Pork Chop Potato Bake

Who's ready for some dumb easy comfort food (with the worst pictures I've taken in a long time--ugh--I'm blaming early darkness). The problem with comfort food, as we discussed in my last post, is that it sometimes takes forever to make and you feel like it's Thanksgiving when it's not Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving's great and all, but not on any old Monday.

I never ever made scalloped potatoes. I love them, but I seriously haven't made them in years. I just don't have the time for side dishes that take longer to prepare than anything else. This little beauty of a recipe brought them back into my life. It's still not a 15-minute throw together (well, it kind of is, but you're going to tack on a long cook time), but it's beauty is that you make the meat and potatoes together. You've only got 15-20 minutes hands on time, and then a low, slow bake. In fact, I'd wager this would work in the crock pot wonderfully.

Pork Chop Potato Bake
adapted from And a Sprinkle of Love
serves 4
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour (to 2 1/2 hours depending on the oven temp you go with)
Cost: $6.85
pork chops: 5.00, potatoes: 1.00, onion: .10, milk: .15, butter: .20, broth: .40

4 pork chops
1 onion (I subbed in onion powder since I knew my husband would hate the onion--about 1/2Tbsp)
6 medium potatoes
4 T butter
4 T flour
2 C chicken broth
1 C milk or half and half
cheese, optional
salt and pepper

First heat a bit of oil in a pan. Then salt and pepper your pork chops and brown them on each side.

While they're browning, slice your onion, then peel your potatoes and cut them into 1/4-inch slices.

When the chops are browned, but not cooked through, remove them from heat. Add the onions to the drippings. If there are no drippings add a bit more oil. Cook the onions and finish cutting your potatoes.

Remove the onions from the pan and put them with the pork chops.

Add the butter to the pan. Then whisk in the four. When it's nice and pasty, add the chicken broth and the milk and whisk, cooking until it's thickened. Add the onions back in and stir.

Here's the magical part: Lay your potatoes in a well-greased 9x13 inch pan. They can overlap and be wonky--that's fine. Just get them all in there in a mildly evenish manner. Than pour the sauce over the top. At this point you can add some grated cheese if you like, but you don't have to. Now put your pork chops on top.

Cover with foil and bake for 65-75 minutes at 350 degrees. OR for 2 1/2 hours at 300 degrees. I went for the low and slow option and this came out so flavorful and melt-in-your-mouthy, it was amazing.

Just sit there or play or read or sleep or whatever. And then at dinner time you eat.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Creamy Cheese Potato Soup

So apparently winter is not over. I'm more okay with it than a lot of people. I like to believe that this is because I'm flexible and adaptable and a good sport about stuff. In reality it's because I think I might start to cry if I have to start weeding again (those weeds really gave me a butt-kicking last year). 

My own sad laziness aside, there's plenty to love about winter. Only this morning, my sweet Emma said, "Mom, the snow is sparkling." As indeed it was. Then there's our wood-burner, which I'm planning to marry if anything happens to Kip. And soup. There's always soup. 

I really like potato soup. Kip, however, is usually pretty meh about it. So I've tried jazzing it up in a bunch of different ways (bacon, people, bacon), and he eats it and he's fine with it, but until I prepared this super easy, creamy soup for our Christmas party, I hadn't really found one that made him call dibs on the leftovers. The best news is that this is the easiest of the lot. There's not even a roux. You boil potatoes (and a bit of onion) in chicken broth. You add cream cheese and a bit of cream. And then some salt and pepper if you need it. You mash it up, so that it's in little chunks, not big ones. And you're done. Yeah. It sounds too easy right. Bland. Boring. Nope. It's really very delicious. And if you are a bit more daring than my husband (doesn't take too much in the food department), it provides the perfect (truly perfect) canvas for you to go all rogue. You can add kale or spinach, colorful peppers, carrots, corn, sweet paprika, onions. Crazy kinds of cheese. And I think we all know that there's always room for bacon. But if you want to keep it completely simple you can and not be embarrassed to serve it to guests. Also, I haven't tried it yet, but I'm 99% sure that this would be a cinch in the crock pot as well, since it's already a throw-it-all-in recipe. 

We had it with this bread and garnished it with a bit of cheese. 

Creamy Potato Soup

adapted from Rose Bakes

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Serves:  a lot of people. I usually halve it, but as is, it should serve 12-16 people

Cost: $7.00 (or about $.50/serving)

potatoes: 3.00, broth: 1.00 (this is for cubes or granules), onion: .05, cream cheese: 2.00, whipping cream: 1.00

10-12 C chicken broth

6 lb red potatoes, peeled and diced

1/4 C onion, finely diced

1/2-1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

1 C whipping cream

salt and pepper to taste

Heat your broth while peeling and cutting your potatoes and onion (you can also use onion powder if you or a loved one suffer from pieces-of-onion-aversion-intolerance-syndrome). Add salt and pepper to broth. (I'd start with only 1/2 tsp salt and add more later if you need more.)

Throw the potatoes and onion in the broth and let it boil gently until the potatoes are soft. 

Mash the potatoes. You can make it smoother or chunkier depending on your preferences (and whether or not you or your loved ones suffer from low-chunky-tolerance-disorder--or LCTD for short--or not). 

Add the cream cheese (cut it up if you'd like--it makes it a little easier to incorporate). Stir it into the potatoes until it's smooth and incorporated. Add cream. 

Simmer this soup for 20-30 more minutes, stirring occasionally (so it doesn't stick to the bottom of your pot). 

Taste and adjust seasonings. 

Garnish with cheese, green onions, bacon bits, or whatever you like. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

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Corn and Kale Chowder

This is a good recipe for spring. It's still been pretty chilly around here and we're practically in the southern half of the U.S. It uses kale, which is coming on (ours is just starting to look alive again). But it also uses corn. You can use frozen and I did. (I bet you can even use canned.) But if you have this during the summer, you can roast ears of corn and potentially make yourself the most butt-kicking corn chowder ever.

Corn and Kale Chowder
adapted from Good Life Eats
Makes: 8-10 servings
Prep and cook time: 40 minutes
Cost: $4.35 (or about: $.50/serving)
butter: .25, onion: .10, garlic: .05, flour: .04, milk: .26, cream: .50, chicken broth: .30, potato: .10, corn: 2.00, kale: .25, sausage: 50

Note: You can sub 2 1/2 C whole milk for the milk and cream mentioned below
Note: I used 1 1/2 C chopped kale and desperately longed for more. The recipe below reflects that longing.
Note: 1 C chicken broth will make your chowder thick and chowdery. Add more if you want it soupier. (Ours was chowdery.)
Note: If it's summer and you want to roast your corn, here's how: Heat oven to 425. Grease cobs with olive oil or butter. Place on cooking sheet (lined with parchment if you want dish duty to be easier). Cook, turning frequently for 20-30 minutes or until cobs have some brownish spots on them. Remove from oven. Cool. Take off corn. You'll need 2 1/2 C or about 5 cobs worth of corn.

3-4 Tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced small (or a decent dose of onion powder for the onion haters--start with 1/2 tsp and then add more to taste at the end)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 C flour
2 C milk
1/2 C cream
1-2 C chicken broth (or veggie broth for a vegetarian soup)
1 large potato, peeled and diced (we used red)
2 1/2 C frozen corn, dethawed
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
dash cayenne pepper, optional
dash nutmeg, optional
3 C chopped kale
2 links sausage or a few strips bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)

Melt butter. Add onions and cook for 5-8 minutes. Add garlic. Cook 1 minute. Add flour. Cook 1-2 minutes. Whisk in milk. Add cream and chicken broth.

Add diced potatoes and corn. Let this simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. I cut my potatoes small so they cook faster and because I don't like a big ol' bite a potato in my soups.

While it simmers, cook your bacon or sausage if using. Once cooked, chop small.

Also, chop your kale and put it in a microwave-safe bowl with a bit of water (2-4 Tbsp). Cover this with plastic wrap and cook 2-3 minutes in the microwave. The kale will wilt. Drain off the water. Note: I do this because sometimes kale is bitterish. If you cook it and pour off the water, the bitter goes with that water (yes, with a few nutrients as well, but those nutrients won't get eaten if your soup turns out bitter). If you cook the kale in the soup and the kale happens to be bitter, some of that is going to come into your soup and it will not taste quite as good.

When the potatoes are tender, add kale and meat. If it's too thick for you, add more chicken broth. Then add salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg. Taste and adjust seasonings (don't burn your mouth--I hate that).

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Spinach Potato Soup

You know it's kind of sad when the quintessential compliment at your dinner table is, "Wow, this tastes a lot better than it looks." And yet. It's kind of a badge of honor too. You took something that they thought looked icky and it was actually good enough to defy their expectations. I kind of love that. I served this with hot dogs and boxed mac and cheese because I was expecting a very poor reception. It was bright green, for goodness sake. Guess what Kip ate? Not hot dogs. Not mac and cheese. Nope, spinach soup. It was almost excessively gratifying.

He liked it with good reason too. This soup is delicious. And--in stark contrast to so many of the foods we're eating at this season--you feel even better after you've eaten it.

Spinach Potato Soup
adapted from Pioneer Woman
makes 6-10 servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $3.75 or about $.40/serving
spinach: 1.80, onion: .05, butter: .25, flour: .02, milk: .43, cream: 1.00, potatoes: .20

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion
10 oz baby spinach
2 cloves garlic
1/4 C water
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/4 C milk
1 C cream
4 small-medium sized waxy potatoes (we used reds)

Set a pot of water on the stove and get it boiling. As it heats, peel and dice your potatoes. Put them in the hot/boiling water with a good shake of salt.

While the potatoes boil, heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion and cook until tender--about 5 minutes. Add garlic and spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted (a lid makes this happen faster), stirring every minute or so.

Add the spinach mixture to blender with 1/4 C water. Blend until smooth. Let it set while you make a roux.

Add butter to your big pot and melt. Whisk in flour. Whisk in salt. Stir pasty mixture for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in milk. Cook, stirring constantly (or close to constantly) until mixture thickens.

Add spinach mixture to milk mixture. Whisk. Taste for salt (you'll probably need 1/2-1 tsp more) and pepper.

Add cream and mix in.

About now, your potatoes should be tender. Drain them and put them in the soup. Then give them a good mash. Taste again for salt and pepper and serve. Kip liked it with a good grate of cheddar thereby.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Zucchini Latkes

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $6/day.

I was working really hard before our trip to get the refrigerator cleaned out. Maybe that seems like an unpleasant job for some, but once I get started I always think it's kind of fun. It's almost like a puzzle in that you're piecing together different segments of something, only it's more creative than a puzzle because you don't quite know what that something is.

I had a couple fresh zucchini and some really sad looking potatoes that must have been a couple months old. And as I always say, "When life hands you potatoes with inch long eyes growing out all over the place, and most especially if life hands it to you with a needy zucchini, make latkes." Also, if life hands you lemons, (which would be very cliche of life and why would life do that when it can hand you alien-eyed potatoes) you should definitely make that ice cream we talked about yesterday.

Zucchini Latkes
adapted from smittenkitchen
Makes about 8 latkes
Prep time: 10 minutes with food processor
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cost: $1.00
(zucchini: .50, potatoes: .25, flour: .10, egg: .10, other stuff: .05)

1 small zucchini
3-5 medium sized potatoes, peeled or not (I used russets)
1/4 onion (or a good dash onion powder)
1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
oil for frying

Put the grater thingy on the food processor. Send the zucchini through. (If the zucchini is seedy, first cut it in halves and scoop out the big seeds.) Then send the potatoes and onion through. As an alternative, you can grate these vegetables with a grater.

Transfer the vegetables to a colander or strainer and press the juices/waters out of them. You can also do this by wrapping all the shredded vegetables in a tea towel and then wring the tea towel out. You'll see how much water comes out of these vegetables. Let the vegetables sit for a few more minutes and then squeeze more juice/water out of them.

Put the vegetables in a bowl and add flour, egg, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stir.

Heat oil in a skillet (I used cast iron.) Use enough oil that you've got a millimeter or two on the bottom of your pan. Then, drop a blob of the mixture onto the pan and flatten it with a spoon. (You can shape them into patties beforehand if you wish, but I prefer the texture of the non-shaped latkes. They are less glutinous, though I can't tell you why.) The latkes are going to be about 1/2 inch thick or maybe just the slightest bit thinner. When you drop them into the oil, it should sizzle, but not go berserk.

Cook over medium high heat until the edges get golden (which means the bottoms are nice and golden). Have a peek here or there to be sure they're not burning. Adjust your heat if they're cooking too fast or if they're taking forever. When the bottom is golden, flip them over and cook until the other side is golden too.

Let them drain on a paper towel.

You can serve with sour cream, yogurt, this awesome cheater sauce, or--as you must surely have guessed is our family's favorite--ketchup.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Fried Potatoes

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day without cheating too much.

Alright, fine, so fried potatoes don't need too much of a recipe: potatoes, oil, salt and pepper. Oh, and ketchup. Because we all know, especially if we live in this family, that they need about 12 pounds of ketchup as well. But that wasn't my point. My point was that they don't need much of a recipe, but they do have a bit of a technique.

When I was first married (as in not much of a cook and still a little afraid of oil) I wanted to make a sort of pan-fried potato. I cut the potatoes into rounds and tried pan frying them in a wee tiny bit of olive oil. They came out raw in the middle. So I started microwaving them for a minute or two in a single layer under plastic wrap and then pan frying them. This worked and they didn't taste too bad either. In fact, I suppose that if you're going the low-fat route in life, that might just be the way to go. But I jumped that ship years ago, and let me tell you real pan-fried potatoes are so much better. They're crispy on the outside (something my earlier potatoes were missing) and soft and yummy in the middle.

How do they get that way?

First off, cube them to about 1 centimeter square.

Secondly, they need some oil, and probably more than, as they say, a drizzle. You can use olive, but it might smoke. I use canola. You want to have a nice millimeter of oil on the bottom of your pan.

Thirdly, do them one layer thick. More than that and you're in for trouble.

Fourth, I use a cast iron skillet. I'm sure you don't have to use a cast iron skillet. But I believe that cast iron does aid in goldenliness where potatoes are concerned. Of course, cast iron can be tricky, especially if your skillet, like mine, came from freecycle (thank you freecycle lady), and wasn't seasoned at all. If your cast iron seasoning is still a work in progress, you might get a few potatoes sticking. That's okay. In fact it might be the potential for stickiness that makes the cast iron ideal. Why? Because if you try to flip the potatoes too early, they stick--not just a few stubborn ones, but all of them. This lets you know it's not time to flip them. This forces you to wait even if you're hungry and the ketchup is ready and you don't want to. If they're all sticking to your pan, give them a few more minutes. When they're ready (if you've used your millimeter or more of oil), you'll be able to get that spatula (use a metal one or one that can withstand high temp's) under than and flip them over, revealing their lovely golden bottoms. Do the same thing on the other side.

Fifth, heat your pan to medium or a bit hotter than that. You don't want it so hot you throw the potatoes on and they burn in one minute while remaining raw inside, but you don't want them sitting there for an hour either. Your oil shouldn't be smoking when you put the potatoes in. Your potatoes should sizzle gently. They should not sizzle as if they are preparing to burn out their days in damnation. Just a nice sizzle, a cozy sizzle--a happily married couple sizzle rather than a just met firecrackers sizzle.

Sixth: You should start with oil, but about halfway through (about when it's time to flip when the oil might be getting a little soaked up anyway), if you drizzle some butter into the pan or on the potatoes, well, it's just really good.

And now, the "recipe:"

Fried Potatoes
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Cost: .30

2 large russet potatoes
1/4-1/2 C canola oil
2-4 Tbsp butter (optional)
salt and pepper

Chop potatoes into centimeter sized cubes.

While you're chopping, heat oil in cast iron skillet. (Begin with 1/4 C and if your potatoes soak that up, pretend I didn't just say 'soak that up' about oil and that really you just forgot to put oil in, and then add the other 1/4 C oil or the butter or both. Because who needs arteries anyway.)

Throw in cubed potatoes. Salt and pepper generously (unless you're really just going to go nuts with the ketchup later). Let cook until golden brown on the bottom and you can flip them easily (or fairly easily for those of us with season-challenged pans).

Add more oil or butter if necessary or desired. Brown the other side of the potatoes. Check one for doneness (and be sure to blow it before popping it into your mouth, because those puppies are hot).

Serve with ketchup or, if you are more sophisticated than my children (and let's hope you are), see some seasoning suggestions below.

Because of all that outer crispiness, you can really get a lot of punch from a variety of seasonings should you choose to use them (if, let's say, you are not the type of person to slather every potato-like morsel in front of you in ketchup). Sprinkle the herbs on with the salt and pepper. Here are some ideas as the herbs in my garden start to get going:
rosemary would be just smashing
parsley with salt and pepper
sage
thyme
tarragon
fennel
dill
an Italian blend of oregano, basil, and winter savory or thyme.

I'm planning to do a post on herbs tomorrow to discuss all the ones I think you should buy. Because I was an oldest child. And I'm bossy like that.

Classic Potato Salad

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

Potato salad season, she comes. So does lots-of-leftover-hard-boiled-egg season. Below we present delicious fusion.

Of course if you use your leftover Easter eggs in the potato salad it will come out more colorful than this. Because the egg dye inevitably bleeds onto the whites of the eggs. So then you can call it Easter Egg Salad, which is just the type of thing parenting magazines promise will make your picky kids want to eat such a food. I make no such promises. But, egg dye or no, the adults will enjoy it. (Well, at least they will without the dye; I guess I can't make promises about your weird tie-dyed Easter Egg Salad.)

Potato Salad
Adapted from The New Best Recipe
Serves: 10-12
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes plus you'll need time for the potatoes and boiled eggs to cool before assembly.
Cost: $3.20
(potatoes: 2.00, eggs: .60, mayo: .05, pickles: .50, other stuff: .05)

3 lb red potatoes (I left the skins on)
6 Tbsp red wine vinegar (you can use any, but the red wine flavor does make a difference)
salt and pepper
6 hard-boiled eggs, diced
dash onion powder (or 2 Tbsp minced red onion if you peeps aren't averse to pieces of onion)
1 C dill pickles, chopped small
3/4 C mayonnaise
3 tsp mustard (Dijon is nice, but not essential)
2 Tbsp parsley leaves or dill

Boil potatoes. (I left mine whole, let them cool, and then cut them, but you can just chop and boil if you wish). Hard boil eggs (Put in cool water, bring to boil, boil 10 minutes.)

Drain potatoes (and cut into 1/2 inch pieces if not already cut). Let cool until just warm and add vinegar and 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Gently toss. I put mine in a bowl with a lid and flipped it over a time or two. (Note: Best Recipe claims that the slightly warm--not hot--potatoes will absorb the flavors better than cold potatoes. I admit that I let mine cool completely before reading this tip. The potatoes still absorbed quite a bit of flavor and were good, but I trust the Best Recipe folks, so try it with the barely warm potatoes).

Let cool completely in refrigerator (20-30 minutes). Once cool add remaining ingredients and gently toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Baked Potato Soup

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 eats on $7 (oops, you caught that did you--this challenge is giving me a run for my money) a day.

I was looking for a way to use leftover baked potatoes. This is an excellent way. Excellent. It evokes baked potato goodness; it uses up a leftover; and it's quite tasty.

But. (Pesky little word isn't it?)

This soup would be even better if you didn't use baked potatoes. I hate to say it. I really really wanted this to be perfect as is, but the fact is that the potatoes are better if boiled in the chicken broth instead of merely thrown in near the end and mashed up a bit. Ah well. If you've got baked potatoes, use 'em. It makes this a 30-minute (or less) meal. If not, it takes a little longer. But it tastes a little better.

Baked Potato Soup
Source: Adapted from my friend Sally who is a positively amazing cook.
Prep time: 10 minutes if you're potatoes are already baked; longer if you need to chop the potatoes as well
Cook time: 10-15 minutes with baked potatoes; 20-30 with raw potatoes
Cost: $1.95
(bacon: .25, onion: .20, celery: .05, chicken broth (with buillion): .25, potatoes: .40, cream: .25, milk: .10, cheese: .40, other stuff: .05)

3 strips bacon
1 small onion or a good dash onion powder (I used the powder; Kip doesn't like chunky onions)
1/2 C sliced celery (1 large stalk)
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry basil
1/2 tsp pepper
3 C chicken broth
6-8 small to medium sized baked potatoes (I used Russet, but think it would have been better with red or yukon gold)
1/3 C cream
2/3 C milk
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (didn't use because didn't have, but it adds a nice touch and just a bit of heat)
1 oz cheddar cheese for garnish (optional, but I highly recommend it)
chives for garnish (optional)
sour cream for garnish (optional)

If using baked potatoes:
Cook bacon until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Saute onion, celery, in drippings, adding garlic when almost done. When the vegetables are fairly tender, stir in the flour (if most or all of your bacon drippings are gone, as mine were, add 1-2 Tbsp butter to the pot and melt it before adding flour. Also, you can leave the veggies in the grease and just mix them up with the grease and flour). The fat and flour will create a roux, or a thick paste that will then serve to thicken your broth. Add broth, whisking as you do. Bring to boil. Boil and stir until thickened somewhat. Add the potatoes, crumbling them into the broth. Add cream, milk, and hot pepper sauce. Heat through. If desired, mash the potatoes somewhat by sticking a potato masher right in the pot.

Garnish with bacon, cheese, chives, and/or sour cream.

If using raw potatoes:
Begin by boiling diced potatoes in the 3 C chicken broth. As they cook, prepare your bacon and then your vegetables as described above. Prepare your roux with the flour and fat. Gradually pour the milk in and whisk until it thickens (probably about 1 minutes). Add the potatoes and broth; stir or whisk it up well so it's all incorporated, and let it simmer until thickened somewhat. Add cream and hot sauce. Again, you can mash some of the potatoes with a potato masher if that's your thing (it's our thing). Garnish as you wish.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Potato, Bacon, and Cheddar Egg Bake

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 eats on $6/day.

Man, talk about boring titles. But I was really struggling with this one. Oh, sure, I toyed with a few different things:

The Fat and Starch Egg Bake
The High Cholesterol Egg Bake
Artery Infusion

But for some reason, I just wasn't feeling it. So we're stuck with the bland, but accurate Potato, Bacon, and Cheddar Egg Bake.

And if any of my failed titles have discouraged you from making this, I assure you that they're just throw-backs from the 80's. These days eggs are hip, normal-fat cheese is cool (thank goodness) and bacon, well, bacon never really went away. It just had to hide in the closet for a few years until people couldn't hide the love any more.

Seriously, though (in case you don't think I've been serious enough to convince you to eat something I called "Artery Infusion"), this is very good and it is my opinion that it is also good for you. It is my opinion that eggs and potatoes are nothing short of virtuous (A, B, C-vitamins, fiber, etc.). And as for the outed bacon, I only used 2 slices and I let my daughter nibble on a bit of one of those slices, so you really need very very little to add some flavor and loveliness to this. Furthermore, it could totally support some carrots or some chopped spinach or kale if you wanted to make it even more nutrient dense. And now I realize that I could have used kale in mine and called it Colcannon Egg Bake, which would have been both a fabulous title and perfectly appropriate to today and healthier than what I made. (Excuse me while I bang my head on the desk a few times. And, hey, no stealing that idea and publishing it in your upcoming cookbook with cute, clever recipe titles, okay. The patent is pending and stuff.)

And now, the recipe.

Potato, Bacon, and Cheddar Egg Bake
adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook times: 30 minutes
Cost: $1.47
(bacon: .20, butter. 07, potato: .13, onion: .05, eggs: .50, milk: .02, cheese: .50)

2 slices bacon
1 Tbsp butter
1 C red potato, diced with skin on (1 medium potato)
1/4-1/2 onion, shredded (see note)
5 large eggs
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
a few scallions or chives, chopped
4 oz (1/2 C) cheddar cheese, diced (mine was scant and still worked great)

Note on onion: I shredded mine (in the little shredder holes), which makes it into a sort of pulp. Why would I do such a thing? Because Kip has a texture problem with onion. When you shred/pulpify it, there are no chunks of textured onion to get in the way, but you still get good onion flavor (which he can handle in non-overpowering doses).

Note on cheese: You can use shredded, but it will float to the top. The diced is nicer because it's heavier and will sink a bit. We used shredded and lived to tell the tale, but I like those chunks of cheese.

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook bacon in cast-iron skillet or something else oven-proof. (If you don't have such a skillet, just cook the first part in a regular skillet and then pour it into an oven-proof pan--probably a 9-inch cake pan would work or a 9-inch square pan.)

Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Don't let your 3-year-old eat it all. Add butter to the pan (make sure your pan isn't too hot or the butter will burn instantly--with cast iron, you'll probably be set at medium low). Add potato and onion. Cook for about 10 minutes, tossing occasionally until the potato is tender but firm.

In the meantime, whisk eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Sitr in scallions and cheddar. When potato is ready, throw the bacon onto it and then pour the egg mixture over it all. Place the pan in the oven for about 15 minutes (at least 160 on an instant read thermometer) or until the center is done.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Pigs in a Blanket and Homemade Potato Chips

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

(The thing about pigs in a blanket--they kind of look a little obscene. Please forgive.)

I'd never made pigs in a blanket before--even in the hot dogs rolled in tubed croissant kind of a way. I'm not a big hot dog fan. But Kip mentioned these to the kids the other day. And they wanted them. Desperately. All day yesterday, Elizabeth kept saying, "I can't wait to have pigs in a blanket." "I'm so excited you're making pigs in a blanket." That sort of thing. So, I bought us a $.75 package of Aldi hot dogs. (You could also use little sausages, which I think I would have preferred, but not the minions--also they wouldn't be as cheap.) And I had a look at the internet for an appropriate bready thing to wrap around them. And I found this awesome recipe. It had surprisingly good dough--not too flaky or too salty or difficult at all. I changed it not at all. (Correction--I did add the cheese at the end, so I could leave it out of half of the dough for the minions who don't like cheese. Yes, I am a hopeless pushover.) I liked it so much that, hot dogs be hanged, I think I enjoyed eating these even more than the kids. This recipe makes enough dough for 2 packages of normal sized hot dogs. If you just use one package, halve the recipe or roll the rest of the dough into little crescent shaped roll/biscuit things. I thought it made great roll/biscuit things. Also, the butter is less than I expected it to be from a biscuit-y type dough, which is great for both of your bottom lines.

If you make the dough in the food processor as I always do, it will be ready in about 3 minutes. T-h-r-e-e minutes. To roll it out and cut it is another 3. Yes, it's more time than it takes to pop open a can of crescent rolls from the store and separate the little wedges, but just barely.

Allow me a moment to sing the praises of the humble food processor. I don't have a fancy one. I don't make cookies, cakes, or smoothies in mine as some say you can do. But it makes making pastry dough, pie crusts, etc. a reality for me. I hate hate hate cutting butter into dry ingredients. But with a food processor, you just throw it in there and you're done. It makes a 15 or 20 minute job a 3 minute job. And with it, the dough I make is much better and much cheaper than the store-bought doughs/crusts.

I also shred stuff with it. It takes forever to shred carrots for carrot cake, potatoes for hashbrowns, or zucchini for zucchini bread. Ditto cheese. But with the food processor and three little minutes, you're done. If you rinse it fairly quickly, it only takes a couple minutes to clean as well (a little longer for the cheese).

Since I had the food processor out, I also used it to shred some potatoes for hashbrowns. I didn't clean it after the dough, just threw the potatoes down the hatch. That's the kind of perfection I'm sure you've come to expect from the tastycheapskate. Which is why it might not surprise you that I had the food processor disc on slice, not shred. So I ended up with these impossibly thin potato slices. I was going to throw them back in and shred them, or give them a good chopping, but there was my cast iron skillet with the hot oil shimmering, and I thought, "What the heck; I've never made homemade potato chips before." Incidentally, I believe that the creation of the original potato chip happened in a similar way. By accident.

Anyway, making potato chips seems a little looney. And it kind of was. But it was also kind of fun. (And it still took no more than 30 minutes--start to finish. Most of the frying time was while the pigs cooked.) My first couple batches turned out nicely. After that, the pigs were about cooked and I started tossing the slices in in clumps to get 'em done. These were also good, but more like hashbrowns than crispy potato chips.

Below is the, er, recipe.

Homemade Potato Chips

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 5 minutes with food processor

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Cost: $.40

(potatoes: .30, oil: .10)

3 medium russet potatoes

1/4 oil (um, to start with--you'll end up adding more--probably another 1/4 C--as the potatoes, uh, suck up the grease, not that any of it will go to your hips or anything; I'm sure it all gets absorbed into the paper towels at the end...)

Peel potatoes. Slice them extremely thin--either with a food processor or a mandolin. I am not sure you could get slices thin enough with a knife, but maybe if you and your knives are extremely good... 

Heat oil in cast iron skillet. (I suppose you could deep fry as well if you have such a device as a deep fryer. Also, I promise not to tell if you have such a device, but how did you ever make it through the '80s?) The oil should shimmer and not smoke. Throw one slice of potato in. (Don't really throw it in; the oil will splash and it is very hot.) The potato slice should sizzle, but not turn brown (or black) too quickly.

If the oil it the right temp, place the sliced potatoes in the oil in a single layer. Allow them to fry until golden. Then flip them. (Doesn't that part sound easy? I hate to break it to you, but it's the trickiest part. I used a fork and metal spatula to sort of corner one and then turn it over. Tongs would have worked nicely, but I only have super long BBQ tongs. Anyway, until I got the hang of my fork/spatula flipping, some of the other potato slices got a little too brown. We ate them anyway and they were pretty good. I think Elizabeth even preferred them that way. Also--like I said, near the end of my pile of sliced potatoes I got lazy and started flipping willy nilly in clumps--still good, but more like hashbrowns with soft centers.) Note: Please be careful in your flipping. The oil is really hot.

After flipping, allow the chips to brown on the other side, getting golden in the middle and a bit darker at the edges. They should be crispy, but not crisped, if you know what I mean. (I mean, don't burn the boogers.)

Take them out of the oil and allow them to drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Salt them lightly while the oil is still warm on them. My kids were just scarfing them off this plate at this point, not bothering to wait until dinner.

Repeat this process until you're done. Or get sick of it and throw them in in a clump and make blobs of fried potato.

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(Only fine dining in this establishment.)

Perfect Home Fries

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch (or join us) as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

Sick of potatoes yet? I'm honestly not. I like potatoes. They're nutritious. (With skins you get fiber, antioxidants, vitamins C and B6, plus a bunch of minerals such as copper, potassium, and manganese.) And there are tons of ways to prepare them. Apparently, the American public likes their potatoes too. Usually, the statistics tell us, in the form of French fries or potato chips, which hasn't exactly given them the vegetable reputation of the year. Additionally, we Americans like to "load" our potatoes. I'm not opposed to this, per se, but daily that sort of thing might get the best of us.

So I was going to give you a simple home fry recipe--one in which you chop your potatoes, toss them in a tablespoon of olive oil to coat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake at 400 degrees.

This is how we usually make our home fries. It's simple, healthy, and tasty. Indeed, I thought self-righteously to myself, they might not be perfect, but at least they're not silly and fussy like some French fry recipes on the web and like that one in my America's Test Kitchen cookbook. I even wrote the post about this. And then I cracked my Test Kitchen cookbook to see how fussy they were so as to mock them. And there they were mocking me with my floppy roasted potatoes cut in strips to mimic a fry. Well, I thought with a hmph, at least mine are simple. The thing is, theirs were too. So I whipped up a mini batch, which I am consuming as we speak. And they really are better. In fact, they remind me just a bit of a Dutch friet. The Dutch eat these great French fries in these white paper cones topped with mayonnaise. Which sounds weird. It might even sound gross. But is really so so good with those fat crispy fries. So mayonnaise is exactly what I ate on mine tonight. And it was so so good then too, and brought back some happy memories to boot.

Thus tonight, I dine on perfect home fries and some humble pie. How about that. You, my friends, have nothing but to gain. (And I won't make you eat mayo on them if you don't want to. But it's good, I swear.)

Perfect Home Fries:
Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: $.50

A note on potatoes: When I make home fries I like to throw in a sweet potato. I'm usually the only one who ends up eating it. Because it is orange. And we all know that orange things are dangerous unless they are made of fructose and attached to a skinny white stick. We especially know this when we are 5 years old. Nevertheless, I always throw one in anyway in the hope that one day someone else might venture out. As I'm sure someday someone will. Probably when world peace is accomplished. And the whales are saved. And dolphins. And also when the streets are paved with gold. But people don't care about gold. Because they only care about love and kindness. Yes, one day...

A note on your pan: Use a heavy cookie sheet to get the best fries. A flimsy one might let your fries burn.

First, the recipe: (Which I'd probably double for my family)

1 1/2 lb russet potatoes (about 3 medium russets)
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Now, the instructions and tips:

1. Preheat oven to 475. You heard me. Actually you heard America's Test Kitchen. Make sure there's a rack on the lowest spot. Again, obey, even if it seems weird.
2. Cut the fries into strips. Make sure the strips are even in thickness. America's Test Kitchen recommends removing the skins. I will not, as I'm going for optimal nutrient benefit. But you may. I will not judge you.
3. Soak them in HOT tap water for 10 minutes. The water will become cloudy. This will make the fries soft inside with a crisp edge. Dry them off.
4. In a bowl, toss them with 1 Tbsn oil.
5. Pour the rest of the oil on the pan. Sprinkle salt over it. The oil gives the fries a bit more of a fried kind of feeling, and the salt supposedly keeps them from sticking to the pan, though I still had a few stick.
6. Cover with foil. Place them on the bottom rack of your hot oven. (Be careful.) You're going to cook them this way for only 5 minutes. This will steam them so they're nice and soft inside.
7. Remove the foil. Cook for another 15 minutes to make the outsides crispy.
8. Take them out and flip them over. The undersides will be dark golden. Put them back in for 5-10 minutes more.
9. Take them out and place them on a paper towel to degrease a bit.
10. Eat. With ketchup if you will. Or fry sauce (mayo and ketchup) if you've ever lived in Utah. Or mayo if you like to pretend you're Dutch.

P.S. If you really are pressed for time, just cut the potatoes into even strips, toss in 1-2 Tbsp olive oil, and bake at 400 degrees (in the center of your oven) for 20 minutes (unless very thick), flipping them over halfway through cooking time. They may not be quintessential. But they'll still be good. And healthy. And cheap. And they'll save you 10-15 minutes. And sometimes 15 minutes is worth saving. Sometimes.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Not Quite Gnocchi (aka Homemade Tater Tots)

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch (or join us) as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.
P.S. It has occurred to me that you might want to know how much time I spend cooking. Do I have to slave away all day to make cheap foods? Is that why the food industry is blessing us with all this quick processed food? Well, have a look. I've begun including the amount of time I cook each day in Jean's Food Journal. (Boy, you don't get more exciting than that.)

A few days ago I carelessly compared gnocchi to tater tots. Clearly, I angered the gnocchi gods because when I went to make gnocchi yesterday, I couldn't get the potatoes crumbly enough. They sat there stubbornly the size of little pearls, looking like caviar (that is what caviar looks like, right?).

Fine, I told the culinary gods (actually, I didn't because I don't believe in culinary gods), I'll just make real tater tots instead.

And I did. And they were good.

It took a little longer than it will take you considering I had the whole error thing going on.

But first, let me tell you how to make gnocchi, should you wish for something smoother than a humble tater tot. After that, I'll tell you how I messed it up and ended up with a more traditional, though healthier than traditional, tater tot.

Gnocchi is a type of potato pasta. Once formed it can be boiled as is traditional. It can also be pan fried, for those of you who don't like to take the risk of watching your hard work crumble apart into potato paste in a pot of boiling water. I have--do I need to say it--always pan fried mine. (P.S. If you're new to cooking, pan fry means to cook in just a bit of oil or butter in a skillet. As opposed to deep-fry, which means to let the little boogers be submersed in oil, ala McDonald's french fries.)

Gnocchi (tater tots if you mess em up)
Serves: 2 generously; 4 side-dishishly
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour for potato baking; 15 minutes for pan frying
Cost: $.60

about 2 lb (about 4 medium large ones) starchy potatoes (you want something dry like a russet as opposed to something wet or waxy like a red)
1/4 C egg, lightly beaten (about 1 egg)
1 scant C flour
2 T olive oil
1 T butter
salt and pepper

Roast or bake  potatoes. (I use leftover baked potatoes.) Let cool. If baked, scoop flesh out of skins. Use a fork or grate them to flake them and break them up. You don't want to mash them because you don't want the potato fibers (for lack of a better word) to be tight and compact. You want the potato to be kind of loose and all broken apart. If your potatoes are warmish, you can probably flake them apart with a fork and get a nice "crumb"--the potatoes should be broken enough that you can add the other ingredients and form them into a type of dough. If your potatoes are cold and stubborn and determined not to separate from themselves as mine were, I suggest you remove the skins and them grate them. That's right--either manually grate them (it won't take long--they're soft) or throw them into the grater thing on a food processor

Gather the potato crumbs into a blob (again, not a mashed down blob--a soft blob) and drizzle the egg over it. Then sprinkle about 3/4 C flour over top of it. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Work it together with your fingers. I do this by swirling my hand in a circle through the stuff utnil it kind of comes together and then I bring it together in a dough like lump and begin to knead it. When it looks like dough, roll it out into snakes (as though it were playdough) and then cut the snakes into 1-inch segments.

Heat some oil or butter or--my favorite--a combination thereof (2 T oil; 1 T butter) in a skillet and pan fry till golden on all sides. Alternately, you could throw them into a pot of boiling water and cook like pasta. (When they're done they should float to the top of the water.) Or (and this is surely gnocchi blasphemy) you could deep fry them, or bake them at 400 for about 15 minutes, flipping them halfway through cooking time. But the pan-fried is my favorite--more full-proof than the boiled, tastier than the baked and not so darn fried (or such a hassle) as the deep fried.

Gnocchi can be served anyway pasta is--with marinara, with a cream sauce, with pesto, or with a type of butter/sage sauce that is often used. Should I succeed on my next gnocchi attempt, I'll work on a sage butter post for you.

Now: How I messed up and made tater tots instead.

My potatoes were cold and they did not want to be flaked in any way with a fork. In an effort to get them to break apart, I used 2 knives to sort of pastry cut them (cut through them with the knives moving in opposition to each other). And I ended up with the little balls seen above. It was too late to grate them and I knew those balls wouldn't form into real gnocchi, but I was tired of pastry cutting. (It doesn't take much to get me tired of pastry cutting.) So I drizzled the egg and flour on them and then rolled them out into snakes and cut them up. Then I pan-fried them. It was fun.

If you want to make tater tots, just take cold baked potatoes and get them into smallish chunks--use a pastry cutter or 2 knives if that helps, or just a fork to hack at them. Then put them together following the recipe for gnocchi above.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Baked Potatoes

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch (or join us) as our family of 6 eats (or tries to) on $6/day

Today for lunch I wanted a baked potato. Microwaved ones are edible, but just not so great. And it seemed silly to bake just one, so I threw in a bunch of sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, and a small butternut squash leftover from last year's garden.

If you're new to cooking, baking a potato is a great place to start. Here are the basic cooking instructions. Wash the potatoes. Don't bother to wrap in foil or anything. And don't poke with a fork like you would if you were microwaving them. Place them in an oven set at 400 degrees. Bake for about an hour or until they give easily when you squeeze them (with an oven-mitted hand because they're stinking hot). 

And what will I do with all the potatoes I do NOT plan on eating today, potatoes that won't be nearly as good the next day warmed up in the microwave. Well, first off, potatoes that are baked in the first place do make better leftovers, even when re-warmed in the microwave. But most of ours won't make it that far. Why? Because you can mash or puree them and use them in lots of great stuff.

Butternut Squash

1. Pureed butternut squash is perfect--perfect--to nutrify boxed mac and cheese. Use about 1/4 C per box.

2. Seeing it sitting on the counter, my husband ate half of the butternut squash anyway. That wouldn't normally happen, and it was especially good for him today since he has a cold and can use a little vita-boost.

Sweet Potatoes

1. Serve with a bit of butter and brown sugar and you and your baby will both love them.

A little something for baby...

With some extra love for mama.

2. Pureed sweet potato is great snuck into so so many foods. Following is a surely non-comprehensive list. Add to:

Ground beef (add 1/4 C to raw meat, work it in, then cook)

Mac and cheese (1/4 C per box)

Canned soups (1/4-1/2 C)

Mix a bit in with the peanut butter of your kids' sandwiches (1 tsp per sandwich)

Mix a bit in with your oatmeal (1-2 Tbsp per bowl)

Pancakes (2-4 Tbsp) per patch of 6 pancakes

Several of the breakfast cookie recipes on this site. (Try here or here.)

Bread or biscuits or muffins (1/4 C to dough/batter)

A winter smoothie

Spread onto one side of a quesadilla

Potatoes

1. I find these not quite as versatile as their orange neighbors when pureed, but if you add them (well-mashed) to breads, pancakes, etc. they'll make your breads even better (about 1-2 C for 2 loaves bread. 1/4 C to a full recipe of pancakes)

2. Mash with milk and butter and warm them to make mashed potatoes.  

3. To make gnocchi (a type of potato pasta). Reading on the internet makes gnocchi seem like it needs the perfect touch. I put off trying it for months because I was intimidated by all those Italian grandmothers out there. But when we had several baked potatoes withering in the fridge that I was going to toss out, I figured I had nothing to lose. And I made pan-fried gnocchi. And it was AMAZING. Not to offend those with culinary high-mindedness, but they kind of tasted like really awesome home-made tater tots. And in this family, that is a very good thing. (Gnocchi will get its own post in the next week or two, so fret not if you don't know how to make it or even, really, what it is.)

By the way, to puree a starchy vegetable, like these:

-Scoop out the good stuff and put in blender or food processor

-Add water by the Tbsp until it's blendable.

-You can store it in the fridge for a few days and in the freezer much longer.

-I often freeze it in ice cube trays, then dump the cubes into a freezer bag. That way if I need a couple Tbsp for a breakfast cookie or a baby, I've got it right there.

Potato Soup

Watch our family of 6 eat (or try to) on $6/day this month (maybe year--ask me at the end of January).

And if you're interested in minutiae, I've added Jean's Food Journal to the sidebar, so you can follow what I eat everyday. Wow. You don't get more interesting than that.

And speaking of my daily eating, I made my first sacrifice today. It was a small sacrifice, but a sacrifice nevertheless. This morning my kids ate all the breakfast cookies. I wanted one. Normally, I would have whipped up another batch. But today I just had oatmeal instead. Breakfast cookies are cheap and all, but they're not as cheap as oatmeal. And oatmeal is good and all, but it's not as good as breakfast cookies.

Thank you for enduring that interruption. Now, back to our scheduled programming.

I had grown up thinking of soup as difficult to make. After all, except for the occasional can of tomato or chicken noodle, we never ate it. Surely there was something difficult about homemade soup--mysterious, gourmet. This idea was strangely reinforced through my first experiences with homemade soup. When I was in Belgium for several months, I enjoyed a lot of great soup because they often ate the most delicious soups as a first course to their dinners. I didn't realize quite how good they were until my mother sent a sweet care package with a packet of dried soup. With my new soup addiction, I couldn't wait to try it. It was awful. I wasn't cook enough to put it together that processed American soups were crap. Indeed, I decided, the Flemish must have secrets, because soup, it seemed was wicked hard to make.

And then I got married. And I learned to make soup. It was very easy. Which was disillusioning. Why had my mother never made soup? And then I had several kids. And I realized why she never made soup. Because if she had ever made soup in our formative years, she had surely gotten plenty of grief from her band of little tyrants (more on that below). Additionally my dad was interested in bodybuilding, which meant meat was usually our main event. And my mother was too busy for first courses. And believe me, I get that.

But I really like soup. So I suffer through a certain amount (meaning a whole stinking lot) of whining and complaints from the peanut gallery in order to eat it. Especially when this family is doing a cheap eat challenge. Becasue soup--it is the cheapskate's delight. A broth, a white sauce perhaps, some onions, whatever's wilting in your fridge, maybe some leftover meat, salt and pepper, and voila.

Tonight I made a potato soup. Because potatoes are cheap. And healthy. And pretty filling.

And my kids received their bowls and said, "Thank you mother for the last 45 minutes of preparation with a baby in your arms, for the vegetable chopping, the creativity, the cleaning up afterwards. Thank you for helping this family save money, and for somehow creating pure deliciousness through it all." What? You don't think that's what my kids said? Well, I won't tell you whether you're exactly right or not, but all of zero of my children capable of speech ate more than one spoonful. At least one of my kids ended up in his room. And baby Emma, bless her baby sugar-free heart, scarfed it up like it was the best thing ever. And it was pretty good. (P.S. If you've got great tips for picky kid eaters, please, for all that is peace-loving in my life, send them this way.)

Potato Soup
Serves 4 heartily, 8 1st-coursily
Preparation and cook time: 45 minutes (you could probably get it close to 30 if you're not holding a baby part of the time, as I was)
Cost: $2.47
(Red Potatoes--.75, milk--.25, few strips bacon--.75, homemade stock--.00, onion--.25, butter--.40, flour--.02, chicken buillion granules--.05)

A tip for onion: Guess what? Picky eaters don't like big chunks of onion. When I was at my onion-chunk-hating sister's house, she gave me an onion tip. She said to grate the onion. If you do this and then cook it well (you don't want that crispy pop to it, no matter how small--picky eaters don't like that), you'll have the flavor without the texture, which is the thing so many onion haters dislike.

Another note on onion: The garnish in the above picture--it's caramelized onion--turns out I like big chunks, so while everything else cooks, I put some big onion slices in a bit of olive oil with salt and cook them slowly so they caramelize. Then I top my soup with my chunky sweet onions.

A note on meat: I used just a little for flavor. If you like more meat, go ahead and add it. Bacon is my favorite, but sausage is good as are chunks of leftover ham. My bacon was from a pig who is treated more humanely than your average pig. Why? Because we care about our pigs. Anyway, point is (you didn't think I had a point, did you?) that your meat won't cost this much if it's just from the grocery store.

A note on veggies and herbs: Seriously, just throw in what you've got. We often have this with corn thrown in. I meant to put some spinach in tonight, but forgot. Got some carrots or celery; throw it in. I bet it'd be good with rosemary or sage or thyme. Be creative, use what you have, and have fun. That's what soups are about and it's why they're so good and so cheap and so useful to the home cook.

2-4 strips bacon--this is mostly for flavor, not so much to have chunks of meat
1/2 medium onion, grated or chopped
1 clove garlic
4 C diced potatoes (I make mine pretty small)
4 C chicken stock
5 T butter
5 T flour
2 C milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp chicken buillion granules

Cook bacon in stock pot or Dutch oven. Add onion to bacon grease and cook till translucent. Add garlic and cook for a minute.

Remove bacon and place on paper towel. Add diced potatoes and chicken stock. Let cook until potatoes are tender.

In the meantime, melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour and mix well. (I use a flat whisk.). Cook for 1 minute and then add milk. Mix well with your whisk. And stir until sauce thickens (you don't have to stir constantly, but it needs to be stirred every 30 seconds or so if it's on medium or medium-kinda-low). This takes about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper or any other herbs you wish to white sauce. (P.S. If you're new to cooking or homemade soup, this is a basic white sauce.)

When potatoes are tender, add the white sauce. You can leave the potatoes in pieces or mash up some of them right there in the pot. I mashed some.

Break bacon into bits and add it. Taste soup. If it is blandish, add 1/2-1 tsp of chicken buillion granules (or whatever secret spice you have).

Garnish with caramelized onions, cheese, sour cream, or nothing at all. And then brace yourself, cause your kids might whine.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Troy's Mashed Potatoes

Troy is my brother-in-law. And many moons ago we went to their house and had steak and potatoes. Or something and potatoes. The truth is I don't remember too much except the potatoes. Because they were awesome. I later tried to get a recipe out of him. It was one of those, "Oh a little of this and a little of that" sort of things. Or in this case "a lot of this and a lot of that." 'This' and 'that' being butter and sour cream. But we'll get to that in a minute.

The best mashed potatoes are made with a red or yukon gold potato--or any variety that is moist. Oh, sure, they'll still be great with russets or some other variety, but they'll be a little grainier and we like our mashed potatoes smooth. Like butter. We seem, in fact, to think that they are in the same food group. Hmmm.

Which brings me to the fact that I must confess that I consider these sort of special occasion potatoes. Why? Because they're one of those foods that utilizes large amounts of certain ingredients that make some Americans uncomfortable. And while I admit that fresh vegetables certainly do make some Americans uncomfortable, I wasn't talking about the potatoes.

Below is my re-creation of Troy's potatoes. I think I've done pretty well, although in mashed potatoes, Troy is still king.

Troy's Mashed Potatoes

These create a delicious, but basic mashed potato. Want to mix in green onions, garnish with chives, throw on some bacon, knock yourself out.

5 lb red or yukon gold potatoes
1 C (2 sticks) butter
1 C sour cream
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Peel, chop, and boil potatoes until tender. Drain and mash. Add butter and sour cream. Try to tell yourself you're not adding that much butter and sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I'm planning to post my sister Katie's roll recipe tonight. (What's that you say, I'm a free-loading recipe stealer? Right you are, my friend, right you are. So watch your back, okay?)

PRINTABLE RECIPE