Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today, we spent Thanksgiving with our dear friends Ashley & Julia. I had to bring the mashed potatoes. This week on Food Network, they've been playing show after show on how to cook Thanksgiving dishes. I saw Ina Garten make these buttermilk mashed potatoes and I knew that's what I wanted to make. Jason really liked them, so I will probably make them again for us (just not so many). The buttermilk gives the potatoes a great flavor....it almost tastes like you've added sour cream.

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes:
1 - 3lb bag of Yukon gold potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 cup buttermilk
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
1. Peel the potatoes and cut into small pieces.
2. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 10-15 minutes or until done.
3. In a sauce pot, warm butter and milk.
4. Drain potatoes and return to the same pot you cooked them in.
5. Add butter/milk mixture to potatoes and mash.
6. Once potatoes are mashed, add buttermilk, salt and pepper.

Oven Fries

It's been a long week for the both of us. So tonight was a "sandwich" night, but I wanted to try to do at least one thing special. I had two baking potatoes in the pantry, so I decided to make some easy oven fries.

These fries are quick and easy and you can flavor them 10,000 different ways. I like them a little spicy.

Oven Fries:
2 large baking potatoes, cut into wedges
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Fennel seeds
Red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Cut each potato in half, so that you have two humps.
2. Cut each hump into quarters, so that you have 8 wedges.
3. Coat all of the wedges with olive oil and then add spices.
4. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees.
5. These takes about 30 minutes, just keep checking on them and flip them at least once.

What's that brown stuff on your plate?

Is that some sort of chutney? No. Did you burn something? No. Is that even food? Yes.
Well, it's not the prettiest dish I've ever made, but it tasted great. Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to make a German potato salad, or something like that. I didn't want anything cold with mayonnaise, I wanted something warm with that vinegar taste all through it.

I was fumbling through recipes until I realized that the only vinegar I had in the house was balsamic vinegar. I just happened to find a warm potato salad recipe using balsamic, so that's what I made. If you've never used balsamic vinegar, it's very dark, almost black, and the color takes over just about everything in the dish. It was good though. The recipe has sauteed shallots, celery and lots of bacon crumbles. I would totally make this again, but I might think about using a different type of vinegar next time (maybe apple cider vinegar). If you feel like you can take the looks of this dish, then you should try it. It really did taste great!!


Balsamic Potato Salad:
8 slices bacon
3 tablespoons flour
1 shallot, chopped
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon crumbled whole rosemary leaves
2 quarts cooked diced potatoes (I used 8 small yukon gold potatoes)

Directions:
1. Dice potatoes and boil in salted water until done.
2. Fry bacon until crisp.
3. Remove from pan, drain and crumble.
4. Add flour and onion to the bacon fat left in the pan.
5. Stir in vinegar, water, sugar, salt and spices.
6. Cook only until mixture is of medium thickness (only about 5 minutes or so).
7. Add to potatoes and crumbled bacon.
8. Mix carefully to prevent mashing the potatoes.

Thank You Paula Deen

Like her or not, Paula Deen has some good recipes. Tonight, I made Boursin Potatoes. Boursin is a garlic-herb cheese spread. It's really good for a party, but it's even better with potatoes. We also began chipping away at our freezer full of meat, so I also cooked a couple of steaks. The combination of steak with this sauce from the potatoes was out of this world. You will have to try this soon!

Boursin Potatoes:
5-6 Yukon Gold potatoes, skins on, sliced thinly
2 shallots, chopped
1 cup whipping cream
2.5 ounces Boursin Cheese (I could only find the 5 ounce package, so I just halved it)
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
1. Slice the potatoes very thinly and chop shallots
2. Place half of the potatoes and shallots into a glass baking dish (round is better)
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
4. In a sauce pot, slowly heat cream and whisk in the Boursin cheese until melted
5. Pour half of the cream mixture over the potatoes
6. Top with remaining potatoes and shallots
7. Season with salt and pepper
8. Pour remaining cream mixture on top
9. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for one hour

** The steak turned out great as well. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, you should ask for one for Christmas (or Hanukkah). First, I rubbed the steaks with olive oil and Greek Seasoning. I haven't talked about Greek Seasoning very much on this blog, but I use it all the time. I prefer Cavender's if you can find it. Then, I heat the iron skillet on the stove and brown both sides of the steaks (about 5 minutes on each side). Then I top each steak with butter and finish them off in the oven for about 15 minutes or so. I love steaks on the grill, but this method is also a great way to cook steaks.

Smashed Potatoes

Today Jason bought $300 worth of meat from a door-to-door salesman.....typical, right? So, over the next few weeks, I'll be focusing on tasty side items and beef/pork dishes. Buckle up. Smashed potatoes are really easy and they go with just about everything. You could add almost anything to them and they would still turn out great. Here's how I do them....



Smashed Potatoes:
3-4 baking potatoes, chopped into small pieces (I leave the skins on)
3 green onions1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
A handful of shredded cheddar cheese
Salt & Pepper

1. Boil potatoes until completely cooked, drain and return to same pot
2. Add all ingredients and mash with a potato masher or a fork
3. I like these potatoes with lumps, but blend until your desired consistency
4. If the potatoes seem too dry, slowly add more milk and mix a little at a time