Homemade Potato Chips

I bought a big bag of russet potatoes to make Zuppa Toscana soup, and I needed to find a way to use the leftovers. I remembered I'd clipped out a recipe for chicken nuggets with potato chips, and decided to give it a whirl. The chicken nuggets were underwhelming - the breading fell off when I bit into them, and it was a lot of messy prep. Although I did enjoy the tangy flavor that came from marinating the chicken in dill pickle juice. But I was really impressed by the potato chips - super easy, and super good! It's amazing what the microwave can do.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• A few splashes of white vinegar (optional)
• 2-3 large russet potatoes (1 pound total), cut 1/8 inch thick on a mandolin

Recipe:
In a large bowl, combine oil, salt, and vinegar (if using - I love salt and vinegar chips so I added some splashes in there). Add potatoes; toss gently to coat. Place microwave plate over parchment paper. Cut paper to fit plate. Cover plate with parchment paper; arrange potato slices in a single layer over paper. Microwave at HIGH for 5-6 minutes, until potatoes are crisp and begin to brown. Repeat procedure with remaining potatoes, reusing parchment paper.

Adapted from a recipe found in Cooking Light Magazine.

Bruschetta

Let me tell you now: once you go with this bruschetta, you will never go back.

It is amazing. Seriously. I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes, especially raw ones, and I loooooove this stuff. It's become one of my standard party appetizer recipes because when I crack this baby open at a party and everyone gets a whiff, they all come huddling around wanting to know what's in it.

It's a real easy recipe, just mix the tomato stuff together and let it marinate. I'm telling you, that balsamic just works some magic. You may be tempted to skip that marinating time, don't. The garlic mellows out a bit and it just tastes better. You can skip it in a pinch, but it's much tastier if it sits. Once you're ready to serve, toast up the bread and strain off the liquid and you're good to go. I always make a double-batch because all my friends know this dish and will polish off a single batch way too fast!

Excuse the iPhone photo. It's great stuff, trust me.

Bruschetta
makes 4 servings

3 firm roma tomatoes, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons diced marinated sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

For the toasts:
9-10 slices ciabatta or Italian bread
1 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
pinch dried parsley flakes

1. Toss tomatoes, salt, basil, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes (if using), olive oil, and vinegar together in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

2. When you are ready to serve, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine Parmesan and parsley in a small bowl. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet.

3. Sprinkle Parmesan mixture on bread slices and bake for 5 minutes, until the bread starts to crisp.

4. Pour tomato mixture into a serving dish (drain off liquid) and serve alongside the toasts.

Bacon Mushroom Wild Rice

Watch out, I'm cooking again!!! I was really psyched to find this recipe for my contribution to the Reishus family Thanksgiving potluck, and having just made it, I can hardly wait for the meal this afternoon! So now I share with you... Bacon Mushroom Wild Rice.

What you need:

4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups uncooked wild rice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3 strips bacon

(I doubled the recipe cause we're having like 25 people over, and then added more mushrooms and almonds and doubled the bacon again, cause it seemed like a good idea. I do not regret it!)


What you do:

Bring the chicken broth to a boil, then add the wild rice, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour (the recipe said 55 minutes but mine was still very watery then so I let it go for another 5).



While that's going, fry up the bacon in a large skillet. When it's done, use a tongs or a slotted spoon to remove it from the pan.



Add the mushrooms and almonds to the skillet and saute them in the bacon drippings.



Chop up the bacon strips into ~1/2 inch pieces. When the mushrooms are done, add the bacon back into the skillet and stir it all up.



When the rice is done, you may have to drain out the extra chicken broth (mine was still rather soupy but the rice was done). Then stir in the mushrooms, almonds, and bacon.



Enjoy!!! Hopefully you won't have to wait several hours before you eat yours, like I do :)



I did test it and found it delicious. I mean come on, I quadrupled the bacon :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Light guacamole

I tried out this recipe mostly because I was intrigued. For a lot of get-togethers, we make guacamole because it's easy and delicious. And while there's nothing really unhealthy in there, the avocados do have a lot of fat (the good kind). I found this recipe that replaces some of the avocados with skinned lima beans. This is the part that intrigued me. I wasn't sure if you would be able to tell the difference, and I wanted to find out.

It was generally easy to make, though probably not as easy as real guacamole. I could only find 1.5 cup packages of lima beans, so I used them all and then added 2 (instead of 1) avocados. I also didn't use a jalepeno because I didn't want to buy one and I didn't use cumin because I didn't have it. I did use taco seasoning in it, a tip from my friend's mom. Overall it turned out pretty well, I couldn't really taste the lima beans and it didn't make a huge difference. I told the people I was serving it to that it had the beans in there, some were weirded out a bit but ate a bunch of it anyways.

Light guacamole

1 medium tomato (about 5 ounces), cored, seeded, and chopped fine (about 1 cup) (can use canned)
1 cup frozen mature lima beans (about 5 ounces) (you can use baby lima beans but they're hard to skin and your dip will be a bit grainy)
1 medium ripe avocado
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp reduced-fat mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro leaves
1 medium jalepeno chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced
1 Tbs. minced red onion or shallot
1 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tsp.)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
fresh ground black pepper

1. Place the tomato in a small colander set inside a bowl and set aside to drain while preparing the rest of the guacamole.

2. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a small sauce pan over high heat. Add the frozen lima beans and cook until creamy, about 5 minutes. Drain the beans and rinse under cold water until cool. Pat the beans dry with paper towels then remove the skins by pinching the beans so the skins slide off.

3. Halve the avocado, remove the pit, and scoop out a quarter of the flesh. Puree a quarter of the avocado, skinned lima beans, lime juice, mayo, and salt together in a food processor until smooth, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

4. Cube the remaining three-quarters of the avocado into 1/2-inch pieces, and scrape into a medium bowl. Add the pureed lima mixture, drained tomato, cilantro, jalepeno, onion, garlic, and cumin, and stir gently to combine. Season to taste with pepper. Transfer the guacamole to a serving bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until the flavors meld, about 1 hour.

Pumpkin Butter

So, here's the story behind the pumpkin butter. I bought a can of pumpkin (the unseasoned kind, not the pie filling) to make pumpkin popovers. The recipe looked simple enough, even though it involved flour. I was looking forward to the opportunity to overcome my fear of flour and my baking ineptitude.

I failed. I failed miserably. I followed the recipe exactly. When I removed the popovers from the oven, they were beautifully puffed and golden brown. I thought I had won and did a premature happy dance. Then I bit into one. Instead of being light, airy, and delicious, the bottom of the popover was dense and doughy, weighed down by uncooked egg. It was seriously like bread pudding down there. Disgusting. I threw all 12 of them in the garbage.

As a result, I was left with a can of partially-used pumpkin and a deflated ego. But as I always say, when life gives you pumpkin, make pumpkin butter!

Ingredients:
* 1 can (15 ounces) Pure Pumpkin
* 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/4 cup honey
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Recipe:
Combine pumpkin, sugar, honey, lemon juice, cinnamon and cloves in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring frequently, for 20 to 25 minutes or until thickened. Serve with biscuits, bread, or corn muffins. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Recipe makes 2 cups.

Notes:
Since I'd already used part of the pumpkin, I only made half of the recipe. I didn't have a lemon, so I substituted 1/4 tablespoon of white vinegar. Worked like a charm! Also, I added a dash of nutmeg, just because I like it. I've been using it on bread in the morning and as a dip for apple slices. Since I adore pumpkin, I find it very versatile. Tomorrow, I plan to mix a spoonful into my morning oatmeal. In Britta's kitchen, it's always pumpkin season! Just not popover season. Ever.

Snicker Salad

I was just looking at a lot of the old posts and didn't realize there was a request out for Snicker Salad. So, even though I have no pictures I will post it to get it to you! Plus, it's not like this one really needs the pictures.

Ingredients

1 - 3 oz. Instant vanilla pudding

1 C milk

8 oz. Cool Whip

3 Snickers Bars, cut up

2 apples, peeled and diced

Mix pudding and milk. Add Cool Whip. Mix in apples and Snickers pieces. Fold gently.

And that is it! I tend to use a more tart apple, like a honeycrisp or pink lady, but whatever is your favorite will work. Recipe easily doubled which is good to do, because it goes quickly!

Beer-Braised Sausages with Warm Potato Salad

I forgot to take pictures of this one, sorry. This was in my Everyday Food magazine and I thought it looked good. And it had a built in side-dish. That's something I neglect when I cook for myself; I don't usually make side-dishes and I miss them sometimes.

It turned out pretty well, tasty stuff. The potatoes were kind of tangy and the sauce was pretty good. It wasn't spectacular but it was easy!


Beer-Braised Sausages with Warm Potato Salad

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 lbs sweet Italian sausages
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
12 ounces pale ale beer
1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes, halved
coarse salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

1. In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add sausages and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Add onion and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Add beer, potatoes, and 2 cups water; season with salt and pepper and press to submerge potatoes in cooking liquid. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

2. Transfer sausages to a serving platter and keep warm. In a large bowl, stir together 1 tablespoon oil, vinegar and parsley. With a slotted spoon, transfer potato mixture to dressing (reserve cooking liquid) and toss to combine.

3. Return pot to high heat; boil cooking liquid until reduced to 1 cup, about 12 minutes. Return sausages to pot and cook until heated through, 2 minutes. Place sausages and dressed potatoes on serving platter; drizzle half the sauce over top. Serve sausages and potatoes with remaining sauce alongside.

Okye's Garlicky Vegetables

This recipe comes from my Mom (the Okye of this recipe, who is by far the nicest little Korean lady you'll ever meet). I think it's a little ditty she made up to dress up vegetables. She sometimes will use this method with green beans, but I had some broccoli on hand and used that. This recipe is also super easy, and with that said, I kind of went on autopilot and forgot to take pictures at the beginning. Sorry.

What you'll need:
-a few cloves of garlic (based on personal taste, I used 3 cloves...for one serving. What can I say? I'm Asian, I like garlic.)
-olive oil and butter (maybe a tablespoon or so of both)
-soy sauce (a tablespoon or so, it's guesswork)
-vegetables (such as broccoli, green beans, etc.)

I didn't get an intro ingredient shot, but I'm assuming you can imagine what it would look like. First off, melt the butter and oil in a saucepan (that has a lid). You only need a little bit of olive oil (to keep the butter from burning) but you could probably just use olive oil and no butter if you wanted to. Once that's melted, add the garlic. I pressed mine through a garlic press but you can also slice them thinly by hand or mince.

Cook the garlic until soft on medium low heat. Once the garlic is softened, add the broccoli (or whatever vegetable you're using) and give it a mix to coat the broccoli and little. Then you want to add a little bit of water to facilitate steaming. The amount is pretty much guesswork, you don't want to submerge the vegetables and you want pretty much all the water to evaporate once the vegetables are cooked. I put in enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and then a little extra. Use your best judgment here.

Put a lid on it and let it steam until the vegetables are cooked to your heart's desire. Steamy magic!

And here's where it gets tasty. If you have too much water left in your pan, drain some out but try to keep the garlic in there. All you have to do is add some soy sauce to taste, maybe a tablespoon or so. Get your vegetables all coated and you're set.

It's an easy way to dress up some vegetables in you're getting tired of eating plain steamed veggies. And it's tasty. Win-win. Thanks Mom.

Panko-Crusted Veggies

My Thai Peanut leftovers reached that awkward stage where they were too large for one serving, but too small for two servings...so, I decided to split them in half and then prepare a side dish for myself. I rummaged around my kitchen and discovered that I needed to use up some fresh vegetables and I had some Panko bread crumbs lying around. Then, with very little idea about what I was actually doing, I started making crap up. And here's what happened!

Ingredients:

• One whole tomato
• 1/2 of a cucumber
• Olive Oil
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1-1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• Cooking spray

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Chop up the entire tomato into chunks and slice the cucumber
3. In a medium-sized bowl, mix flour, Panko breadcrumbs, salt & pepper
4. Toss the veggies in olive oil
5. Coat the veggies in the crumb mixture
6. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
7. Arrange the veggies in a single layer on the sheet, spray the top with cooking spray
8. Place the baking sheet in the middle of the oven for ten minutes
9. Remove sheet, flip cucumbers, and stir the tomatoes around a bit
10. Bake in oven for another 10 minutes

When they came out looking like this, I was happy with the tomatoes, but thought the cucumbers were looking a little pallid. So I kept the tomatoes warm in the oven and pan-fried the cucumbers. Much smoke ensued, but at least they got some color and crispiness going on.
And then I put them in a bowl. I dumped the tomatoes on top...and had it with my little bowl o' noodles and some diet ginger ale. Hee hee, it looks like beer in its awesome pilsner glass.It tasted pretty decent, I definitely liked the tomatoes more than the cucumbers. Would I make it again? Hm...only if I had Panko crumbs I needed to use up. Like, I wouldn't go out and buy Panko just to make this recipe. But if I have them on hand, sure! It made some tasty little tomato nuggets.