Chips and Chips

I was craving deep fry insanely bad on the weekend so we did up some potatoes. Whenever we make home made french fries or chips, I'm always amazed at how much food comes from one potato. I'm also amazed at how many potatoes I can eat after they've been deep fried.

Using 5 potatoes, we made 3 into fries and 2 into chips. I used the fancy ripple blade on my food processor to make the chips, the fries we cut up by hand.

Fancy ripple blade

We soaked the ripple sliced potatoes in water and then spun them a few times in the salad spinner to get the excess water off. We patted them dry with paper towels to make sure they were really dry.

Then we deep fried them.

 Salted and full of crunch.

Next we chopped up french fries and got them frying too.

They were really, really good.

In My Pie Making Years...

I am really into pie right now and have been thinking about all the different varieties there are. Fruit,
custard, pudding, sugar... I am really excited about all the options and all the different pies I am soon to make.

For pi Day, my friend Tasha made a lemon meringue pie, which reminded me that I love lemon meringue pie. I've made it before from a box mix, but I tried the real deal this time. There are a few steps to this pie, but mostly it is pretty easy to make. I didn't take any photos of preparing the lemon filling, but check out Tasha's post about this pie, as she has some great step by step photos.

I used my Mom's Lemon Meringue pie recipe, which is pretty similar to the one found here.

The meringue and the lemon about to become good friends

Together as one!

Baked and browned

Pie!!!

Breakfast for Dinner #FoodPicFriday

We bought a 4 inch egg pan a few months ago and I recently learned that it makes fantastic pancakes. You have to make them one at a time, but it's worth it, as they turn out big, round, and perfect. MMmmmm... The first night I made them, I ate a helping of them before the rest of dinner was ready. Just couldn't wait. This second attempt, I kept my appetite in check and had them with bacon, eggs, and toast. Big breakfast of champions. Our house pancake bonus: John doesn't like them as much as I do, so I get any leftovers for next day lunch. Win!

Quick Soup

Back in December I made some turkey soup stock and froze it for future use.

The stock was frozen in 2-cup portions, so I pulled a couple of them out of the freezer and made myself some soup. I brought the stock to a boil and added what I had on hand: carrots, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, corn, peas, leftover rice, and some spices. It turned out to be a very hearty and yummy soup. The best part was it made enough for three lunches.

What do you like to do with vegetable/chicken/turkey stock? We were thinking of making it the base of our next stew. What do you think?

Everything is a Photo Opportunity #26

Our friends, Brendan and Colleen, are doing a really amazing art project to decorate one of the rooms in their house. They are painting cats. All kinds. And lots of them. And they are getting willing participants to paint cats too. A few of us went over last weekend for 'cat painting night' and it was so much fun. I love adult creative play, and it made me so happy that we got together to make some art. We got really into it, too, and there were moments when the six of us were painting in silence, as we were all so focused on our cats. It was a pretty awesome way to spend a Saturday night.

At last count B and C had 54 cat paintings on the wall they are trying to fill. I'm not sure what number they want to get to, but I am really looking forward to painting another cat if they need it.

Below is the cat I painted on Saturday. I called him 'Hipster Cat' as he has a cool scarf and a neat hat. And hipster glasses, obviously.