crust and I think that was a good move.

Banana Cream Pie

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 10 min. Cook: 15 min. + chillingYIELD:8 servings

Ingredients

• 1 pre-made graham cracker pie crust
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups 2% milk
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 pastry shell (9 inches), baked
• 2 large firm bananas
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped

Directions

• 1. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt and milk until smooth. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat. Stir a small amount of hot filling into eggs; return all to pan. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 2 minutes longer.
• 2. Remove from heat. Gently stir in butter and vanilla. Press plastic wrap onto surface of custard; refrigerate, covered, 30 minutes.
• 3. Spread half of the custard into pie crust. Slice bananas; arrange over filling. Pour remaining custard over bananas. Spread with whipped cream. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. Yield: 8 servings.

From Taste of Home

White Chocolate Fondue

We had "black & white" fondue for dessert tonight - semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate -  and it was a hit.  The white chocolate fondue was the most popular, by far.  The chocolate was good but not amazing, so we'll try another recipe for the chocolate next time we do this.


White Chocolate Fondue

12 oz. white chocolate chips
1/8 C. milk
1/8 C. heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Put all ingredients in the top of a double boiler over simmering water.  Heat and stir frequently until melted and smooth.  Serve warm.  (Or, you can put all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each one, until smooth.)
Serve with orange slices, bananas, pretzels, graham crackers, marshmallows, strawberries and whatever else sounds good to you.  :)