Whip it Up Week 6!!

Wow I can't believe there's only two more weeks of the Whip it Up Challenge. Craziness!!

For this week's theme of appetizers, I yet again went with a Rachael Ray recipe. What is wrong with me? I bring you - Baked Potato Bites! To me, it seemed like a (slightly) healthier version of potato skins.

Baked Potato Bites

- 4 red potatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds and patted dry
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt
- 1/2 pound bacon
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Place the potato rounds on a rimmed baking sheet. Toss with the olive oil, season with salt and arrange in a single layer. Bake for 25 minutes, flip and bake for another 10 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.

2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon until crisp; crumble and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together the sour cream and cream cheese until smooth.

3. Arrange the potato slices on a platter in a single layer and top each round with a dollop of the sour cream mixture, some bacon bits and the chives. Serve warm.

For the main dish, I had extra blue cheese from my Blue Cheese Tomato Tart, so I made Blue Cheese Burgers! I made my own edits to the recipe, but here is how I found it online:

Blue Cheese Burgers
SimplyRecipes.com

- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard (didn't use)
- 2 cloves minced garlic (used jarred)
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp water
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- I also included breadcrumbs, to help hold the burgers together a little better

Recipe behind the link

Was the recipe easy to follow?
Both were incredibly easy. It should say on the Baked Potato Bites that you should really be careful about slicing the potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds, because if you slice them any thinner, they pretty much turn into potato chips! (Which was kind of fun, I have to admit.) I would also suggest mixing the cream cheese and sour cream together with a hand mixer, otherwise the cream cheese kind of just gets covered with the sour cream, not mixed together. The burger recipe should say how much oil to use. I think I used too much, and my apartment became a little smoky with the last burger. :)

Did the dish taste good?
I LOVED the Baked Potato Bites. It allowed you to have a potato skin without all of the potato and therefore wasn't as filling. The cream cheese/sour cream mixture was really good, and I love chives, so I couldn't go wrong.

The Blue Cheese Burgers were also REALLY good. Since you're only using about 2 ounces, you don't get overpowered by the blue cheese, and the addition of garlic and onion in the patties gave it nice flavor too.

Would you make it again?
I will DEFINITELY be making both again. They both got the smiley sticker of approval on the printed recipes. :)