Irresistible Potatoes

Irresistible Potatoes

Smaller, younger, baby potatoes can be just a tasty as more mature potatoes.  These ones come out with buttery soft insides, and a roasted, slightly crisp and delicious crust.

In my opinion, you won't need to eat as much of these to be satisfied as you would when eating a baked potato or pile of fries, and that's the key, right?

Irresistible Potatoes

per person...

2 small white or yellow skinned potatoes
1 tsp chicken fat or clarified butter*
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Peel the potatoes.  If you have some sort of metal skewers, either actual potato nails or just some simple metal skewers for bbq or kebabs, skewer the potatoes, lengthwise.  I couldn't find my nails, so I actually used some nutpicks (who uses those?)

Potato Nails

Using a sharp knife, slice down toward the skewer.  You slice crosswise through the potato.  Slice down until you hit the nail.  Leave the nails in for faster cooking.

Still Skewered Potato

Place each potato, cut side up, in a shallow cooking pan with a lip.  I use pie plates, which have smaller bottoms and collect the fat so I don't have to use as much.  Salt each potato and top each one with a dollop of fat or butter. When cooking, the fat will melt and pool in the pan, and a nice crust should form on the bottoms.  Good stuff.

crusty bottoms

Place in the oven and cook for 30-45 minutes (longer times without the metal skewers).  The potatoes are done when the slices can be easily separated when touched or when the bases can be pierced with a fork.

Remove the skewers before serving, because talk about hot!

* Who has chicken fat or clarified butter?  You should.  Chicken fat is tasty stuff and it takes less of it because of the taste. I doesn't smoke as bad as butter, either.   I'm not a pro at making this stuff.  I skim the fat from chicken stock or pour it off after roasting a chicken.  Filter it into a jar and put it in the freezer.

Clarified butter doesn't smoke up at higher temps.  Both can be made ahead and kept in the fridge or freezer.

If you can't do either, I'd use light olive oil, for the cooking process, then top with a bit of butter for flavor.

Burger Snob

Warning:  None of this post is about healthy eating.  It's about burgers, plain and simple.  I make room in my diet for things that I love, and burgers are high on my list.  A healthy burger is a lesser burger.  Have fewer burgers, but have the burgers you love.

Burger Snob

I have to be honest, fast food burgers are better than homemade.

I know there will be thought of "Well, you haven't had mine."  While that's true, I have had many people's awesome, homemade burgers.  They are good and I do like them, but it's not the same.  There's usually some sort of gourmet bun, plus there's things like egg, onion, or spices in the meat.  All good, but it takes them to a different category.  Sorta like a meatloaf sandwich is also not an awesome burger... 

Rather than truly article this thing out, I'll let the burger descriptions do my talking.

This is not a ranking, other than to rank these as high enough to make my list.  They are all different and serve different needs.  Yet, they all satisfy "need for burger."

True Fast Food Burger

Carl's Jr Famous Star with Cheese - Char broiled 1/4 lb patty, a good bun, plenty of sauces to drip all over, all the toppings, and you've got one of the best burgers out there.  They seem to have the cooking of the meat down to a science.  If you like that Famous Star, only you want bigger, go for the Super Star, which doubles the meat and cheese, or The Six Dollar Burger, which is the same, but with one 1/2 lb patty.  All good.
Jack In The Box Jumbo Jack with Cheese - There's something about the thicker meat patty, mayo and ketchup, plus the rest that makes this burger really tasty.  It's fried, but they pull it off.

Snobs-ville

These two are pretty different from other burger chains and from each other.  So unique that, for some reason, people who totally avoid fast food will go here.  They even take their out of town guests.  Neither is actually healthier than the major chains, but somehow they get a pass from a lot of people who wouldn't dare drive through McDonald's.  Despite the double standards, I have to admit that I love these places, too.

In-N-Out Double-Double - Unchanged for how many years?  I don't know.  They still use the small, thin patties that seemed to be enough for us back in the oldin' days.  Two patties, two slices of cheese, thick tomato, secret sauce and all the rest.  It is all fresh, and you can watch them slice and dice, right there.  Pure and basic is what In N Out is all about.

The original location - no fries, chips!

Tommy's Cheeseburger - Tommy's is really all about the chili, which goes on top of all the things they serve.  Like In N Out, it's the small patty, simple bun, and thick tomato slices, and topped by good (and greasy) chili!  Mmm...  seriously good stuff.



Guilty Pleasure

Big Mac - Everyone knows this one.  You love it or hate it.  I love it, with it's awesome Mac sauce and weird little onions.  It could be better with less bread and more meat, but I have to admit that it's a good burger when I can spare 660 calories and still be okay with being hungry, cuz it's just not all that filling with so little meat.  I eat about one a year these days, usually with a bunless McDouble on the side.  Total calorie load for the two, 880!

Carls Jr Western Bacon Cheeseburger - The bun is flat and all the colors are too similar.  Onion rings, bacon, cheese, bbq sauce, and meat.  It all blurs together.  Despite it's sad look, I have to say that it's a magical combination who's sum is greater than it's parts.


Tom's/Tony's/Ray's/Roy's/Steve's Burgers, Gyros, Burritos, and Broasted Chicken

In So Cal, we have something like this on every other corner.  They aren't a chain, but since all the meat, buns, secret sauce/1000 island dressing, shredded lettuce, super thin onions, etc. are seemingly from the same source, they might as well be a chain.

These types have burgers, pastrami, burritos, and often gyros, teriyaki, and broasted chicken (whatever that is).

You can rest assured that you will get a tasty burger and those thicker fries (the only ones I actually eat anymore).  Nice vinyl booths, the scent of miscellaneous faux foreign cuisines, and the ubiquitous "daily special" of a cheeseburger, fries, and a soda for $4.99 gives every other corner a familiar feeling, whether you've been to that particular corner before or not.



Burgers at Home

As I said earlier, burgers out are better than burgers in.  But, if you want me to love your home made burgers...

• Press the patty hard.  In restaurants they press them, hard, into the patty shape.  I use a big plastic jar lid that's just a bit bigger than the bun.  Line it with a baggy, press the patty into shape, and use the baggy to lift it out.  Pressed like this, the burger is flatter, even thickness, holds together better, and best of all, isn't super tall and small (almost like a misshapen meatball?) and looking sad on that big gourmet bun.  
• Like I mentioned above, the bun must match the burger in size.  Somehow.  Wendy's sucks because of that whole square patty thing and home burgers tend to suck because they become a flattened meatball in the cooking process.
• Just meat, salt and pepper.  Spices, eggs, oatmeal or breadcrumbs, or some exotic fruit of veggie might really taste good, but if you go this route, you don't need to lay out all the "normal' condiments anymore.  Now it's a special burger and it deserves the sauce you designed, the veggies you know will make it right, and that special bun to top it off.  It's all good, so skip the catchup if it's going to make you cringe when someone pours it on your masterpiece.  You're making burgers OR you're making your burgers.  Decide.

I'll eat your fancy, spiced burger, you know.  But just know that it's not the best burger ever.  It's a meatloaf sandwich.

Ross Enemait posted this on Facebook on Tuesday.  Couldn't be more timely...

The Gallery of Unusual Fruit #4

A Bulgarian carrot.  Yes, I know it's a vegetable.

You Could Win Free Morel Mushrooms from Marx Foods

I did! 

Personally, I can't remember ever tasting them, and I'm looking forward to it.



The foods and spices over at Marx Foods have been amazing, so don't miss the chance to win your own taste!

Roland

March for Babies

My friend Joe Stankowski is doing the March of Dimes March for Babies on Saturday.  If you don't know Joe, you don't know a really nice guy who really knows his stuff. 

Read and subscribe to his blog, and please follow the link to donate a little bit for the babies. Babies are small and can't march themselves.

The Monday After Shoes

I'd almost forgotten that I had plantar fasciitis (pf) a couple of years ago.  That was some pain.  There's a whole story about how doing nothing about it for months only served to drag out my own misery because of my mysterious need to avoid asking for directions help, but that's actually a very long and boring story that won't be told.  Imagine it.

Fast forward two years, and my feet don't hurt.  The insoles/arch supports that the doctor told me to buy have long ago done their magic, and despite ignoring my doctor's other advice to never go barefoot and throw away all my shoes that aren't extremely supportive, I'm actually better now.

As I stood at the back of the room during a standing room only meeting today, my feet ached again.  The arches ached, and whether it's my imagination or real, my heel ached, like it did back during my plantar fasciitis days.  I looked down at what I've long considered my most comfortable pair of shoes -- a pair of perfectly fitting dress shoes with my orthotic insole/arch support installed -- and wondered what happened.  This is how I felt the day before I got the insoles!  Hmmm

Over the past two years, I'd done a lot of stretching and foam rolling, but God knows I could have done even more, and not just stretching and rolling the feet and calves, either.  As my friend Bill Hartman once showed me, we are connected, from the toes to the eyebrow on the opposite side, like a big X, stretched diagonally up the leg, diagonally across the back, and up the neck, then over.  I think if you tickle my foot, my opposite eyebrow will raise...  Try me?  No?

So, many months of taking care of tight and short lats, hamstrings, calves, traps, and all the other muscles that I've only heard about, and I'm a long way toward better.  Once my pf pain was gone, a gradually wore lower and lower heeled shoes, with less and less support, until eventually I was comfortable, for the first time in my life, in Converse All-Stars.  Eventually, I even added a pair of Vibram Fivefingers to my shoe rotation, and my arches have never been happier.  I'm barefoot most nights and a good portion of the weekend, and I haven't worn even my Nike Frees in a year (too much heel and too much bounce).  I train without shoes where I can get away with it, Chucks when I can't go shoeless, and Vibrams when I really want that grip.  I still have to wear dress shoes during the week, but they are off when I hit the front door.

I seem to have taken the opposite advice from what tends to get tossed around as cures for plantar fasciitis and all I can say is "it worked for me."  Yeah, "it worked for me" is the famous "proof case" on the internet, sure, but I have a lot of smart people on my side telling me it's the right side, and with the alternative being shoes with huge springs in the heels...

or surgery...  I'll pass!

I don't think the solution to curing (or keeping you from) plantar fasciitis is in Z-Coil shoes or Nike Shox, but instead it's in getting up off your butt so your hamstrings and lats aren't continually shortening and tightening up.  Do some daily stretching of what's short and rolling out your knots, and perform exercises that aren't putting you into an even worse condition.  That means not focusing on mirror muscles, and actually cutting back on the bench press.  You need to shift some of that work toward hitting the back and backside of your body hard.  We all want to look good in the mirror, but don't we also hope that someone's giving us a good second look as we walk away from them?  You gotta leave a good impression, so do some more deadlifts rows, and chinups, too.

As to a shoe prescription, it's not about a specific shoe.  We live in the real world, and you might (like me) have to wear the uniform.  My uniform comes with dress shoe heels.  What can you do?  Just do your best to minimize the overly supportive shoe's effects on your body. Don't wear them as often as you can.  Take them off at home, and walk around.  Don't just kick them off and sit.  That does nothing to stretch things out.  Walk and use the muscles in your feet.  Often.

I love my red chucks

On the weekends, drop the cross trainers for Chucks or some other flat shoe.

my next pair of vibram fivefingers

I really love Vibram Fivefingers.  I have the Classics now, and plan to by the ones above at some point.  Talk about comfortable.  They are IT, but I'll admit they are extreme.  You don't need to go that far if they aren't you.

To net it out...

• Minimize your heel time, taking those shoes off and walking around as often as possible
• Maximize your barefoot walking and standing
• Wear flat soled shoes whenever possible
• Move around a lot to make up for all the seat time
• Exercise your backside more -- more deadlifts, more rows, more chinups, etc.
• Stretch and foam roll what's tight and short, from the bottom of your feet, up through your calves, hamstrings, lats, and up to your traps.

Monday night, shoes off, and all is good.  Turns out my feet were only really tired.  Achy from a day of standing more than usual and a weekend of heavy sandbag slinging, snatching, and sled dragging, much of it in barefeet in the back yard.  Even in good shape, your fee still hurt when overused.  Add on a heavy Monday of standing on concrete floors, and insoles or not, there's going to be an ache and a pain.

I used to love my dress shoes, because they were the most comfortable shoes I wore, but no longer.  Too much heel and too much support.  Rumor has it those crazy Europeans have dress shoes with low heels?  That would be great, if true...   But, I still think I'll be happy to take them off at night.


 
 

The Food Revolution

If you haven't already done so, please sign Jamie Oliver's petition.

While I don't think it's the perfect diet, I agree that it's so much better than the diets that our children are subjected to these days.  This will be a huge step up.

I have attended PTA meetings where the discussion of removing vending machines or eliminating the snack bar treats get squashed because "our school's ____ program needs the money," so I know it can be very frustrating.

It will take a big name, a big program, AND a grassroots effort to get things moving in a better direction.  This is it.  Don't miss the chance to improve our kids' lives because you really want things to be paleo, primal, vegetarian, vegan, organic, local grown, or whatever.  There will never be the perfect plan, but there is a perfect opportunity, and this is it. So do it.

If you haven't had the chance, watch this when you've got 20 minutes to spare.  It's good stuff.

Caramelized Apples & Cheddar

One of my simplest desserts, but it's coming from a variety of influences and angles.  Allow me to share?

Mom

You'd think that growing up with a diabetic mother would have led to a lot of good dietary habits, but no.  For the most part, the general prescription for diabetics was to eat very little "sugar" but tons of carbs, timed perfectly with your insulin shots.  I don't want to get too far off track, since I could go on and on about better ways for diabetics to eat.  But now's not the time.

One thing that I did learn was to he happy with things less sweet that you might expect.  A no-sugar-added apple pie, for instance.  Apples are pretty sweet on their own, so I always loved them.  Sweet and tart, and since the crust was always a little salty, it had it all. Not that it was all that much better for my mom, since the salt came from a double crust with the number one ingredient being carbohydrate.

French Provencal Cooking

I think that's where the tarte tatin comes from, right?  It's an upside down apple tart, where the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar, then topped with a crust, baked, then flipped.  Only the "OMG" of internet and txt msg vernacular can properly get across how good these things are.  Sweet, salty, buttery, terribly delicious.  Enough said. 

Marie Callendar's

A regular ol' chain restaurant with great chili and cornbread, plus tons of pies, pies, pies!  They had a rhyme on their napkins that said "Apple pie without some cheese, is like a kiss withought a squeeze."  After many years of thinking that sounded revolting, I finally tried it.  OMG again.  Hot apple pie, with a big melted slice of cheddar cheese is simply amazing.

Simplicity

With a goal of making things simple but delicious, I distilled this dessert down to the basics.  Tart green Granny Smith apple provides the sweetness and crunch, and the tangy sharp cheddar and browned butter give it the saltiness that rounds it out.
 

Caramelized Apples & Cheddar

Serves 1

1 medium Granny Smith apple
1 tsp butter
1 oz cheddar cheese (the sharper the better for me)

Cut the apple into wedges and remove the core.  Slice the cheese into thin slices.

Spray a non-stick pan with cooking spray and heat over medium high heat.  Add the apples to the pan and allow them to start browning, turning periodically to even them out.  With just one apple, it's pretty easy to turn the wedges, but if you're cooking for 2-4 people, you'll just have to lightly flip and shake the pan to cook them evenly.  When the apples are almost done, stir in the butter and shake and swirl the pan to evenly coat the apples.  Let the butter brown, if you like, but be careful not to burn it.

Place the hot apples in serving dishes, and lay the slices of cheese over the apples.  If the bowls are deeper (or cups), you can do it in layers. If the apples have cooled too much to melt the cheese, you can put them under the broiler for a minute.  I've heard of people using the microwave, but that's probably just a vicious rumor!

Nutrition:  Calories - 206, Fat - 12g, Carb - 21g, Fiber - 3g, Protein - 6g