Homemade Potato Chips with House Seasoning
The humble potato is hands down probably the most favorite vegetable of every person I know. They are so versatile. There isn’t much you can’t do with a potato. You can make it into flour, into a pancake, you can mash, fry, slice, dice, grill, roast, puree and make them into soup. You can even make pasta with them. A potato is a pretty amazing little veggie! The Stud Muffin love potatoes. He’s the stereotypical meat and potatoes kind of guy. You’ll never catch him complaining if I don’t feel like making a green veggie to go with our meal as long as their is meat and some type of potato. Potato chips…
Grilled Parmesan Herbed Potatoes
It’s grilling season. A time of year that I used to love because that meant TSM was going to be cooking most nights. Now, somehow, since graduating from culinary school I seem to be cooking 99.5% of the time and TSM has turned the grilling over to me. I think it’s time to save up and buy him a smoker. He can be in charge of smoking and then maybe I can take part of each summer off while he experiments with smoking various meats. Sounds like a plan to me! Just for the summer I’m going to be taking a break from 30-Minute Monday Recipes. Don’t worry, I’ll still have plenty of…
The Perfect Rustic Style Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes. The quintessential comfort food. There isn’t anything that a bowl of smashed up taters drenched in melted butter and bursting forth with gravy can’t make better. Chopped off your thumb in a woodworking accident? Here, have some mashed potatoes. Boyfriend dumped you for your best friend? Psh- not to worry. Have some mashed potatoes–and you get extra gravy. Didn’t get the winning lottery ticket? Aww, stop buying lottery tickets and buy potatoes instead. Why? Because you can make mashed potatoes with potatoes and you can only make a book mark or a redneck toothpick with a lottery ticket. It’s a no brainer, really. I go in phases where I want…
Real Food Split Pea and Ham Soup
Out of all the veggies in the world I strongly dislike peas. Naturally, I’m betrothed to a man who LOVES peas. I mean all out, get you in mah belly, I could eat three bowls each day LOVES peas. God has a sense of humor all right. Because I love my dear Stud Muffin, I make him Split Pea Soup, but I add ham because I love ham. Throw pork into a soup and I’m a happy girl. Throw peas into a soup and The Stud Muffin is a happy Man. Combine them, and you have two happy people eating a rather tasty bowl of soup, even though it does contain a pound…
Yankee Breakfast Hash
We’ve recently moved to the South. South Carolina to be exact. There are numerous differences between the North and the South. There are also numerous differences between MN and SC. Shortly after moving here I shared some of those on my Facebook page. That post is a good example of my sense of humor and my love of tongue in cheek. If you follow my blog, you know that I enjoy witty banter and I love to use humor when sharing my stories and experiences about food. Our family is filled with people who possess great senses of humor. Both my grandparents are very funny, sharp, witty people. My grandfather reminds me a…
Not Yo Mama’s Potato Salad
I have a sensitive palate. It’s easily assaulted, intensely opinionated and it rarely fails me when trying to predict all the ingredients in a dish from a restaurant that I wish to duplicate at home. Because of this, I sheepishly admit that my homemade potato salad was rather simple and unassuming. I am a firm believer that simple food is good food. Taking a basic potato and using a few simple ingredients to enhance the flavor of the potato and make it shine is the mark of a good chef. While in culinary school I learned about a Student Culinary Competition Team that competed on a national level for the American Culinary…
Paprika Chicken with Smashed Taters & Gravy
Hands down, this is probably one of my favorite meals from childhood. My grandmother made this for Sunday dinners back when we used to go over to my Grandparents house after church on Sundays. I truly miss those times. I’d almost forgotten that a LARGE bottle of ketchup was present at every Sunday dinner. I swear my grandfather would drink the stuff if allowed. One year everyone bought him a bottle of ketchup and he was thrilled! Yeah, I know. It’s kind of gross that we put ketchup on every meat. You’ll be happy to know that TSM (The Stud Muffin) broke me of that habit very early on in our relationship. I…
Hearty Potato Soup with Bacon
I have a long list of personal quirks. I like to put an odd number of ice cubes in my drink unless it’s a small glass, then 2 ice cubes will do. I sometimes zig-zag the part in my hair, and will do either 5, 7 or 9 zigs and zags. I prefer to keep the volume on my car radio set to even numbers, and although I like a good homemade French fry, I don’t love potatoes. Don’t tell my Irish grandmother. It’ll break her heart. She’s already a bit bummed that she doesn’t have one full red-headed grandchild or great grandchild among all 18 of us. My less than enthusiastic attitude…
