Meat N' Potatoes

Hello, everybody! I thought I'd try out some little Pinterest recipes. 

 I've heard these called hasselback potatoes but my friend says they're not hasselback if you don't add the bread crumbs. Which I didn't. So, get a large russet, slice very thin but not all the way through.

 Drizzle olive oil, making sure to get in between each slice.

 Add salt, pepper, any kind of seasoning. One of my kids wanted theirs with Seasoned Salt and that was really tasty. I opted for salt and pepper.

 Place them on a sheet with foil, into the oven at 425F for 40 minutes.

 They turned out perfectly! Crispy, salty, savory. And all in one piece. For once, not a Pinterest fail!

 

 I'm sticking this here because it's a bit too simple for its own post. My friend told me she makes delicious oven fries and the simple trick is to rinse in ice cold water to get off the starch that the potatoes leak when you cut them, pat dry and then put on the oil and salt. WOW. Big difference!

Yummy.... I cooked mine with a big piece of Kielbasa sausage and then sliced the sausage into individual servings. With some honey mustard and a big red pepper, my husband thought it was pretty tasty. Not a real vegetable in sight!

                                                    Until next time!

Split Pea Soup and Oven Roasted Potatoes

Hello, everyboy! I was yearning for Spring.

But before we get to that recipe... I feel like January lasted for about 6 months. BLAH. This is the season I want to eat all the time and look at pretty pictures.

 

 (That picture has nothing to do with anything. I just thought... PEACOCK CAKE? SERIOUSLY?)

 

Hey, here's another one! These are from 'most beautiful cakes'. Don't go to that site unless you never want to attempt another cake in your life.
Overachievers.

 

I sort of like this one...

All right, all right. I do have a recipe. And it's green. Not for St. Patrick's Day (or even because it's Ash Wednesday today) but because if I didn't pretend for a momen it was spring, I was never going to make it.

So, here we go. Super simple. Will be great for SPEEDBO, in March!! (Take notes...)
 One onion, minced. A few cloves of garlic, minced. Two pound bag of frozen peas.

Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil. Add 4 cups of chicken broth and frozen peas. Boil ten minutes.

Edna covered her ears. She thinks the blender is a bit impulsive and careless. I mean, everything turns out looking the SAME. Blend the peas until the texture you desire. My kids like it very smooth, no chunks. Season  with salt and pepper to taste.

Wait... that's not all. My husband would go live in the shed if I decided there was pea soup for dinner and nothing else. So...

Get some servants (I meant kids!) to chop a bunch of potatoes. Boil until just soft around the edges. They should be firm in the center, but  boiled for long enough to soften just a little. Leave the skins on.

Drain the water and shake the semi-soft potatoes in the pot. Depending on how large your pot is, you can count this as aerobic excercise.

Now, my dad brought us some giant pepperoni pizzas from his favorite store, Costco. The kids love cheese pizza, so I took the pepperoni off one (hubby prefers his with meat). Well, then I had about a 1/4 pound of delicious pepperoni sitting in my fridge, taunting me every time I opened the door.

I laid it on a tray and baked it in the oven for 5 minutes at 400F.

Don't want until it turns black. Just take it out, let it cool a bit and start chopping. Are you following me? We're heading back to the potatoes...

"Drained, half-cooked potatoes with leftover pepperoni crisped in the oven". Hm. Now, that's a recipe title we can all pause to admire. It should have some special-fancy-artisan name. But it's still winter and I'm all out of creativity.
Add 1/2 tsp of salt (this is a big pan) or you can wait and see how it tastes. I love salt so I added salt to mine. Hubby does not like salt, I left his plain. The pepperoni has enough for him.

Some shredded mozzarella and cheddar on the no pepperoni sheet.
I also added a bit of cheese to the pepperoni batch but hubby doesn't care much for cheese...

Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. Stir a few times to make sure they're browning nicely, and that nothing is smoking. :) The skins come off and get crispy, that's okay. I thought they were super delicious and was glad when the kids kept leaving them behind. Mmmm.

Back to our need for green. My daughter thought the soup would be good with some crispy pepperoni, too. And cilantro. I'm ignoring that part of her bowl.

This is mine. I have to say, I feel a lot more cheerful. It must be the broccoli and pea soup. Oh, and maybe the crispy-cheesy-pepperoni potaoes.
All in all, I think I'm ready to start Lent without too much whining. Maybe I'll give up those cake sites.... Nah.

Purslane and Ranh Baked Potatoes

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and we tried a yummy dish I saw on facebook. It didn't turn out quite like the video but i was still tasty so I thought I'd share it here.

But first...

 We found purslane! Mary shared a post on purslane a few months ago and I'd never really seen it around. Or so I thought. But after reading her post, I looked it up and realized that we have a Western version that's more of a succulent than a leafy green.

 We had a Cub Scouts bike ride around a lake near us and while we were there we saw piles of it, so we had to bring some home to try. :) The Boy Scout troop leader was very impressed with our foraging skills and I told him it all came from a great cooking blog post. So, now there is a troop of Cub Scouts who know they can eat pig weed if they get lost (and here it's called pig weed, btw).

 I saw a recipe on facebook that looked so delicious! Probably because it's fall and in fall my thoughts turn toward POTATOES.

 Choppity chop with help from small people exercising good safety...  Boil the potatoes half way. This is important. Don't overboil, like I did. We almost ended up with mashed potatoes, which was still good, but not like the recipe. While the potatoes are boiling (but not too much), mix one tsp garlic powder, one tsp salt, and one tsp paprika to 1/2 cup ranch dressing. I'm not a huge fan of prepared salad dressings, and even less if they're heated up, but I took a risk and decided to try it.

 Anyway, drain the potatoes, toss with the mix, add two cups of sliced sausages (recipe called for bacon) and bake for 20 minutes.

 Remove from the oven and add a cup of shredded cheese an a cup of chopped green onions. The recipe called for Pepper Jack but I added sharp cheddar. Let sit for five minutes as the cheese gets a little melty, and then serve.

 My husband's plate. Everyone liked it a lot!

 And one last picture of our ambitious hen who keeps laying double eggs. Overachiever!!