Old Fashioned Potato Salad

Old Fashioned Potato Salad on the table is a sure sign we are in full summer mode! The creamy texture is livened up with the crunch of sweet pickles and the buttery richness of hard boiled eggs that will have you coming back for more again and again. This potato salad recipe is completely satisfying all on its own, but it goes great with any kind of barbecue you put it up against!

Skillet Breakfast Potatoes

Whether you call them home fries, hash browns, or Skillet Breakfast Potatoes, crispy potatoes are an essential side dish in a hearty country-style breakfast. A classic at any neighborhood diner, perfectly cooked breakfast potatoes have crispy edges and a soft middle with onions, garlic, & bacon adding to the amazing taste experience!

Ore-Ida Pesto Chicken and Potato Patties

posted by Marion@Life Tastes Good on 2013-10-28

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh....wanna hear a secret? Ore-Ida Pesto Chicken and Potato Patties makes a quick, satisfying meal! Your fam will think you worked way harder to get these on the table, but we'll just keep that between us! Go ahead, let them stand in awe of your amazing abilities! Who knows, maybe they'll pamper you with foot massages and let you control the remote and fight over who gets to do the dishes!! Okay, so that's not gonna happen in my house either, but why not take a happy break and dream a little :)

I have another secret... I've actually NEVER used frozen hash browns before, so I had no idea what to expect with this product. Don was not looking forward to it either, but guess what he took for lunch today? Yessireeee! He took leftovers! He got creative and made them into a sandwich! He's so clever...sometimes. I will definitely be making these again!

Easy Foil Packet Fish Recipe

posted by Marion@Life Tastes Good on 2013-10-05

Tilapia with Pesto Potatoes and Peas bakes quickly in this easy foil packet recipe! This recipe is so easy you can have this on the table in under 30 minutes from start to finish!! It is so fast it will make heads spin and your family will be in awe of you!! Okay, so they probably won't even notice, but you can feel good about how fast and easy it is to put a flavorful and healthy meal on the table!

This one ranks high in my book for favorite fish recipes!! And that is saying a lot as I'm not a huge fan of fish, so I go for the very mild tasting tilapia nearly every time. I know what you're thinking... but you live in FL and you're a foodie - how can you NOT like fish?  I don't understand it either, but I can tell you it is NOT for lack of trying!! That being said you don't have to stick to tilapia for this recipe! Go ahead and make this with salmon but be sure to add a couple minutes to the cook time as needed.

Ingredients

• Cooking Spray
• 4 Yukon Gold Potatoes, cleaned
• 6 teaspoons Homemade Basil Pesto
• 4 Tilapia filets
• Frozen peas
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. and heat a saucepan of water to boiling. Enough water to cover potatoes. You can do this on a grill as well! It's a great recipe for camping!
2. Slice the ends off of the potatoes and use your Food Processor to slice the potatoes. If you don't have a food processor, just go ahead and slice them thinly.
3. Salt the boiling water and blanch sliced potatoes for about 4 minutes. While potatoes are blanching, prepare 4 pieces of aluminum foil by spraying with cooking spray. Make sure the foil pieces are about 16" long.
4. Drain potatoes and run under cold water. Divide the potatoes evenly on the foil pieces fanning them out in the middle of the foil (see pictures below).
5. Top potatoes with 1.5 teaspoons of Homemade Basil Pesto each.
6. Season your fish with salt and pepper and divide evenly on top of potatoes. Top with a handful of frozen peas.
7. Bring the 2 cut sides of the foil together over the center of the fish and fold down 2 or 3 times. Fold in each side 2 or 3 times until you have a nice foil packet.
8. Place foil packets on a baking tray and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Carefully open the packets and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Boneless Pork Loin Chops with Raspberry Sauce

 allrecipes.com Pork Chops with Raspberry Sauce

I love pork - it is no secret!  Of course it has to be cooked properly. Many folks are afraid of pork and tend to overcook it. After all, most of the meat thermometers advise you to cook pork to 160 degrees. Please don't ever do that! Those are old standards and it overcooks the pork to a dry, tough, tasteless, nasty something you don't want to eat (which is probably why many don't care for pork)! Pork should be removed from the oven between 140-145 degrees and let rest for about 10 mins. I like to remove it closer to 140 degrees.

This is a quick and easy meal you can make any night of the week, yet it is so delicious and impressive it is good enough for company! It is one of my faves!

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4 (4 ounce) boneless pork loin chops
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine crushed thyme, sage, salt, and pepper. Rub evenly over pork chops.

Melt butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook pork chops for 4 minutes on each side. Remove from skillet and keep warm in preheated oven.

In the skillet, combine raspberry jam, orange juice, and vinegar. Bring to a boil, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until sauce is reduced to desired consistency (sauce will thicken as it cools). Spoon sauce in a pool onto a serving plate, and top with pork chops.

This pairs perfectly with Garlic Spinach and Mashed Potatoes

NOTE:  If you aren't a fan of the tang vinegar offers, I advise to  add 1 tablespoon of the white wine vinegar and then reduce the sauce to desired consistency. Then give it a taste to see how that works for you. Add more as desired. Personally, I use the full 2 tablespoons - it is just right for my tastes.

TIP:  When I make this for company I always double the sauce. I double everything in the sauce except the vinegar. I do add more before serving if I feel it needs it.

Sauteed Garlic Spinach on Mashed Potatoes

Sauteed Garlic Spinach on Mashed Potatoes was a happy accident! One night while cooking dinner, I was planning to pop some frozen veges into the microwave until I went to the freezer and couldn't find my veges!!


OH NO what to do?! I couldn't just serve the meat and potatoes without a vege! That wouldn't be right! Right?

I had to think fast - pretty much everything was ready to go! Then the light bulb went off - I had a bag of spinach! But how will it pair with mashed potatoes? That just sounded weird to me, but whatever, I was desperate. No time to get picky now!

French Dip Sandwiches and Baked French Fries

This is a simple dish I've been making for years.  It is a family favorite!

You'll want to make the french fries first.  I always use Yukon Gold potatoes - I just really like them.  I also bake my french fries.  It is so much better for you, and we have come to enjoy our non-oily fries over the years. 

You can watch a how to video of my recipe on allrecipes.com just click here - Best Baked French Fries video

I use about 1.5-2 potatoes per person.  Slice the potatoes lengthwise into about 4 slices. Then slice each individual slice lengthwise again into 4 strips.  These are the size of steak fries.  You can see from the picture about the size I make them. When all the potatoes are in strips, place them in a container or a Ziploc baggie. Add about a tablespoon of sugar - seal and let sit for about 30 mins to an hour.  This will release the water in the potatoes and make them a little more crunchy than you normally expect from a baked french fry.

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.  Drain potatoes and pat dry. Line a baking sheet with foil (double line for easier clean-up). Spray with cooking spray.  Toss those potato strips on the foil. Salt and pepper generously, and I like to add some garlic powder too.  Now you'll want to drizzle them with olive oil and toss them around a bit to make sure each wedge is coated with oil.  The amount of oil will depend on how many potatoes you are making, but start with a tablespoon and add more as needed.  Don't worry if it seems like you oiled them too much, you can drain them on a paper towel after they are cooked.  It is also important to make sure they are in a single layer with space between each fry.

Place the baking tray in the oven and bake for 30 mins. Remove from oven and flip the potatoes - I like to turn each individual one over - it really doesn't take a whole lot of time and results in a crispier fry, but if you don't feel like doing that - just move them around a bit and try to get as many of them flipped over as you can (keeping them in a single layer with space between each fry).  Bake them for 10 more minutes and remove from the oven. Drain on paper toweling if needed.

You can start the sandwiches after you put the fries back in the oven for the last 10 minutes of cooking time.  You'll need 1lb rare roast beef, 1 can french onion soup, water, 4 onion kaiser rolls, 4 slices swiss, provolone, or whatever cheese you prefer.  

Heat the french onion soup in a sauce pan with 1/2 a can of water. Add the roast beef and heat through. Meanwhile toast the rolls in the oven. When toasted top with roast beef and a spoonful of the soup. Add cheese on top of the meat and melt in the oven.  Serve with extra juice and french fries.

Breakfast for Dinner? Yes, please!

This isn't just for dinner, of course, but it does work in a pinch! One day last week, I had not been to the grocery so the cupboards were bare!  After having a very busy day, all I really wanted to do was relax. I certainly didn't want to leave the house and go to a restaurant for dinner! So, what to do?  Make breakfast, of course!  

Don LOVES a good breakfast with eggs, potatoes, bacon, and toast, so I knew he wouldn't be disappointed!  I always start the potatoes first, as they take a little time to get soft the way the hubs likes 'em.  I gathered what I needed...

Eggs, potatoes, onions, garlic, bacon, cream cheese, salt, and pepper

and got to work!  I always like to have everything right on hand - especially when making something like this that moves along quickly.  First I cubed the potatoes. I used Yukon Gold potatoes - they are my absolute favorite potato! ...and what I happened to have on hand. I recommend cubing 1.5 to 2 potatoes per person.  For some reason I used 3 here - I guess I thought the hubs was going to be extra hungry!

Then I diced up 1/2 of an onion - that looked good for the amount of potatoes I was making. I also minced up 2 garlic cloves - I LOVE garlic! I heated a skillet on medium-high heat and placed a thick slice of bacon in the pan to render the fat.  

Once my bacon was cooked on both sides, and I had a good amount of fat in the pan, I added the potatoes. It is critical you DON'T move the potatoes for 3 minutes!

  If you move them around right away you are going to leave a lot of potato in the pan, and they won't have that nice crispy stuff on the outside.. I learned that the hard way!  So leave them alone for 3 full minutes!  To busy your hands you can sit on them, or make them useful and pull that bacon out of the pan and chop it up.  You can also crack the eggs into the non-stick pan you will use to cook them so they will be ready to go - do something! Just don't touch those potatoes!  Did I get my point across? Great!  Now that 3 minutes is almost up, go ahead and salt and pepper them to your liking. I used about 1/2 teaspoon salt for this amount of potatoes.  I normally would used fresh cracked pepper, but I was fresh out (GASP!), so I used ground pepper - it worked!

Now that the 3 minutes is up you get to stir those potatoes!  I know it's been driving you crazy to just let them sit in the pan without stirring them, so go ahead and knock yourself out. Stir those beautiful potatoes and see how wonderfully crispy they are!  HINT - if you go to stir them and they are sticking to the pan - your heat is too low! Turn it up and let them sit another minute or so. They will release when they are ready to be stirred!  How's that for smart food - it tells you when it's ready (sort of).

Now you get to add the chopped bacon, onions and the garlic. Stir them for about a minute or two.  Then turn the heat down to mid-low and let those potatoes cook until they are as soft as you like 'em.  You'll be busy making the eggs, but you'll want to stir the potatoes occasionally during this time.

Now that the potatoes are going nicely, you can start on your scrambled eggs.  For the eggs I start with a cold, dry sauce pan. I use a non-stick pan for scrambled eggs to make clean-up a snap. Eggs really like to stick to my stainless steel pans, and I really DON'T like cleaning them up, so I purchased a chemically safe, non-stick pan just for making scrambled eggs!  Go ahead and crack your eggs in the cold, dry pan. I also add a tablespoon of butter for every 3 eggs I use. I made 6 eggs this night, so I used 2 tablespoons of butter. DO NOT ADD SALT YET!!  Eggs are one of the few things you want to salt AFTER they are cooked

Now that you have your eggs and butter in the pan, go ahead and turn on the heat to mid-high.  Start whisking your eggs - every once in a while check on your potatoes and give them a stir.  

Keep whisking your eggs... and stirring your potatoes

When your eggs start to thicken, you want to take them off the heat for 20-30 seconds and keep whisking while utilizing the heat in the pan.  Then go ahead and put them back on the heat - all the while keep whisking.  You will move them on and off the heat until they are fully cooked. Removing them from the heat every so often will help keep you from overcooking the eggs - no one likes to eat rubbery eggs - yuck!  Once your eggs are sufficiently cooked...

Pop your toast in the toaster, and remove the eggs from the heat. Add in 1 ounce of cream cheese. Stir that around to incorporate and then salt and pepper your eggs to your liking.  I sometimes like to add fresh chopped basil too, but on this night I made a Chimichurri Sauce (see recipe below - you can make up ahead of time)  Go ahead and plate up the eggs and potatoes with the toast and add some chimichurri sauce either on the side or, go ahead and be bold, and put it right on the eggs! Yummmmmm

I opted to eat just eggs and toast with the chimichurri sauce, so here is a pic of my plate

Chimichurri Sauce

1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro

2 garlic cloves, peeled

3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

Puree all ingredients in a blender or a food processor. Transfer to a bowl, cover and let sit at room temperature until ready to use. You can make this up a couple hours before if you like.