BEST Bakers - Really. Truly.

You can use this as a side. As a main dish. Be vegetarian. Be meatatarian. Whatever. It is the beloved BAKER.

from whatscookingamerica.net

My 4-year old; however, will not eat potatoes. We have the best potato soup recipe ever, and he will not eat potatoes. He won't eat the potatoes in stew. BUT, he will eat these bakers. Because they are awesome. Skin and all.

We found these because my husband and I were having a debate as to whether you can cook the potatoes straight in the oven without wrapping them in foil, or if they needed to be foil-wrapped in the oven. We were out of foil. Thankfully I lost that debate by finding the recipe linked above.

The process takes a little more work than normal bakers, but not too bad. You scrub and poke the potatoes as usual, BUT instead of just leaving it at that and baking them, you rub them in oil and put coarse salt on them. It does not take much oil - just enough for the salt to stick - and I usually will flake a bunch of the salt off of the skin after baking. The salt and oil make all of the difference in the world. The skin becomes a part of the flavor of the meal instead of something you just discard, or feel guilty for discarding because it is supposed to be so vitamin-packed.

Here is what my oven prep looks like for this:

The potatoes will go on the top rack, but your potatoes are also covered in flaky salt and oil, which will make a mess in your oven. So, before I put my potatoes in I will take a cookie sheet, line it with foil (keeps you from having to clean up the cookie sheet - just throw away the foil when you are all done) and put it on the lower rack. Done. Then you can have easy clean up for your tasty bakers.

Of course, my kids kept telling me that I needed to take a picture of their bakers once they were loaded and ready to be eaten - and I didn't do it. But the bakers were all eaten and enjoyed. We like to put ham, chili (homemade - that's for another post), broccoli, cheese & other veggies.

Family Rating: *****
My Rating: *****
Cost: $ (Potatoes are CHEAP!)
Difficulty: Easy. Clean, Poke, Dip, Roll & Bake.

Ratatouille - Review

My oldest son had a great idea a couple of weeks ago - to EAT Ratatouille while we watched Pixar's "Ratatouille". So, I found a recipe and decided to try it out this weekend.

from allrecipes.com

That was amazingly delicious. Like, surprisingly delicious. We had never eaten eggplant before (tofu and eggplant BOTH for the first time in the same week?!), and I was a little nervous about that. The eggplant gets chopped up and you basically cook it in olive oil and garlic until it softens up. Then you put the eggplant in the bottom of a baking dish, and start layering more veggies on top. After each layer, you sprinkle grated parmesan and salt (I used kosher salt). Then you bake it. The concept isn't hard, but it is a lot of slicing. And the result was SOO good.

 First layer - eggplant, then sprinkled with parmesan and kosher salt

Finished product.


















My husband had given strange looks about eating a veggie casserole for dinner (which is what it basically is), but he was happily surprised at the result. Our consensus was that it was fantastic, but you probably want to use it as a side dish. We also learned that my oldest son may be allergic to eggplant because as he was happily scarfing it down, he stopped and said that his throat was feeling strange. Eggplant and sesame seeds. Interesting potential allergies.

I had also (of course) forgotten to chop onion and put an onion layer on it, so I sauteed some onions in a bit of vegetable oil on the stove just as the Ratatouille was finishing up in the oven. The onions, to me, were one of the key flavor ingredients so I'm glad that I did that.

Family Rating: **** (my 4-year old actually gave it a thumbs up too)
My Rating: ****
Cost: $ (depending on your price of vegetables)
Difficulty: Medium. Lots of slicing. Plan on it taking longer than the 15 minutes to prepare that it lists in the recipe to prepare the dish.

Bulgur Wheat with Dried Craisins - Review

I found some Bulgur Wheat at the store and thought it seemed like a healthy thing to try, and found this recipe to use it in. SOOOO good. Our first intro to bulgur wheat in our house and ALL of the kids ate it and wanted more. We make it when we have the Sage Pork Chops.

from allrecipes.com

We doubled the recipe, and that was a good size for our family. Again, I would highly recommend. Very easy, and very tasty.

Family Review: *****
My Review: *****
Cost: $
Difficulty: Easy

Breakfast Potatoes - Review

On my quest for a good breakfast potatoes recipe, I found this one from Our Best Bites. It was genius. I had tried to make them "from scratch" before, and been frustrated when the potatoes took forever to cook, or looked like they just absorbed oil, but were still hard. BUT, this one is a two-step process. A smart one.

from ourbestbites.com

After cutting up the potatoes, you BOIL them for five minutes to get them on the road to softened up. Then you put them in the skillet and finish what I had been trying to do unsuccessfully before. And they are very good.

Two modifications that we make: 1) We use more than four small-ish potatoes. They are good enough that we definitely eat more than that and would love to have some left over. 2) I'm not sure how anyone can endure 10 dashes of Tabasco sauce, unless they meant drops and not "small arm flicks worth". I did about five of what I would call dashes on one side, then flipped over and did two on the other side, and we were definitely feeling the heat. I can't imagine what 10 on one side and "to taste" on the other side could mean. I think about three would be perfect for our family.

We make ours in an electric skillet too. Watch the onions once you put the potatoes in. They can get a little crispy.

Other than the "heat" factor and the fact that the recipe doesn't make nearly enough - it is awesome. We've made it a couple of times and will do it whenever we have our "breakfast" nights, which is every weekish or two. So good!

Family Rating: ****
My Rating: *****
Cost: $
Difficulty: Easy. Especially since it doesn't need much babysitting. Super delicious.