Last week I discovered Klondike Petite purple potatoes. They're so cute! Wee, itty bitty potatoes! And purple! How could I resist? (I thought they'd be white on the inside, but it's not just the skins--they're purple all the way through.)

( Purple Potatoes and Snap Peas )

This came out a bit bland--I think it needs more mint, and maybe more salt and pepper than I added originally. Extra cheese is always good. :)

I make a point of not ordering potato pancakes at a restaurant, unless of course there's a Jewish grandma in the kitchen. I ask, too. The answer, sadly, is usually no.

See, I had a Jewish grandma. And though I didn't have much actual Jewishness in my upbringing, I did have potato pancakes. Not necessarily for Hanukkah, just in general. Latkes. And my Grandpa (who was not Jewish, which explains the low-Jewishness upbringing) was convinced that no one made them like Grandma did--completely from scratch, none of those boxed mixes in her kitchen, no sir!

What he didn't know was that Grandma never let him see the green box marked "Manischewitz" lurking in the kitchen cabinets. What she very carefully did let him see was the single whole potato she very ostentatiously grated into the mixing bowl. And Mom never let on, either.

Fast forward a dozen years, after Grandma died, and Grandpa decided he was going to make latkes. Just like Grandma used to make. You see what's coming, don't you? He didn't know the secret ingredient. Many many chopped potatoes later, after we'd turned off the smoke alarm, and after my Mom got home from work, she let him in on the family secret.

So this year when I found a latke recipe on Weightwatcher's website, I couldn't resist giving it a try. Just for Grandpa.


( Potato and Apple Pancakes )

These tasted about right, but just didn't seem crispy enough. I'm starting to think Grandma had the right idea. Oh, well, happy Hannukah anyway from me, Grandma, and the Manischewitz family.

Or, how I came to make Dwarf Bread Pudding with Crème Pas Vraiment Anglaise:

Remember my bread machine? I less-than-three my bread machine. Recently I picked up a book of bread machine recipes, since I was getting bored with the few recipes that came with the machine, and had a go with one for molasses oatmeal bread.

This came out dense. When I slid the loaf out of the pan, it made a muffled "thud" on the counter. It turned out to be edible, even rather tasty, but kind of chewy. Substantial. In a word, dense. I suspect it has irreparably dulled my bread knife. Dwarf Bread! (Yes, I added wheat gluten to counteract the wheat flour. And the yeast was fine.)

I mentioned this to zudaru, who suggested soaking it in some kind of juice or liquor to make bread pudding, maybe topped with berries. This percolated through my mind for a few days, then last night, when anaisdjuna was coming for dinner, I started poking through my kitchen to see what I had that might accomplish bread pudding.

No juice, no liquor. But I had tea! Bigelow tangerine white tea. Add a little cooking sherry, and now we're talking.

Hm, no berries. But we usually have a sack of apples in the crisper; I can saute apple slices with a little butter and brown sugar and cinnamon, mmm!

No apples. Instead, we had a sack of clementines. This seemed like a great idea, until I got halfway through peeling six clementines. That was when I realized I could have used the canned mandarin oranges in the cabinet...oh, well.

Once I'd peeled and segmented the clementines, I laid all the little segments out in neat rows on top of the soaking bread. Looking at them there like rows and rows of little soldiers, it reminded me of a dessert I'd had in France, a pie with orange slices topped with crème anglaise. So I looked up crème anglaise recipes and discovered that it requires more heavy whipping cream than any person should have in one lifetime, plus a mess of egg yolks.

Well, I hate separating eggs, and I was out of heavy cream, so...what did I have in the fridge that was a creamy consistency, that I could flavor up? Plain yogurt seemed like a good start--maybe add some of the egg nog that Aaron had bought for the tree-trimming? No, that made it too liquidy; I needed to go the other way and make it creamier...hmm. Cream cheese! Add that to the yogurt, then some sugar and vanilla, beat into submission and--voila! Crème not-quite-anglaise!

It was gratifyingly good. I'm not sure I'd actually make this again, or even recommend that anyone else does, but it was a pretty good use of the materials at hand. The crème was actually a pretty good discovery--since I used fat-free yogurt and lite cream cheese, it's not nearly as heart-attack inducing as the real thing. The flavor's not the same eggy custard taste, but still very sweet and creamy. It would be good on fruit or pound cake.

Since I normally follow recipes, rather than make them up, I'm kind of proud of this.

( Dwarf Bread Pudding )

( Crème Pas Vraiment Anglaise )

After much experimentation and cobbling together of recipes, I give you:

( Sholezard - Persian Rice Pudding )

The recipe I originally worked with said it made 12 servings, but I ended up with two pans of the stuff! So this version is cut in half. I ended up using the cheaper Spanish saffron, and discovered that while a little saffron goes a long way flavor-wise, the color of the finished dish wasn't as bright a yellow as I remembered from the restaurant, so I cheated and added a few drops of food coloring. :) The final product was pronounced very good, and I will definitely be making this again.

I've been a cookin' fiend this week. We had company for dinner twice this weekend, plus went to a birthday party, so I've had lots of opportunities.

( Creamy Sweet Potato Soup )

This was tasty, and kind of cool--I'd never made soup before. It needed a little salt to punch it up, and I also added coriander and cardamom. Of course, I baked the potatoes in the microwave.

( Southern-Style Oven-Fried Chicken )

This was fantastic, I'm definitely making it again. Bonus: I got to use up some of the buttermilk in the freezer. You know you can't get buttermilk in less than 1-quart containers? So if I make muffins or whatever, I always end up with a lot of leftover buttermilk. Finding out it freezes was a big plus, but since I like to freeze in usable increments (half cups, for example), it means a lot of little containers of buttermilk floating around my freezer.

( Pumpkin Gratin with Crispy Rosemary-Parmesan Topping )

I got nine servings out of this, instead of six. It was...interesting. I've never made anything with pumpkin before. It had a sort of Thanksgivingy flavor to it--sort of like semi-solid stuffing. I'm not sure I'd make it again.

( Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies )

Super easy, and delicious. I've made these several times over the last few weeks. They don't last long!

( Sauteed Tilapia with Almonds and Cherries )

I discovered that there exists a convenient device called a cherry pitter. I found this out after getting home with a pound of tilapia and a bag of cherries. Thus, another method of pitting the cherries had to be discovered.

My best solution: cut cherries in half. Put the half without the pit into the measuring cup. Eat other half, spitting out pit. Repeat until life becomes a bowl of cherries!

slvr_starre came over for dinner on Thursday night, and I made

( Shrimp Scampi with Spaghetti )

and ( Broccoli with Lemon-Garlic Crumbs )

The scampi came out well enough, though I had a hard time getting the sauce to thicken. It was fun using my garden herbs (the thyme really desperately needed pruning anyway). The broccoli was interesting--I'd never heard of panko before, and I think I really like it.

( Chocolate-Peanut Butter Smoothie )

( Blueberry-Peach Smoothie )

( Raspberry-Peach Smoothie )

The chocolate peanut butter one was amazing, though it took a while for the blender to deal with the ice and the chunky peanut butter. Smooth might be better for this recipe. Also, I failed to notice originally that the recipe makes two servings, so I inadvertently doubled my points this morning. Problem is, what with the crushed ice, I really can't save the extra serving in the fridge--it would melt and separate. So I guess next time I will have to halve it or make it with a friend. :)

The fruit ones were both pretty good. The blueberry one was kind of thick and sludgy. I did manage to keep a serving of the raspberry one in the fridge without it separating, so next time I may double or even triple it and store. I need something quick and healthy I can grab for breakfast while simultaneously feeding Z. I'd been drinking Aaron's Slimfast shakes, but they're so overly sweet and artificial tasting--urgh. This is much nicer.

Last night for dinner I made

( Roasted Pork With Sage Berry Dressing )

OMG, this was amazing. It was great getting to use some of the wildly burgeoning sage in my garden. I had to modify the recipe slightly, since I was working with chops and not an actual roast--I just covered each chop in a few spinach leaves, and then spooned some stuffing on top. The sweetness of the berries contrasted perfectly with the slight bitterness of sage and onion. I was thinking of trying it with turkey for Thanksgiving!

The other thing I've been experimenting with this week is smoothies. I tried making my own several years ago, but they always came out kind of bland. This time I tried using an actual recipe, and got better results.

( Smoothie Recipes )

The blackberry one was a little bland. The strawberry chocolate one was much better, though it could have used a little more chocolate-y flavor. I didn't have chocolate flavored yogurt, so I used fat-free chocolate pudding.

The only problem is that these are single serving recipes, and using the blender is rather a lot of mess and fuss for one meal/snack. I'm thinking of doubling or tripling next time, and keeping a couple servings in the fridge for quick breakfasts.

I was a Bad Girl last week when it came to Weight-Watchers. I'd like to blame it on the wedding--you don't get out of a Jewish wedding without downing half your weight in food--but truth to tell, it had just as much to do with the Chinese buffet, the airport food, the Philly cheesesteak, the waffles for breakfast, and the dim sum brunch. I was just not paying attention to portion sizes, and paid the price. :P

I've been better this week, though! And to prove it, here's what I've been cooking:

( Apple-Crusted Pork with Sweet Potatoes )

The meat came out delicious, but it took forever to get the sweet potatoes cooked to an edible texture. I baked the whole thing for an hour, then took the meat out so it wouldn't end up cured, and baked the potatoes another 20 minutes, and even then, some of them were still a bit firm. Next time, pre-bake the potatoes!

( Cajun Chicken Strips )

This was fantastic, and not too spicy, as I'd feared. I just ate it as is, but you could put it on tortillas with some veggies and make fajitas.

( Pork with Maple Marinade )

Definitely doing this one again! I don't normally do marinades, since I am not very good at the planning ahead of time. But this stay-at-home-mom thing is a great gig--I was able to put the marinade together in the morning and cook in the evening.

...your frozen casseroles yearning to be thawed.

I'm going to spend the next few weekends cooking freezable meals in preparation for the days where I will do nothing but eat, sleep and breastfeed. Already on the menu are shepherd's pie (courtesy of blyssmouse, chicken spinach lasagna, possibly another veggie lasagna, orange chicken, mustard-dill chicken, and roast pork with mashed potatoes. But I'm limited on what freezes well and is easy to make. So what are your favorite freezer recipes? Bonus points if they include vegetables.

Caveat: Aaron and I don't like onions, tomatoes, peppers, or mushrooms.

EDIT: Ok, wise guys, so far I have one recipe, two suggestions that I let Aaron take over the cooking (he'll still need recipes), and a whole lot of "omg, you don't eat onions, tomatoes, peppers, or mushrooms??" It is possible, you know. :P

A Weightwatchers recipe, shared by redofthedead:

( Peach Cupcakes )

I cheated and used canned fruit, so I could use the pear juice it came in, instead of peach nectar. I also needed to bake these a good extra 10 minutes before they were done. I've noticed that with WW baked goods recipes--they always need more time than stated. I don't think it's my oven, though, since their entrée oven recipes are always fine. But they came out very yummy!

With that out of the way, here's what I made the Boy for Valentines' Day dinner:

Chicken Saute with Pine Nuts, one of Aaron's favorite meals, but one I don't do very often, since it's a big, multi-step process. It was really worth it this time, though--the chicken came out really moist and tender, and we have extras to eat all weekend.

( Sweet Corn Cakes )

Pretty easy, though the recipe as written turns out very thin, soupy batter. I almost had to double the cornmeal, which means I got 12 muffins instead of 6.

And for dessert, Strawberry Angelfood Cake. Doing this recipe with strawberry instead of blueberry pie filling results in a disturbingly pink confection. It's a bit like eating Hello Kitty.

( Pesto Sauce  )

I hate buying fresh basil (it goes bad so quickly), and I have yet to be successful at planting it, but I did have a half bag of raw spinach to use up...no, before you go ewww, lemme splain. I used about a cup and a half of the raw spinach, plus a half cup of dried basil, and it came out wondefully! Not only did it taste good, I snuck a vegetable into the meal!

We have an apple tree in our side yard. Last year I completely missed the apple harvest; this year I watched with an eagle eye, but still managed to miss it--one week, apples! Next week, nothin' but leaves. I figured the squirrels or the birds had beaten me to them.

Then today, coming home from class, I noticed two apple trees outside the fence to the MARTA station parking lot, absolutely laden with little green apples. So I walked over and filled my backpack...and wondered if perhaps my own apple harvest was commandeered by neighbors of the two-footed sort.

Whew, those little apples are tart. Tart. Pucker-up-tart! So I looked for recipes calling for tart apples, and found this.

Dear god, it takes a long time to peel and chop three pounds of little green apples. But it tastes yummy!

museumfreak was over for dinner tonight.

( Chicken and Spinach Lasagna )

I didn't have quite enough marinara sauce, so the top layer was a little dry, but this came out reasonably good. Next time I'll cut the recipe down and only do two layers, since my lasagne pan isn't really big enough for three, and doing only two would have negated the lack of sauce.

Quote of the evening: "I will now be even taller by balancing lasagna on my head!"

Last night riff_77 and her new hubby, Shan, came over for dinner and to tell us about their honeymoon in Japan. We looked at what she assured us were merely a small fraction of their vacation pictures, and heard about their Asian adventures.

Dinner was was crispy honey mustard chicken, parmesan mashed potatoes, and curried edamame. There was even dessert!

( Chocolate Quesadillas )

Good news: I got a lot done yesterday.

I had a handyperson come over and replace our mailbox (the flag and door on the old one had fallen off) and install a porch light on the deck. That last is a task that's been waiting since the deck was finished over a year ago; it's something I thought I could do myself--guess again. :P

Then I went out and put street numbers on the new box, tied up some drooping flowers in the garden, cleared the paint cans and random odds-and-ends from the back yard path (another post-deck waiting project that's been waiting over a year), rearranged some of the shelving in the garage, and power-washed the resin lawn furniture and put it in the deck (where it will hopefully stay cleaner-ish than it had outside under the house overhang). Go me!

Then, as if that weren't enough, I cooked dinner! This business of having a day off in the middle of the week is handy.

( Skillet Beef and Beer Stew )

I was very proud of this; I think it's the first time I've cooked beef! It came out a little bland, which is very unusual for a Weightwatchers recipe. I added salt, pepper, coriander, and some fresh sage and chives from the garden.

Bad News: There's lots more to be done. *sigh*

We seem to have a leaky pipe somewhere in our front yard. There's been a swampy patch for about a week. So I called the county water service, and they dispatched a truck with four water dudes. Four of them! A black guy, a Hispanic guy, and two Asian guys, which sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. And it was, kind of. They dug up my water meter and discovered, to their immense amusement, that it had been installed backwards! Oh my god, it's backwards! No, really, backwards, come look at this! No way, not backwards! Wow, you're right, it is backwards!

The hilarity lasted for quite some time, then they dug up and replaced the offending but comical water meter. They also dug up the swampy patch in the yard to see if the break was right under it, but found nothing wrong. Apparently the break is closer in toward the house, the water is running down hill and collecting in my own personal bog. So now I need to call a plumber to dig up more of the yard. Well, I'd been considering having more gravel hauled in and spread anyway. Right? Right.

Also, the upstairs air conditioning isn't working. The A/C dude is coming tomorrow to check that out. Ah, the joys of home ownership!

I'd been itching to make Christmas cookies, but it's not the sort of thing I'd ever get around to on my own. Luckily, rslatkin wanted to use her cookie press, and here I am with this big kitchen, and...one thing led to another, and we suddenly have a lot of cookies. Er, well, we had a lot of cookies. Some have gotten shared with co-workers, but I'm afraid the vast majority of them have disappeared into my tummy. *sigh* They were awfully good.

I got all excited about the possibilities of food coloring--we could make red ones, and green ones, and blue ones! And mix the red and blue and get purple! rslatkin gently reminded me that we'd have to make a separate batch of dough for each color, and clean out the cookie press, and after that we decided to just make green.

We also made some chocolate chip drop cookies from a Weight Watchers recipe. These were very good, but the recipe is for "mini" cookies, and is supposed to make 24 of them. We got 17. If we'd made them any mini-er, some of them wouldn't have had any chocolate chips.

( Mini Chocolate-Chip Cookies )

EDIT: I just noticed that the recipe actually says it makes 24 servings, and the serving size is 2 cookies. Ye gods, I was supposed to get 48 cookies out of that little bit o' batter? Note to self: next time, double recipe.