Balsalmic Potatoes

Today I gave something new a try. I attempted some balsamic potatoes. They turned out pretty tasty, except they didn't get cooked at first, then I had to put some water in to steam them, at near the end the balsamic was all dried up. But, I REALLY this this dish has potential. It was tasty and good, but I know I can improve it for next time. 

Ingredients: 

- Potatoes

- Green onions (I got to use some from my container garden!)

- Minced Garlic

- Salt/pepper

- Balsamic vinegar

- Veggie oil

- Rosemary

-Thyme

1.  Start by cutting up your potatoes, green onions and garlic. Put in a pan with a little bit of oil and cook, covered, for a few minutes. This is to heat them up pretty well and cook the garlic. After a few minutes add in the rosemary and thyme. Give it a good sprinkle. 

2. Transfer potatoes to a pan which will then be put in the oven at either 350 or 400. Pour a little balsamic on it. I used 3 russet potatoes and used just under 1/4th a cup of balsamic. It might be best to put in a little bit of water. It helps to steam the potatoes and help them cook. If you don't put in a little water, you might get what I got, dry crusted potatoes. The balsamic was all cooked up and the leftovers were seasoning on the potatoes. 

3. Pop in the oven and cook until soft and enjoy

In the pan. 

With thyme and rosemary added.

This is what they would have looked like had they been steamed. At this point they were suppose to be done, but were still crunchy and needed some water added to it. 

I'm going to give this recipe another shot and maybe they'll be more moist!

- SamiMae

Potato Chips - A Work in Progress

Today, I wanted to try making potato chips. I am trying to become less dependent on the grocery store and save money. We don't need potato chips, but they are fun to eat. So I decided to give it a try.

For a first shot, they turned out pretty good! I used this recipe as a guide.

Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- A clove of garlic
- Olive Oil
- Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut potatoes thin, about 1/16th of an inch. This is key. I don't think they'll turn out good if you don't do this. I have this handy little slicer that I got as a wedding gift. The first time I tried using it, I couldn't figure it out. But, I tried it again and it was like magic. It's one of the best kitchen tools around. My potatoes got super thin!

After I sliced them, I put them in a bowl of cold water to wash off the starch and keep them from going yellow. A few days ago, I tried making hash browns by shredding them, and they didn't turn out well, they got soggy and yellow really quick. I was afraid that'd happen here, but luckily it was different! Anyway, after I had them all cut up and in the cold water, I strained them and then rinsed them to get any remaining starch off. Then I patted them dry with a paper towel.

Sometime during this process, we need to pour some olive oil on the pan we are going to be using and then take a garlic clove, slice it in half and rub it all over the pan. Squeeze the garlic's oil onto the pan, it'll help give it flavor.  

I put them in a bowl and poured in some olive oil, salt and pepper. I then used a plate to cover the bowl and I shook it up. Don't be afraid to go a bit heavy on the pepper. I could have done more. I should have put the garlic cloves in the bowl while I shook it up. That might have helped give it more of a garlic flavor.

Afterwards, put the potato slices on the pan. The original recipe said have them about 1/4th an inch apart. I only wanted to use one pan, so I just covered the whole thing. Still turned out good.

They tasted good, but are a work in progress! You can see my oven gets hot on the sides of the pan...hahaha. Weird! Those burnt ones were good. Most were crispy and had a crunch. There were a few soggy ones, but there was quite a bit of oil by the time you consider the pan being covered and the potatoes soaked with it. 

These little guys were good, and I'm going to perfect my recipe and try new ideas and recipes. I don't want to have to buy potato chips at the store again. They aren't healthy and it costs a bit of money. The picture above doesn't look like a lot, because I had already eaten a few. But, I only used 2 smaller sized russet potatoes. So really, this didn't cost me much at all! 

If you try this, let me know how yours turned out!

- SamiMae

Chicken and Veggies

I love dinners that require little prep time. This was another dish that was delicious and took very little time. It was simple and filling with a burst of flavor. It's super simple. Are you ready for this?!

1. Wash and cut up 3 small russet potatoes
2. Pull out 3-4 chicken tenderloins
3. Drain can of green beans
4. Put in a casserole dish. Potatoes on one side, chicken in the middle, green beans on the other side.
5. Top it all with Grill Mates Montreal Chicken seasoning and a little bit of butter
6. Cook 1 hour at 375.

This was simple and perfect. It took me maybe 15 minutes to prepare, and then I could go about doing other things while it cooked! (Like cleaning the house. :)

Everything is raw in this picture. The only oil in this dish, was the little bit of butter I used. I think I had about 2-3 Tablespoons that I used. I just cut it up small. 

Here is the finished product! YUM!

- SamiMae

Bread Bowls and Potato Soup!

For a few weeks now, I've been craving homemade bread bowls and soup. So, on Thursday, I had a bit of extra time. So I decided to finally make it. Let me say now, It was AMAZING! This delicious meal was worth all the time and effort that was put into it. This isn't a meal you can just whip together in a matter of minutes, at least, it wasn't for me. It took a bit of time, but oh baby. It was worth it.

I started with the soup. (I'll admit now, I find all my recipes on Pinterest, and then tailor them to my own desires and sizing.) I have a cute little crock pot that I use. I cut up a few potatoes and poured them in. I put in a fair amount of my frozen diced onions. One can of chicken broth went in as well. I also added in about 6ish ounces of evaporated milk. I didn't quite use a whole can. Lastly, I added a bit of water, salt and pepper and then let it cook on high!

I headed back to campus for about an hour or two. Once I got back home to finish dinner, everything was cooked quite nicely. All the potatoes were soft, almost mushy. I'll admit, looking down at it, it didn't look very appetizing yet. Next, I melted about 3-4 tablespoons of butter, mixed in about 1/3 cup of flour. It got think pretty quick. Then I added in about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the evaporated milk mixture from the crock pot. I let it cook for a minutes. It quickly thickened. At first, I didn't know if I was doing it right, but went along with it. I added the creamy butter/flour/evaporated milk mixture all back into the crock pot, added about half a can of corn and some sour cream and let it finish cooking. I stirred it up good, added some extra onions and let it sit. It started to look and smell REALLY yummy. After I mixed in everything, it was starting to look like soup. :)

While that cooked, I started working on the bread bowls. When it comes to breads, I usually follow the recipe pretty close. I love bread, I like to make bread. But I'll admit, I'm not very good at it yet. These bread bowls, are fool proof, and the flavor is amazing. This recipe could easily make flavored bread bowls, or any form of bread in general. This could have been really flavorful if I had added some rosemary, or onion or dill, or any other herb. I really like this bread recipe that I found. (I'll attach links below.)

For the bread, I mixed the sugar, water and yeast together and let it rise. (While it rose, I finished dishes. :) Then, I added the salt, oil, and flour to the mix. When I cook breads, I'd rather have it be sticky and get all over my hands, then dry and super manageable. More flour = drier bread. Less flour = moister bread. So, after I added the flour, I moved it to another dish to rise for about 45 minutes. Then I formed it into 3 bread bowls. The dough was really sticky because I had used only 3 cups of flower total. But, I got it into nice little balls, and let them rise for another hour. They got quite large and I was thrilled! I popped them in the oven and let them cook for about 20 minutes, pulled them out and TA-DA! Dinner was hot and ready. I was pretty proud!

Almost done! 

My potato soup!

HOW BEAUTIFUL! (and yummy) 

Topped with a bit of green onions....my favorite

AHH! Dream come true! 

Doesn't that look nice? I'm drooling just thinking about them. Please excuse the poor pictures. I'm working in it. We also have really poor lighting in our little apartment, and I don't know how to use my fancy camera! HA. Here is the recipes and links below! Enjoy!

Loaded Potato Soup

- 4 russet potatoes 

- 1/2 yellow onion. (I also used dried minced onion at the end to give it more flavor)

- 1 can low sodium chicken broth

- 1/2 can evaporated milk

- 3-4 tablespoons of butter

- 1/3 cup flour

- sour cream (about 1/2 cup)

- Salt and Pepper

- Cheese

- Bacon

- Green onions

We topped it with green onions. I had some bacon, but it was frost bitten, so we didn't use it. :( You can also top it with cheese, but we found it didn't need it and was perfect on it's own. This is an easy soup I'll be making again.You can find the recipe I used HERE.

Italian Bread Bowls

- 1 tbsp yeast

- 1 1/4 C warm water

- 2 tbsp sugar

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 3 - 3 1/2 C flour

This is a great bread recipe. I'm glad I found it and will be making it again. :) Hopefully, I'll get really good at it. That'd be awesome. Anyway, You can find the recipe I used HERE.

Thanks for reading my novel of a post and I hope you enjoyed it! Maybe it'll inspire you to cook a bit more. :)

-SamiMae

Tin Foil Dinner - Carolina Country

Earlier this week, I made tin-foil dinners. It was supper yummy and was made from everything I have on hand. The items I used are common items in my kitchen, so this is a great meal to make, just about any time. I didn't have any kind of marinade, or teriyaki sauce to put on it, so I tried something new. I'm a huge fan of the Grill Mates season packets. (My favorite is their Montreal steak) For this dinner, I used Carolina Country marinade. It was an excellent choice. :)

Ingredients: 

Potatoes

Carrots

(Frozen) sliced green and red bell peppers

Sliced (can be frozen) onion

Chicken tenderloin 

Grill Mates seasoning packet: Carolina Country

It's super easy. Put it all together in tinfoil. Pour the seasoning on it, wrap it up and cook it at 350 degrees for about 45-60 minutes. I found that the potatoes were perfectly soft and the carrots were cooked well too. We cooked ours for 60 minutes and that was just perfect. I love meals like this, because then I have about 15 minutes of prep work and then an extra hour to do whatever!

The flavor was amazing in our tinfoil dinner.. The meat was moist and fell apart easy. The veggies soaked up the seasonings. The seasoning wasn't too spicy. Trevor loved it. :) I served this with a side dish of green salad. Wa-La! Dinner is served. I can't wait to make this dinner again! 

Looks tasty huh! 

- SamiMae