Vegetable Spring Rolls

On the same night I served the veggie sushi, I also served vegetable spring rolls. These deliciously light rolls are perfect for a warm day! They are extremely easy to make, and it's a tasty way to get more veggies into your diet. For some added flavor, I served the spring rolls with the same peanut chili sauce I used for my crock pot meatballs in peanut chili sauce recipe. (http://thetastyspoon-gingerales-kitchen.blogspot.com/2011/04/crock-pot-meatballs-in-peanut-chili.html) Just follow the recipe without adding the meatballs.

The vegetable spring rolls were a great hit with our friends and would go great for any summer BBQ or picnic. Enjoy!

Vegetable Spring Rolls w/ Peanut Chili Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:
About 6-8 sheets of Rice paper (4″ rounds or larger)
10 leaves fresh lettuce or leafy greens
Plateful of fresh vegetables of any kind, julienne (bell peppers, carrots, red onion, zucchini, cucumbers, avocados, etc.)
Warm water

In large bowl, fill with warm water. Quickly dip each rice paper in warm water for about 2-3 seconds until soft.

Place wet rice paper on cutting board. Make sure rice paper is completely hydrated and softened before rolling.

Lay vegetables out on the edge of the rice paper closest too you. Begin to roll the rice wrapper up and around the vegetables. Be sure to keep the wrapper tight, but don‘t pull so tight that the wrapper breaks.

Serve immediately or within 2 hours. These rolls can be covered with plastic wrap and kept in the refrigerator, but the rice paper will begin to lose moisture and harden.

Rolls can be served as whole rolls, cut in half.

Serve with peanut chili dipping sauce. (See my Crock Pot Meatballs in Peanut Chili Sauce recipe.)

Veggie Sushi

I'm back! Thanks to a nasty stomach virus, I was stuck on the couch for a couple days with a sour stomach, so cooking and writing about food was the last thing on my mind! Plus, we had lots of leftover food from our baby shower we had recently, so I haven't really done much cooking lately to blog about. But now, I am in good health and ready to get back into the kitchen!

Today's blog is once again focused on sushi. This recipe is not only friendly to those with a shellfish allergy, but it is also vegetarian friendly, making it is a great dish to bring to parties. I was really surprised how easy it was to put together too. I had never made a classic sushi roll before, so I had no idea how to go about it. But after doing a little research online, I was able to master it easily. (If you've ever made a burrito or pinwheel sandwiches, you'll be able to do this no problem!) I didn't even need a fancy bamboo sushi mat. In fact, I just used a placemat from my table as a substitute. The placemat I used is made of little wooden sticks tied together, giving it the flexibility and stability of a bamboo mat, so it worked perfectly. Just remember: a big part of mastering cooking is learning how to make substitutions. Whether you're making substitutions for ingredients, or getting creative with cooking tools; substitutions will often save you a lot of time and money. And sometimes, if you're lucky, you can even stumble upon a better variation of a recipe.

So here is the recipe for veggie sushi. The vegetables I used in this recipe are totally subject to your own liking. You can use whatever fillings you'd like to make it best for you.

Veggie Sushi

Ingredients:
Sushi rice (see my Unagi Nigiri recipe)
Nori (sheets of dried seaweed)
Avocado, cut into long thin strips
Carrots, cut into long thin strips
Cucumber, cut into long thin strips
Cream cheese, cut into long thin strips

Tools you will need:
A bamboo sushi mat (or a substitute such as a flexible placemat), covered in saran wrap
A very sharp knife
A small bowl of warm water for your hands

Before you begin assembling the sushi, make sure to have all your ingredients prepared.

Lay the bamboo sushi mat on a cutting board with bamboo strips going horizontally from you. Make sure it it completely covered with saran wrap so it doesn't get food stuck in between the bamboo.

Place a sheet of nori onto the sushi mat with the rough side of the nori facing up. NOTE: If you look carefully, you will see there is a rough side and a smooth side to the nori. Always make sure the smooth side is facing out and the rough side is facing in. That way the sushi rolls will have a nice smooth finish to them.

Spread a thin layer, 3/4 to 1 cup, of sushi rice over 3/4 of the nori leaving approximately one inch of uncovered nori at the top and bottom of the sheet. Note: It helps to wet your fingers with warm water when you are patting the rice onto the nori to keep the rice from sticking to your hands.

Arrange strips of avocado, carrots, cucumber, and cream cheese lengthwise (horizontal) along the edge of the rice closest too you.

Placing your wet fingers on the ingredients, carefully bring the bottom end of the rolling mat and the plastic wrap up and over the ingredients (tucking the end of the nori to start a roll). Pull back the rolling mat and plastic wrap, as necessary, so it does not get rolled into the sushi. NOTE: Roll tightly with firm pressure.

Continue rolling the sushi and pulling back the rolling mat and plastic wrap, as necessary, until you have approximately 1 to 2 inches of the top of the nori showing. Rub a small amount of warm water on the edge of the nori and bring the nori around so that it completes the sushi roll.

Gently squeeze the rolling mat around the sushi roll until it is firm and forms an even roll (be carefully not to squeeze too hard, as you may crush the ingredients or squeezed them out).

With a sharp knife, cut the roll in half. Then cut each half in half. Then cut those in half once more. This will help make sure you get even cuts of sushi. NOTE: Be sure to rinse your knife off in between each cut. This will help prevent the rice from sticking to the knife so it doesn't pull the sushi apart.

Serve fresh with kabaraki sauce, soy sauce, or any other preferred sauce drizzled on top. (For kabaraki sauce recipe, see my Unagi Nigiri recipe.) You can also cover with saran wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to be served.

Unagi Nigiri

I grew up in a shellfish-free house. In her early 20's, my mom developed a severe shellfish allergy that put our house under lock down when it came to seafood. We could still have fish, but that was about it. There were a few special times, however, when we got to have crab or oysters. But when we did, we had to completely separate the shellfish from any other food in the house. This meaning; my mom would make her dinner first (usually a fancy steak), and then she would go to another room and eat while my dad, my brother, and myself would eat our dinner. After we were done, we had to bag up and throw out any shellfish remains, sanitize the kitchen from top to bottom, and then brush our teeth and wash our hands and faces because even an innocent kiss to my mom would cause her throat to swell shut! It was a huge production for just a little shellfish. So consequently, seafood was hardly on the menu. No clam chowder, no sushi, no seafood fettuccine, no shrimp cocktail... It was ironic that we lived in the Northwest, seafood central, and yet our seafood options at home were so limited.

Soon, shellfish became a rare and glorified treat. When we would go out to a restaurant, my brother and I would almost always order something with shellfish because it was the one time we could eat it without having to clean up and sanitize everything afterwards. We still couldn't come near our mom until we went home and washed up, but it was still less hassle than normal. My mom always felt bad about it. She wanted so desperately for us to be able to enjoy shellfish in its many delicious forms. But after growing up without it, I couldn't really miss what I never really had. So it never really bothered me. I still had it from time to time (I think I was the only kid I knew who was excited to get a small can of smoked oysters in her stocking each Christmas), but for the most part, I grew accustom to living without it.

But then I met my husband....

My husband grew up in a family of seafood nuts! I was completely weirded out one New Years Eve when I saw shrimp cocktail on their table sitting there amongst all the other foods. Other times, for dinner, they made shrimp tacos or crab cakes. When they went out for family style meals at Italian restaurants, they would order the frutti de mare. (I remember the idea of mixing shellfish into a marinara sauce seemed absolutely foreign to me, and I was honestly hesitant to try it.) Suddenly a whole new world of food options were opening up to me and I was a little intimidated by it. Even with my mom miles away, I still found myself obsessively washing my hands and face every time, trying to sanitize everything top to bottom. My husband looked at me like I had completely lost my mind. After explaining my history with shellfish--or lack thereof--he came to a sudden realization. "Have you ever had sushi?" He asked.
"Well...kind of. I had one of the little sushi samplers from the grocery store once. It wasn't very good. Otherwise, we never went out for sushi in fear of cross-contamination."
His jaw dropped. "A sushi sampler from the grocery store?! That's not real sushi! You're telling me you have never tried fresh sushi?!"
I nodded sheepishly.
"That's it!" He declared, "We're going out for real sushi!"
And so we did. I wiggled excitedly, watching all the brightly colored foods slide past me on the conveyor belt that circled the chefs in the middle of the room. Plate after plate, my husband grabbed different types of sushi for me to try, teaching me how to properly pronounce their names in Japanese. And although I was stuffed only a few plates in, I continued to cram more sushi into my full belly until I felt like I would pop. I was in love! I had no idea what I had been missing all these years. For the first time ever, I didn't worry about protecting my mom from her shellfish allergy. I was in sushi heaven! But out of all the rainbow of colors and flavor combinations, there was one type of sushi that I loved the most: unagi nigiri. The cruel irony of it all is that: there is no shellfish in unagi nigiri, so I could have been eating it all along with no worries!

Years later, after many more trips to the sushi restaurant, I finally decided to learn how to make unagi nigiri (not to mention it's one of the few sushi options I can eat while pregnant since it doesn't contain any raw fish and it has low mercury levels). For those of you who don't know what unagi nigiri is: unagi is grilled eel, and nigiri is the style of sushi that it is. Although grilled eel may sound somewhat intimidating, well prepared unagi offers a rich sweet and smoky flavor with a texture that is crisp on the outside but succulent and tender on the inside. The unagi sits on top of a small oval mound of sticky rice, all held together by a strip of nori, also known as dried seaweed. I was surprised how easy this dish was to make. And I think my husband just about imploded from the excitement of coming home to a plate full of homemade sushi, which made it all the more worth it. The only tip I have for this recipe is: make sure to invest in a good quality rice. It really makes all the difference! I have tried to make sticky rice on many occasions and have failed miserably. But after a little research, I found a brand of rice that made flawless sticky rice. The brand I used was Tamaki Gold. You can find it at most local Asian markets. I found all of my ingredients for this recipe at the Bellevue Uwajimaya. It was surprisingly inexpensive, which is always a plus.

Unagi Nigiri

Ingredients:
*Sushi Rice
Unagi (grilled eel)
Nori (dried seaweed)
*Kabaraki Sauce

*see recipes below

Cut nori into long, 1 inch wide strips and set aside.

Moisten hands and form rice into small oval mounds, about 2-3 inches long. It is important to wet your hands each time you form a new rice mound, otherwise the rice will stick to your fingers and make it really difficult to shape the rice.

Cut unagi into small strips. Microwave until warm. Place strips of warm unagi on top of rice mounds.

With a moist hand, take one rice mound with the unagi on top and wrap it once, width-wise, around the middle with a nori strip. Cut the nori strip so the ends meet on the bottom of the nori. Discard the excess nori or, if long enough, use the extra nori to wrap another rice mound. Repeat until all rice mounds with unagi on top have been wrapped once around the middle.

When finished wrapping with nori, you can microwave the unagi nigiri for an additional 30 seconds to warm everything up.

Drizzle with kabaraki sauce and serve warm.

*Sushi Rice
Ingredients:
2 cups rice
2 cups water (+ water for rinsing)
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs salt
2 Tbs rice vinegar

Rinse the rice in a bowl until the water runs clear, making sure to churn the rice with your hands as you rinse. It may take 4-6 times or rinsing before the water runs clear. Drain out all excess water and let the rice stand for about 30 minutes.

In a rice steamer, or a pot, combine 2 cups of rice with 2 cups of water. If using a rice steamer, simply turn on the steamer and let it do its work. If you don’t have a rice steamer and you are cooking the rice on the stove top, cover the rice and cook on medium-high heat for about 15 minutes or until the rice is tender. After finished cooking, remove from heat and let the rice sit covered for 10 minutes.

Combine sugar, salt, and rice vinegar in a bowl and microwave for about 20-30 seconds to help dissolve the sugar and salt. Stir the vinegar mixture until the sugar and salt have dissolved.

After the rice has sat for 10 minutes after cooking, transfer the rice into a large bowl and fluff the rice with a fork. While fluffing the rice with the fork, gradually drizzle on the vinegar mixture one tablespoon at a time.

As you continue to fluff the rice with the fork, fan the rice with a paper plate (or whatever you want to use as a fan. A piece of paper would work just fine.) to help cool the rice until brought to room temperature. This will only take a couple minutes. Fanning the rice will also help the vinegar mixture to dry on the rice, giving it a nice shine.

When brought to room temperature, cover the bowl of rice with a damp towel and place in a cool spot in your kitchen (NOT the refrigerator!) and let it sit until ready to form into Nigiri.

*Kabaraki Sauce
Ingredients:
½ cup of soy sauce
½ of mirin (I didn’t have any mirin so I substituted it with some sweet sherry. You can also substitute it with sake)
¼ cup sugar

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan. On low heat, simmer the mixture for a few minutes, or until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool before transferring to a container to be stored in the fridge. Keep refrigerated until needed.

Kid's Week: Meatloaf Cupcakes

For the last day of Kid's Week, I thought I should post my ultimate "tasty fake" recipe: meatloaf cupcakes!
This is a perfect April Fool’s joke, or even just a good prank to pull on an unsuspecting friend. I made these one night as a prank to my husband. He came home from work, asking what was for dinner. "Cupcakes!" I replied. I placed the tray of meatloaf cupcakes in front of him. He stared at them, sniffed them, and then looked at me utterly confused. "I think my sense are broken!" he said, looking at me worried. I died laughing. The meatloaf cupcakes looked just like regular cupcakes, except that they smelt like meatloaf! They turned out to be quite delicious! So if you ever want to pull a fun prank on someone and share a good laugh, try this recipe out. As a way of involving your kids in the fun, have them help you make the cupcakes so you can trick another unsuspecting family member. Not only will your kids enjoy a good shared laugh, but it makes for great bonding time in the kitchen.

Meatloaf Cupcakes

"Cupcake" ingredients:
2 pound ground pork (or beef)
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 carrot, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, minced
1/2 onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped spinach
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cupcake pan with paper cupcake liners. I suggest doubling up on the liners or use tinfoil liners if you can find them, since the meatloaf will be a bit juicy.

Set the ground pork out at room temperature to warm slightly.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook the carrot, bell pepper, onion, garlic, and spinach in the heated oil until soft; set aside to cool.

Mix together the pork, bread crumbs, eggs, 2 tablespoons ketchup, garlic salt, pepper, chili powder, and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Add the vegetable mixture and continue to mix until evenly combined.

Divide the meatloaf mixture evenly among the lined cups.

Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the middle; about 15-25 minutes or until cooked through.

"Frosting" ingredients:
3-4 cups mashed potatoes
Food coloring

Divide the mashed potatoes among three small bowls and stir a few drops of food coloring into each batch to create blue, yellow, and pink pastel frostings. Spread a generous dollop on each cupcake after the cupcakes have cooled for a few minutes out of the oven.

Serve hot.

Kid's Week: Silly Sandwiches

When it comes to making food fun, sometimes all it takes it a little creativity with the presentation. Today's recipes are just a couple twists on the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The pictures mostly speak for themselves but I will still list the ingredients.

The first recipe is a PBB&J sandwich: peanut butter, banana, and jelly sandwich. The fun about this sandwich is that it falls under the category of what I call a "tasty fake." It looks like one thing, but it's something entirely different. In this case, the sandwich looks like a hot dog! I made one for my husband's lunch one day. When he took it to work, he confused several co-workers. It took them a moment to realize it wasn't a hot dog he was eating, but in fact a PBB&J sandwich!

PBB&J Sandwich

Ingredients:
Peanut butter
Jelly
Banana
Hot dog bun

This second sandwich is one of my childhood favorites. My mom came up with this concoction in regards to the love my brother and I had for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This sandwich is known as the "Turtle Ooze" sandwich. With it's fun green color and sweet taste, it stands as homage to our beloved childhood cartoon: the Ninja Turtles! If you have a Ninja Turtle fan in your house (or if you're secretly the one who still religiously clings to your favorite Raphael or Michelangelo action figure) than this sandwich is sure to bring a smile.

Turtle Ooze Sandwich

Ingredients:
Peanut butter
Honey
Green food coloring

Kid's Week: Sunshine Mashed Potatoes

This is a recipe I have been making since I was a kid. I remember my dad sliding a chair up to the counter so I could stand up on it to help him mash the potatoes. With my dad's strong arms around me, we worked together on mashing the potatoes with the potato masher, which I remember looking sort of like a metal squiggly line. With great effort, I would push the masher down into the bowl of soft steaming potatoes, and giggle when I couldn't pull the masher back up as it sat stuck in the potatoes. My dad cupped his hands around mine and helped me pull the masher back up. What makes them "sunshine" potatoes is the addition of steamed mashed carrots. It seemed like magic watching the potatoes turn a beautiful bright orange color as my dad and I mashed the carrots and potatoes together. When they were done and ready to be served, I remember feeling such a sense of pride and accomplishment at helping to create such a beautiful and tasty dish.

Once again, this is a fun way to mix in more veggies and bring some fun color to your food. The carrots also offer a subtle sweetness to the potatoes that make them hard to resist.

Sunshine Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
4-6 Medium to Large Potatoes
2-3 Large Carrots
4Tbls. (1/2 cube) Butter
½ cup milk (or Buttermilk)
1Tbls. Chicken Bullion
1tsp. Garlic powder
1tsp. salt

Fill a large pot with water and place it on the stove top and begin heating to a boil. While water is heating, peel potatoes and wash carrots. Cut potatoes and carrots into 1 inch chunks. When water is boiling add chunks to water and continue to boil until all potatoes and carrots are soft when poked with a fork. Drain in a colander and return to the pot.

Using a potato masher (or electric beater) mash the potatoes and carrots together.

Add butter, milk, chicken bullion, and garlic powder and continue mashing. As you continue to mix and mash, add more milk as necessary to get a light fluffy texture. Salt to taste.

Serve warm.

Kid's Week: Ninja Cookies

There are two reasons why I call these cookies "ninja" cookies. 1-They work under the cover of darkness. 2-They quickly vanish without a trace! How do they work under the cover of darkness? Well, these cookies are sneaky in a sense that they actually have spinach in them! But since it is a chocolate cookie, its dark color masks any sign of green spinach. And as for vanishing without a trace, that's because they are absolutely delicious so they go fast! You wouldn't believe these cookies have spinach in them when you bite into their rich, soft, chocolaty goodness. I suppose there is one other reason why I call them "Ninja" cookies; because who would want to eat a cookie called "Chocolate Spinach Cookies?" That just sounds kinda nasty!

I have always been a fan of sneaking in veggies whenever I can. And after working with kids long enough, I learned that some parents have to really be crafty with getting their kids to eat their vegetables. So I thought: what better way to get a kid to eat their veggies than to sneak it into their sweets? Now of course, this is still a recipe for cookies so I wouldn't say it's a good substitute for veggies. But as an alternative to a regular cookie, this one can offer a little more nutritional value.

Oddly enough, I couldn't find a single recipe online for a chocolate spinach cookie. There were recipes for sneaking spinach into brownies, and even some spinach cookie recipes. But the spinach cookie recipes were for a sugar cookie base which, being a light colored cookie, made it look an awful sickly green color! When I pulled up the pictures for the spinach cookie recipes, even I didn't want to eat them. I can only imagine what a kid would say if you handed them a green blob to eat. I suppose some might have fun with it. But if given the choice between a lumpy green thing, or a soft chocolate cookie, I think most would reach for the chocolate one. At any rate, I was stuck making up my own recipe from scratch.

Awhile back, I used the recipe on the back of the Reese's peanut butter chips bag for chocolate Reese's cookies. They were to die for! So I decided to use that recipe as my foundation. However, I didn't have any Reese's peanut butter chips but I still wanted the peanut butter taste in there to help mask any spinach flavor that might try to come through. So I messed around with the measurements and ingredients until I came up with a consistency and flavor that matched just what I was aiming for. The end result: a moist, soft, chocolaty, peanut buttery, sensual cookie that beautifully hid its deep, dark, nutritional secret. I had both my family and my husband's family try the cookies to see if they could guess the secret ingredient. And after several failed attempts to guess the ingredient, they were all shocked to find out there was spinach in the cookies. Each one of them said it tasted like a normal chocolate peanut butter cookie. They had no clue there were any veggies in it. Even my little nephew, after sampling the cookie, asked if he could take the cookie home with him. Now I call that success!

So if you're looking for a slightly healthier alternative to the average cookie, or even just something to satisfy your chocolate craving, give this recipe a try.

NINJA COOKIES
(CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER SPINACH COOKIES)

Ingredients:1 1/4 c. butter
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup spinach puree
Chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Beat butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in large bowl with mixer until fluffy. Beat in spinach puree until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until fluffy and moist. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 9 minutes. (Do not over bake; cookies will be soft. They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling.) Cool slightly for a couple minutes before removing from cookie sheet to wire rack. If you try to transfer them too early, they will fall apart! Cool completely.

Kid's Week: Creamy Macaroni

This week I have decided to make it Kid's Week! Each day I will post a new recipe focusing on childhood classics, but with a few fun twists. It's my hope to show you a few creative ideas on making meals fun and nutritious, even for the pickiest of eaters. Or if anything, I hope to feed your inner child. Enjoy!

The first recipe for Kid's Week is practically a staple in most American children's diets: Mac & Cheese! Okay, I admit this recipe doesn't exactly fall under the category of nutritious, but how could I have Kid's Week without Mac & Cheese? I have always loved a good creamy Mac & Cheese, and this recipe certainly exceeds that qualification. The reason why I really like this recipe, however, is because of its simplicity. It was just about as easy as making instant Mac & Cheese, but it tasted way better, in my opinion. I mean...how can you call that orange powder cheese?! I preferred stirring in hand fulls of actual REAL cheese, watching it melt and get deliciously creamy. So if you get a chance, give this recipe a try and see how it compares.

Creamy Macaroni

Ingredients:
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta until soft. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and then add the cheese. Over low heat, continue to stir for several minutes until creamy.

Serve hot.

As you can see by the picture, I made mine with a mix of different noodles. I had several bags of pasta with just a little bit left in each so I simply combined them all. Obviously you don't have to use this recipe with macaroni noodles only, so it's completely up to you. Also, you can experiment with different types of cheeses as well. I have had Gouda mac & cheese before that was to die for! So have some fun with it and make it your own.

From French Fries to Fabulous!

I love fresh hot french fries! But what I don't love is how fast they go stale. Whenever I would go out for a burger and fries, I was usually way too stuffed after my burger to even think about starting on the french fries. So I would take them to go, thinking I could eat them later on. But I was bummed to find that, even just a couple hours later, my french fries completely lost their gusto, tasting bland and gritty no matter how I tried to reheat them. After several failed attempts to bring the life back into my french fries, I would sadly end up tossing them out. But one day, it hit me....

I was preparing breakfast one morning, cooking up a bag of pre-frozen potatoes o'brien. One of the little squares of frozen potato tumbled onto the counter and I popped it into my mouth just for a taste. With a scrunched up face, I was suddenly reminded of stale french fries. These little lackluster potatoes, when fried up with onions and peppers, were surprisingly delicious. So why not give it a try with leftover french fries?

The next time my husband and I went out to Red Robin, I was determined to save my steak fries to try out my experiment. Like usual, I took them home in their little Styrofoam coffin and placed them in the fridge for the following morning. When the time came, I cut them up into small squares, added in some diced onion and bell pepper, brought out the Fat Can for a little added bacon flavor (for those who don't know what the Fat Can is, read the previous blog entry), and set to work on frying up my own version of potatoes o'brien. The end result was shocking. My beloved french fries were revived! In their new breakfast form as potatoes o'brien, they tasted great! From that day on, I always turn my leftover french fries into breakfast the next morning. I was surprised when my husband started to save his french fries too just so we could have more potatoes o'brien the next day. Clearly the recycled recipe is a success.

French Fries O'Brien

Ingredients:
Stale french fries, cubed (steak fries are the best for this)
1/4 of an onion, diced
1/4 of a red or green bell pepper, diced
oil for cooking (or as I like to use; bacon fat)
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, saute onions and bell peppers on medium-high heat until slightly soft. Add in the french fries. Continue to cook until the french fries start to brown slightly, or until everything is evenly heated throughout. Add salt and pepper to taste and saute for a few more minutes.

Serve hot with ketchup or hot sauce.

*I like to serve mine up with a couple of 'sunny-side-up' eggs on top. When mixed together with the eggs, it tastes fantastic!

Fat Can

The Fat Can. It doesn't have the most pleasant of titles, but it is a cheap and easy way to keep oil on deck for sauteing foods, plus a great way to add in the smokey taste of bacon to whatever food you're cooking. The Fat Can is something my parents started a long time ago. It is a simple concept (though some may be grossed out by the idea) that I have found has come in handy lots of times, giving my food that extra "oomph!" The best part is; anyone with a tin can and some bacon can easily start a Fat Can. All you do is: after cooking up some bacon, rather than tossing out the leftover bacon fat that is left in the pan, pour the hot fat (while it's still liquidy) into a clean tin can.--I just used an old can from some green beans, washed it out, and pealed off the label. Simple as that!--Allow the Fat Can to sit at room temperature until the bacon fat has started to solidify. Then transfer it into the fridge to cool. That's it. Now you have a Fat Can!

The next time you go to saute some onions or mushrooms, rather than use up any cooking oil; add in a spoon full of the bacon fat and saute the onions or mushrooms in that. Not only does it work great as a substitute for cooking oil when sauteing things, but it will add a hit of delicious bacon flavor to the food as well. Whenever I am cooking up hash browns or veggies to add into a breakfast frittata, I always go for the Fat Can to add in a little of that delicious bacon taste. It's a great way to get a hint of the flavor without having to cook up any bacon on the spot.

The Fat Can can store in the fridge for months too! I have never had it go bad! And each time you cook up more bacon (whether it's a day later or a month later), you can simply pour the hot grease in with the bacon fat that is already in the can. It will cause the older bacon fat to melt and mingle with the new, so you don't have to worry about all the old stuff sitting forever on the bottom.

So there you have it! The Fat Can. Try not to be put off by it's name. Besides; in the old days before hydrogenated oils, what else do you think they used to fry things up with?....Fat! It's a great way to use up what you would otherwise have thrown out, it adds great flavor to cooked foods, and it's inexpensive.

[To the Batman theme song] Nana Nana Nana Nana FAT CAN!!!