Crispy Fried Potatoes and Roasted Chicken

In an attempt to clean out my drop box, I have come across a LOT of pictures of things that I made months ago.  Months as in pre-honeymoon, pre-wedding, pre-wedding diet, the whole thing.  PRE.

This entire meal was so simple.  It required the following basic ingredients:

Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (I made two huge breasts)
Yukon gold potatoes
kosher salt
pepper
olive oil

Easy peasy, am I right?
I sprinkled the chicken with olive oil, salt, and pepper and placed it in my baking dish.  I roasted it at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.  Nothing to it.

I shredded my potatoes using the julienne blade on my mandolin/slicer/thing, then tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Very difficult.  Then I tossed them into a pan, let them get crispy, flipped, crisped, and served!

We ate our roast chicken and potatoes with spinach salad.  It was so quick and easy and everything had a lot of flavor, despite minimal prep time and ingredients.  It's a great meal to keep in your back pocket, for days when you don't want to prep anything too involved.  As someone who is known to plan big meals and end up too tired to cook them at the end of the day, it's never bad to have a fallback like this!

And speaking of fallbacks:

 Christian Louboutin via Barneys

Can you ever go wrong with a pump like this?  Ever?!

Loaded Potato "Chips"

Don't you just hate it when one of your favorite bloggers disappears for no good reason?

Obviously this is an attempt to compliment myself, but it must be done.  Truth be told, my mother and aunt were in town and we were busy gallivanting around the bay area, shopping and eating delicious things.

These loaded potato chip-like things came to my attention on pinterest, and as a non-potato eater I thought they might be worth a try, since they're so covered in stuff.

I boiled my potatoes about a minute too long and they started to fall apart, slightly, but it didn't hamper my determination to pile lots of stuff on them.  So pile I did.

And then I piled some more . . .

And then we ate.  And I wasn't a fan.  But my good 'ole midwestern, potato-loving F adored these, and his big appetite did not leave a chip on that baking stone or a drop of ranch in the bowl.  Next time I think I would add more stuff to them, spice them up a bit, but if you like loaded potatoes these are for you.

And since those are for you, these are for me!

Jimmy Choo via Bergdorf Goodman

It's only fair.

Quickie Friday: Puffy Breakfast

Ahh the potato puff.  Once something I never thought I would prepare, now prepared and re-purposed for breakfast.

(I apologize for the crappy photo.  Again.)  That, peeps, is a lightly fried egg atop said puff, prepared for the F's breakfast pleasure.  (Another of my [many] food quirks is that I do not like to eat egg yolks, unless they are thoroughly mixed with a greater number of egg whites [scrambled eggs with a 3 egg-white-to-one-egg-yolk ratio are acceptable]).  Because I am a bizarre-ly picky eater, the F benefits.  And he LOVED this.  It's nice to know I am a good cook, even when preparing things I will not eat.  Ha!

This week is obviously (and unintentionally) t-strap week:

via

Since there is no way that I can afford the Guccis I posted earlier this week, these will certainly suffice.

Parmesan Potato Puffs

I promised ya'll that I'd be doing a lot more cooking, what with the new job and all, so I have been cookin' up a storm because, as always, I aim to please. 

As I have shared on numerous occasions previously (here and here, for example) I am not a fan of potatoes.  But, because the F loves them so much, I try to make them from time to time.  I tried these parmesan potato puffs and didn't loathe them as strongly as I typically loathe potatoes (which is saying something) and the F liked them.  That is potato success.

As all potato puffs do (or so I've been led to believe), this recipe starts off with mashed potatoes.  Mine were leftover and garlic-laced, which I thought would give a nice depth of flavor to the puffs (I was, of course, correct).

Because I knew I'd be trying the puffs, I knew they needed to be extra cheesy, so I added an extra . . . oh . . . 1/3 of a cup of cheese (I used a combination of sharp cheddar and parmesan). 

Despite excessive buttering, they were a little difficult to get out of the muffin pan (and I apologize for the terrible picture).  We had our puffs with steak, broccoli, and spinach salad, and they weren't terrible!  I wouldn't go out of my way to make them a part of my diet, but for a potato, not bad.  If you like potatoes, however, I'm sure you'd be whistling a different tune than I!

Speaking of people who whistle different tunes, the F and I seem to live on different fashion planets.  To celebrate my new job, I bought these:

Dolce Vita via Saks

When I placed these beauties upon my feet, the F informed me that, prior to our fabulous years together, he had never seen anybody wear a wedge.  WHAT?!  How could that be possible?  On what fashion planet does one live where nary a wedge is to be found?  I can hardly talk about it, I find it so upsetting.  If you are aware, peeps, of a place in this great nation where wedges are nonexistent, please share this post and spread the wedge-love.  I can't handle knowing that wedge-free universes exist.

Superbowl Snacks: Part Two

The third item up on the big stupid bowl menu:  potato skins.  I had never made these before, but they were a HUGE hit.  The BF and I both loved the way they turned out and, given my hatred of all things potato, that's a step in the right direction.

To start, I washed and dried the potatoes, brushed them with olive oil, pricked them with a fork, and baked them for an hour at 425.  While they were baking, I grilled 4 slices of pepper bacon, chopped the bacon, and set it aside.  After the potatoes were done baking, I cut them in quarters, scooped out the pulp (leaving about 1/4 inch on the peel) and set it aside (to be used for mashed potatoes . . . or something . . . later).

Then I laid out the skins in a baking dish, sprinkled them with mexican cheese and the bacon, and popped them back in the oven at 350 for about half an hour.

Topped with jalapenos and served with sour cream and salsa, these were AWESOME and went perfectly with the wings I made (post to come tomorrow)!

Another pair of wedges on my lust-list for spring/summer:

Elizabeth and James via Saks

I love the combination of suede and metallic.   They would be (yet another) perfect addition to my wardrobe.

Homemade Potato Chips and Onion Dip

Saturdays and Sundays usually involve a lot of cleaning, cooking, football, and eating of chips and some sort of dip, so this weekend I decided to jazz it up a bit and make my own chips, as well as this french onion dip.  The potato chips were very easy, albeit time consuming to deep fry, and the dip turned out well (I substituted white pepper for black pepper for the dip, since I put black pepper on my chips).

For my birthday (which is this week!  YAY!) the BF's sister got me the KitchenAid shredder/slicer attachment (thank you!) and it is AWESOME.

It sliced the potatoes in a perfect, even size, and FAST.  I love fast.  What was not fast was soaking all of the chips in water, twice, for an hour at a time.

While my chips soaked, I got the onions ready for the dip.

Caramelizing onions ALSO takes a long time.  These bad boys took over an hour, but it was sooooooo worth it in the end.  While the dip "rested" in the fridge for an hour or so, I deep-fried the chips in 375 degree oil, for 5 minutes a batch (in small batches).  The chips were awesome (if greasy, as a good potato chip should be) and the dip had tons more flavor than anything you can buy in a store!

And they both tasted even better served in football bowls.  Obviously.

I saw these boots (boots . . . again . . . I know) in a Piperlime ad this morning and I love them.

Much more in my price range than the Elizabeth & James boots I posted earlier, but still . . . probably not Florida appropriate 99% of the time and yet, I love them.

Food and Wine and Sun and . . . Potatoes

HELLOOOOOOOOO! Sorry for the absence, again, peeps; the BF, BF's sister, and I were at Epcot for the International Food & Wine Festival, yesterday! And while I had EVERY intention of taking lots of pictures of all of the tasty treats, my intentions quickly fell away when confronted with champagne . . .

. . . so much champagne. So much GOOD champagne.

But I digress, this is a cooking blog, after all, not a brag-about-how-much-champagne-I-drank-at-Disney-World blog.

On Friday, I made a pretty run of the mill, steakhouse style supper, that included twice baked potatoes. I HATE potatoes.

But the BF and his sister do SO enjoy potatoes (must be an Iowa/Idaho thing) that I thought I would make some spuds for their enjoyment (because I don't cook SOLELY for the blog!  SEE!).  I brushed the potatoes with olive oil and baked them at 400 degrees for an hour.  After they baked, I sliced a crescent shape out of the top, scooped the insides out into a big bowl, and mixed some garlic, salt, pepper, heavy cream, and white and yellow cheddar in with the potatoes.  I whipped them until they were light and fluffy, spooned everything back into the skins, topped them with a little more cheese, then stuck them back in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes.

They actually looked tasty enough that I was tempted to try a bit, but I have made that mistake in the past, and it always just makes me hate potatoes even more, so I left the taters to be eaten by those who can appreciate them!

I wore my Sam Edelman "Gigi" sandals whilst walking around Epcot (and drinking champagne!):

Image from Nordstrom.

Incidentally, I made the mistake of stopping in Singapore to try a Singapore Sling . . . should you find yourself at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, avoid Singapore.