Creamy Rosemary Potatoes

I just love potatoes!  It does not seem to matter what way they are made... I love them all!  But these are the BEST that I have ever had.  We served this with the Roasted Beef Tenderloin the other day and my knees went weak when I had my first bite!

As you can see there are quite a few ingredients for these potatoes... but trust me, everyone is very important and will make this dish fantastic.  Everything is fresh... rosemary, Parmesan cheese, bacon, etc... there are no pre-packaged, pre-cooked ingredients here... just makes it that much better.  During the preparation, I enlisted the help of my daughter to pluck the rosemary from the stem... you can see here working diligently... good girl!

Chop up some onions and saute them in butter... yum!  Then the fun begins... add the cream cheese and watch it melt!

While the cream cheese is melting over low hear, I had to slice up my potatoes.  I picked up a mandolin for this task.  One thing is very clear to me when you are using a mandolin... it's okay to leave a little when you get to the end... better to waste a little potato than added some finger tips to the meal. (ouch!)

Layer the potatoes, add the creamy sauce (with a little rosemary, heavy cream, and some other ingredients) and top with Parmesan cheese.  When it comes out of the oven, garnish with some fresh copped chives and look at what you have!

Now you are going to have to trust me on this, but these were the best potatoes I have ever had... if I was on Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate... Potatoes" I would talk about this dish!  We also had Roasted Beef Tenderloin for this meal!  Check out that posting for the final plated meal!  Next up is Potato Leek Pizza.  Looking forward to "eating" with you soon!

Mark

Baked Baked Potatoes (Twice!)

Twice baked potatoes are basically the best of two worlds.  You get the baked potato loaded with all the toppings as well as mashed potatoes all mixed into one!   I used just four potatoes for this recipe because only two of use are going to be eating this and when you cut them in half it makes eight servings.

First you bake the potatoes in the oven for a little bit while you start the prep for the filling.  A little butter, bacon bits (fresh), cream cheese, and some seasonings.  Put them all in a bowl and let them soften while the potatoes bake... have you ever tried to mix butter and cream cheese together when they are fresh out of the refrigerator?  Trust me, let it get to room temperature and then mix, your forearms will thank you.

Once all the potatoes are out of the oven, cut them in half and then scoop out (very carefully) the "guts" of the potato.  I recommend holding the potato with a towel, those puppies are hot!  Put the potato guts in the bowl with the butter and cream cheese and mix it all together.  If you do get the ingredients from the fridge, let the hot potato innards soften them up a little before you mix and it will be a bit easier.

Once you have all the filling mixed together, then start "re-stuffing" the potato skins.  I found it easiest to put a spoonful in each one and the repeat until I had an equal amount in each skin.  This way your first one is not overstuffed and your last one is "skinny".  Make sure you form them back together into a potato shape... sometimes the skins are a little flimsy, but the filling will help shape it back into the familiar shape of a potato.

Top with a generous helping of cheese and get ready to put them back in the oven.  I was going to add green onions on the top, but realized that I forgot to buy them... oh well... it would have looked better with the green garnish on the top, but I guess it will still taste pretty good.

Again my excitement got the best of me and we started eating these before I took a final picture... by the time I realized it we had eaten them all!  Sometimes I just can't help myself!  Next up is Creamy Rosemary Potatoes and Roasted Beef Tenderloin!  Looking forward to "eating" with you soon!

Mark

Mini-Muffins... less calories cause they are small!

Mini Marmalade Muffins... say that five times fast!  These little muffins make my mouth water, so it really is hard to say that fast!  I have assembled all the ingredients and am ready to go!  I even get to use my (really my wife's) Kitchen Aid mixer for this recipe.

Years ago my wife bought the mini muffin pan you see above.  I actually laughed at her when she bought it... I thought that no one would ever want to eat "mini" muffins.  How ironic that I am now using it to create my own mini muffins.

I needed to "zest" an orange to put in this recipe.  I had no idea how to do this so I was off to the Internet once again on how to do something in the kitchen.  A little scientific note here, the zest is created by separating the flavedo (skin) skin from the pith (white part) of the skin of the fruit.  (My head hurts now).  I had no idea what the "zester" was in the drawer (thanks Tina for showing me).  It was pretty fun to do... shaving an orange bald! 

After I got the zest off, I assembled all the other ingredients and made up the batter.  Then I had to scoop the batter into the muffin pan.  What a pain!  I think the mini muffins are even more ridiculous because you have twice as much work for the same amount of muffins!

Off to the oven my pretties *cackle* *cackle*!

While the muffins were baking, I assembled the glaze to go on top of the muffins... glaze is supposed to use the juice from the oranges I had to zest earlier.  Well, the draw back to that I found out was the fact that it is really hard to juice an orange that has been zested.  The reason is that there is not enough skin left on the orange to keep it from falling apart.  Next time I will juice the orange and then zest the remaining peel... I hope that works better!

After the muffins came out of the oven, the orange smell coming from them was wonderful... just add a little of the glaze over the muffins and left it soak in while they are still warm.  Plate them up and get ready to chow down!  Since they are mini, I think four is an appropriate serving.  If you disagree... it's too late, I already ate them!

Up next are twice baked potatoes!  Looking forward to "eating" with you again!

Mark

Clam up and eat it!

I know my titles have gotten pretty bad... but you are reading it right!  So this next meal was a real stretch for me.  I am not a fan of things that swim or crawl on the beach, but it is in the book so I have to make it.  Linguine with Clam sauce... CLAMS!  Luckily, my wife found the clams I needed that were already in a can.  All I had to do was make the noodles and sauce.

The sauce was pretty simple to make... sauteed garlic, heavy cream, white wine, and some fresh herbs.  Just add the chopped clams (from the can) and let the sauce reduce.

Once the sauce is ready, we put the noodles in a bowl and then add the sauce.  I toss the noodles in the sauce and the get ready to plate the meal.

Put the noodles on the plate, squeeze a little lemon juice over the dish and garnish with a slice of lemon.  It was better than I expected, but to me I would rather have an Alfredo sauce.

Up next are Marmalade Muffins... the mini type!  Looking forward to "eating" with you soon!

Mark

Scone-y Island...

Ok... so that is a really corny title... but what else was I going to post to get your attention?  So my next recipe is for Maple Pecan Scones.  Yum yum!  I just love getting the orange scones from Panera, so I was really looking forward to making these.

I had to use my pastry cutter to make the dough... I just love having the opportunity to use one of my new gadgets!  After the dough was all mixed together (which takes a long time by the way!), I had to form it into the scone shape.  You do this by making a round 1/2" thick "disc" of dough on the counter top.

After you get it all assembled in the middle and flattened out to the thickness you want for your scone, you slice it up into equal portions.  I cut mine up in a pizza pie style, but in hindsight, I should have made them more of a rectangle or diamond shape... the points of the "pie" slices were very fragile and fell apart easily.

Here we have my first one on the cookie sheet getting ready to bake... the smell of these baking is heavenly!  I ended up having to bake them on two separate cookie sheets.  I rotated them from the top shelf to the bottom shelf halfway through to make sure that they cooked evenly.  I really wish someone would invent an oven that baked the same no matter where you placed the item in the oven... would reduce the chances of burning something and I could use all the help I can get!

So the recipe called for maple frosting... so I made it and drizzled it all over the scones!  They turned out great!

Remember how I said that I love the ORANGE scones from Panera?  Well, I could not help myself.  I got out some orange flavoring (instead of the maple flavoring) and some food coloring and made a few orange just for me.

It actually turned out that these were the favorite from the family.  Next time I make them, they will all be orange!

Next up is Linguine with Clam sauce.  Look forward to "eating" with you soon!

Mark