Pinterest Wins: Creamed Corn & Potato Salad

The joy of dating John is that he likes to cook, too. Mostly he loves the grill, but since moving to Houston he has become quite the smoker. Not the cigarette, cancer causing kind but more of the throw some meat on the smoker for a long time and see what happens. He is meticulous... the man has a notebook noting the rubs and marinades he uses, how long things cook for, what turned out good & what needs tweaking...

In a nutshell, nothing like me. I search on Pinterest, find something that looks interesting and make it. I "save" the recipe on Pinterest and then I am done. I'm a Pinterest troll, and a tad bit lazy...

On Sunday, John smoked over 14 pounds of meat: sausage, brisket, ribs, pork and chicken. To help you understand this, it is Wednesday and we still have tons of meat left over. John has gotten excited that we recently got to consolidate Tupperware containers. It's the little things for us two...

I, of course, thought that I needed to add more to this cooking extravaganza than my charm and good looks. In true Lee fashion (aka "so like lee"), I went to Pinterest. I found two different recipes, from two different boards (I like to shake things up).

The first caught my eye from my 'Slow Cooking' board, and I knew it was meant for me because it requires a Crock Pot. Who doesn't love easy meals, plus if John was slow cooking then I should follow suit! I chose to make Creamed Corn... um... who (other than my Mom - Betty) doesn't like creamed corn!?! Remind me to tell you about the fried creamed corn John & I had while visiting his family in Minnesota... HOLY HELL!!!

This recipe comes from a blog called Damn Delicious. With a name like that, how do you not automatically like this blog??? Chungah, this cute girl from LA, has some great recipes. Her goal is to make them simple and yummy for all. (Those are my words, not hers.) Her creamed corn did not disappoint! I mean, check out her picture!

Photo from http://damndelicious.net

Now, mine wasn't as pretty but it tasted oh so good! Even John agreed... no, really... he did! No laughing at Lee on this one! I did change up the recipe a little bit: it calls for milk but isn't specific. I used 2% because that is what my sweet man got at the store. We both agree that next time we should go for heavy cream or whole milk. Basically, the end result was good but wasn't unhealthy enough for us. (I told you John & I are a perfect match!) Click here to check out the Damn Delicious recipe: http://damndelicious.net/2013/11/24/slow-cooker-creamed-corn/, and check out my not-as-fancy picture below. (I was too lazy to pull it from the Crock Pot & take a picture in one of my pretty bowls... sue me!)

The second dish I made, while the creamed corn was cooking because I know how to multi-task - gold star for me, was potato salad. I mean, what else goes with a crapton of meat!?! High five me for the great choice!

This pinned recipe came from my Hungry, Hungry Hippo board. (You'll see a trend that most recipes are on this board.) The picture alone on the Loaded Baked Potato Salad was enough for me to pin it. In rare form, I didn't even read the recipe first. I fell in love, and that was it!

This one is from Carole, a mom of SIX children!!! SIX! I have one dog and am exhausted. Kudos Carole... and Kudos on the blog! Oh, I guess this would help: the blog is called My Kitchen Escapades. Carole has recipes dating back to 2008, so get ready to start trying them out! You should see the pic of Carole's potato salad!

Photo from http://www.mykitchenescapades.com

Now, I do call this recipe a Win but will tell you that I made a few mistakes. One of which was a bit rookie... not brown rice rookie, but bacon rookie. The worst mistake you can make!

The recipe calls for 6 large potatoes. I can tell you that Carole probably doesn't live in Texas (not proven, so don't quote that) because "large" potatoes in Texas are pretty much JUMBO anywhere else. I didn't take that into consideration. John got 4 potatoes, at my request, because it is just the two of us. I wanted enough for left overs but not too much that we were swimming in potato salad. He got large, like I asked. They were so huge that we only used three of them. I can tell you, three Texas potatoes are too much! Not sure that is a mistake, per say... but definitely something to keep in mind.

Back to the bacon... I had turkey bacon in the freezer and thawed that out Saturday night so I could use it. Seriously!?! I am making potato salad, nothing healthy about this dish - why settle for turkey bacon? Basically, it would have been a home run if I used real bacon. Total rookie move. People... please learn from my mistakes!

More sour cream and mayonnaise were needed than the recipe states because of the size of the potatoes we had, so keep that in mind. Also, this dish has gotten better the longer it sits. I made it about 3-4 hours in advance on Sunday, but it tasted better today (Wednesday) when I stole a bit out of the fridge on my way to work. Oh don't give me that look, like you don't do that too! Here is the end result of the salad:

 

And, of course, the direct link to Carole's blog with the recipe: http://www.mykitchenescapades.com/2013/05/loaded-baked-potato-salad.html

I have some more recipes I am making Friday for a pool party Saturday. Don't worry your pretty little head, I will share these, too (after everyone at the party tries them first)!