Oct 10, 2016
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I’m an Idaho girl and if I’m tooting my own horn, I know my potatoes and I love them. Potato soup, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, twice baked potatoes and a family favorite…easy baked french fries.
I’ve been making french fries for years. I bought this handy french fry cutter which conveniently serves as our apple slicer as well. But cutting fries is not always an easy task. Sometimes I find I’m banging the potato against the counter trying to get it to go through the slicer straight. The potato would rotate and then I found myself trying to cut the potato sideways. And after years of experience, I finally learned a little trick. It’s not revolutionary, but it works. Before cutting the potato, cut off one end. With the flat end of the potato against the counter, it will be much easier to slice without the potato moving and rotating all over the place. Does this eliminate the need to potentially hit it against the counter? No. But it gives you a nice even surface to hit against!
Once they’re cut – soak them in a bowl of water for a while. This will help crisp them up and remove some starch. Then drain the water, toss them in a bowl with some olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and some seasoning salt. Lay them as a single layer on a greased pan, making sure they don’t overlap. Cook them for 30 minutes at 400 and then increase the temp to 425 – 450 (depending on how crisp you like them) for additional 15 minutes to crisp them up. After they baked, I add a little more salt, pepper and seasoning salt to taste.
With our love for fries I’m convinced I need a new french fry cutter. Like this commercial grade cutter. Or I’ve even thought about buying a french fry disc for my Kitchen aid. Anyone have a french fry cutter they love?
Jul 8, 2016
Steve is a thoughtful son. A while back, Steve’s parents came back from Ghana for a family wedding. It was a short visit, only a week long, and we all knew they would be stretched thin to do and see all that they could in their short time.
Steve wanted to spend time with his mom. He also knew she would be making bread to enjoy the week while they were home. So he arranged to have her teach him how to make bread. An added bonus was bringing Hallie along and letting her enjoy the experience as well. She was all in.
They spent the afternoon together. Talking and catching up and learning. Steve enjoyed his time. Hallie couldn’t wait to show me how her loaves turned out. And I’m pretty sure his mom enjoyed passing on years of experience in bread making to her son and granddaughter. And we all benefited with some delicious bread!
May 24, 2016
My sister-in-law made us a delicious Sunday dinner of Chicken Tikka Masala after Briggs was born. I know it’s one of their family favorites and it was delicious – we made it again not too long after and it was just as delicious and relatively easy. It’s a tad spicy – I thought it came from the jalapeño in the sauce but even the grilled chicken was spicy. The marinade ingredients seemed completely random but they work – I could eat the grilled chicken on it’s own.
Marinade:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Combine all marinade ingredients, and coat chicken and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Grill or cook the chicken and discard marinade.
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Salute garlic and jalapeño for one minute. Season with cumin, paprika and salt. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low until sauce thickens (about 20 minutes). Add grilled chicken and simmer for 10 more minutes. Garnish with fresh cilantro and a little plain yogurt or sour cream. Serve over hot rice.
Jan 27, 2016
Every winter, Steve and I both agree it’s the perfect weather for grilling and we try to cook out more often. One of our family’s very favorite grill item is bacon wrapped chicken skewers. They’re simple enough that they don’t require a recipe – but fair warning, it can be time consuming to get everything chopped up and on sticks.
The staples are fresh pineapple, bacon, chicken, pepper and onion. I personally like tomatoes on them as well, but they don’t always make the cut.
Cut everything into bite-size pieces; this includes cutting a package of bacon in half. (We make these often enough that I purchased metal skewers from Amazon which I prefer over the wooden skewers.) Skewer the pieces in whatever order you like – wrapping the chicken with a piece of bacon before adding to the skewer. Sometimes I’m a nice mom and I make separate skewers based on what the kids like and other times I make all of them exactly the same.
I used to make a teriyaki sauce to marinate the skewers in, but then I found a sauce I liked better and I haven’t turned back.
Refrigerate for an hour or two, or even longer if you have time and then cook them on the grill. Serve with rice and teriyaki sauce.
If you want to get really fancy – ourbestbites.com has a recipe for lime cilantro rice with pineapple that compliments this palate quite nicely.
Oct 30, 2015
There’s never enough time and never enough fairy dust to make everything fun and magical for the kids during the holidays. I often find myself caught between practical mom and fun mom so I’m always looking for shortcuts. I discovered this shortcut 6 years ago preparing for Hallie’s 4th birthday party when I was running short on time and I needed a quick and easy Halloween treat. (So short on time that I even bought sheet brownies from Sams club!) It’s now an easy go-to when I’m looking for a festive treat and the generic mini-cupcakes stacked 10 rows high at Wal-mart just aren’t cutting it.
You can find all the details in my post at HowDoesShe.com.
