Dinner - Joyous Home Forum

Crispy Side Twist Baked Potato

Theresa — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 22:28:39 +0000

My daughter made these the other night as a side dish. I only grabbed one picture to share with my sister, not thinking I would end up sharing here. They were so good. Leftovers can be refrigerated and cut up to make fried potatoes for breakfast.

Cover the bottom of a baking pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Scrub potatoes and vertically cut in half. Rub each potato with olive oil to coat the skin and cut side. Put one slice of butter and sprinkle cheese where the potato will be placed. (use any type of cheese)

Now, lay the potato cut side down on the butter/cheese. Repeat until your pan is full. Season the top with your favorite seasoning. We used a pepper, garlic, and salt mix. Be careful if your cheese is salty - skip the salt in that case.

The cheese is so crispy underneath, it was a perfect side. Cut open and add some butter and sour cream!

Bake at 350° until soft, about 45 minutes.

Italian Bread

Theresa — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 01:12:38 +0000

Wow, this Italian bread came out wonderful! We made Lasagna to go with this :)

Recipe:
2 1/2 c. warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast
3 1/2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 TBSP salt
1/2 c. vegetable oil
5 1/2 - 6 c. white flour

Egg wash, salt, sugar, seasoning for the brushed top.

Mix together the water, yeast, and sugar in a large stand mixer. Let it sit for about 5 min. It should foam up a bit.

Add the oil and salt, and just mix slightly. Add 3 cups of flour, and mix, then add the other 2 1/2 cups and mix. The dough should be tacky but not stick to your fingers, and the bowl should have started to 'clean'. If it sticks, add 3 TBSP more flour. I'm really careful with adding more flour, you can't take it out!

In a high-speed stand mixer (like the Bosch), I mix for 4 minutes on high and test the gluten development with a little stretch of the dough.

Bake 25-30 minutes until it reaches 180 degrees. Enjoy!

Easy Steak Bowls

Theresa — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 23:15:15 +0000

I had a 1 1/2lb of tri-tip steak. Not really enough to feed our whole family by itself, so I made steak bowls.

I added oil to my dutch oven, put the steak in, salt, pepper, herbs, garlic. Covered and baked for an hour. Sliced it up and added it back to the dutch oven, with all the seasoned bits in oil (yum)! Then on the stove top, I added 2 cans of pinto beans, 2 cans of Rotel, 2 chopped green peppers, and 1 chopped onion. This makes a nice sauce alone, no other liquid was needed. Tri-tip has a bit more fat to it, so it's perfect for this.

We sliced up avocado, olives, shredded some white cheddar - any topping you think is great works. We made a big salad and rice. I like mine over tortilla chips with my salad. And this was enough to feed our family of 10 :D

I LOVE my dutch oven.

Best Orange Chicken!

Theresa — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 03:19:52 +0000

My daughter, Madi, really has this orange chicken down! We love getting orange chicken out occasionally, but with ten people, it gets expensive. We just worked at it until we had a good replication. We made steamed broccoli and rice with this. The red pepper flakes are a must. But I just love red pepper flakes with sweet. :D

I've attached the printable recipe for our members!

Friday Night Pizza

Theresa — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 00:17:25 +0000

Every Friday night we make pizza. That's been a tradition since we've been married. Here's our recipe for dough and sauce.

Dough - Makes 3 Large Pizzas - Oven 400 degress
3 c. warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast
2-3 Tbsp. honey or 2 Tbsp sugar (crispier crust with sugar)
Approx. 6 cups unbleached white flour - enough to clean the bowl

If you're using something like a Bosch, mix for 3-4 minutes and let rest. Roll onto your pizza pans.

Pizza Sauce:
Saute 1/2 Tbsp. of minced garlic in 1 Tbsp. olive oil
Add 1 Tbsp. thyme and Italian seasoning, Saute for a few more minutes.

Add:
15oz. can of tomato sauce
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt

Heat sauce for about 15 minutes. You can make this ahead of time and put in the refrigerator until ready to make the pizza.

For white pizza we do this:
Saute fresh mushrooms and garlic in 3 Tbsp. butter.
I like olive oil and balsamic vinegar spread on the crust - feta cheese, the mushroom mixture, mozzarella, and any other toppings.

We bake ours for 20-25 minutes.

What's For Dinner?

Theresa — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 23:56:36 +0000

This is a discussion between Jess and I daily. We like ideas so I thought I would start a topic here. Just reply. Share the recipe if you can please - even a link if you got it somewhere else. :D

Tonight we had a craving for stuffing and sweet potatoes. I made our fresh cornbread stuffing with chicken, gravy, and sweet potatoes. BTW, the stuffing is great with scrambled eggs in the morning ... I'm hungry.

What's for dinner at your house?

Perfect Mac and Cheese

Theresa — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 19:28:54 +0000

This recipe is from the Chunky Chef! Wonderful!! My kids are mac and cheese crazies, I'm not really, but I did enjoy this one. Only changes, I added more spice, including onion powder and crushed red pepper flakes. I used white cheddar (my fav) and shredded fontina, swiss, and cheddar from Costco, in the sauce. Then a mix of white cheddar, shredded parmesan, asiago, and romano in between and on top. I sprinkled with red pepper flakes and chives. Follow her directions for layering. I also doubled the sauce because of my family size. It made a deep dish 9"x 13" and a smaller casserole. Dinner is on!

Hamburger Gravy for Fries!

Theresa — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 00:55:35 +0000

I started making a steak and pepper gravy for noodles tonight when I realized I only had ground hamburger, and dried green peppers - I decided to bake up some fries and use it for gravy over fries. This is a pretty fast dinner! I make dinners for a family of 10, 5 are adult men, so if this is too much, just cut it in half. I sometimes cook on the fly, meaning I add certain things like liquids, without measuring. When it comes to making gravy, we just use enough cold liquid with flour until we reach the consistency we like. Do not add flour to hot liquid! I have put exact measurements here for the liquids I used. The wine and milk make up the cold liquid for the flour - you can use all milk. Taste-testing for spices such as salt is important if you use something other than beef base with water. The beef base we use is from Sam's Club, and is pretty good as a base. Beef broth in a can may not taste as good.

3lbs cooked ground beef
2 onions, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped (or 1/2 c. dried peppers)
4 cups frozen peas
1 1/2 c. water
4 TBSP beef base
2 15 oz. cans chicken broth
1 c. red wine
1 1/2 c. milk
1 c. flour
3 tsp. ground pepper
2 TBSP. salt
2 tsp. onion powder
Frozen French Fries - baked!
Shredded cheese for fries

Cook the ground beef partially, then add the onion, peas, peppers, and spices. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring, then add the chicken broth, beef base, and water. (Alternatively, you could use canned beef broth, but we like the base with water.) The goal is to cover your meat with liquid and then saute the veggies. Prepare the roux (wine and milk), make sure the milk is very cold and whisk the flour in until there are no lumps. Add this to the beef mix. It should take about 5 minutes to thicken. Don't taste it for at least 5 minutes! Raw flour is yukky. If it's not getting thick enough try another 1/4 cup of cold liquid, with 3 TBSP of flour. Bake the fries until almost done, cover with cheese, and bake the rest of the way. Spoon gravy on top! Note: I use sprayed glass casserole dishes for frozen fries. They come out nice and crispy and they are easy to stir. Blessings, Theresa