I'm Back!

So, where have I been and what have I been up to?  Well that's a long story.  The short story is that in Feb. I had a major health issue rear up before me - I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and heart failure.  As a result, I have to be on a low sodium diet and also I must restrict my fluids to 1.5-2L of fluid per day.  Easier said than done!

I have to convalesce from this for a while - I was in hospital for a month. I am bored, and I need a hobby.  Why take up something new when something I've had previously fill my recovery time with is right here, waiting to be revived?  Yep, I'm going to attempt to get back into food blogging.  Plus I have a new added dimension: low sodium cooking.

So far, I haven't enjoyed low sodium eating.  No salt = no flavour, right?  Well, pretty much!  I have recently become more obsessed with food labeling than usual, and I've had to make some pretty significant adjustments.  No salt also = no chips.  Ugh!  I have not had a potato chip in nearly two whole months!

Yesterday I ate out and had a case of the food fuck-its.  I gained 2lbs.  Today, I went to the grocery store and got some low sodium pantry items, feeling a little bit defeated.  I thought I could do low sodium my way, without any big substitutions.  But I was wrong.  My daily intake of salt should be no more than 2mg, which is about a teaspoon.  Dear God, how am I going to live with this?

Roast beef, seasoned with Costco's Mrs. Dash knockoff.

Tonight I made a low sodium meal with some of my new ingredients: roast beef and roast potatoes.  I don't know exactly how much sodium was in this meal, but the only ingredients that contained sodium were the packet of low sodium beef boullion (25% less salt than the regular stuff) which I cooked the roast in, and the 1/2 teaspoon of Club House's Garlic Plus seasoning mix I put on the potatoes (55mg/serving).  I seasoned the beef with Costco's brand of salt free seasoning, which wasn't bad at all. I sprinkled the dinner with Windsor's Salt Free "salt."

What a waste of $3.49!  The Salt Free = flavour free!  I also had the saltless salt on popcorn earlier today and though I thought I gave the stuff a decent shake over the popcorn, I didn't taste any saltiness.

The dinner as a whole, though, was quite palatable.  I have enough for leftovers and a few sandwiches.

 Man, this is going to be a long road.

Low sodium roast beef with roast potatoes.

Where are the veggies you ask?  Hmph!  I bought a salad kit the other day but it's gone off already.  Whatever!

"Small Potatoes."  How often have you heard that?  You're standing naked in the kitchen and suddenly your wife blurts out,"Small potatoes." Fortunately, she's not staring at you.  She's looking in the pantry.

Relief and anxiety.  Anxiety turns to erotic, small potato possibilities.

“I have a luncheon today and need to bring something.  What can ‘we’ make with small potatoes?”

It’s the royal ‘we.’  Hot stove and hotter grease await you and you alone.  Erotic images melt like cotton candy in a rainstorm. Thoughts morph to the vision of hot grease on a man’s jolly jingles.  Apron!  No, wait!  Socks, shoes, trousers, shirt, then an apron.  Oven mitts. A morning of ‘safe cooking.’

Remember those days when she would have forgotten about those potatoes?  Remember those days when you had no idea whose kitchen you were in?

Small Potatoes That Ain’t

The necessities:

4.5 pounds (2.2 kilos) of small potatoes

An inch depth of cooking oil in a medium sized saucepan

2.5 Cups homemade bread crumbs (see very helpful suggestion below)

1 stick butter

Salt and pepper to taste

2 heaping Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 heaping Tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Doin’ the small potato shuffle:

Heat the oven to 400ºF or 200ºC. 

Put the oil in the saucepan and heat it on the stovetop to 350ºF or 175ºC.

Wash the potatoes and partially peel them.  I leave stripes of peeling on the potatoes.

Dry the potatoes and put the first batch in the hot grease.  Continue until all potatoes are ready for the oven.  The point of the fry is to get a nice roasted look on the outside.  They don’t have to cook completely.  You’re going to finish them in the oven.  As the potatoes fry to a nice brown, set them in the baking dish.

When all are nicely browned, put the baking dish in the pre-heated, 400ºF oven.  30 minutes should be enough to finish the cooking job.

As the potatoes bake, make the buttered breadcrumbs.

Breadcrumbs:

I make my own and here’s how.  Crumble enough stale baguette pieces in your food processor to make 2.5 cups.  If you don’t have a stale baguette, use any stale bread, or use fresh bread slices and either bake them, or leave them out overnight.  I detest the prepared breadcrumbs that come in a can, part of a long list of things I detest!

Put the butter in a skillet, let it melt and add the breadcrumbs.  Mix well.  Doesn’t matter if the breadcrumbs brown or not, but you want them all buttery.

Putting it all together:

Pull the baked potatoes from the oven, sprinkle over-generously with the buttered breadcrumbs.  Salt and pepper to taste. Scatter the Parmesan cheese and put the baking dish back in the oven.  Bake until the breadcrumbs are a toasty brown, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Watch that oven like a hungry hawk!

Remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle on the chopped cilantro.

Voilá!  Small potatoes have just become a big, scrumptious, crowd-pleasing part of your fantastic culinary repertoire!

Now, go ambush the wife.

Cooking with Betty Crackpot: Scalloped Potatoes

This is my first time making scalloped potatoes, which is kind of pathetic at my age. I love this classic side dish, but for some reason it always seemed like too much for one person. Now that I live with two other people, maybe I'll make them more often. I decided to make them for tonight's Easter dinner, which was not ham. My roommate sprung for gigantic T-bone steaks, which we had with roasted asparagus and a decadent flourless chocolate cake that I'll get to in a future post.

Betty has two scalloped potato recipes, this one and a creamy version, for which you make a white sauce. This one below seemed simpler to make and it's what I recall my mom making. Mom used to, I believe, slice the potatoes in a food processor. I did mine by hand, and I also didn't peel the potatoes first since I like the peels and that's where most of the nutrients are.

Scalloped Potatoes, Betty Crocker's Cookbook, page 435

2 lbs potatoes (about 6 medium)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 1/2 cups milk

Heat oven to 350F. Wash potatoes; pare thinly and remove eyes. Cut potatoes into thin slices to measure about 4 cups.

In greased 2 quart casserole, arrange potatoes in 4 layers, sprinkling each of the first 3 layers with 1 tbsp onion, 1 tbsp flour, 1/4 tsp salt, dash pepper, and dotting each with 1 tbsp of butter. Sprinkle top with remaining onion, salt and pepper, and dot with remaining butter. Heat milk to just scalding; pour over potatoes. Cover; bake 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 60 to 70 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender. let stand 5 - 10 minutes before serving. 4 - 6 servings.


I also didn't finely chop any onion; rather, I did it my mom's way and finely sliced a whole small onion and added it to the layers of potato. I didn't get 4 layers out of mine, but only 3, probably because I used a slightly smaller casserole dish than what was called for. Also, I specially went and bought homo milk (3.25%) for this recipe as I was pretty sure my usual 1% wouldn't work so well.


I baked the dish on a cookie sheet lined with one of my silicone baking mats, and that was a good call because there was some overflow during the baking process. The top layer of potatoes got a little dry & crisp, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

The verdict: delicious and successful! I will definitely make this again because it was really good. I don't know why I put this off as long as I did!

Hashbrown Casserole

C often refers to these as "Funeral Potatoes" because she remembers them being made for funerals. This is a big, hearty casserole that has ingredients in it that might give you a heart attack upon reading. But it's sooooooooo good. This was one of the dishes we made for the lunch banquet we catered last month. It was a huge hit. I'd definitely make this at home. We made a huge batch that filled four chafing dishes.

Hashbrown Casserole

For the casserole:
1 package hashbrowns (the bags were big...2lbs maybe? I don't remember)
2 cups sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped green onion

Topping:
2 cups crushed cornflakes
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Combine all the casserole ingredients well and spoon into a 9x13" casserole dish that has been well-greased. For the topping, combine cornflakes and cheese and sprinkle on the top. Bake at 350F until piping hot in the middle - about 40 or so minutes.

I am actually craving this right now...

Dill = Awesome

My AeroGardens continue to produce awesome stuff, providing some much needed zazz to my diet. The dill has done tremendously; I couldn't be happier with it. And I finally got around to using it tonight.

I inherited some nice baked potatoes from a catering job I did over the weekend, and this was very exciting because A) they were free, B) I didn't have to bake them myself, and C) I immediately knew what I was going to do with them once they were in my hot little hands - and I knew that my plans would involve dill.

I have felt a need for a shot of summer now that we are in the dead of winter, and nothing says summer more than potato salad! With lots of dill!

Very simple:

2 large baked potatoes, cubed
4 green onions, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 small carrots, chopped
a whole bunch of dill, chopped
enough mayo to bind everything just nicely

And voilà:


Sooooooo looking forward to this winter being over and done with. In the meantime, I have another use for my dill, also inspired by the catering I did on the weekend, but that is a post for the near future!

Az's Marinated Potatoes

I just wanted to give a shout-out to my friend Azahar, who has a great food blog, Azahar's Kitchen. Recently, she posted a great recipe for marinated potatoes that I made for some company I had over for the wedding craziness. This recipe rocked and it was a huge hit! I couldn't find the sherry vinegar, so I substituted it with apple cider vinegar and it worked out very well. I also used red-skinned nugget potatoes - my favourite! I am still on the hunt for some oak-aged sherry vinegar and I have one more place to check (that would be LOGS, so keep your fingers crossed that if they do actually have it it won't cost me $3289+++).

This dish was a really refreshing change from your typical potato salad, so I will for sure keep this recipe around!

Recipe here.

Thanks, Az!

Family Dinner

Sometimes it's just so nice to have someone cook a meal for you! Last weekend, me, my dad, my brother, and my SIL got together for a family dinner - something we hadn't done in a while because of everyone's hectic schedules.

Dad provided the steaks, and my brother, Jem, marinated them in Worcestershire Sauce, balsamic vinegar, and some steak spice. Then he threw them on the BBQ.We had some company, the neighbour's toy chihuahua, Lilly. She is half the size of Juno and very cuddly!

As the steaks cooked, my SIL made stuffed potato skins, using bacon bits, green onion, tomatoes, and cheese.We also had a salad with dinner - and it was one excellent meal! Everything was wonderful!

And for dessert, there was a leftover blueberry dessert made by Shan's aunt - light and a perfect ending to a great meal!

Magazine Monday #46: Lemony Potato Salad

I love potato salad - it's one of my summertime favourites. Why I only eat it in the summer is a very good question indeed. Perhaps I need to change that.

Anyway, this recipe from Gourmet's July 2009 issue caught my eye because of it's simplicity and the fact that it uses lemon. I also love lemon!

The recipe is here.

Because I have a ton of dill growing in my garden, I added about 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill - and this salad was superb. I served it for a family BBQ and it was a huge hit. Definitely a keeper recipe from Gourmet!

Joining me in trying out magazine recipes this week are:

Paninigirl made a luscious Berry Tart with Marscapone Cream from an old issue of Gourmet.

Andreas of Delta Kitchen made Chili Pasta from a German magazine called Lecker.

Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made mini sliders from Rachael Ray.

Bobbi of Bobbi's Art made a beautiful watermelon & cuke salad from the most recent issue of Gourmet.

Syringa Creek Dinner

It's seriously hot - mid 30sC! Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to be able to escape to Syringa Creek Provincial Park for the day and spend several wonderful hours floating in the lake. It was heavenly.

Of course there was also food, prepared and served by my favourite cooks ever, my SIL Shan & her mom, C. The menu was simple: a whole chicken cut into pieces & BBQed, potatoes roased in a foil package with garlic scapes, and a nice salad. Perfect!

The chicken, happily BBQing away...

Garlic scapes...

Shan preparing the potatoes & garlic scapes...
Dinner is served...

Hope everyone is enjoying summer so far!

Chicken Fingers

You might recall that I made homemade onion rings not too long ago as part of my review of Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes. I had some leftover buttermilk from that recipe and was wondering what to do with it. I had initially wanted to make calamari but I can't get any decent squid at the local overpriced grocery store; all they had were the pre-cut rings and they were freezer burned. Blech. I then remembered this post by Denise at Keeper Worthy Recipes (Denise credits Coleen for the original recipe - both are bloggers I admire, so check them out) and an idea was born.

Am I feeling better? No. I'm feeling worse, and the oppressive heat isn't helping me. But I had a good appointment with my doctor today and I got a wicked hair-do yesterday, so I could be much worse. I felt like something junky to eat tonight, and this recipe filled that bill, too.

I adapted the recipe to suit my needs. Basically, all I did was make the chicken as I did the onion rings, and shallow-fried them in the same oil I used for the onion rings, too. I added some garlic powder to the flour mixture in addition to salt & pepper.

The result was great: crispy, lightly battered chicken strips. I served them with a side I'm making fairly regularly these days, fingerling fries.

Fingerling Fries

A few years back, I started seeing a lot of fingerling potatoes kicking around places like the Food Network. It seemed that they were one of the new food trends along the lines of grilled lettuce and things of that nature. (Have you ever tried grilled romaine lettuce? I have, and I lived to tell the tale, but I wouldn't rush out to try it again.)

Anyway, I'd never seen a real live fingerling potato until a couple of weeks ago when I was at my brother and SIL's place for dinner, and Shan had acquired some of the potatoes at our local big box grocery store. Surprisingly, the local overpriced grocery store doesn't carry them, though they tout themselves as being a step up from the competition around here. Shan made fries out of the fingerlings and they were super simple and super yummy. The other day, I happened to be in the vicinity of the local big box grocery store while I was dropping off baking for the SPCA bake sale, and I took the opportunity to pick up some fingerlings for myself. They were $4.49 for 5lbs. I thought this was steep for fracking potatoes, but I sucked it up and paid anyway.

After doing a very minimal amount of research, I learned that fingerlings are often a heritage variety, much like heirloom tomatoes. I also learned that there are about 8 different varieties of fingerlings. This site gives you a run-down.

Donna-FFW might agree with me when I say that some of the names of the varieties sound a bit pornographic to me. I mean, the "Purple Peruvian?" The "Russian Banana?" Please!

Anyway, what are they like? Well, astonishingly, they are rather like...potatoes. They are waxy like new potatoes or Yukon Golds, and have yellow flesh like Yukon Golds. I can't remember the last time I tasted a Yukon Gold so I can't compare flavour, but the fingerlings taste very much like the red nugget potatoes I've been eating lately.

They do, however, as I knew from my meal at my brother's place, make great fries. Facilitated by their narrow shape, you just need to cut them in half lengthwise, add some olive oil and seasonings, and Bob's your proverbial uncle.They cook quickly enough, which is helpful, and I can see that they'd be great in soups and stews, and that their neat shape would make potato salads a little more visually interesting. The purple ones would be totally cool in salads.

I'm not potato conoisseur, but I kinda liked the fingerling in the end, price and all.

101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #14: Mexican Chicken & Potato Salad

I roasted a chicken over the weekend - a chicken I got cross-border shopping the week before that cost me 88 cents/lb. The whole chicken cost about $3.50. This is ridiculous: I get all happy & decadent-feeling when whole chickens go on sale for $1.99/lb at my local overpriced grocery store, but this doesn't happen as often as it used to. In fact, when I see them on sale now, they're more like $2.29/lb. This chicken also tasted better than it's Canadian counterpart, was bigger overall, and roasted to a lovely golden colour.

Can you blame me for going to the States? Really? Can you?

Anyway, this week you're getting two whole 101 Uses for a Roast Chicken posts because I made two things with this chicken. This potato salad is one of them.

I know it's not exactly the season for potato salad, but, honestly, is it ever not the season for potato salad? I say no!

Mexican Chicken & Potato Salad

1 lb nugget potatoes, cut into uniform size for even cooking
2 cups chicken taken from a roast chicken
3 green onions, sliced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup low-fat mayo
1/3 cup low fat sour cream
1 tbsp (or to taste) taco or fajita seasoning mix

1. Boil the potatoes in some salted water until they are fork-tender. Drain and soak in cold water until cold.

2. Meanwhile, dice up the chicken and put in a large bowl. Add the onions and cilantro. Combine the mayo, sour cream, and seasoning mix in a small bowl.

3. When the potatoes are cold, dice them up into bite-sized cubes. Add to the chicken. Add the dressing and combine all ingredients.

Enjoy!