Cheesy Bacon Oven Chips with Chipotle Ranch Sauce and Strawberries filled with Almond Cream

It has been way too long since I posted on here!  Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to cook or bake lately because I have been working a lot, and planning my wedding!  18 more days until I'm Mrs. Metcalf!  This weekend was supposed to be a girls' day out, but when plans fell through, I decided to cook instead.

Cheesy Bacon Oven Chips with Chipotle Ranch Sauce

• 3-4 medium Russet potatoes
• Cooking Spray
• 1 1/2 c. finely shredded cheddar, colby jack, or mexican cheese
• salt
• pepper
• 4 slices of bacon (to sprinkle on top.  Bacon bits would work fine)

Scrub potatoes well, and slice into 1/8" slices (imagine two quarters stacked on top of one another, and that is about how thick your slices should be).  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Boil the sliced potatoes in salted water for 5 minutes.  Drain the slices and carefully pat dry with a paper towel.  Be careful, they will be very hot!

Grease a cookie sheet with the cooking spray and lay the potato slices out so that they overlap.  Spray the potatoes lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle on some salt and pepper.  Sprinkle the bacon and cheese evenly over the potatoes, then bake for 14 minutes until the cheese is hot and bubbly  

This recipe was fantastic!  It would be great for a football season appetizer.  My brother, fiance and I made a meal out of this!

Now for the dip...

• 3 T. Ranch Dressing
• 9 T. Sour Cream
• 3/4 t. Chili Powder
• 3/8 t. Cayenne Pepper
• 3/8 t. Salt
• 3/8 t. Garlic Powder

Combine ingredients in a small bowl and stir.  This dip also is great with regular potato chips, celery, etc.  

Strawberries Filled with Almond Cream

• About 25 large Strawberries
• 3/4 c. Heavy Whipping Cream
• 3/4 c. Milk
• 1 small box Vanilla Instant Pudding
• 1/2 tsp. Almond Extract

Wash berries and dry with a paper towel.  Slice off the stem end of the berries.  Slice an X into each berry, but do not cut all the way through.  Beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form.  In a different bowl, mix the milk and pudding well, then add to the whipped cream along with the almond extract.  Mix well.  Fill a Ziploc bag with the mixture and cut off the corner.  Use this to fill the berries.  As you fill each berry, spread the pieces open to fill more.  You can serve these right away, although we found that they were better after they had been refrigerated awhile.

The plate of these strawberries (pictured above) was gone in less than 10 minutes.  These were really easy and delicious!