Duchess Potatoes

There are a lot of meals I make that would taste good over potatoes. But making potatoes on a week night is not usually an option. Baked and mashed potatoes take too much time and even crispy roasted can take 40 minutes. After my commute, I'm not usually dreaming about cooking potatoes.  Recently, I saw on Everyday Food a recipe for portion-sized make ahead mashed potatoes. Sold!  These potatoes are slightly richer than mashed potatoes and can be used even for a big event. I just spooned my duchesses onto a pan but I bet they'd be beautiful piped onto the pan!

I froze these right away and then baked two stacks to go along with my cherry pork. It took exactly 15 minutes and they were absolutely fantastic. I did not put an egg wash on at baking and I did not miss it. I love having these on hand. The recipe makes 8 stacks but it could easily be doubled.

Duchess Potatoes
2 1/2 lbs yukon gold potatoes
salt & pepper
3 T cold unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
1/4 C heavy cream
pinch of nutmeg

1. Peel potatoes and cut into 1 inch pieces. Cover the potatoes in a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a rapid simmer and cook until tender about 15 minutes. Drain, let sit 5 minutes and return to pan.
2. Add butter and mash together with a potato masher until smooth. Season with salt
3. Add cream and stir with a spoon to combine. Add egg yolks and stir in.
4. Mound potatoes in 8 mounds on a buttered and parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. Make a well in the center of each mound for gravy with the back of a spoon
5. Freeze at least 15 minutes, then bake. Or Freeze 15 minutes until solid. Add potato mounds to a gallon-sized ziploc bag and keep in the freezer.
6. To bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees, spray a baking sheet with cookie spray. Space potato mounds on the sheet and bake 15 minutes straight from the freezer. Serve.

Pork with Cherry Sauce

I like watching Everyday Food videos with Sarah Carey whenever I can. I love meals that are 30 minutes are less but still delicious and easy to make. THIS meal is one of those things. The cherry sauce was pretty good I thought but Joey found it too sweet. The pork had a nice crispy outside which made it extra delicious. The recipe calls to be served over polenta but I chose duchess potatoes (recipe coming soon!). I thought this was a delicious meal and quick and easy. It could also impress your guests instead.

Ingredients
1lb pork tenderloin
1/4 C flour
3 T olive oil
salt & pepper
1/4 C red wine
1/4 C chicken broth
12oz frozen cherries, defrosted
2 t fresh grated ginger
2 shallots, thinly sliced
polenta or duchess potatoes for serving

Directions
1. Pound tenderloin to flatten and then cut into four equal pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Dredge pork in flour and shake off excess.
2. Heat 1 T olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook 2-3 minutes per side until cooked through. Remove pork to plate and tent with foil.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Add shallots and cook 4-5 min or until softened. Add wine & broth and cook stirring until reduced by half about 3 minutes.
4. Add cherries and ginger and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Smash some cherries with the back of a spoon and leave others whole.
5. Add pork and juices back into the pan and cook about 2 minutes until everything blends together. Server pork and sauce over polenta or potatoes

Warm Brussel Sprout and Chickpea Salad

I went to a wedding last weekend and discovered that I really like brussel sprouts. Then, I went to my favorite grocery store and found they were selling brussel sprout totes which I think are awesome. If you aren't familiar, a vegetable tote is a pre-determined amount of one type of vegetable housed in a handy clear tote bag! Sounds lame? Well it's not! It's cute and it comes in it's own bag and you don't have to weigh it!

I saw this salad on Beantown Baker and revised it just a tad but it was fantastic! If you are a vegetarian or you can't eat nuts you could omit both of those ingredients and this would still be delicious. If you had any shallots or garlic it may be a nice addition.

I used the food processor to shred the brussel sprouts and what a time saver that is! You could also use the food processor for the shallots if you used them and the mushrooms.  Don't have a food processor? Fine, cut it by hand but don't skip the recipe just because you have to do some cutting.

Warm Brussel Sprout Salad
Ingredients
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed, divided
1 t olive oil
salt
cayenne pepper
3 T butter
1lb brussel sprouts, sliced or shredded (food processor!)
8oz white mushrooms, washed and sliced (food processor!)
1/4 C pecans, chopped
1/2 tsp nutmeg
freshly ground pepper
1/2 C cooked ham or 4 slices bacon cooked and crumbled

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Drain and dry one can of chickpeas. Place on a sheet pan and roast for 15 minutes in the oven. Toss in 1 tsp olive oil, salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. Roast for an additional 15 minutes. Then turn off the open, open it up a crack and let the pan sit until you need them
3. Using your food processor, shred the brussel sprouts and slice the mushrooms
4. In a large skillet or small dutch oven, heat 2 T butter over medium heat.
5. When butter is melted, add mushrooms. Cook 5 minutes stirring occasionally
6. Add sprouts and a dash of salt and cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring. Don't worry, the sprouts will shrink.
7. Add the pecans, ham, nutmeg, raw chickpeas, and more salt and pepper to taste
8. Cook 3-4 minutes until ingredients are melded. Toss in roasted chickpeas to individual servings so they don't get soggy and serve warm.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Twice-Baked potatoes are one of those foods that sound delicious and comforting but also seem to be a lot of work. People only seem to make them for holidays!  We decided to change all people's ever traditions and make them on a regular Saturday night!  These potatoes weren't actually as hard as expected. So maybe the reason people save them for holidays is actually because they aren't very healthy! The only snags we had were keeping the potato shells together, but nothing a little edge of the pan couldn't help with!

If you are interested in wowing your friends and family with a fun side then you should make these twice baked potatoes!

My father in law raved about these potatoes and said they wer one of the best he'd had in years. Why were these particular potatoes so good? We think it has to do with the 5-year aged sharp cheddar we used which helped make the potatoes not just cheesy but instead cheesy and flavorful.  So when you make these, use at least in part a really sharp cheddar.

This recipe serves 4 with a large half of cheesy yummy goodness. If you are serving to kids or other people with smaller appetites, you could easily have them share a single half.

Original Recipe, quartered.

Ingredients
2 large baking potatoes, scrubbed and dried
4 T butter, cut into pats
6 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated, separated
1/4 C light sour cream
1/2 t salt
black pepper to taste
1/4 C crispy bacon bits
1 green onion, sliced
1 T canola oil + more salt, preferably kosher
1/8 C milk (you may not need this)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Rub the cleaned potatoes with oil and salt and poke all over with a fork. Place potatoes directly on the oven rack with a tray on the next shelf to catch drippings. Bake for 1 hour or slightly longer until potato is soft inside and outside is crispy.
3. Let sit until they are cool enough to handle.
4. Meanwhile, add butter, sour cream and bacon to a bowl.  Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out potato pulp leaving a small rim for stability. Add potato to the bowl.  Smash together with a potato masher or a fork.
5. Add 1/4 C cheese, green onions, salt & pepper and stir together. If your mixture is too stiff add up to 1/8 C milk
6. Scoop potato insides back into the potato shells and top with cheese
7. Place potatoes on a baking sheet and return to the oven. Bake 15-20 minutes until warmed through and cheese is melted. Serve warm.

Sauteed Chicken Sausage and Apples

I bet I have 15 different similar recipes on this blog of sauteed chicken sausage & apples because it is one of the fastest and most satisfying recipes in my repertoire and it is never exactly the same.  Today we took a field trip to Trader Joe's - a store we don't love as much as everyone else.  After browsing the rather crowded store (that they were stocking at the worst possible time!) we were still at a loss for dinner. I grabbed some sweet chicken & apple sausages and an apple and called it a day.

Ingredients
2 apple chicken sausages, sliced into coins
1 large apple, thinly sliced (the thinner you slice them the less time it takes)
1/8 t cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 T olive oil
1/4 C apple cider

Directions
1. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sausages and brown 2-3 minutes per side. Remove to plate.
2. Toss apples with cinnamon and nutmeg and add to the hot pan. Pour over cider (it may pop and splatter!)
3. Cook apples 10 minutes or until soft. Add sausage back in and toss together. Serve with bread on the side.

Fastest Pumpkin Soup

Joey & I made his famous pumpkin cranberry scones again last weekend and we were again left with half a can of pumpkin.  What do you even do with leftover pumpkin? You certainly don't eat it by the spoonful, yuck!  So I searched the web and stumbled upon this list of 50 things to do with canned pumpkin on the Food Network!

Pumpkin soup seemed like a good idea, so I gave it my own twist and now I have soup for lunch and it took 5-10 minutes tops!

Ingredients:
1 generous C canned pumpkin
3/4 C chicken broth
1/4 C apple cider + extra if needed
1/4 C cream
1/8 t cinnamon
1/8 t ginger
1/8 t nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
dash of salt

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a small pot and whisk on the medium-high heat for 5 minutes.
2. Let simmer 10 minutes
3. Serve.

Roasted Rack of Pork

At Sprouts on Saturday, I was intrigued by French cut rack of pork! I've never cooked French cut of anything but this seemed like the time to try it!  This roast was only $5 and was obviously enough for two so I bought it.  Roasting this was a breeze just like roasting always is and the result looks fancy, good for a crowd with a larger roast of course!

I didn't use fresh herbs because I didn't have them but I think that a nice herb-garlic paste would be delicious on this. Think chimichurri with rosemary, sage and oregano.  Next time that's what I'll do. This time I put some dried herbs and garlic on it and the flavor was nice but the stabs of rosemary into my gums was not.

I served this with roasted black grapes and asparagus. A new flavor profile? Maybe so.  Also this is a 5-ingredient recipe.

Ingredients
1 2-lb rack of pork
1 clove garlic
1 onion
salt, pepper and herbs of your choice

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Meanwhile cut some slits into the fat of the pork and push in slices of garlic
3. Try making a paste of herbs with garlic and salt. Salt and pepper the roast and then spread with your paste.
4. Roast 1 1/2 hours or until roast reaches 160
5. Let sit 5 minutes

Roasted Grapes & Asparagus:
1. Toss asparagus and a scant bit of olive oil and salt. Lay flat in a small pan
2. Slice grapes in half, or don't.
3. Place grapes & asparagus in the oven for 15-20 minutes