Summer

Name: Potato Dill Biscuits
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 1- 3.4 oz. package Honest Earth® buttery home-style dehydrated potatoes; 7 ounces all-purpose flour, about 1 ½ cups; 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder; 1 ½ teaspoons salt; ½ teaspoon white pepper; 2 large eggs + 1 yolk; ½ cup light cream + 2 tablespoons for brushing on top; 1 ½ sticks cold unsalted butter, diced; 1 tablespoon dill

Stove-Top Island Spice Popcorn with Coconut Oil and Turmeric

March 21, 2017

Popcorn. It’s a movie theater staple and it is practically mandatory snacking for movie nights at home. Heck, it’s even dinner sometimes. While I’m not knocking butter and salt, I like to dress mine up a bit more. I open the spice cabinet and put together concoctions that would make Harry Potter’s head spin. Popcorn doesn’t have to be Plain Jane, it can be “Revved Up Rita” and this popcorn definitely turns it up a notch.

We are old school in this house. Popcorn is made on the stove. We get out the big pot, pour the kernels in with a little oil and “shake, shake, shake” while we peer through the glass lid waiting for the magic to happen. Freshly popped corn tastes so much better than the microwave kind. It’s really not a hassle and it takes about 5 minutes longer than the bag. You can use this seasoning on any popcorn, whatever your preferred popping method.

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Food Friends

September 20, 2016

Greetings, All! I am away in Idaho this week with my friends from Idaho Potato! In lieu of posting a new recipe, I wanted to share some awesome recipes from my super talented friends.

I do hope you will check out their recipes, as I happen to think they are pretty great! Besides being amazing in the kitchen, they are good humans and I am lucky to know them. I can’t wait to tell you all about Idaho and the fun things happening there right now! I’m updating and sharing pics on social media every day, so if you want to see what we’re up to, check out my Facebook page, Instagram account or Twitter feed for the latest shenanigans.

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Potato Dill Biscuits

August 16, 2016

Remember a few months ago when I went to a food conference and was assigned as brand ambassador for Idaho Potatoes? They asked me to come up with a recipe using dehydrated potatoes and after bouncing around a few ideas, we settled on this biscuit.

When I was in the “testing phase” of this recipe, The Girl asked me why would I use dehydrated potato instead of leftover homemade mashed potato. She had a good question and I figured if she was wondering that, someone else would be too. Here’s the answer:
Other than Thanksgiving (when all of us make extra on purpose), when do you have extra mashed potato hanging around? Not very often, I’m guessing. Also, I don’t want to wait for the occasion to have them just to make these biscuits and furthermore, I don’t want to make them just to wait for them to get cold so I can make biscuits out of them. All that being said, the biggest reason for using the dehydrated potato instead of leftover mashed: THEY WORK BETTER! I kid you not, the biscuits are amazing.
If you’ve had potato bread or rolls, you know that sweet smell and soft, fluffy texture that can only be found by using potato. It works in breads, so it stands to reason that it would be great in a biscuit as well. And it is.

I wanted to flavor these biscuits with some kind of herb and dill was my first choice. If you aren’t a fan of dill, swap it out for rosemary, thyme or whatever herbs you prefer.
The texture of the potato biscuit is fluffy and tender. The crust is beautifully golden and when you break them open, they smell of sweet, buttery mashed potato. You can’t beat that.

Potatoes do not have gluten (the protein that gives bread its chewy texture), so these biscuits remain tender and moist. They are a smidge denser than regular biscuits, but are by no means heavy. They are my new “go-to” biscuit. They are easy as can be, because it is a simple drop biscuit, which means no rolling out and cutting dough. I’ve made a rather big batch and froze about half of them to use in another recipe that will be coming soon! I’ll give you a hint: breakfast.
I’m already planning ahead for the holiday season and these potato dill biscuits will be on our table this year. I can already imagine stuffing them with turkey for a little afternoon snack…

Thank you again, to Idaho Potato® for sponsoring this post! They are wonderful to work with and it allows me to share tasty recipes with you!

Potato Dill Biscuits

A simple and delicious drop biscuit.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

1- 3.4 oz. package Honest Earth® buttery home-style dehydrated potatoes
7 ounces all-purpose flour, about 1 ½ cups
1 ½ tablespoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon white pepper
2 large eggs + 1 yolk
½ cup light cream + 2 tablespoons for brushing on top
1 ½ sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
1 tablespoon dill

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a small bowl: combine cream, eggs and yolk. Whisk to combine thoroughly. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment: Combine flour and diced butter and let mixer run until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 4 – 5 minutes. Add dehydrated potatoes, baking powder, dill, salt and pepper.
Mix for a few seconds until it is combined.
Pour cream mixture into bowl of mixer and mix until just combined, do not overmix.
Remove bowl from mixer and with a rubber spatula, fold dough from bottom of bowl to the top to make sure all of the flour mixture has been incorporated.
Using a 3-ounce scoop, portion 8 biscuits onto the sheet pan. Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with coarse sea salt, if desired.
Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, cool on pan for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Here are a few affiliate links to items used (and loved!) in this recipe. Your price doesn’t change, but I get a few pennies if you purchase through the links below.

Sheet Pans
Parchment Paper
Kitchen Scale

Thank you for spending a little time with me today 🙂

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Shrimp & Slaw

April 9, 2015

Recently I posed a question on the Facebook page asking what people wanted to see and one of the requests was “a meal that can be made in about 30 minutes, when I get home from work”. I get it, life is crazy busy and the last thing most people (most sane people) want to do after coming home from work is stand in front of a stove for any length of time.

This is a meal I made for a client of mine and it took well under 30 minutes to make, she loved it and requested I make it again. I probably need to get in the habit of sharing what I cook for clients…

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Grilled Zucchini Salad with Lemon

April 18, 2014

This grilled zucchini salad is the perfect side for a summer BBQ. It is as pretty as it is delicious!

It’s summertime and everyone is in their backyard. Grills are lit and the smell of lightly charred meat and veggies fill the street. You are out walking the dog and you can smell a steak on the grill somewhere… You had dinner planned already, but that just went right out the window. Now, you’re on your way to buy a nice, fat steak or a basket full of veggies to throw on the grill. It’s the smell… it gets you every. single. time.

First, let me say that I love grilling. I stand in front of my grill, tongs in hand, listening to the sizzle as meat or veggies hit the grates. It’s one of the best sounds in the world! I feel like puffing out my chest and grunting “fire”, but the urge passes and I’m back to reality. Then… the smell wafts up and smacks me right across the face with the intensity of an angry mistress in a soap opera. I just breathe deep and inhale until my lungs are full.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of “Grill to Perfection” courtesy of Page Street Publishing. Any links to book are affiliate links.

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You say tomato, I say tomahto…

June 25, 2013

I was home visiting my family and was freshly out of culinary school. I mean
green. I hadn’t really worked in kitchens yet other than as a stagiaire or
“stage”, which is an intern (read: free labor).

I’m not really sure where the brilliant idea came from, but I had it in my head to make fried green tomatoes. Keep in mind, I’d never eaten them nor made them but off I went to
gather green tomatoes and make them. I had no reference point, so I didn’t know
how thick or thin to cut the slices.

So, I took to the kitchen with my tomatoes in hand and proceeded to make what one could only technically classify as fried green tomatoes.
They were tomatoes. They were green. And they had been fried.

Looking back at the first attempt to reach beyond my comfort zone, so full of enthusiasm, as all
new culinary grads are, I wince at what I made. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a handle on it now.

I still struggle with failure as I’m sure we all do. I don’t want to look stupid or fail at something.
But, isn’t that how we learn and grow? Our failures tend to teach us more than our successes in my experience. I’m learning to let go of that a little, although I’ll be the first to admit that my competitive spirit will never disappear and the fear of embarrassing myself in front of people is still quite real.
With that, I give you the following recipe… southerners need not correct me. I’m sure you
make it better.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

4 - 5 green tomatoes, cut into 1/4" rounds
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 - 2 cups breadcrumbs, any kind you have on hand
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch paprika
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
oil for frying
optional: dried herbs

Instructions

Combine flour, garlic powder, cayenne and paprika in a shallow dish and whisk together. Set aside.
In a separate dish, whisk eggs and buttermilk together.
In a third dish (it will be worth the dirty dishes, I promise) combine breadcrumbs with a little salt and pepper and any dried herbs if you are using. I throw in about a tablespoon of dried oregano or thyme if I don't have seasoned breadcrumbs.
Lightly season tomatoes on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge through flour mixture, shaking off any excess. Then dip into egg mixture and coat with seasoned breadcrumbs.
This next step most people find annoying, but I have found it essential. Place on a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 - 20 minutes. This allows your coating to adhere to the tomatoes. I do this when coating anything I am going to fry. You know how disappointing it is when your breading falls off in the pan or as soon as you cut into it? Let it rest beforehand and that will be a thing of the past.
After the tomatoes have hung out and gotten acquainted with each other, it's time to fry.
Heat a large skillet with enough oil to go about 1/4 inch up the side. Heat oil on medium high heat (350 degrees with a thermometer) and carefully slide tomatoes slices into the oil, dropping them in away from you, not toward you. If the oil splashes, it will not splatter you, but the back of the stove.
Fry until GBD (Golden Brown Delicious), remove and place on a bed of paper towels to absorb excess oil.
Serve immediately.

Blueberry Eton Mess

May 13, 2013

Let me say that I think we should appreciate our Mom’s on more than just one day a year… It is an incredibly important job that is sometimes thankless. Through terrible two’s and rebellious teenage years, through laughter and tears, joy and fear… you are there for it all.

So, to every Mom out there: Happy Mother’s Day today and everyday for all that you do!

Now that I’ve earned my birthday and Christmas presents for next year, let’s get to it.

This weekend is Mother’s Day and the Internet, food magazines, morning shows, cooking shows, even the evening news is filling the space between our ears with recipes to make for Mom…

Most of them even look really good! But here’s the problem: MOM isn’t the one making them! (I hope)!

More than a few of the recipes featured have ingredient lists long enough to make even the average home cook sweat under the collar, much less someone who rarely ventures into that mystical space from where food magically appears.

Some of you out there are lucky enough to live with people who actually know: A. where the kitchen is located in your home and 2) how to find things in this mysterious room. Then, there are those of you who live with people that open the fridge door, stand there staring at it’s insides and then ask you “what is there to eat?”.

Well, even THOSE people can handle this recipe.

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Pulled Pork

October 6, 2012

This is the kind of food I want to have bubbling away in the oven making my kitchen smell of divine porkiness while I am preparing to entertain a group of friends waiting for my beloved Buckeyes to take the field.
(whew… how’s THAT for a run-on sentence?!)

For most people, this is summer food… For me however, I equate having my oven going for over 4 hours with cooler temperatures and for me, cooler temps automatically mean football.

I’m sure this seems absurd to most of you. Everyone else in the blogosphere is making pumpkin this and cinnamon that and here I am making pulled pork. Well, I’m sure someone somewhere understands my particular brand of crazy… it’s called football people and it’s not just football, it’s my Ohio State Buckeyes.

If you are from the Midwest or the South where meetings are rescheduled and Saturday afternoons are off limits “on account of there’s football”, then I needn’t explain any further.
To the rest of you who can’t quite conceive of this, it’s irrational. Those of us that love football with the fervor of a sale-seeking Jersey Housewife with a platinum card understand what it’s all about.

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Here’s the Rub…

September 16, 2012

The weather in Brooklyn is perfect today… mid 70’s, sunny and breezy. These end of summer days are the ones I really cherish because I know too well that before long, they will be gone until the spring.

It is nearly unthinkable to cook dinner inside today. The days left in this year that we can enjoy being outside are numbered and I want every last second of warm sunshine I can get.

Although, grilling in inclement weather is no foreign concept to me. I have memories of my grandmother grilling in the rain, tongs in one hand & umbrella in the other… I guess once she decided what was for dinner, there was no turning back. Luckily for me, the weather this weekend has been picture perfect.

If you are among the throngs of apartment dwellers with no access to a grill or outdoor space, this is delicious done on a grill pan or even a saute pan. Speaking as one of the aforementioned, I’ve cooked many a steak on top of the stove and they are almost just as good.

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Homemade Herb Vinaigrette Salad Dressings

April 20, 2012

Homemade vinaigrettes are one of the easiest things to make. If you are not confident in the kitchen, this is a great place to start getting your feet wet. A handful of ingredients and 5 minutes is all it takes to make something delicious.

Now that Spring is in full swing and the Farmer’s Markets are replete with the good stuff, it’s time to start putting those veggies back into the rotation.

Some people tend to look at salads as the obligatory precursor to the main event. Granted, if someone serves you a bowl of pre-cut lettuce and gloppy dressing, it is barely even that. However, with a little creativity and a blender you can make something that is beautiful, delicious, good for you and even those that tend to resist eating “rabbit food” may even get on board.

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