Hasselback potatoes

I hardly ever make potatoes but occasionally a recipe will catch my eye and I'll try it out. This was a joint effort of Scott and myself:

3 whole russets, washed with peels on

3 cloves of garlic

2-3 tbs butter or margarine

salt and pepper

olive oil for drizzling

Slice the potatoes most of the way through (leave about a 1/4 inch of whole potato on the bottom) into ~3mm slices width-wise. Slice your garlic thinly and tuck it in between your potato sections. Shmear with butter (if it is stick butter break it up and put it in between slices like the garlic). Drizzle with olive oil. Bake in a 425 degree oven for about an hour until they are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Very unhealthy, very awesome. It should look like the picture at the top.

St. Patrick's Day

For Saint Patrick's Day breakfast we had Lucky Charms, of course. A venerable Irish tradition if there ever was one.

And let's be honest, the dinner I'm cooking now is just barely more Irish than that. But we're barely more Irish than this dinner anyway, if I remember right, so this seems about right:

roasted potatoes with garlic, rosemary, and oregano
Glynne's cabbage salad recipe, minus the daikon because I forgot to buy it
southwest-y falafel with Irish cheddar on top

So that's my tribute to St. Pat.

May the road rise up to meet you and the wind be always at your back. :)

New Foods! Yay! At Long Last!

Okay, most of these new foods are from Target, but I can't help it if they make interesting food.

1. Basil noodles (I think it was linguine) from Target--these were pretty fun. They definitely taste basil-y, and they're also a nice green. I think we had them with a mediterranean stew, which was nice. I think they'd be good with all sorts of Italian sauces.

2. Chili noodles from Target--I used these with a peanut sauce, which was probably not ideal but it went fine. These have some heat but not a ton of flavor. They're interesting but I'm not sure what to really use them with.

3. Archer Farms Roasted Tomato and Chipotle salsa--I like this a lot. It might be my new favorite salsa, sweet and not-too-spicy with a nice roasted flavor. And I'm partial to smaller salsa chunks rather than big, so these are a good size for me.

4. Archer Farms Traditional Picante Style salsa--also a good one, mild with a good flavor. Who'd have thought that out of all the fancy brands I've tried I'd settle on plain old Target salsa?

5. Denmark's Finest havarti (finally something not from Target)--our store has plain (nice and rich), caraway, and jalapeno. Plus I think they make the dill flavor I tried a while back, which was nice but a little too dill-y for me. I was worried the caraway would be overpowering but it was really nice, and a totally new flavor with cheese for me. The jalapeno is Denmark's answer to pepper jack, I guess, and I think I actually prefer it to pepper jack. It's got a nice kick to it which blends nicely with the richness of the havarti. I highly recommend both the jalapeno and the caraway.