watermelon pickles

I served these with Easter dinner.

None of our guests had even heard of watermelon pickles and were very eager to find out how I made them.

(Here's the post with how I made them, last summer.)

But I thought you might want to see what they actually look like, once made.

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Using the pickle juice

And one more watermelon-y pickle thing this week. As we've been going through the jars of these pickles, I've saved the liquid from each jar, not sure what I'd do with it all. But as it's flavored with just vinegar, sugar, cinnamon and cloves (no savory flavors), we all thought it would go well with baking.

So this week, I made a batch of whole wheat muffins, using watermelon pickle "juice" as most of the liquid. I also added some extra cinnamon to the batter. Not only could we not tell that there was pickle juice in the muffins, but they were gobbled up very quickly!

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Cheesy-potato casserole (from our Easter dinner)

When I brought the Cheesy-Potato casserole to the Easter table, my guest sitting to the left of me exclaimed, "oooh, what's in those?!" Big, big hit for Easter dinner. Even with a table full of other dishes, salads, and trays, we went through 2 quarts of this Cheesy-Potato Casserole.


If you'll remember, several weeks ago I wrote a post about using up some wrinkly potatoes and freezing them. I had made mashed potatoes, adding some of the last of the cream cheese and sour cream, plus plenty of butter, some salt and milk. I froze these mashed potatoes in quart-size containers.

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The day before Easter, I thawed two of those quart-size containers. I put them in my stand mixer and whipped them back together (the liquid separates out from the solids in mashed potatoes when freezing/thawing).

I stirred in 1 & 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar-jack cheese, and a very large handful of freshly cut chives, minced (about a cup of minced chives).

(I took about 1 & 1/2 cups out to test bake that day, adding a handful of cheese as topping. It was a bit soupy going in to the oven, but came out perfectly thick after baking.)

So, with the larger casserole, it too was a bit soupy when first assembled. I buttered a 2-quart, round casserole dish, scooped the potato mixture into this dish, covered and refrigerated overnight, until an hour and a half before Easter dinner. It had substantially thickened overnight.

I topped with another cup of grated cheddar-jack, and baked for about 45 to 50 minutes in a 350 F degree oven, until the cheese was just beginning to brown.

I don't have any photos to share, but it did look (and taste) delicious. Not a speck remained at the end of dinner.

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For your own information, you could easily duplicate my potato dish. Mash about 8 potatoes, with 2-4 ounces of cream cheese, 1/3 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup butter and milk and salt to taste and texture.

Stir in 1 cup of minced chives and 1 cup or more of shredded cheddar or cheddar-jack cheese.

Spoon into a buttered casserole dish. Top with another 1 cup of shredded cheese.

Bake in a 350 F degree oven for 40-45 minutes, or until cheese topping is bubbly and lightly browned.



A real man-pleaser, that's for sure! I think these will become a "regular" on our Easter dinner table.

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