Easy Dinner Party Menu

I love mashed potatoes but always stayed away from them for company dinners because they are so timie consuming at the last minute. A friend recently told me that she makes hers ahead of time and them puts them in a crockpot to keep warm. I was worried they would dry out...but found that was not the case. I checked out recipes on the web and found lots of crockpot mashed potatoe recipes.

Basically you can make up your favorite mashed potatoes, put them in a greased pan and refrigerate for up to 2 days and then 3-4 hours before dinner time put them in a crockpot on low for 3-4 hours. They turn out wonderful and no work while your guests are arriving!

In these mashed potatoes, I added 1 cup of sour cream and 4 ounces of cream cheese to the cooked potatoes and seasonings. I beat them in my mixer until smooth and then put them in a crockpot that I sprayed with cooking oil. I melted a bit of butter which I drizzled over the top and them put them in the refrigerator until 4 hours before I was planning to serve them. I then put them in the crockpot on low until dinner time.

Delicious...warm and creamy!

I love the classic green bean casserole with fried onions on top. The recipe comes on the onion can. The recipe is very basic...just mix 2 cans of green beans, 1 can mushroom soup, 1/2 cup of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper in a greased casserole dish. Add 1/2 of a small can of onions and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with the other 1/2 can of onions and cook another 5 minutes.

In order to be able to cook them in the same oven as my pork tenderloin which cooks at 400 degrees. I reduced the cooking time for the green beans by 5 minutes and it came out great!