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Smashed Potatoes

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This post brought to you by Pompeian Olive Oil  //  There are perfect pairings in the world, cheese & crackers,  peanut butter & jelly,  potatoes & butter…  Well, in my world I like to stretch the bounds of reason and try new things. I’m not afraid, and I’m always on the lookout for a new perfect pairing. My new discovery… Swapping my butter for olive oil when serving potatoes. Yes, I know it’s not a new thing, but for some it might be. You know who you are… Those of you who are stuck in your meat and potato rut. I’m here to save the day and give you a little heart healthy advice. Swap your butter for olive oil when it comes to roasted smashed potatoes… You’ll thank me!!

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This recipe is one of my family favorites! It’s such a simple side dish, and yet it packs a good punch when served with your favorite grilled meat. I like to use either fingerling potatoes or small red potatoes for this dish. Their flesh is thin and the golden potato center is buttery and smooth. Paired with a good flavorful Extra Virgin Olive Oil like Pompeian’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil  and some fresh chopped chives, the taste is divine.

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Smashed Potatoes
 
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This simple side dish is perfect with any type of grilled meat, or even on their own!
Author:
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 20 small red or fingerling potatoes
  • Pompeian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Salt & Pepper
  • 2 table spoons of chopped chives
Instructions
  1. In a medium sauce pot, place your potatoes in cool water and place over high heat to partially boil the potatoes. Cook over high heat for 10-15 until you can pierce the potato with a knife. Make sure you don't over cook the potatoes.
  2. Remove potatoes from the heat and drain.
  3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place your baking sheet with 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into the oven to preheat.
  4. Once the oven and pan are up to temperature, remove from the oven and immediately place your potatoes onto the hot pan.
  5. Using a potato masher, gently smash the potatoes.
  6. Drizzle with more olive oil and season generously with salt & pepper.
  7. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the potatoes start to crisp.
  8. Remove from oven and garnish with chopped chives. Serve immediately.

Now all your family and friends are going to fall in love with your potato prowess! The crispy edges of these smashed potatoes will invite them in and the flavor of the olive oil with the chives will remind them of home.  Serve with your favorite grilled meat and you will for sure be a hit!!

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Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Pompeian Olive Oil. I did receive product and payment for this post. However, all thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own. Rest assured, I will never promote a company or product that I don’t use or believe in!

Ladies Fiesta Dinner Party

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+ This Ladies Fiesta Dinner Party brought to you by Pepcid® +

whipperberry-ladies-fiesta

As you all know… I LOVE to entertain! The idea of spending time coming up with a menu and cooking all day makes me happy… Seriously I love it! Recently, I had the chance to throw a fun Ladies Fiesta for a few friends for a fun Girls Night IN at my place. SUPER FUN!! Some of you may have followed along on Instagram while I was prepping for the night.  Here’s the menu…

Frozen Shirley Temples

Spicy Scallop and Shrimp Cocktail

Creamy Avocado Gazpacho

Light Tacos

Creamy Corn Cups

Fiesta Summer Salad

Dirty Diet Coke

ChocoFlan

Many of the recipes are from or inspired by one of my favorite Food Network Chef’s Marcela Valladolid from Mexican Made Easy.  When I decided to have a girls night, I thought a classy fiesta would be super fun and Marcela was the perfect chef to turn to for all kinds of classy fiesta recipes. I didn’t want a night full of chips and guacamole followed with a pan full of enchiladas. I wanted it to be light, fresh and refined. This menu was perfect… Except for one thing.

ladies-fiesta-GNO-with-WhipperBerry

Here’s a little known fact about me…  I have struggled for years with mild heartburn.  Over the years, I have learned what foods trigger this condition in me and you would be surprised that even a relatively fresh and light fiesta menu like the one above could cause all kinds of issues with my sensitive stomach.  You would think that the typical fiesta fair like heavy burritos and enchiladas would be the only culprits, but it’s not. Everyone is different but even fresh food, if they are high in acid like tomatoes, can trigger a rough night. That’s why when it comes to nights like this, I turn to Pepcid® to help me enjoy the food that I so lovely prepared for my friends! Wouldn’t it be a shame to go to all that work just to suffer in the end? If you are like me at all, you should visit the Pepcid® Facebook page for all kinds of ways to help keep your stomach happy!

Here’s how the night went… I prepped food all day, and while I was doing that I watched as the clouds rolled in. The plan was to eat outside and enjoy a nice summer evening and a rain storm was NOT on the menu. Sure enough, about an hour before the ladies were to arrive, the clouds opened up and DUMPED a ton of rain. YAY! Not to worry, I kept working on party prep and when my friends arrived I put them to work, drying of the table and chairs, no worries there. The rest of the night was perfect, so we didn’t let that little bump create issues for this fiesta! We set the table with fun mismatched plates and dressed it with some simple greenery, lanterns and candles. It looked lovely!

Cocktail + Frozen Shirley Temple +

Once everything was dry, we had my version of a frozen Shirley Temple.

frozen-shirley-temple-from-whipperberry

How fun is that? I made a cherry popsicle in my Zoku with all the tasty cherries that are in season right now and then paired it with some coconut La Croix seltzer water to make a fun “cocktail” to start off the night (we aren’t big cocktail drinkers here.) You can get the recipe here!

Appetizer + Scallop & Shrimp Cocktail +

For an appetizer I served a scrumptious scallop and shrimp cocktail…

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I kicked this up a notch with some doctored cocktail sauce and then added pan seared, chilled scallops to the shrimp and it was divine. To make it even easier I removed the tail on the shrimp  and added it right to the cocktail sauce. It’s much easier to eat with a fork and you don’t have to deal with messy hands… perfect! You can get this recipe here.

Soup + Creamy Avocado Gazpacho with Spicy Croutons +

Next, for the soup course… I served a creamy avocado gazpacho that really hit the spot.

creamy-avacado-gazpacho-from-WhipperBerry

When it comes to cooking for a dinner party, you want simple, yet tasty. Especially in the summer, when you have access to all kinds of fresh veggies, gazpacho is perfect. It’s a chilled soup that is perfect for a classy fiesta. You can find this recipe here.

Main Course + Light Tacos, Fiesta Summer Salad & Creamy Corn Cups +

light-tacos-with-whipperberry

Since this was a fresh summer take on a fiesta, I decided to go with a lighten-up version of tacos. I found this fun recipe from Marcela for a light taco that used butter lettuce for the shell rather than your traditional corn tortilla. It was super tasty and you can find Marcela’s recipe here.

light-tacos-from-WhipperBerry

With the light tacos I served the most amazing salad…

fiesta-summer-salad

It is a mexican take on a panzanella salad full of tomatoes, olives, spicy croutons and few more tasty surprises. You can find that recipe here.

The last side dish was a little more decadent than the other lighter recipes that we had enjoyed throughout the night. Creamy corn cups are an iconic Mexican treat full of all kinds of creamy goodness. I took that recipe straight from Marcela and you can find that recipe here.

Dessert + CocoFlan & Dirty Diet Coke +

Get ready… this dessert will ROCK YOUR WORLD! Yea, not kidding…

chocoflan-from-WhipperBerry

If you are a chocolate cake lover and a flan lover (which apparently I am) This recipe will knock your socks off. It’s chocolate cake and flan together. Again this is one of Marcela’s recipes and it is for sure a show stopper. I will have to say, your guest may beat down your door the following day to get access to the leftovers (if you have any!) Surprisingly enough, this actually pairs nicely with a dirty Diet Coke! You can get the recipe for the ChocoFlan here and the dirty Diet Coke here.

chocoflan-with-dirty-diet-coke-from-WhipperBerry

All in all the night was SUPER fun, a total flavor festival and thanks to Pepcid I wasn’t regretting it afterward.

Disclaimer // I have received information, product and materials from McNeil Consumer Pharmaceuticals C0., the makers of PEPCID®. The opinions stated are my own. This is a sponsored post.

Fiesta Summer Salad

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+ This Fiesta Summer Salad is inspired by Marcela Valladolid from The Food Network +

fiesta-summer-salad

This salad BLEW MY MIND… It’s simply amazing! It is seriously a flavor explosion in your mouth. It was inspired by Marcela Valladolid from the Food Networks show Mexican Made Easy. I took her recipe and then went a step further and turned it into a Mexican version of Panzanella Salad which is a bread salad. I added some spiced croutons and it was lovely! Here’s the recipe for the salad and you can find the recipe for the spicy croutons HERE…

Fiesta Summer Salad
 
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This salad is like a flavor explosion, your friends will be blown away!
Author:
Recipe type: salad
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 1 dried chili de arbol or ½ teaspoon chili flakes
  • ¼ cup pine nuts
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
  • salt & pepper
  • ¾ cup pitted and halved kalamatta olives
  • ¾ cup green olives sliced
  • 2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes - halved
  • ½ cup of queso fresco or mild feta
  • 2 cups of spicy croutons
Instructions
  1. In a dry skillet over medium high heat, toast your cumin and coriander seeds and pine nuts until the nuts slightly brown. This will take about 2 minutes. Toss and stir the seeds and nuts to avoid them burning.
  2. Once they are finished toasting, add them to a small jar with the extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar along with the salt and pepper. Store in the fridge for at least 30 minutes for the flavors to marry.
  3. For the salad, clean and cut your tomatoes and add to a large bowl. Add olives, croutons and cheese to the bowl and top with dressing

Indian Themed Dinner Party

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This Indian Themed Dinner Party is brought to you by Silk Coconut Milk // I adore coconut… Like a lot. My husband and I share this love and it’s a treat that we will take in any form possible. Sweet or savory, there is something about coconut that just takes recipes to a new level.

Not to long ago, the folks at Silk challenged me to throw a coconut themed dinner party and with it being coconut, I was for sure up to the challenge. I checked out Silk’s Coconut Milk Pinterest Board and their Silk Coconut Milk Web Page and decided on an Indian themed night.

We started the night with a flavorful butternut squash coconut and lentil stew…

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This soup was inspired by a recipe that was created by Aarti Sequeira of Food Network fame. She is my go to girl when it comes to Indian dishes. She just takes a rather mysterious cuisine and takes all the mystery out of it. Most of the recipes that I used for this dinner have been modified from her recipes and they turned out aaaamazing.

Click HERE for the Butternut Squash Coconut and Lentil Stew Recipe

For our dinner, I set a simple table out in my backyard with mismatched plates and some fresh flowers from Trader Joes. It couldn’t be more simple. I’ve collected all of my plates and bowls primarily from Target and Anthropologie. I like buying mismatched plates, that way, if I fall in love with a plate, I buy one which doesn’t break the bank and add it to my collection.

Next on the menu for the evening was my Coconut Curry Shrimp…

Now this shrimp isn’t your typical deep fried tropical shrimp dish. It has a lovely curry flavor and it covered with dried unsweetened coconut with no frying at all…. It was lovely.

Click HERE for my Coconut Curry Shrimp Recipe

For the main course, I made Coconut Curry Meatballs served over rice. These little goodies were the star of the show…

Forget what you have every thought about meatballs! These scrumptious bites have a totally different flavor profile and they were divine.

Click HERE for the Coconut Curry Meatballs with Rice

Finally, we topped off the night with a creamy and refreshing coconut lime granita…

This is a frozen treat that is a little like lazy man’s ice cream. It’s super simple to make and you don’t need an ice cream maker. The bonus… It’s dairy-free! One of my friends who joined us for the evening has a daughter with a major milk allergy and this little treat will help when everyone else in the family is enjoying a bowl full of ice cream. She won’t feel left out at all!

Click HERE for the Coconut Lime Granita Recipe

My friends were floored when I told them that every single recipe had Silk Coconut Milk in the recipe in some form.

Who knew coconut milk was so versatile. Its not just for drinking or making smoothies, you can make all kinds of dishes. Visit the Silk Coconut Milk site for a $1 off coupon plus a whole bunch of fun recipes to try with your new SECRET INGREDIENT!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.