Category: Potatoes

Corey's Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Cheese, Spinach & Tomatoes and Outdoor Christmas Lights, well the Christmas lights aren't stuffed in the tenderloin although that would be festive for sure.

12/15/2017

Greetings, friends!!!!

Today I am sharing
an ahhhhhmazing
Stuffed Pork Tenderloin recipe
shared with me by the cool meat department guy at my local grocery, Corey.

I'm also sharing my outdoor Christmas lights.
Ah c'mon, humor me just a few pictures if you will.

Front porch is kind of bare this holiday season, makes the scoopin' of the snow easy though, well once the snow begins anyway.

Mr. Donkey works year round
on this front porch.

The artificial tree rests in a vintage Orange Sunkist box and there's a cool basket weave planter I picked up at a consignment shop for $3.60!!

I saw a photo that inspired me to be a little
whack-a-doodle with one side only of the porch railing.

Every fence needs a good old wreath and
chunky lights strewn about.

Anyhoo, let's get to this stuffed pork tenderloin that I can not say enough about!

This recipe was so good that I made it twice in one week and I'm making it again tonight!
Look at the pretty Christmas colors!!

The pork melts in your mouth, the herbed cheese is tangy and is the star of the show frankly, the seared panko crust gives it a delicious nutty flavored crunch and the tomatoes and spinach round out the flavor profile.

This recipe is straight from a quick conversation with Corey, the meat guy at my local grocery who casually mentioned how he makes a
stuffed pork tenderloin.

Corey pointed me to the two different soft cheeses he uses, depending what's on sale.

Intrigued, I wrote down Corey's recipe and went home and made the Stuffed Crusted Pork Tenderloin
word for word, after also googling a quick pan sauce recipe.

Here's the fixins for this melt in your mouth, pan seared, crusted, stuffed Pork Tenderloin.

Corey’s Crusted Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Cheese, Spinach and Tomatoes
Courtesy of: Your friend Angie with TurnkeyQualityCars.com
Recipe is Corey’s original recipe

Ingredients
1.5 – 2 lbs Pork Tenderloin
Coarse Salt and Pepper
1 cup firmly packed fresh spinach leaves
1 1/4 cup fresh chopped tomatoes –I used roma
1 pkg. soft garlic and herbed cheese (approx 5 oz) – Note: This MUST be an HERBED soft cheese
½ cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs (slightly processed, blended or crushed)
¼ tsp dried thyme
3 Tbsps. Avocado or canola oil (higher smoke point than olive oil)
1/2 cup white wine for the deglazed sauce
1/2 cup chicken stock for the deglazed sauce

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Butterfly tenderloin lengthwise, like a book.
Between plastic wrap, pound tenderloin out even on both sides.
Salt and pepper both sides of tenderloin and lay flat, inside up.
Spread herbed cheese on both sides of the inside of tenderloin.
Top with Spinach leaves and then top with chopped tomatoes.
Fold over in half and secure with butchers twine every two inches.
Add dried thyme to crushed panko crumbs.
Roll pork tenderloin in panko crumbs.
Heat avocado/canola oil in cast iron pan on medium until sizzling.
Sear all sides of pork tenderloin in cast iron pan…1.5 - 2 minutes each side. (4 sides)
Place pan in 350 oven until internal temps reach 145-160 degrees. Approx 20 minutes??
Remove tenderloin from pan and let rest on platter under tin foil.
Heat cast iron pan on medium high heat on stovetop and add wine and chicken broth, deglazing pan.
Simmer 10 minutes. Salt and pepper sauce as needed.
Strain. Set sauce aside.
Slice tenderloin on the bias.
Drizzle with the delicious glaze.
Serve with sweet potato puree or side salad or any rice or potato.

Side note: I crushed up the panko crumbs the second time I made this, the smaller crumbs made it much easier for searing and getting a good even crust.

I also used different soft, spreadable cheeses both times.

The first time I used Belletoile.
Very spreadable.

The second time I used Boursin. This was a crumbly cheese and tangier.

Both cheeses are fantastic. Would probably go with Boursin again (slightly tangier) although Belletoile was just as good.

Anyway, let's get started!!
Butterfly that tenderloin and pound it thin!

Salt and pepper that baby up on both sides!
Lay it flat, inside up.

Spread cheese.

Spread spinach.

Spread those delicious chopped tomatoes!!

Fold over in half and secure with butcher's twine
every two inches.

Get your panko ready by processing, blending or crushing the panko so it isn't so chunky. Add dried thyme.
Roll the pork tenderloin in the panko.

Sear that tenderloin in an oven proof skillet on all sides over medium heat with olive or avocado oil.
***I use avocado oil, it has a higher heat smoke point, less chance the smoke detectors will go off. Again. :)*****

Throw the seared crusted pork tenderloin in the 350 degree oven and cook until the meat thermometer
reaches 145-160 degrees.

Lookin' mighty fine when it comes out!

Transfer tenderloin to a platter and tent up for ten minutes while you make the pan sauce.
Do you suppose I coulda maybe sorta shoulda used a LARGER platter???
Good golly Miss Molly. (shout out to Miss Molly and S) :)

So for the pan sauce, I just took the drippings and added white wine and chicken broth and deglazed pan and let the sauce simmer a bit.
Season with salt and pepper as needed.

The pan sauce will have chunks of panko in it which aren't necessary,

so you will want to strain the sauce.

These are really terrible pictures but strain that sauce and you will get a good 1 cups of a tasty glaze.

Cut that beautiful pork tenderloin on the bias...

Plate up
a couple slices on a sweet potato puree bed or side with rice or a nice salad.

Roasted rosemary potatoes would be nice too.

The tang of the herbed cheese, the fresh tomatoes
and spinach are addictive.
The seared panko crust with thyme is genius.

Take the flavor over-the-top by glazing
with the pan sauce.

Okay, now gonna share the quick
Sweet Potato Puree with Smoked Paprika
recipe. This is the only way to make a sweet potato puree, people!!
SMOKED paprika!!!

Sweet-Potato Puree with Smoked Paprika
Straight outta Epicurious.com

INGREDIENTS

- 3 pounds sweet potatoes
- 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and softened
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 teaspoon sweet or hot smoked paprika*
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
- *Available at kalustyans.com

PREPARATION

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Prick each potato once with a fork, then bake potatoes in a foil-lined shallow baking pan until tender, about 1 hour. When cool enough to handle, peel, then cut away any eyes or dark spots. Purée potatoes with butter, cream, paprika, salt, and cayenne in a food processor until smooth.

Here's the direct link where you can go to the Epicurious website and print the recipe off!
Sweet-Potato Puree with Smoked Paprika

Bake up sweet potatoes until tender
and add the butter, spices and heavy cream.
Make sure to use SMOKED paprika, not regular paprika!!

Recipe says to puree potatoes, spices and cream in a food processor.
Angie says no way in heck was I gonna get the food processor out and clean up THAT mess!
So a hand mixer worked good. Just a good ol' potato masher would be fine too.

That's it!!!!
How easy is that!!
The puree is nice and smooth, sweet and smoky and absolutely a delicious complement to Corey's Stuffed Pork Tenderloin!

Next day, I ate a bowl for lunch,
deeelicious.

Okay y'all, that's all I gots
for today!
Gots is a word. Look it up. In the Pretend Word Dictionary.

As I said earlier, am making the Stuffed Pork Tenderloin recipe AGAIN tonight!
I hope you make it sometime too!

Hope you're having a wonderful
holiday season!
Check back again! I've been cooking up a storm from recipes, some are fails, some are hits and most all are fun (except for the baking ones, those aren't fun, those are pure torture)
but other than that, they're fun!

HOHOHO!!

Stay warm
and we'll talk at ya soon!

1 Day Prep-Ahead Small Thanksgiving Time Saver Meal

11/5/2017

Greetings, All!!!

*Thanksgiving*
A day of food, family & friends or just hanging out in your pajamas! AmIRight :)
So I was on a mission to find time saver recipes for traditional Thanksgiving dishes,
when it occurred to me it's really the prep work that takes the most time, NOT the actual cooking.

So I found recipes that could be made up (rolls, pie, cranberries!) or prepped up
(stuffing, turkey, carrots, potatoes!) the day before and assembled and cooked quite nicely
and efficiently the following day.

Now this menu is for a small gathering: 2-6 people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Angie's 1 Day Prep-Ahead
Thanksgiving Menu
Links to ALL recipes at the bottom of this page!
Herb-Roasted Turnkey Breast with Basic Gravy
Cheddar and Jalapeno Stufing
The Best Damn Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Honeyed Carrots and Oranges
Bourbon-Cranberry Compote
Homemade Butter Flake Pull Apart Rolls
Chocolate Cream Pie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll take you through some steps here with some brief commentary on each dish.

Herb-Roasted
Turnkey Breast
Ina Garten's recipe

Let's start with the 7.3 lb turkey breast that cooked in two hours.
TWO hours!

Prep Day Ahead!
I made the herby olive oil paste up the night before, coated the turkey and put it back in fridge.

Cooks up beautifully and slices up nicely.
The herbed paste rubbed directly on the meat and on top of skin was fantastic!!
Juices were added to the Basic Gravy.

Let's move along to the Basic Gravy.
No prep-ahead of this. Day of only.
I made a roux.

Add the drippings from the turkey roasting pan into the chicken broth.

I used
homemade chicken broth.

Whisk the broth and drippings into the skillet and bring to boil then simmer until thickened.

This gravy was hands down the star of the show.
*STAR OF THE SHOW*
I think the key is homemade chicken broth but I don't know that for sure. If you don't have homemade, buy the absolute best kind of broth you can.

Let's move along to the PREP AHEAD
Cheddar and
Jalapeno Stuffing.
By the way, I believe this recipe could be assembled and cooked day ahead and just add some extra chicken broth when heating up next day.
Note: I could not taste the jalapeno really, add more jalapeno if you like heat.

The recipe called for Italian bread so that's what I got was Italian bread.

By the way y'all, I do not know how to cook without a recipe.

Completely serious. So I tend to stay true to the recipe ingredients and amounts.

The day before...
cut or tear the bread up and bake in a 375 oven for 12 minutes, until dried out.

Cut up all the vegetables, grate up the cheese and deposit all ingredients into the pan you will use to bake the stuffing in tomorrow and
stick in the fridge.

Day of, melt butter and saute the vegetables.

This recipe calls for a half cup beer.

It can also be left out completely.

Cook until beer evaporates, then transfer mixture to a large bowl.

Add scallions, broth, eggs and cheddar to mixture and and toss in bread crumbs.

Okay,
I have this super exciting picture of buttered up aluminum foil to remind you to, you know, butter up your aluminum foil.

Cause if you don't,
all the good browned bits of stuffing will stick to the foil and you'll be sad.

Pour stuffing into prepared pan and bake covered with foil, then remove foil and continue baking. I let mine stay in 10-15 minutes longer to get more browned.

This stuffing dish really could be prepped, assembled and cooked the day before and just reheated day of with some extra chicken broth. I made this up in the morning, stuck it in fridge until dinner and then just reheated it in oven. This is why I used a metal pan too.

Another note with this dish: You can NOT taste the heat from the jalapenos. I used two seeded jalapenos just as the recipe states and there was no heat. Probably added flavor but there was no heat so it's safe for little kiddies.

Okay, let's get these
Best Damn Vegan
Mashed Potatoes made.
Disclaimer: I had full intentions of using vegan butter but I didn't, I used real butter.
Note: I wanted a mashed potato recipe that was different than the same old, same old, that's why I made these.
Also, Yukon gold potatoes are so naturally delicious buttery anyway.

By the way, these CAN BE MADE DAY AHEAD but I just prepped everything the night before and made day of.
I washed all the potatoes and set them aside. I then roasted the garlic by cutting off the top third, rubbed the cloves with olive oil, wrapped up in foil and roasted for 50 minutes. Mmmmmmm, always smells awesome. Also, chop up those chives and store everything but potatoes in the fridge until next day.

Before the meal, I threw the cut Yukon golds into boiling salted water and cooked until soft.

I mixed in butter, salt and pepper and the deeeelicious roasted garlic. I ate spoonfuls and then transferred the remaining into a bowl and topped with those chives. Yum!
These potatoes are awesome with or without gravy!!

Now, y'all, let's get to these super easy peasy
Honeyed Carrots
and Oranges.
I prepped everything night before and cooked them day of.
(I liked these so much I went out and bought more carrots to make this exact recipe again this week.)

Please do NOT cut the carrots in half lengthwise like I did, just buy thin carrots, don't use thick ones. If you do use thick carrots, then okay, you can cut them in half lenghtwise. Mine were thin already. Also, dudes, don't be like me and leave the freaking top on. Just don't.

The night before, I peeled the carrots and sliced the orange and had the honey/oil all measured out.

I had chopped up some dill but decided not to use the dill on the finished dish, these were just too darn good on their own.

This was super easy to prepare as well as to assemble and cook.

Day of, pull out the carrots and oranges, toss in olive oil and honey, salt and pepper, arrange on cookie sheet.
By the way, the aroma of the oranges and honey is fantastic!

Cook until soft. So easy.
Again, cut off the tops of the carrots. I did not do that cause I am a fool.
Don't be a fool like your pal Angie, just do the right thing.

These carrots were absolutely delicious, just make sure to follow the directions exactly!

Y'all. These Butter Flake Pull Apart Rolls
are delicious!!
This is Alton Brown's recipe and I always get PTSD from baking cause I am horrible at it.
I actually was able to make these without using too many swear words. Maybe three.
Four. Five at the most. Okay, six. SHUT UP!

So these are the fixins for these pull apart rolls.
I did NOT make these up a day ahead of time. I do think they would be fine made up 24 hours ahead and then just reheated shortly before the meal the next day.
Also I do not own a stand mixer. I old-school used my hand mixer. Worked fine.

Now this recipe calls for some ingredients to be weighed.

Don't fight it, just do it.

These are baked items.
You want to use correct measurements even if you have to bring out the scale.

So mix the stuff according to directions.
I love how I am so technical with my language. Seriously dudes, I can not bake so I am just trying to get through this as quick as I can.

Dough before rising and dough after rising.
Now if *I* can do this correctly, anyone can!!!

Okay, let's slow this down a bit.....let me explain...so roll the dough out to a 12" x 12"...

Cut 12 - 1" strips. Now I don't own a pizza cutter, so I pulled out this vintage pastry cutter I paid 50 cents for at a consignment store last year. Aaaaand this pastry cutter is broke and wobbly and doesn't make straight lines.

So I bring out my pizza cutter, also known as a plain ordinary knife, and cut 12 - 1" strips.

Okay, so this is my first try at the strips and stacking them.

And this is my second try at the other half of the dough, I got much better, especially after I figured out I need to GENTLY pull up the strips
and not stretch them.

My initial attempt is at the bottom...Second try at the top.

Set each section in a sprayed muffin cup.
Let rise until double.

Then bake 8-10 minutes. Or overbake like I did but then brush a ton of melted butter on the tops. They were still delicious!!

Okay, only TWO more recipes left!!!!
This one is so easy and delicious! Make it same day or day ahead, doesn't matter, it's delicious both days!
Bourbon-Cranberry Compote!

Combine and simmer.

Okay Friends, last item on the menu is a
Chocolate Cream Pie!
Tim doesn't eat pumpkin pie so I made a Chocolate Cream Pie with a
store-bought whole wheat crust.
This can TOTALLY be made up a day ahead of time!!!

Okay, the piece on the right up there looks a little wonky but trust me, deeeelicious!!

These are the fixins.

First,

chop up the semi sweet chocolate.

Whisk the dry ingredients together then add the heavy cream and eggs.
Don't forget the espresso powder!

Whisk in the cream and milk over medium heat.

Pour that lusciousness over the chopped chocolate & butter and stir...

Mmmmm, lookin' good!

Pour into a pie shell...

Buy whipped cream OR make this super easy whipped topping...remember, chill the bowl AND the beaters!!
Homemade Whipped Cream:
In a chilled bowl (very important, a CHILLED bowl, meaning chill that sucker in the freezer), combine 1 cup whipping cream, 2 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Beat with a mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form.
Or continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Here's the deal on this Chocolate Pie...it is really rich!
This Chocolate Cream Pie is not for people who do not appreciate
deep layers of chocolate.
If you want a boring, bland chocolate pie, do not make this!
Oh, make a strong pot of coffee cause it will go wonderfully with this dessert!

Okay guys, I will come clean here.
I was planning on making this menu for just
Tim and me as a trial run.

But then friends of ours called and wanted
to pop out Friday night.

heeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

I said fine...

just come hungry.

Once they got here, I bamboozled them that they were going to participate in my
1 Day Prep-Ahead Small Thanksgiving
Time Saver Meal blog post.

They didn't seem to mind :) :) :)
and we had a fantastic time!!!

Okay, so that's all the recipes, friends!

Below are all the links to
the recipes!!

Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast with Basic Gravy
Cheddar and Jalapeno Stuffing
The Best Damn Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Honeyed Carrots and Oranges
Bourbon-Cranberry Compote
Homemade Butter Flake Rolls
Chocolate Cream Pie

If you have any questions at all,
contact me at the phone number or email address on the contact page or just ask away here in the comments!

Thanks for checking in!! I appreciate it!!
Have a great early holiday season!
Stay warm, have fun, eat delicious food,
and we'll be talking soon!!
:)

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potatoes, Oh Heck, You Know What I Mean!

8/23/2015

Look at these cute little
Twice Baked Potato Cups with Caramelized Shallots!

I was searching for a twice baked potato recipe that was a bit more upscale that the usual cheddar,
bacon and scallions.
There's sooooo many recipes with those common ingredients and I just really wanted to do something different.

This recipe calls for Havarti cheese,

a nice creamy change to the usual cheddar.

I served these potatoes with steak and a veggie plate with homemade dill dip at a luncheon one day.
Yes, I served steak at a luncheon and it was awesome :)

I saw these flowers at the Amish bakery
that morning and grabbed them for a little centerpiece.

I think these are called Tuberose, maybe?

I love the light green and
white
colors!

Anyhoo, these are the fixins for these cutie, elegant twice baked potatoes...

I have no idea why I stuck the cream cheese in the fixins picture,
but it doesn't belong there. OOps!!

This recipe is from www.epicurious.com,
originally published from Bon Appetit , November 2002 issue.
Just click HERE to go directly to the recipe to print off!

Twice-Baked Potato Cups with Caramelized Shallots
Straight outta www.epicurious.com, from November 2002 Bon Appetit
Ingredients

4 12-ounce russet potatoes, scrubbed
Vegetable oil
1 cup coarsely grated Havarti cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced shallots (about 8 ounces)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley

PreparationPreheat oven to 400°F. Pierce potatoes in several places with fork, then brush lightly with oil. Place potatoes directly on oven rack and bake until tender when pierced with fork, about 55 minutes. Cool potatoes slightly.

Cut off thin slice from both short ends of each potato and discard. Cut each potato crosswise in half; stand each half on its small flat end. Using teaspoon, scoop out cooked potato pulp from each half, leaving 1/3-inch-thick shell and forming potato cup. Place potato cups in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Place potato pulp in medium bowl; add cheese, sour cream, milk, and cayenne. Using potato masher or fork, mash until well blended and almost smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mound mashed potato mixture in potato cups.

Melt butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté until tender and deep brown, about 12 minutes. Top potato cups with shallots. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake potato cups until heated through, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

So let's start by rubbing olive oil (and I rubbed salt too) on the outsides of the
baking potatoes,

prick them with forks,

and bake until tender.

Once the potatoes are baked, cut off a thin slice from both short ends of each potato.
This will make the potato stand upright on the dinner plate.

Now cut the potato crosswise

in half

See how it stands up on it's own!

It's like magic!

The band America (who is from England in fact) (wrap your head around THAT one) agrees you can do magic too!

I love America, very nostalgic 70s music.

Especially Ventura Highway.

Classic.

And this song always reminds me of my younger sister, who is a blondie.

Okay, that's enough play time, now back to work!

I wanted to mention to make sure to leave 1/3 inch of the potato when you're scooping out the pulp.

This keeps the vessel structured for when all the fixins gets put back in.

Here's what they should look like all scooped out...

So now you have all the scooped potatoes in a bowl.

Add the sour cream, the creamy Havarti cheese,
milk and cayenne pepper.

This picture is dark but mash it all up with a potato masher

and throw in some

salt and pepper.

Now we get to the good stuff....
stuff each of those potato cups!

How cute are these??

All they need is a bit of topping to them, but before that, bake these up for 20 minutes.

So let's work on that topping by caramelizing these shallots, shall we!

Don't forget to chop up some Italian parsley!

Sprinkle up the parsley and caramelized shallots on top of the potato cups after they've baked for 20 minutes.

The inside is so mild and creamy and that caramelized shallot topping is such a yummy contrast.

These are festive twice baked potatoes.
The crunchy outside skin is delicious too!
Your family or guests will eat the whole thing up and several will go back for a second one if you have enough.

So I hope you try these potatoes
out sometime!
They are just as good warmed up the next day!

Again, to print off the recipe, just click HERE to go straight to the Epicurious recipe page.

Okay, so anyway remember at the beginning when I talked about these Tuberose?

Well, the "vase" the flowers are in

is actually a vintage bar glass.

I picked up this pair of beer glasses (beer? are they beer glasses?) at an antique shop somewhere along the way on a quick road trip to St. Louis.

I love the 70s colors!

That gold!

I also like these tall whimsical glasses from the 70s
as well...

Each glass has "Cool It"
on it.

Soooo 70s!

It's funny I have all these cool bar glasses when in fact, all I drink is wine or an occasional beer. This explains why I don't know the name of the following bar glasses, like what kind of drink is served in them. But I love them.

I'm a texture girl and I love me this textured printing.

Of course no bar is complete without a vintage shaker.

And by "bar",
I mean the place that holds the
wax paper
microwave
copy machine
checkbook
cookbooks
phone
calculator
and overall crap catch-all for the house.

Oh STOP BEING SO JEALOUS! IT'S UNBECOMING!

I do like this collection of drink stirrers though,

many are vintage.

See the little whistles and harmonicas hanging off some of
the stirrers?

Dear Readers,

You may want to think twice about letting your 3 1/2 year old grandson play with drink stirrers, mainly the ones with the working whistles.

You can thank me later.

Love,
Angie

Almost done!

I do love these glasses, what are they for? Brandy old fashions or something? Like I said, I'm clueless.

Again, I love the gold on them though.

And lastly, we have Tim's favorite glass to drink out of every day,
whether it's water,
orange juice
or wine.

Our daughter and son-in-law found this at a second hand shop and bought if for Tim a few years ago.

Oh heck those kids,
we'll probably KEEP THEM!

Okay Guys,
Gotta go,
it's getting late and Tim needs his beauty sleep...bahahahahaha! Yeah. More like A-N-G-I-E.

Anyhoo,
Have a wonderful week
and
we'll talk at ya soon!!!

Bacon Hasselback Potatoes But Without The Bacon - Crispy Outside, Creamy Inside - Delish!

7/10/2014

Why are these called
Hasselback potatoes?

What does Hasselback mean, anyway?

Welcome Back, Kotter.

Arnold Horshack knows....
OH OH OH Mr. Kotter!!

Remember Arnold Horshack always trying to get Mr. Kotter's attention??

Remember the 70s show
Welcome Back, Kotter?

Welcome Back, Kotter

Here's the
iconic theme song...

Man, I LOVED that show!!

Remember Hotsie Totsie?

Debralee Scott played her.

Remember Verna jean,

Freddie
"Boom Boom" Washington's girlfriend?

Remember CHiPs?

Nooooooo,

not
THESE
chips!

These CHiPs!
Jon & Ponch

Remember Eight Is Enough
with Dick Van Patten?

I always thought Kristy McNichol was on
Eight Is Enough.

But she wasn't.

That was
Willie Aames.

WHAT???
So I get confused.

Kristy was on that show
"Family."

B-O-R-I-N-G.

Seriously,
I'm a 70s kid.

Ain't no one I knew ever lived in a house or had a family like Buddy Lawrence. Puh-leeze. 

Anyway, let's get back to these roasted
Bacon Hasselback Potatoes.

These potatoes are a healthier alternative to your burning desire (okay, MY burning desire) for french fries.
Crispy on the outside...creamy on the inside! YUM!

So, WHY are these easy-to-make roasted potatoes
called Hasselback?

Now pay attention kids!

School is in
session!

1. Hasselback potatoes were introduced in the 1940s in Stockholm, Sweden at a restaurant called Hasselbacken. Hasselbacken opened in 1748. Yes, you read that correctly, 1748. That was like 5000 years ago, or 270 years.. that was like

2. Hasselback is not an actual potato, it is instead the way the potato is sliced and roasted.

3. The Hasselback potato is sliced like an accordion or fan and when roasted, becomes soft and creamy inside, while the outside says crispy and brown.

So here's all the fixins...
By the way, I cut the recipe in half for just the two of us.

Also I used red potatoes instead of Yukons.
AND, believe it or not....I did not use my boyfriend BACON.
AND I did not peel the potatoes, very unnecessary and besides, I'm lazy.

Case in point on the laziness. I hide dishes in the oven at night, hoping a little elf will miraculously wash them all up.
FYI: It never works.

Anyway,
make 1/8 inch slices in the potatoes
BUT DO NOT slice all the way through,
stop 1/4 in or so from the bottom of the potato.

Now add the potatoes to boiling water and boil for 4 minutes or so. I boiled these maybe 6 or 7 minutes.

Scoop the potatoes out with a slotted spoon and set on a baking sheet,

let cool for a bit.

Now this is where you were supposed to add the bacon pieces in between
each slice.
I did not do this, as I'm trying to maintain my girlish figure.
Bahahahahahahahahaha.
Actually we had so much bacon the week before I was actually burned out on it.
I KNOW! It can happen. Who'd a thunk?

Anyway, melt the butter and brush over and into
all the cuts of the potato.
I used olive oil too, by the way. Definitely use olive oil too.

Now season up these suckers with
salt and pepper and POP THEM IN THE OVEN!

While the potatoes are cooking...
(cause they're gonna cook for a total of 1.5 - 2 hours )
...mix up the seasonings...the scallions, garlic, parsley and salt and pepper.

Halfway through the cooking time,
season up the potatoes.....
OH! Add melted butter or olive oil to these seasonings so it will spread and drip around those slices nicely.

Now throw these back in the oven for the remaining cooking time.

45 minutes to an hour later, oh-my-goodness,
look how awesome this is!!

Look at that tasty crispiness on the
outside edges!!!
And the insides were yummy creamy!

These are such a bit healthier option to french fries.

These Hasselback potatoes make a great side for, yup, grilled hamburgers!

I am going to make these again and again.

Next time, I'll try yukon potatoes but Ima tell you, these red potatoes were dee-licious!

Man, those are making me hungry right now!

Hey, hey, here's the recipe.

freestockphotos.biz

Click the tiny Download File thing to print.

bacon_hasselback_potatoes.docx
File Size:	13 kb
File Type:	docx

Download File

OR, I just figured this out,
click on the icon in the lower right corner down below,
next to the magnifying glasses.
This will bring the recipe up to full-size and you can print from there.

OR
You can just take a gander at the recipe right here and see if it's something you want to try.

Bacon Hasselback Potatoes

From: Food Network Kitchens/Food Network Magazine
www.foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
4 slices thick-cut bacon, each cut crosswise into 9 pieces
Kosher salt
12 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled
1 stick unsalted butter
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Directions
Lay the bacon pieces on a baking sheet and freeze until hard, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Using a sharp knife, make crosswise cuts in each potato, about 1/8 inch apart, stopping about 1/4 inch from the bottom.

Add the potatoes to the boiling water and cook 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and carefully transfer to a baking sheet; let cool slightly. Pat the potatoes dry, then insert 3 pieces of the frozen bacon into the cuts of each potato, spacing the bacon evenly and letting it poke out of the top. Melt 5 tablespoons butter and brush generously over the potatoes and in the cuts. Reserve any excess butter for basting. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper.

Transfer the potatoes to the oven and bake until the outsides are browned and crisp, about 2 hours, basting halfway through with the reserved melted butter.

When the potatoes are almost done, melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter and mix with the scallions, parsley and garlic. Spoon over the potatoes and roast 5 more minutes. Transfer to a platter and season with salt and pepper.

Okay, so that's all I got for today.

Except for this.....
remember these guys??!!

hufingtonpost.com

Come and knock on our doorrrrrrrrr
We've been waiting for youuuuuuu
Where the kisses are hers and hers and his
Three's Company, too!

Jack, Janet, and Chrissy hope you have a good rest of the week!

So do I!

We'll talk at ya soon!

Fillet With Peppercorn Sauce And Crispy Smashed Potatoes

12/20/2012

Is it blizzarding at your place?

Taken at noon on Thursday December 20, 2012.

Yup, blizzarding here in good ol' Frytown, Iowa too.
By the way, a Merry Christmas to ya'll!!!

Mr. Donkey by the well pump says Merry Christmas too.

After taking the above pictures this morning, I stomped my snowy feet off in the entryway.

Our new Thanksgiving Day kitty, Giblet Pearl, was much intrigued.

She'd never seen snow before.

Giblet Pearl proceeded to look around like she had JUST discovered gold,

then began furiously eating it.

Kind of, sort of like Tim and I with these Fillets with Peppercorn Sauce last night.

We were like cavemen with the beef.

I rarely make beef, so when I do,
well,

we act like neanderthals.

And these
Crispy Smashed Roasted Potatoes...
total YUM!!!

Why oh why must I be such a starch girl???!!
This does not serve one well as I, uh, cough cough...., uh...."age."

Didn't stop me from making them or eating them though!
These are the fixins for the Crispy Smashed Potatoes!!!!

Sigh. What's a starch girl to do?

See though!! Hardly any ingredients and so super easy and completely tasty!!

And here's the fixins for the fantastic
Fillets With Peppercorn Sauce.

See those three beef fillets up there? Oh my gosh, they were beeee-utiful but EXPENSIVE!!!
$16.99 lb....$39 of fillet right there!!! $39!!!

Dear Mortgage Company,

My mortgage payment may be a little late. See, I discovered fillet. It is very expensive but worth every penny.

Sincerely,
Happily Fulfilled With A Tummy Full Of Big Bucks Fillet, Your Customer Angie

So the peppercorn sauce for the fillets calls for tri-color peppercorns.

I found them easy enough in the grocery store.

They're in this grinder bottle thing.

Easy enough, I'll just take the lid off and smash them with a rolling pin like the recipe calls for.

See, the Pioneer Woman, whose recipe this is, makes it clear on her video not to grind too small the peppercorns, they should be of varying sizes,
some should even be whole.
But the lid wouldn't come off.

So I thought hmmm, I'll just grind them in the bottle they're in.

I was having a hard time getting different sizes with this grinder, it was making all the peppercorns smallish.

So I tried getting the lid off again with my amazing brute force.

Didn't work.

So I used a knife and tried to pry the lid off
and
then tried to cut the lid off.

Yeah.
kind of almost had an unpleasant bleeding experience so I put the knife away....

...and I started pounding that dagnabit thing on the counter top ledge.

Whack
Whack
Whack

Shockingly enough, that didn't work either.

As a last resort,

I tried to bite that plastic top off.

No I didn't. I wouldn't do that...try to bite the top off a grinder.
Nervous giggle. I was just kidding...
K-I-D-D-I-N-G.
I wasn't THAT desperate to do such a stooopid thing.
duh. Biting the top of a pepper grinder off. Sheez.

Anyway,

melt the butter in the pan as a beginning for this easy peppercorn sauce.

Throw in the Dijon mustard.

And the brandy,

\let this reduce a little bit.

Add in the heavy cream and grinded up peppercorns.
By the way, see those words "grinded up" up there? It didn't even dawn on me until hours later, right before I was ready to post, that the correct language is GROUND UP! GROUND UP PEPPERCORNS, NOT GRINDED UP. Goodness, who needs grammar lessons?

And just whisk occasionally until the sauce gets thicker.

I let it set on low for a bit while I tended to the meat and potatoes.

Salt and pepper up these babies good!

Melt some butter and brush them on both sides of the fillets. Yowza!!

Heat the olive oil up in the pan...

Throw the fillets in....

Turn the fillets over and cook according to your likeness.

Actually before I started the steaks, I started the potatoes first...lay parchment paper on a baking sheet and liberally dose with olive oil.

Boil the potatoes
in salted water for anywhere from
20-35 minutes, until soft but definitely NOT falling apart.

Remove the cooked potatoes from the water and let them drain on a kitchen towel.

Now take a second towel
and put them over each potato and smash each one gently with the palm of your hand.

Take a spatula and scoop each individual potato up.
Don't worry if one falls apart. No problem.

Deposit each potato on the baking sheet like this.

Drizzle with olive oil pretty good....

...and salt and pepper up real too!

Bake for 20-35 minutes, according to how golden and crispy you want your potato cakes.

This time I threw some freshly grated Parmesan on after roasting but you don't even have to do that.

These potatoes are fantastic with just that olive oil and salt and pepper on them!

Look at that crispiness!

Now plate the fillet and potato up....

Who needs vegetables anyway??
This was CHEAT NIGHT!!!

Hello Mr. fillet, you is-a-gonna look might tasty with some peppercorn sauce on you too....

And I was right!

Just a little aside..this peppercorn sauce isn't for everyone, it has a distinct taste, savory and peppery.
I suggest keeping the sauce on the side or in a little dipping dish for each plate.

Now dig in guys!!!

That's what cheat night is for!

Okay, here's the recipes!!!

Fillet with Peppercorn Sauce
From 2012 Ree Drummond Pioneer Woman cooking show on foodnetwork.com
Courtesy www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Serves: 8 servings
Angie’s note: Cut this recipe down to size as needed. I made this for two people, used 3 beef fillets and just halved the recipe on everything else.

Ingredients
Steaks:
    8 whole beef fillets or other good steaks
    Lemon pepper
   ( Angie’s Note: I did not use lemon pepper or seasoning salt, just salt and pepper)
    Seasoned salt
    Freshly ground black pepper
   Melted butter

Sauce:
    4 to 6 tablespoons tri-color peppercorns, crushed
    4 tablespoons butter
    1 beef bouillon cube
    4 to 6 tablespoons Dijon mustard
    1 cup brandy
    1 1/2 to 2 cups heavy cream (can substitute half-and-half for some of the cream)

Directions
Angie’s note: I did not grill the fillets; I simply cooked them in my cast iron skillet over the stove top.
For the steaks: Sprinkle both sides of the steak with lemon pepper, seasoned salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side over high heat, and then a further 3 to 5 minutes over lower heat. Brush with melted butter as they cook.

Meanwhile, make the sauce: Start by crushing the peppercorns with a rolling pin in a zip-top bag and set them aside.

Next, heat a heavy ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat and melt the butter. Crumble in the beef bouillon cube. Whisk to combine. Then add the Dijon mustard to the skillet and whisk it around a bit. Pour in the brandy. Whisk the Dijon and brandy together until combined, and then let it bubble for about 45 seconds or so. Then pour in the heavy cream and the crushed peppercorns. Whisk it all together, allowing it to bubble for a few minutes to thicken. Spoon it over the grilled steaks.

Crispy Smashed Potatoes
www.turnekyqualitycars.com
There’s lots of recipes out there, so here’s the condensed version of these tasty, easy potatoes…

Ingredients
Medium size red potatoes, as many as you need for each family member
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Angie’s note: sometimes I add fresh Parmesan too after baking.

Directions
Preheat oven to 425.
On a cooking sheet, lay out parchment paper and drizzle liberally with olive oil.

Boil potatoes in salted water for 25-35 minutes, just until soft.

Lay drained potatoes on a kitchen towel and smash them with your palm, using another towel over the top of the potatoes.

Using a spatula, scoop up those potatoes, don’t worry if they fall apart, and lay on the cookie sheet.

Drizzle potatoes liberally with olive oil and salt and pepper them up real good.

Bake in oven until crispy, could be anywhere from 20-35 minutes depending on how golden and crispy you would like your potato cakes to be.

Remove from oven and eat. Or top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and then chow down.

See! Easy!

I hope you try these recipes out sometime, especially those super easy
smashed potatoes...
they are awesome dipped in ketchup!!

Little Miss Giblet Pearl was being naughty with my vintage Christmas light things.

Don't YOU be naughty now.

Be nice!
And send me lots of money, okay?
For GRAMMAR LESSONS. I promise I won't spend it on expensive wine :)

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE
and
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO

:)
Have a good night guys!
Stay warm!
Talk at ya soon!

Warm Potato Salad That Is Best Eaten Warm

9/8/2012

Warm Potato Salad.....

Best Eaten Warm though!

Can you smell that nice, garlicky, white wine vinegar dressing?

So here's the fixins for these fine potatoes!
Yes, those are anchovy filets; a subtle salty addition!

So these particular fingerling potatoes came in this bag...1.5lbs for around $5 I think.

So I threw them in water on the stove...

And brought them to boil.

Meanwhile I threw the beans and eggs into boiling water for several minutes...

And I strained them and ran cold water over them.

Drain the fingerling potatoes.

Try to peel the hard boiled eggs without destroying them.

So let's start the dressing with the Dijon mustard and chopped garlic.

Add in those salty anchovies!!! Mmmmm.

Mush it all up together....

And then add the white wine vinegar, canola oil and cracked black pepper down below...

So this is the fantastic smelling dressing that will get slathered on the potatoes, green beans and eggs.

Add those fingerling potatoes and the green beans into the dressing....

And those halved
hard boiled eggs...

Gently mix everything up in the bowl with the dressing,

get all that yummy dressing goodness covered on all the goods.

And plate up this warm, garlicky, yummy goodness!

I ate a plateful of this lovely warm potato salad right away and it was wonderful!!! Garlicky, mustardy goodness.
And that hard boiled egg was fantastic!!!

The next day, I warmed some potato salad up in the microwave for lunch and I must tell you, the P-O-W factor was gone. Gone. Gone.
Just thought I should let you know.
Eat this potato salad warm the first night and you will LOVE it!

Okay, so in closing I will show you a cool hot pad I picked up for three dollars somewhere but I can't remember where!!

Cause I have no brain!

But aren't the colors pretty??!!

Okay, that's all I got for
now folks!

OH crap! Here's the recipe...I almost forgot!

Warm Potato Salad
From the Food Network show Chuck’s Day Off
Courtesy www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Ingredients
    1 1/2 pounds fingerling potatoes
    Salt
    4 eggs, hardboiled and halved
    2 canned anchovy fillets, minced
    1 1/2 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
    1 clove garlic, minced
    1/4 cup white wine vinegar
    1/2 cup canola oil
    1/4 cup water
    Pinch of coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
    1 cup baby green beans

Directions
Put the fingerling potatoes in a saucepot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and add salt, and simmer, until just fork-tender.

Cook's Note: You can use the same pot of water for boiling the eggs and blanching the beans. Just watch the time.

While the potatoes are cooking, make the dressing in a serving bowl, or if you have a mortar and pestle, use that. Begin with mashing the anchovy fillets into the mustard and garlic. Add the vinegar, and slowly whisk in the oil. If too thick, add a little water. Season with salt and pepper.

Blanch the beans in salted boiling water, drain and plunge or chill down in a cold water bath. Drain the beans on a towel.

Peel the eggs and cut in half.

Drain the potatoes, and while still warm, drop them into the serving bowl with the dressing. Add the beans and eggs. Gently fold all together, and serve warm in shallow white plate or bowls.

This salad is also good served at room temperature.

Okay, catch ya'll soon!!
Where I will talk about a disgusting lentil and fennel cooking misadventure but on the other hand...oh my gosh!!!! Two different "barbeque" baby back rib recipes that were utterly out-of-this-world finger licking fantastic!!!
Be still my heart!!!
Talk at ya soon!

Roast Chicken Pieces with a Parsley Lemon Juice Oil and Basil Chive Potato Mash

6/11/2012

Well, this isn't Roast Chicken Pieces or a Potato Mash...

But isn't it gorgeous??!!
A gourmet cupcake display at a family wedding reception we went to!!!

There must have been ten different flavors...at least that!!!

OH, they were stunning to look at....

....but they were even better to eat.

My favorite was the White-Strawberry filled. It seriously was like cupcake heaven. I could not get over the lovely flavor of these cupcakes. Yes, I sampled several. Duh.

And there were so many.
And so many flavors too!

These are the flavors I can remember other than the dreamy White - Strawberry filled:
Strawberry
Chocolate
Double chocolate
White
Red Velvet
Pink Lemonade
Cinnamon roll (cinnamon roll!!!)
Rainbow (rainbow!!!)

These were gourmet all the way...from the gorgeous decorating to the stunningly moist cake and most importantly, the exquisite flavor of each cupcake.

The gals who make these are out of the Iowa City/Lone Tree area. They should open a bakery eh!!

Okay, so my Roast Chicken and Potato Mash does not compare to those cupcakes but it was still super tasty!!!

And I rarely eat the skin of chicken but the scowwwwl on this chicken...utterly fantastic! And super moist!

So here's the fixins for Dave Lieberman's recipe "Dad's Roast Chicken--Dave's Way with a Parsley Lemon Juice Oil."
Finger lickin' good is what this turns out.

So zest your lemon...now this is the key to this recipe, so don't skimp this step. Go out and buy a $5 zester if you don't have one. It's worth it and you'll use it more than you know.

Mix your thyme and rosemary together.

Now, I wish the store would have had fresh rosemary but they have been out for three days straight.

So I just used a smaller amount of dried rosemary and it was fine.

Place the chicken in a pan without crowding.

You wanna talk about crowding?

Try having claustrophobia and being in any number of those crappy spaces at O'Hare airport with low ceilings and no windows and suffocating air and then you're supposed to take some crappy space prohibitive tiny train to the other side to locate your people? Uh, yeah, no.

Or tiny dark 1920's elevators that barely fit two people in a historic downtown Kansas City hotel with creepy, garish carpeting to boot.

Or standing in line outside an AC/DC concert in the early 80's and being 95 lbs and 5' 2" and people are pushing and shoving and you can't move and you start getting heart palpitations because you just know this is the time you're gonna finally get crushed liked a splattered tomato and they'll never be able to identify who that tiny flattened girl was cuz she was all st

Oh sorry, I digressed.
Anyway, drizzle olive oil over the non-crowded chicken pieces.
By the way, the hindquarter pieces were fabulous with this recipe.
P.S. That tiny 95 lb teenager?
Uh, not so "wispy" anymore :):):)
Uh huh.

So season up with salt and pepper and the thyme and rosemary...

And the don't forget the lemon zest!

So this is how everything should look before going into a 400 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

In the meantime, chop your parsley and set aside. Then mix up your beautiful Lemon Juice Oil.....

And this is how the Lemon Juice Oil should look all mixed up.

Now just set that aside and let's start on the Basil Chive Red Potato Mash.

So these are the fixins for this nice potato accompaniment to this Roasted Chicken recipe.

Very few ingredients here pack a nice punch.

Cook your red potatoes in water until tender, about 25 minutes.

Drain and then start adding the following goodness...

The cream!!

And the Buttah!

Don't forget the herbs; the chopped chives and basil!

Complete the process by adding the salt and pepper.

I now introduce you to Basil Chive Potato Mash.
Grab a spoon and start diggin' in!

Oh but wait! Before you do that, we need to take the chicken out of the oven.....

And get your lemon olive oil and parsley ready....

Pour your olive oil lemon mixture over the baked chicken pieces...be generous now.

Scatter the chopped parsley and
walla!!!!
You have Roast Chicken with a Parsley Lemon Juice Oil.

PLATE 'ER UP!!

Look at the scowl on that chicken!

The fresh lemon rind brings a nice layered flavor to this dish.

And being the starch freak that I am,
here's the potatoey goodness.

So sometime I hope you make these potatoes and this good chicken with a scowl on it!!

In fact,
Little Boy Blue is doing his best scowl impersonation for you.

But now he's lost his concentration.

As 7 month olds are wont to do.

And 48 year olds.

Okay kiddos, that's it for today...hope everyone has a good Monday night or Tuesday if you are reading this then!
Gotta go start prepping for a Blackened Fish Taco Salad recipe tonight. We'll see how this one goes :):) Yikes.
Thanks for checking in!!!!
See ya soon!

Dad's Roast Chicken -- Dave's Way with a Parsley Lemon Juice Oil Recipe by Dave Lieberman www.foodnetwork.com
Courtesy www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Ingredients

For the chicken:
1 (3 1/2-pound) chicken cut in 8 serving pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Olive oil, for drizzling
The rind of 1/2 lemon, zested

For the parsley drizzle:
1/2 bunch parsley
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degree F.

Trim off any excess skin or fat from the chicken. Cut off and discard the wing tips. Place the chicken pieces in an 11 by 13-inch baking pan, or any pan that that they fit in without crowding. Season the chicken pieces generously with salt, pepper, olive oil, the herbs, and the lemon zest. Toss through all the seasonings and then arrange the chicken piece skin side up in the pan. You can season the chicken pieces and set them up in the roaster up to a day before you cook them. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Roast until the skin is nicely browned and there is no pink near the thigh bone and the juices run clear, about 35 to 40 minutes. Check both white meat and dark meat. If the white meat is done before the dark meat, take it out and set it on the serving plate until the dark meat is done.

For the parsley drizzle, wash and dry the parsley. Remove the leaves from the stems and chop the leaves finely. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and use immediately to garnish the roast chicken.

And CLICK HERE to get the recipe for the Basil Chive Potato Mash!

Sweet Potato Hash With Bacon

6/5/2012

Okay.

Who's hungry now???!!!

Sweet Potato Hash With Bacon...
a yummy breakfast dish!
The kids were back this weekend and they LOVED it!

SO EASY TO MAKE!
5 ingredients!

LOOKY LOO....

Sweet Potato Hash With Bacon
Gourmet/October 2007
www.epicurious.com
Ian Knauer
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Ingredients
    1/2 pound sliced bacon, cut into 1/4-inch strips
    2 medium onions, chopped
   1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
    2 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
    1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Preparation
Cook bacon in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels, reserving fat in skillet.

Add onions, bell pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened. Stir in potatoes and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and starting to brown, 10 to 14 minutes. Stir in thyme, bacon, and salt and pepper to taste.

Okay,
so here are the fixins for this savory AND sweet breakfast casserole.

Not a lot of ingredients, eh?

Let's start by peeling and chopping the sweet potatoes into cubes.

By the way, isn't this vintage FireKing tulip bowl cool???
These bowls came in a set of three or four, I forget.

I only have this size, but I think it's the largest size of the set.

So anyhoo,

cut up your red peppers and onions.

Fry up my boyfriend Bacon.

Hi Bacon, you sexy little........porker you.

Drain my boyfriend on paper towels.

By the way, don't be concerned, Tim is aware of my affair with Bacon. I informed him in this post; he was pretty broken up about it as you can read.

Leave the bacon grease in the pan (really, why throw out all that low fat, healthy goodness??) and throw in the red peppers and onions and a little salt and pepper....

Stir the vegetables occasionally, until softened.
By the way, this begins to create a very enticing aroma in the kitchen.
Beware, your kids will start coming in the kitchen and bugging you and asking when it will be done.
Even if your kids are 22 and 28.

Stir in the sweet potatoes and cook, covered, until potatoes are tender and just starting to brown...about 10-14 minutes.

Then add your thyme and salt and pepper..

********** BRING ON THE BACON!!!
************

And voila!

You're ready to plate up this terrific breakfast dish!

Yeah Baby!!!!

I don't want your food Grandma, I want that shiny metal thing you keep sticking in my face.

And a Big Yeah to this baby too!!!Except this yittle baby is still a yittle too small for the savoriness of this dish.
No Little Boy Blue, you can not have my bacony, red pepper, sweet potatoey goodness.

This dish was a tad addictive.
The flavors of the red peppers and sweet potatoes brought the sweetness. And the bacon, thyme and onions brought on the savory.

I plated mine up with an egg and it was delicious.

Well, I hope you make this recipe sometime. Five ingredients is all!
And so tasty!

Even Little Chunkmeister here hopes everyone will make this dish too.

He also hopes one day his Grandma will give him that shiny metal camera thing so he can gnaw on it.

For now though, he's content humoring his momma by letting her love on him.

Hey everybody, have a great Tuesday!
Another beautiful Iowa day huh!!!
Talk at ya soon!!!

Fingerling Potatoes Are Appropriately Named

4/8/2012

Who knew

fingerling

potatoes

really look

like fingers?

Especially when they're cut in half.

They look like little small fingers.

Maybe even toes.

SORRY!!!

That was gross, wasn't it?
Takeback.

Anyhoo, There are three different kinds of fingerling potatoes.

The fingerlings up above are the orange French fingerlings. They look pinkish. There's a couple over to the left too.

The lighter yellow ones to the left here are the Russian Banana fingerling potatoes.

The dark purple ones are the purple Peruvian.

This is a package of all three fingerlings which I purchased at HyVee, it was $3.97 for 1.5 lbs.

I split the potatoes lengthwise for cooking.

And these are the pink/orange French fingerlings cut in half the
short-wise way.

I made both kinds of potatoes,
using the same recipe a couple weeks apart.

This is how both dishes came out.

These are the French fingerlings, roasted in the oven with herbs and olive oil and then slathered with some butter after roasting.

And these are the mix of all three fingerlings.

I made the French fingerlings with beef filet one night.

And the mixed fingerlings, I made with t-bone two weeks later.

There's a definite difference in taste between the two kinds of potatoes.
Tim and I much preferred the orange French fingerlings on the left. They were a more delicate flavor and actually a lot more tender the the Purple Peruvian ones. I bought the French fingerlings at New Pioneer Coop and they were about $3 or so as well for 1.5 or 1 lb.

For these fingerling potatoes, I used a recipe from Avec Eric's website www.aveceric.com and these fingerlings are absolutely fantastic.
Eric Ripert is a famous chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin in New York City.

So here's the fixins for these fine potatoes.

This recipe is sooo easy!!!

Don't blink or you'll miss the directions, that's how fast this comes together.

Now,
I cut these potatoes up in half, but you wouldn't have to.
You could cut them lengthwise like normal people but honestly, I like the fluffy insides when they're not cut lengthwise. That's why I cut them this way.

That's a lie, I cut them wrong by mistake but I'm glad I did, because they really are fluffier this way.

Place the fingerling potatoes on the baking sheet with the garlic cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and white pepper. Add the rosemary and thyme...

And then get ready to put them in the oven at 400 for 20 - 25 minutes.

And they will come out of the oven looking like this, all nice and crusty and tasty, yet soft inside...Mmmmmmm

Load the potatoes up in a bowl and add three dollops of butter on top and let melt....

Oh my gosh, my mouth is watering.

Plate up yer meal...

Really,
there are no words for this divine loveliness.
See the red sauce on the plate up there?
That is a Red Wine Butter Sauce for beef tenderloin; a recipe by Eric Ripert as well and it was fabulous.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garlic, Rosemary and Thyme
From www.aveceric.com, Website of executive chef Eric Ripert of New York’s Le Bernardin restaurant
He is also the author of the cookbook Avec Eric: A CulinaryJourney with Eric Ripert
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

3 to 3 ½ pounds fingerling potatoes, washed

¼ cup olive oil

2 heads garlic, cloves separated

4 springs rosemary

4 springs thyme

3 tablespoons butter

- fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Cut the fingerling potatoes in half and place the fingerling potatoes in a large baking sheet with the garlic cloves.

Drizzle the olive oilover the potatoes and garlic and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the rosemary and thyme sprigs and roast the fingerlings until golden brown and tender about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and toss with butter. Serve hot.

Okay,

catch everyone

later!!!

Have a

Blessed Easter!

Talk at ya next

time!

Beef Short Ribs and Smashed Potatoes That Will Turn Your Cultured Man Into A Neanderthal

3/2/2012

Okay, I'm just gonna get right

down to the nitty gritty dirt of

this Short Ribs recipe....

IT'S ABSOLUTELY

FANTASTIC!!!!!!

And with these super yummy

Restaurant Style Smashed Potatoes...

The potatoes alone are a meal unto thy lovely self.

Well, there's lots of pictures today, so let's get started on the Short Ribs recipe that turned Tim into an
honest-to-goodness caveman when he was eating them.

Also Tim kept saying how much he loved me and how he's the luckiest man alive (oh my, how I feel sincerely horribly sorry for the male species then) in between his grunting and groaning and shoveling of these ribs in his mouth.

I finally said, "Tim!!! Enough! Now, why do you like these beef ribs so much?!?!?"
He was eating so fast and furiously, he couldn't form a complete sentence. Seriously.
He just grunted, "Bold. Sweet. Impeccable. Ooga Googa."

Okay, so I added the "ooga googa". But still, other than that, those were Tim's exact words.

Okay, here's the fixins for these delicious ribs.. Not much here really for prep.

Not much chopping or peeling or slicing.

Easy is what it is.

Wait a minute.

I forgot something....

The ribs!!!!

Very important! The bone-in beef short ribs!!

The recipe calls for 6 lbs.
I had 5 lbs. The beef short ribs were $3.99/lb, so my package was $20.31. Not too bad for a cheat night meal.

I did trim off .60 of a lb. of fat off the beef ribs before cooking.

Which still left quite a bit to salt and pepper up both sides.

Over medium heat, brown ribs for six minutes on both sides, in batches.

Remove the short ribs and add the onions, carrots, garlic, and celery and saute for about 5 minutes.

Add the tomato paste, and wine to the vegetables and cook for a minute or two.

Very important!!!! You are using two cups of wine here...make sure it's a good red wine.
DO NOT SPOIL THIS NICE MEAT WITH $5 WINE!!
I used Apothic Red Winemaker's blend.
You can find it under $10 a bottle on sale. Inexpensive but it drinks like a $15 bottle and even though it's not a Cabernet, it drinks big.
A nice big, peppery Cabernet would be even better.

Add your stock, diced tomatoes and thyme and bay leaf...

Get your zester out...
YO, JR!!!
They're only like $6...buy one already!!

And zest a whole orange...mmmm..smells heavenly!!

Add the ribs back into the pan with all those juicy juice dripping sauce liquid things.

Add your orange zest in, cover pot and braise at 350 degrees for three hours or until the meat is tender.

By the way, your kitchen will have the most fabulous aroma for the next three hours. Neighbors will be climbing the back yard fence to try to sneak into your kitchen, girl scout cookie sellers will ask if they can stay for supper, and neighborhood runners and joggers will say screw the healthy exercise, that aroma smells too good to pass up.
Just sayin'.

At three hours or before,
pull out the dutch oven and see what the short ribs look like.

Yup,

I would

say

they're

falling

off the

bone!!!!

You can plate it up but you might want to wait for the Restaurant Style Smashed Potatoes that Ima show you how to make.

We is a-gonna make these potatoes that
your family will fight over!
Look over there, that's those French's French Fried Onions.

No wonder this recipe is fantabulous!

Oh, look at that butter and sour cream too. Uh huh. These potatoes are not low fat!!
But they are probably top three best potatoes I've ever had. and you know how I love the starch!

Fry up

yer bacon

till crisp

and

crumble.

Bake your potatoes (I baked mine in the oven) and add to a large bowl.

Mash those crispy skinned potatoes up!

Holy Guacamole!!!!!!!!
Add the creamy butter, scallions, BAAAAACCCOOOOOON, and sour cream!

This looks good all mixed up, doesn't it?

Well,

it is!!!

What could make it better???

Those french fried onion things!!!!

Oh yeah

baby!!!

I'm speechless by how good these potatoes are.
They taste as good as they look.
If there was a swimming pool full of these mashed potatoes, I would get over my fear of diving, and dive straight into these.
Total serious.

This makes such a nice little
treaty
cheaty night, doesn't it?

Ever notice how the starch in all my pictures are predominate over anything else?
I suck cuz I am such a carb girl. I wish carbs made you lose weight instead of the opposite. *sigh*

Okay, here's the recipes....both the embedded where you can print off and the non-embedded ones where you have to hand-write it off.

Neely’s Short Ribs
www.foodnetwork.com Down Home With The Neelys
Pat and Gina Neely
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
6 pounds beef short ribs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups dry red wine
3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, in thick puree
3 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 orange, zested
1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Heat about 2-tablespoons of the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat.

Season the short ribs well with salt and pepper. Over medium heat, brown ribs for 6 minutes on each side. You will need to do this in batches. Remove the browned short ribs to a plate and repeat with remaining ribs and oil.

Add onion, carrots, garlic, celery, and salt and pepper to the Dutch oven and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and wine to the vegetables and cook, stirring, about 1 minute. Add the stock, diced tomatoes, thyme, and bay leaf. Return the browned short ribs and any juices that have accumulated back into the Dutch oven. Add orange zest. Cover with a heavy lid and place in the oven and braise for 3 hours or until the meat is very tender.

Once the ribs are tender, remove the ribs to a platter. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Serve the short ribs over the stone ground grits, if desired. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

Restaurant Style Smashed Potatoes
www.thepioneerwoman.com, a very popular food blog
Ree also has a new show on the Food Network, Pioneer Woman
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Ingredients
5 whole Large Red Potatoes
1 stick Butter, Softened And Cut Into Pieces
5 slices Bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 whole Green Onions, Sliced
3/4 cups Sour Cream
Salt To Taste (add Plenty!)
Freshly Ground Black Pepper To Taste (ditto!)
3/4 cups French Fried Onions, More For Topping

Preparation Instructions
Nuke potatoes or bake in the oven until fork-tender. Add to a large bowl and smash with a potato masher. Immediately add softened butter, green onions, bacon, and sour cream and stir with a rubber spatula. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add french fried onions and fold in.

Serve hot, sprinkling on extra french fried onions and green onions. Yummy with grilled steak or chicken!

Okay, so that's a big post today with lots o' pictures.

Ima be making some Naughty Brownies this weekend....naughty because who really needs a thousand million calories in one brownie bar???

Who? Who?

Duh.

Angie.
*wink, wink*
See ya next time :)

<<Previous

Corey's Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Cheese, Spinach & Tomatoes and Outdoor Christmas Lights, well the Christmas lights aren't stuffed in the tenderloin although that would be festive for sure.

Greetings, friends!!!!

1 Day Prep-Ahead Small Thanksgiving Time Saver Meal

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potatoes, Oh Heck, You Know What I Mean!

Bacon Hasselback Potatoes But Without The Bacon - Crispy Outside, Creamy Inside - Delish!

Now pay attention kids!

Fillet With Peppercorn Sauce And Crispy Smashed Potatoes

Warm Potato Salad That Is Best Eaten Warm

Roast Chicken Pieces with a Parsley Lemon Juice Oil and Basil Chive Potato Mash

Sweet Potato Hash With Bacon

Fingerling Potatoes Are Appropriately Named

Beef Short Ribs and Smashed Potatoes That Will Turn Your Cultured Man Into A Neanderthal

Author

Categories

Archives

Greetings, friends!!!!

﻿Now pay attention kids! ﻿

Author

Categories

Archives

Now pay attention kids!