Ultimate Cheesy Potato Recipe

This recipe is a staple at my husband aunt's house. I'd say she serves it 7 out of 10 times when she has company over. I finally made it myself and found out it's super easy!

Ingredients;
1 bag of hash browns, cubed (the Southern Style hash brown)
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream
8 oz mild cheddar cheese, grated (or more!), divided
Pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan. Mix  soup, sour cream, pepper and half of the cheese together in a bowl. Add hash browns and stir. Pour into pan and cover with the remaining cheese. Bake for one hour.

Tip: It's ok for the hash browns to be frozen when you cook this dish but if they are a thawed a bit, it's easier to mix up. 

These are great with dinner, but I also ate the leftovers with breakfast and they totally work!

Next time you're asked to bring a side, I suggest these!

Fried Mozzarella

This has nothing to do with the wedding but I just had to post this! Jaime and her husband were able to spend quite some time at home this year around Christmas and the wedding. One day while we were at the mall Christmas shopping, we decided to grab lunch at Maggiano's. Jaime and her husband ordered fried mozzarella and told me I'd love it. Well....they were right. I hope we get to eat this in Heaven it was so good!! My husband LOVES mozzarella and so do I. Last week I decided to buy some fresh mozzarella with no real plan for it. Yesterday, I thought of the perfect plan! I did some researching on the internet and had to experiment some on my own.

You'll need:
Thick (about a 1/2") slices of mozzarella
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Bread crumbs (plain or Italian)
Italian seasoning (if bread crumbs are plain)
a few tablespoons Vegetable or olive oil

My block of mozzarella was already in a sort of rectangular shape so I just sliced it from top to bottom length wise. Mozzarella doesn't always like to be cut to it wasn't the easiest. But I got a good slice and cut it in half so my husband could have one triangle and I could have the other.

Mix the egg and a little bit of water in a bowl. Put the flour in a separate bowl. And in a third bowl, combine the bread crumbs and some Italian seasoning (we have ours in a grinder so it was fresher). Ok now here's where I didn't follow the recipe all too well and I went wayward. The recipe told me to pat the cheese in flour THEN in the egg wash. Well, what I did was dip the cheese in the egg wash then dipped it in flour. Then I dipped it in the egg wash again which wasn't too easy for it to stick to but I covered that sucker. Then I dipped it in the bread crumbs really patting the crumbs down making sure every inch of the cheese was covered.

Now, in 12-in skillet, add the oil at medium heat. You can heat this up while you're preparing your bowls. Carefully place the coated cheese in the pan. Fry each side for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Do not melt the cheese completely. It will be very soft but not completely melted. If it completely melts it will come out of the breading and get all over your pan. Some cheese may come out and that's fine as long as it's not much :) Now serve with some warm marinara sauce (which I added after the picture) and dig in! SO yummy!