Through the Kitchen Lens: Hasselback Potatoes

It's hard to make potatoes look interesting

Making something with potatoes this week was a no brainer because I had bought a bag for last week’s mashed potato endeavor and have you ever smelled potatoes when they go bad? It’s kind of awful. I can’t let that happen. I had to use them up.

Hasselback potatoes are something I originally saw on a blog – or maybe it was Pinterest. Either way, the look of them appealed to me, and it seemed that with all of the slits cut into the top of the potato, it would eliminate that common dilemma of baked potatoes: the not-all-the-way-cooked middle of the potato.

[Note: I keep wanting to add an “e” to the end of “potato”. I know it doesn’t belong, but my fingers keep typing it.]

These are surprisingly easy – though they take awhile. I imagine they’d be a great side dish with, well… dang near anything. Today, I made it as a stand alone dish – and it was lunch. I kind of love the chance to cook on the weekends – partly because I’m not rushed after a long day of work, and partly because with autumn in full swing, the days are getting darker sooner and I don’t have as much natural light to photograph what I’m cooking.

I didn’t take many photographs while making this. Why? Because they’re potatoes. It’s hard to make a potato look interesting until it’s… SOMETHING.

So, you wash off the potato, peel it, dunk it in cold water, cut a bazillion slits in the top, add butter and sea salt, cook, add more butter, add breadcrumbs, broil, and then ADD MORE BUTTER.

The end result was heavenly.

I’ll definitely make these again. I can see adding some onion to them, maybe even some roast garlic? I just saw a recipe for these in this month’s Food Network magazine – it incorporated bacon. Bacon isn’t quite MY thing, but if it’s yours you may wanna track it down.

Long story short: Potatoes + butter = good.

File this one in the win column.

Hasselback Potatoes

Kitchen Through The Lens: Mashed Potatoes

let's start at the beginning

I wasn’t gonna make anything this week.

I got overwhelmed being away last weekend – and thus not grocery shopping – and having no real plan for meal preparation for the week.

And then I had a really long day at work one day and decided that the ONLY THING that could even make it a tiny bit better is a huge heaping bowl of mashed potatoes.
cubes

I don’t know if I’ve ever made real mashed potatoes before. I remember my mom buying (gah) instant potatoes when I was a kid. I know that for the big events, the potatoes were always real, but someone else always made them.

Thus, I ended up googling recipes for mashed potatoes.

Shush.

You would too if you were me.

So, uh, I ended up on the Cooking Light website.

I know what y’all are saying to yourselves: WHAT? Light mashed potatoes? HAVE YOU BEEN SNIFFING GLUE?
No, but… you have to start somewhere and that somewhere might as well be a less artery clogging start.

The recipe called for boiling potatoes. Then draining the water, adding butter, some chicken broth, some milk and some sour cream.

But see… I didn’t measure. I just threw it all in my KitchenAid mixing bowl, blended and then KEPT TASTING until it was perfect (more sour cream… a little more sour cream… I think maybe just a tiny bit more sour cream. There. Got it. GOOD).

It was such an in-exact process I couldn’t even begin to tell you – but!

Potatoes. So, just add the ingredients in a way that makes sense and sample sample sample.

Also, make them earlier in the day when natural lighting makes them look more appetizing. Fall weather is hell on this project.

Next week! Something else with potatoes because HEY! I BOUGHT A BIG BAG OF POTATOES, Y’ALL.

mashed potatoes

Thursday Ten: I Saw Snow Yesterday edition

1. I saw snow yesterday and that is some ridiculousness because hello? It’s only October and even though Michigan is not necessarily known for having stable weather conditions EVER, it’s still far too early for the frozen stuff. (Knock it off, Mother Nature)

2. Tis the season for gymnastics competitions to start – well, soon anyway. Two aggressively worded emails from the owner of the gym last night and one cranky over tired gymnast at the tail end of a four hour practice session and I was feeling NO LOVE for gymnastics yesterday. Is today any different? I dunno. Ultimately, The Princess loves gymnastics. I think the schedule sucks for her right now (four hours of practice immediately following a full day of school? Recipe for cranky pants), and thus it sucks for me… but I think when all is said and done, it brings her more joy than grumpiness so, in she stays.

3. Oh the things I see when I’m out walking.
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4. I was going to take the week off from Kitchen Through the Lens and then changed my mind. Not only did I change my mind – I’ve already decided what I’m making next week. Sometimes I am so ahead of the game that I impress even myself.

5. The girls and I spent this past weekend in the Chicago area visiting some friends of mine as well as cheering on runners in Saturday’s Chicago Marathon. What fun we had. The car ride was probably the least fun part of that equation, but beyond that? The kids had a great time playing with new friends and we visited a fun farmers market and there were s’mores made with peanut butter cups and it was a fun time.  Also: I remain in awe of marathoners. To RUN for 26.2 miles? I can’t even wrap my head around it. Really amazing to see.

6. I’m getting sick. I’m not happy about that. Alternating cups of tea with cups of hot water, lemon and honey and wishing for sleep.

7. ArtPrize is over for the year and a piece I had basically walked right by with only a slight glance was the winner. Granted, I didn’t like last year’s winner either – but this year, I felt very detached from the whole event and felt that overall the quality of entries was, if not lacking, then just… different enough that nothing resonated with me. Not even the elephants that won. That’s okay. I think, though, that I may challenge myself to enter a photograph in next year’s ArtPrize because, hell, at least it’s not another crappy exhibit made with driftwood.

8. Speaking of entering a photograph in ArtPrize – that may need to go on my 40 before 40 list. I don’t really want to call it a bucket list – but I’ll be 40 in just over 4 years, and I think I want to create a list of things to do before then. LIIIIIIIKE…. ride a Zamboni, for example. (Really. I don’t know why. BUT YES.)

9. During that ride to Chicago last weekend, the iOS 6 maps function took me on an tremendously convoluted route to where I was going. Probably added an hour to the trip. My friends recommended the Waze app – which is free – and I’m kind of a fan. Not only does it give you turn by turn directions, but other Waze users are constantly updating it – so if there’s an accident or a police officer up ahead, it tells you that too. What can I say? I’m easily amused.

10. As a treat to myself recently, I signed up for Birchbox. Not because I needed to or because I was itching to spend more money – but because it seems like a really cool thing. Also, ten bucks a month to get fun surprise pamper-y stuff in the mail, probably worth it these days. In this time of stress and chaos, I look forward to having something to look forward to. (October’s box should be here soon – should be interesting to see what’s in it)

Through the Kitchen Lens: Blueberry Muffins

blueberry muffins

To tell the truth, I’m not sure why or how these made the list. I don’t eat blueberry muffins. I barely even eat muffins unless out of desperation. Muffins are too much like cake, and I’m not really a cake person either. But, my kids like blueberry muffins and they like blueberry muffins made with one of those cheap 50 cent boxes of Jiffy muffin mix and I don’t do cake mixes so I should banish muffin mixes too, am I right?

You’d think.

all of the blueberries

I pulled the recipe from one of The Princess’s cupcake/muffin cookbooks. Yes, the kid has her own. She loves to make cupcakes. (That cake/cupcake/muffin hating thing I’ve got going on? She does not. Kid LOVES cupcakes and baking them and going all Cupcake Wars in my kitchen.)

It was easy enough.

Baking always seems to be.

The recipe was simple and I was so proud of myself all, Look at me, I’m using REAL BLUEBERRIES AND THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST BREAKFAST EVER  AND THEY’RE NEVER GONNA EAT THOSE FAKE MUFFINS WITH THOSE FAKE DEHYDRATED BLUEBERRIES EVER AGAIN BECAUSE NO WAY WE’VE HAD THE REAL THING NOW AND IT’S WAY BETTER THAN THAT FAKE CRAP.

doughy muffin blobby mess

That’s what I was thinking anyway. I mixed and scooped the dough into the funky muffin liners that filled one of my grandmother’s muffin tins that made its way into my kitchen after she died (By “made its way”, I mean, it was given to me from her house. It’s not like the haunted muffin tin that somehow made its way from Traverse City into my kitchen, carried by the spirit of my grandmother… though… that wouldn’t be too far out of the realm of possibility if you believe in that sort of thing. I could see her being the kind of muffin tin delivering spirit that would do that.)

Fifteen to twenty minutes in the oven and I called the kids down to sample the muffins, ready to unleash upon them the wonder of using fresh and real ingredients.

Turns out. They like the fake crap.

Oddly enough, I liked these. So, there’s that.

muffin

Did I like them enough to eat a whole pan of muffins? Nope.

So, a successful experiment that will likely go to waste. A little bit sad, actually.

Oh well. Better luck next week.

Through the Kitchen Lens: Savory Biscotti

Cheddar Parmesan Biscotti in soup

I love biscotti. Those crunchy, faintly sweet cookies are perfect for dunking in coffee or nibbling on for a slight sweets craving. I’ve made several sweeter versions: vanilla almond, some kind with coconut, and even the double double chocolate chocolate biscotti I’ve posted before.

But, I keep ripping out recipes for a savory biscotti.

Like the sweet is the perfect complement for coffee, wouldn’t savory just be a great replacement to bread with soup?

Enter: Cheddar Parmesan Biscotti, a recipe I pulled out of Cooking Light YEARS AGO and never made.

With the weather turning colder, I figured I’d try now. And then it got to the mid-seventies in temp and I thought to myself, Self? You’re making soup…TODAY? That’s not bright.

Biscotti is actually pretty easy to make. That’s the awesome thing – they taste and look like they might be a lot of work, but really? So easy. And if you don’t love baking, it’s kind of neat to make something that looks way more impressive than the amount of effort it takes.

Throw the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl

 

Oooh. Cheese. Extra sharp cheddar and fresh grated parmesan.

In my opinion? Not enough cheese for this recipe. I expected a stronger flavor and… not so much.

Then again, I tweaked this recipe. I cut out the sun dried tomatoes and basil  – thinking that wouldn’t be right with the soup I had selected.

Sometimes I’m not smart.

Hey Sarah, FOLLOW THE RECIPE ONCE AND THEN YOU CAN GET ALL IMPROVISATIONAL UP IN HERE.

Liquid ingredients

Eggs, milk, olive oil. I didn’t show the oil in the picture. You know why? Oil isn’t pretty. Oil is oil.

Shape the dough into two logs. It certainly doesn't look yummy right now.

Baked once, and ready to be sliced and baked again.

Ready to bake again

The word biscotti actually refers to how they are cooked – twice baked. Once you pull the dough logs out of the oven and they cool slightly, you’ll slice them, tip ’em on their side and bake again. Seems a pain in the hiney, but… not really. You’ll be fine. It’s easy.

biscotti

The girls didn’t like these very much. I’m kind of neutral about them. Like I said, with the tweaks I made to this recipe, it could very well be my fault that these were so boring.

But they were really boring.

And not nearly savory enough.

If you want to try them without monkeying with the recipe, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Thursday Ten: Need A New Routine edition

1. I thought that the return of school would also bring a sense of calm and routine but what I’m finding is that no. Not so much. Gymnastics eats a good chunk of the schedule after school during the week. It’s chaotic and hopefully we’ll settle in just in time for the holidays to start and the snow to fly.

2. Among the many posts I’ve seen in recent days, one of the things I’ve loved the most is having been introduced to Brandi Carlile’s “That Wasn’t Me”: do i make myself a blessing to everyone i meet?

3. Around Grand Rapids, artists are getting ready for ArtPrize and I couldn’t be happier. I am not the biggest fan of West Michigan (sorry, but I’m not) but ArtPrize makes me love it a little bit. I love the vibe of the town when it’s filled with art and people are talking about what they’re seeing and the streets are full of people (okay, that part annoys me a bit).  I’m ready to see what is in store this year. BRING ON THE ART.

4. The Princess tried to stump me with a fifth grade social studies question last night but AHA AMERIGO VESPUCCI. Can’t fool me with your homework, kid. (Okay, maybe the math)

5. There’s a certain glow the sun has when it’s rising in the morning. I kind of love it. I pulled over on my way to work to get this shot – and one of these days, on the weekend when I’m in no hurry and I’m awake insanely early for no apparent reason, I’m going to go out and shoot more.
there's a bright golden haze on the meadow

6. I make no secret about not loving summer but you know what one of the perks is of the days getting shorter? Catching a sunrise on the way to work, and soon, catching the sunset. Yeah, I hate to drive to and from work in the dark – but my porch doesn’t offer the best view of a sunrise OR sunset (Stupid houses and trees). When I’m driving, the views are amazing.

7. I am using my netbook to type this. My laptop was making some awful groan-y noises last night while I was editing photos and I know it’s a matter of needing to back up some photos and get them OFF my laptop (also, MEMORY)… That laptop is ollllld and it’s been a pain in the ass for awhile. If it was Old Yeller, I’d have taken it out back and put it out of its misery by now.

8. I finished reading Gone Girl this week for book club. OH MY GOSH. This book and The Fault in Our Stars are two of the best I’ve read in awhile. Gone Girl was suspenseful and well-written and just when I thought I knew what was coming next I was always way wrong (in the best way – it’s the worst when you can anticipate every plot turn!). The Fault In Our Stars is a young adult book but a well crafted one, and one that left me (and the two people I’ve loaned it to since) in tears.

9. I have not yet decided what I’ll be cooking up for Kitchen Through The Lens next week but want to be sure I thank those of you who are following the process and who are sharing those posts. My friend, Rachel (who is far better in the kitchen than I could hope to be) gave me an awesome shout out on her blog the other day, and I’m just glad that any one is along for this ride with me. So… thanks. And welcome. (Savory biscotti next week, maybe?)

10. Good morning, happy Thursday. Let’s go make this day magical, shall we? Have a good one!

Kitchen Through the Lens: Burgers

Way to be unphotogenic, burger.

I guess I feel like I should preface this with an explanation. I mean, how can a woman be thirty-some years old and NEVER have made a burger? Seems a bit ridiculous and slightly unbelievable. BUT IT’S TRUE.

You see, for about ten years I was on a burger hiatus. No real reason. I didn’t follow a vegetarian diet. I prepared other meals with ground beef (not all good meals. This is me we’re talking about). I even made various other burger-y things (I think meatloaf is just a burger in a pan and meatballs are just…burger spheres? I don’t know. Anyway…). It wasn’t until last year in June on a LoveDrop trip on the other side of the state that we all stopped for burgers after gifting the awesome family with lots of amazing things.

It was my first in over a decade.

And it was good.

I even Instagrammed a picture of it. It was that good.

Since then, I have occasionally craved a burger. I have deliberately gone to restaurants for the purpose of consuming a burger.

But… never made one.

So, last night I googled some recipes. Yeah. Recipes.

The thing is, the burger I grew up with was just a round hockey puck of meat. Ugh. I mean, that’s all fine and good but… I don’t like ’em like that.

And there are a LOT of ways to make a burger – I even found a recipe that incorporated chopped basil into the meat (and while I love me some basil, I skipped that route).

Some minced garlic and some salt and pepper is what I decided to do. I threw them on the grill pan because I don’t really know how the barbecue grill works. They’d have been better on the grill, I think. But, such is life.

And the result was some of the most delicious, UGLIEST burgers ever (see above).

Being a burger newbie, I also kinda made them small (I could say I meant to do that and call ’em sliders, but I didn’t really mean to do that. I just don’t know what the heck I’m doing).

I added some sliced onion and some mustard and called it good (yeah, garlic AND onions). The Princess had me add cheese to hers and Pumpkin slathered her in a gruesome amount of ketchup.

And we were happy.

Next week, I will make something prettier. I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture of raw meat because…yuck.

Thursday Ten: Back to School Edition

1. Today is day THREE of the new school year. They seem quiet okay with being back – and the bonus is that bedtimes are a little easier to enforce, especially for Pumpkin, because when the day is over she is EXHAUSTED.

2. New music this week, well… You know, you have to realize I was probably just the right age when Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” came out in the mid-90s, so when I read a review of her new album “Havoc and Bright Lights” and saw that it was on sale on Amazon (remember, iTunes – you are dead to me), I just bought it sight unseen, or….er… song unlistened? Well… there are some pretty melodies but there are some lyrics in this collection of songs that make me think, “Uh, Alanis? What are you even talking about?” So, what I’m saying is… don’t buy this album in its entirety. Take a listen, pick up a track or two and then go back to her older stuff and think fondly of loudly singing “You Oughta Know” while driving with your windows rolled down.

3. If I had known when Lisa asked me to guest post on her blog that she was moving this week, I’d have devoted my post to begging her to stay. Instead I wrote about a few of my favorite things.

4. For a short week, it has been C-R-A-Z-Y busy. Admittedly, I prefer busy to bored… but I also kinda dig the feeling of accomplishment I get when I am able to complete my whole to-do list for a day. And, yeah… that isn’t happening these days.

5. The kids and I finally made the bruschetta and served it over pasta and it was our prelude to strawberry shortcakes and whoa-my-goodness I was feeling a bit rock-starry in the kitchen that day. We were definitely right about how yummy it was – and I’m gonna call it a good start to when my Kitchen Through the Lens project takes me into the realm of making my own pasta sauce.

6. While I don’t know if my cooking is getting any better, my comfort level with making new things is certainly higher. That’s kind of awesome. (It would be more awesome if my cooking was improving too, but I’m hardly impartial.)

7. I believe in signs.

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8. Two weeks until ArtPrize!

9. I was walking past the television at work the other day and Matt Lauer was on the Today Show and suddenly the thought that flashed through my head was, He reminds me of Ben Stein. Whut? I’m not sure if there is a real resemblance or if my brain just needed coffee at that moment. What say you?

10. Wrapped up one 365 last week, started a new one. Are you in?
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Kitchen Through the Lens: Strawberry Shortcake

your dessert is jealous of my dessert. unless your dessert is a brownie sundae.

 

I really love dessert.

I also love fruit.

Fruit in my dessert? Well, let’s just say I’m not always a fan.

I know, I know… But, really? It’s just the way I’m wired.

I decided to branch out a bit with this one. Explore new dessert horizons.

Strawberry shortcake.

fresas

A rather photogenic fruit, am I right? So red and lovely and even on their own, so sweet and perfect on a warm summer day. They don’t need anything else. I’m not sure why we decided we can’t just let fruit be fruit and dessert be chocolate.

slices

I recruited a helper-slash-hand-model from my pool of offspring. I selected the only one I trust with sharp objects.

pour some sugar on me

Strawberry shortcake is actually really easy to make. Cut off the stems of the strawberries, quarter them and add sugar. Let the sugar and strawberries work their mojo while you do the rest of the fun stuff.

just grab 'em in the biscuit

Like make biscuits. OH THE HEAVY CREAM.

This recipe called for just putting the dough-type-substance in an 8″ square pan and then cutting it into six pieces. NO WAY. I wanted actual pretty, round photogenic biscuits, baby.

These dense, very lightly sweetened biscuits made the perfect backdrop to those sweetened berries and rich (homemade!) whipped cream.

I could eat those biscuits alone, actually.

(I, uh… did, actually… the next day.)

 

red

The kids were pretty enthused with this week’s project (I excluded them from margarita night, so I had some making up to do!). These shortcakes were the final touch on a fabulous, if I do say so myself (and I do!), meal. It was one of those evenings where I felt like, Whoa. I may figure out this kitchen thing after all*…

*You may not want to bet money on that.

Kitchen Through the Lens: Vinaigrette

ingredients
Every once in awhile, I get a little twitchy about the number of things I buy that contain ingredients I can’t pronounce. Ingredients that were probably created in some lab somewhere as part of some science experiment involving beakers and chemical reactions and isn’t that just really gross? [Exception to the rule: I don’t care what science was involved in the making of Cheetos – it’s all good with me, though.]

An obvious place to make changes is salad dressing. I love vinaigrettes and it seems silly to buy them from a store. How hard could it be? Surely it has to be better for me, right?

cayenne, sea salt, cumin

So, I searched Google for vinaigrette recipes that didn’t require a stop at the store for more ingredients on the way home. I found three worth trying. I figured I would try all three, and use my favorite on my dinner – grilled chicken salad. FYI, I marinated the chicken in lime juice, fresh garlic, sea salt and olive oil – it’s my go-to marinade, and I wanted to pick vinaigrettes that would complement those flavors.

I picked a honey lime, honey dijon and cumin lime (seen below, left to right).

three kinds of vinaigrette

I had no cruets for salad dressing – I did have these funky glass jars, hand painted by my kids WHICH IS WAY BETTER THAN SOME STUPID CRUETS.

Honey lime vinaigrette-
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
dash cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Honey dijon vinaigrette –
1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. olive oil
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
salt and pepper to taste

Cumin lime vinaigrette –
1/4 c. lime juice
1/4 c. olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Ultimately, they were all fine – but the honey dijon is the only one that felt like a true vinaigrette to me – perhaps because it’s the only one that actually HAD VINEGAR IN IT. I put that on my disappointing salad along with a little bit of the honey lime and kind of mixed the two and it was tasty. All three are now in covered dishes in my fridge where they will go bad in three days because I no longer have any salad to put them on.*

grilled chicken salad is NOT pretty

 

*Bagged salad. What a pain THAT is. I don’t know if you can tell from the above picture, but there’s a spot in my fridge that freezes lettuce. And so it’s wilty and soggy and not so yum. I threw away SO MUCH LETTUCE and was left with a pretty puny salad. Also, you’ll note from the above salad that I even grill the cloves of garlic from the marinade (I use a grill pan). Yeah, so, grilled garlic is delicious and fabulously smelly and I love it, so there.