Baked Potato with Toppings

Mmmm.  This meal is a crowd-pleaser.  And quite appropriate, since we live in Idaho.  I'm filing this under the Pork section, because we use Lil' Smokies and bacon as part of our toppings.

Baked Potato with Toppings

Wrap your potatoes with foil before putting them into the oven to cook. Otherwise, your skins will be hard as rocks.  Cook for one hour at 350 degrees, unless your potatoes are huge.  You may have to do another half an hour to another hour if you've got really big ones.

Toppings we like on ours:
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped broccoli
Summer sausage (if we can get it cheap enough) or Lil' Smokies pre-cooked sausages, chopped
Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Yummmers.

Company Fruit Salad

I got this recipe off of allrecipes.com - It calls for two kinds of grapes and two kinds of apples, but I didn't want to go to the store, so I just doubled up on the grapes and apples of one kind each. :)  It was still fantastic.  But I do think it would be prettier with the two kinds of grapes and two kinds of apples.

Company Fruit Salad

Ingredients

• 4 medium Golden Delicious apples, diced
• 4 medium Red Delicious apples, diced
• 2 cups seedless green grapes, halved
• 2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
• 1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
• DRESSING:
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

1. Combine all the fruit in a large bowl. In a mixing bowl, beat dressing ingredients until smooth. Pour over fruit; toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.

Rigatoni with Brie, Grape Tomatoes, Olives, and Basil

I had a bunch of brie cheese leftover from this meal, so I hopped onto epicurious.com and typed in "brie" to see what I could see. This meal looked fantastic, so I gave it a shot and looooved it. I love me some pasta.

And, by the way, I've noticed that recipes have longer names of late. Get a load of this one! It's huge!!! Why, back in my day, it would have been called something like Tomato Rigatoni, or something. And we would have eaten it while we walked uphill both ways, through snow, for five miles each way, to and from school...

Rigatoni with Brie, Grape Tomatoes, Olives, and Basil

• 1 (12-ounce) wedge Brie, rind removed, cheese cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups)
• 1 (12-ounce) package grape or cherry tomatoes, each halved
• 1/2 cup quartered pitted Kalamata olives
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) dried crushed red pepper
• 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped, plus sprigs for garnish
• 3/4 pound rigatoni

Off heat, place cheese, tomatoes, olives, garlic, and crushed red pepper in large skillet. Stir, separating cheese pieces. Mix in chopped basil.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid.

Add hot pasta and 1/4 cup reserved pasta liquid to skillet with cheese mixture. Place over medium heat and toss until cheese is partially melted and sauce coats pasta, adding more reserved pasta liquid by tablespoonfuls if dry, about 5 minutes. Season pasta to taste with salt. Transfer to large shallow bowl. Garnish with basil sprigs and serve.