Fabulous Homemade Fries

 

Sometimes the best recipes are those that are associated with memories. This recipe is no exception. These fries make me think of my childhood best friend, Lacey. In high school, we would make these fries and eat them as fast as they would come out of the oven.  I don't make them very often because well, they're not good for you. But when I do, I always think of her and all the fun we had.

I love making these fries because they are so simple and don't require a lot of oil. All you need are a few potatoes, vegetable oil, and some salt. The best part of all....these fries are so delicious! Take a few potatoes and cut them into small strips. Put them in a bowl of water, so they do not turn brown, while the others are being cut.

While your oven is heating up, put enough oil on the bottom of a sheet pan to coat. Then pat your potato strips dry in a towel. Once your oven's hot, put the sheet pan in to warm up the oil. After about five minutes or so, carefully take the pan out, toss the potato strips in the hot oil, and place them back in the oven. I would not advise to skip this step and put the potatoes in cold oil. Trust me on this! If you do, your fries will stick to the pan and which will make it very difficult to flip them over.

Half way through the cooking process, take them out and carefully turn over the fries. Also another tip, don't walk away and forget about them! The next thing you know is your fire alarm is going off or a burning smell will be emanating from your oven.  Again, trust me on this! These fries are so good that you don't want to burn them. They should look like this when you are done.

Drain them on paper towels or a paper bag and sprinkle some salt over top. Enjoy! Okay, at this point there would be a nice plated picture of the fries with some kind of sauce. However, in one gluttonous moment, I ate them all. Yes, you read me right. I ate them all because they are that good.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go work out.


Fabulous Homemade Fries 

3 large baking potatoes
Vegetable oil
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut potatoes into small strips. Place in a bowl of water.
3. Pour enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom your sheet pan.
4. Put the sheet pan for five minutes to heat the oil.
5. Pat desired amount of potatoes dry.
6. Remove pan from oven and carefully toss the potatoes in the oil.
7. Place back in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove pan and turn over the fries.
8. Bake for 10 more minutes or until fries are light brown. Repeat process with remaining potatoes.
9. Remove fries to drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

Macaroni & Cheese - My Way

The other day, I was hungry and sat mulling over what to have for dinner. I thought, what about macaroni and cheese? I had never made it from scratch before but I knew it wasn't a complicated process. Just a basic  cheese sauce and pasta. So why not try it?

Okay, before I go on, I have a confession to make. I like macaroni and cheese but I'm not a big fan of macaroni. You may be thinking to yourself, wait a minute! Then it's not a true macaroni and cheese. Sacrilege! That's okay. Feel free to use your macaroni and I'll use my penne. Fair? Here are the ingredients I used:

I began by cooking the penne pasta until al dente, drained it and set it aside. The sauce was next and started with a roux using butter and flour. Here's an example:

Slowly, whisk in the milk. Whole milk is best but you can use a combination of milks. I used canned milk and whipping cream. Whisk in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, white pepper, dry mustard, and chili powder until smooth. After tasting the sauce, it wasn't to my liking. So I added a pinch more of this and a dash more of that. This resulted in adding more pepper and mustard and the sudden realization what was missing: garlic powder and some salt. Silly me!

I poured the sauce over the pasta, mixed together, and pour it into a baking dish. After crumbling some Ritz crackers on top, baked it in the oven. My macaroni and cheese came out looking like this:

After tasting my macaroni and cheese, I decided I could never go back to a boxed mix again. It was so good!
Here's the recipe. What do you think?

Strawberry Sorbet

It has been said when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? Well, I had a HUGE "lemon" on my hands and not sure what to do about it. It was strawberry freezer jam that did not turn out. I don't know what happened and neither does anyone I asked. Instead of a nice thick jam, there were two distinct layers. The bottom consisted of a bright, red liquid with the top layer being a mushy mass of berries. It tasted great but was not what I wanted, especially not nine jars worth. So what's a girl to do?

While reading a magazine, I became inspired by this recipe. I used a jar of my strawberry "jam", some frozen strawberries, and french vanilla yogurt. No sugar was needed because my "jam" was sweet enough.

 

These ingredients were blended together, poured into a plastic container, and placed it in the freezer. It was a little soupy, so it took longer to freeze. The result was delicious! So in the end, this sorbet was my "lemonade" to my jam fiasco. Thank goodness! For the recipe, go here.