Category Archives: Blogger C.L.U.E.

Daisy’s Noisette Potatoes (BLOGGER C.L.U.E.)

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Hey there everyone! Time for another month of Blogger C.L.U.E. C’mon…. you remember. I am part of a secret society (does that sound mysterious and all Freemason-ish or what?) on facebook, where a group of food bloggers swap blogs each month and make a recipe related to a certain theme from one of the other group members. This month the theme was potatoes. Makes sense, right? March, St. Patricks Day, the Irish… all leads one to the humble spud, that root vegetable that has been responsible for saving lives many times in the hardscrabble pasts of many different countries. They had little else, but they had potatoes to eat.

It’s funny; we here in the states or most of the Westernized world actually, think of potatoes as looking just a few different way; Russet, baby, red, white and that’s about it. Some of us who are more into food know of a handful more types that are newer (at least to this part of the world) and enjoy using them, but did you know that, worldwide, there are more than 4000 different types of potatoes?! FOUR THOUSAND!

This month the blog I got assigned to was that of the lovely Christy, herself being the owner of the blog Confessions Of A Culinary Diva . Christy has so many delicious dishes, like this Cantonese Lobster With Coconut Ginger Rice or these utterly delicious sounding Blueberry Dutch Baby Pancakes . I have both of those totally bookmarked, but you know what? I don’t think Christy is a big fan of potatoes, lol. I had a heck of a time finding a potato recipe. She had, I believe, two. This, of course, is probably one reason Christy is so lovely…. unlike me, she stays away from the carbs :-p I, on the other hand, love my potatoes. But you know what Christy DOES love, same as I do? Downton Abbey. And one of the recipes she had for potatoes was for one called Daisys Noisette Potatoes. They were part of what she called “A Very Downton Dinner”, which I thought was so cool.

These are delicious! Little balls of potatoes (go buy a melon baller if you don’t have one) that are lightly sauteed in clarified butter (I admit to not worrying about the clarified part), then finished off in a hot oven to give them that final crispiness. When I joined BLOGGER C.L.U.E., one of the things that I was told was that we were supposed to keep the recipes pretty much as we found them and not turn them into something totally different. I did that with two small exceptions. I added some onion and garlic to these and sprinkled them with Fine Herbes. As much as I love potatoes, I am a huge flavor person. I’ve never been much on just salt and pepper and while I can completely see that being the case back in the day in England, I also like to think of Daisy trying to liven up her cooking a little by adding some flavor to plain potatoes

You know the drill…

Daisys Noisette Potatoes

  • 6 russet potatoes , scrubbed free of all dirt
  • 1/4 cup clarified butter (again, I didn’t do that part. I did however, add a touch of oil to the butter to increase the smoke point)
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion (my addition; feel free to omit)
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced (my addition; feel free to omit)
  • 1 teaspoon Fine Herbes (an herb blend you can get at any large grocery store) (my addition; feel free to omit)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Use a melon baller to scoop out balls of potatoes. Put them in a bowl of cold water as you work, so they don’t turn brown while you’re scooping out the rest.
  3. Heat the butter in a large ovenproof pan. Add the potatoes, garlic and onion (don’t crowd, just do two batches if you need to) and cook for five minutes, stirring often.
  4. Transfer the pan to the 375 degree oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until they are golden brown and tender, stirring often. Season with salt, pepper and fine herbes.

Make sure you go check out the other bloggers posts from this months Blogger Clue! These ladies are some amazing cooks!

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Buffalo Roasted Chickpeas (Blogger C.L.U.E.)

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Buffalo Roasted Chickpeas

Buffalo Roasted Chickpeas



Hey everybody! Time for another month of Blogger Clue. You remember… it’s a group I’m a part of on Facebook where we peruse the blogs of one other member in the group and pick a recipe from their blog; one that fits a certain theme. This months theme was “Red”. I mean, Valentines Day and all; makes sense, huh?

I was having a hard time finding something to fit the theme on the blog I was given, which was Lemon And Anchovies run by a lovely lady named Jean. Jean’s blog is wonderful; lots of great recipes I wanted to try… just not many with red, lol. There was a gorgeous raspberry tart in her blog, but I couldn’t afford the berries right now and I will try that one in Spring when berries aren’t as high as a mortgage payment and aren’t shipped from another planet somewhere in a different solar system..

But lookee what I found! I know, chickpeas aren’t red, but these are Buffalo Roasted Chickpeas and anything buffalo style is red, right? Of course right :-p Other than in hummus, it was only fairly recently that I started using chickpeas in things. I may be weird, but to me, they taste almost exactly like boiled peanuts. Since I love boiled peanuts, that means I also love them. And they are, nutritionally, a wonderful source of protein and fiber. But who cares about nutrition. They taste good. 😀 I’ve always loved buffalo wings. I have been known to make a complete glutton of myself with them. We won’t talk about the time my son Cameron and I had a wing eating contest at Hooters once. We’ll just leave it at I won by ONE wing.

But since I don’t want to weigh 500 pounds, I have to find alternate buffalo fixes. These fit the bill quite nicely. A bit spicy, a bit garlicky and with a nice crunch. I was out of olive oil, so I used all butter with this recipe. I think it worked well, as butter is what is usually used in wings. It made it a bit less healthy, but… ummmm… this is me. I also used a touch of onion powder and I increased the oven temp to 425. Jean mentioned that hers didn’t get as crispy as she’d like so I thought a slight jump in temp might take care of that. I think my theory may have been right, because these were wonderfully crunchy.

You know the drill…

Buffalo Roasted Chickpeas

(My changes in parentheses)

 

  • 2 15 ounce cans chickpeas ,drained, rinsed and dried well.
  • 1 teaspoon melted butter (I used 1 1/2 tablespoons butter and no olive oil)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon granulated garlic (garlic powder not garlic salt)
  • (1/4 teaspoon onion powder)
  • Pinch salt
  • 4½ tablespoons Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)
  1. Preheat oven to 400 (425 is what I did). Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl; toss to coat.
  2. Lay in a single layer in a pan and bake for 40 to 45 (only took 30 in a 425 oven) minutes, until browned and crispy.
  3. Hide them from everyone else and eat them all.
  4. Go to Jeans blog and tell her she’s wonderful.

Here are all the participants in this months Blogger C.L.U.E. Go check out what they made. Somewhere in there you’ll find one that made a recipe form little old me. Be scared for them. Be very scared.

 

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Participating Bloggers:

Lemon Chicken Thighs (Blogger C.L.U.E.)

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Lemon Chicken Thighs

Lemon Chicken Thighs



This is my second month as a member of “Blogger C.L.U.E.”. I mentioned last month that it’s a fun group that some of my fellow bloggers and myself are doing through Facebook where each month, we recreate a recipe from the blog of one of the other members. Man, that was one heck of a run on sentence! As I was saying, we recreate a recipe from a fellow group member. It’s all done in secret. We get assignments and until the reveal day, we don’t who had our blog nor does the person we got assigned know we have them.
This month I got Lea Ann from the blog Cooking On The Ranch . Her blog was new to me and I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve found. She has a good variety of recipes, from ethnic recipes to recipes that scream American to others that she terms as “no recipe required”, but that are so simple that she pretty much just lays out what you need to do with a certain set of ingredients.

The theme for this month was “foods your grandmother would have cooked”. Well, I unfortunately didn’t know either of my grandmothers enough to say what they would have cooked, so I twisted the theme a little. I’M a grandma so I did it more as what might be the type of foods my own grandkids could conceivably end up with memories of ME cooking. After looking through her whole blog a couple of times, I found myself continually coming back to one titled Lemon Chicken Thighs which came under the “No Recipe Required” category. Was it simple? Extremely so. Did that mean it was boring? On the contrary… this was delicious.

Generally, we are supposed to keep the recipes as close to the original as possible and for the most part, I did that. The recipe called just for salt and pepper as well as the lemon slices put underneath the chicken thighs as they roasted. The only thing I did differently was to shove some sliced onion in the pan and add some Tuscan Seasoning to the chicken because the flavors in it (oregano, basil, thyme, etc) go so well with lemony dishes. The onions were just because they smell fabulous when roasting and while they don’t add flavor to the chicken, they add it to the drippings and I love to use those on rice or potatoes 🙂 I also squeezed some lemon juice on top of the chicken to make sure both sides had that lemony flavor.

You all know the drill! Get to cooking! This is a wonderful and very easy weeknight “I need to get dinner made quickly” sort of meat. Add some sides and there you go. I’m going to do this the same way Lea Ann did and not post it as an actual recipe, but more just as a process. I know that’s not how I typically do things, but this is so darn easy, it works great that way!

Lemon Chicken Thighs

Heat your oven to 425 degrees. Thinly slice two lemons (I used three so that I had some lemon to squeeze on top). Overlap them in a baking pan, two or three at a time, then lay a chicken thigh on top of each grouping. Obviously if you are using a lot of chicken, increase the lemon to suffice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper . (I also used some McCormick Tuscan Seasoning on top of my chicken and squeezed some lemon juice on top) Roast at 425 for about 30 minutes or until juices run clear and the skin is all nice and crispy. Aim for an internal temp of about 170 for dark meat.

That’s it. Could it be any easier!? I promise, it couldn’t be any tastier!

Here are the other bloggers participating in Blogger C.L.U.E. this month. Go check them out and see what deliciousness they all created! Somewhere in there is something from right here on my blog!

Crispy Tandoori Smashed Potatoes (And a Blog Swap!) #BloggerCLUE

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Crispy Tandoori Spiced Smashed Potatoes




I think I have mentioned before that I have a strong love for the not so usual ethnic foods. I mean, I enjoy the ubiquitous Italian, Chinese and Mexican (most of which will be sadly Americanized), but when I really get excited is when I try something Indian or Thai or Middle Eastern. It all starts with the smells. The scents of what, to most Americans are, exotic spices, wafting through the house, just makes me happy. It also make me drool copiously but I just wear a bib and hope no one notices. It’s a cute bib with little pink duckies. Wait…too much info? Then the flavors, which may be familiar to those who grew up with them, but to my American palate, are still exciting, even though I have been eating and cooking “foreign” foods for close to 2 decades now.

So the following recipe is one I was so happy to find. I mean, what more does one need? It sends wonderful smells through the house while at the same time, it’s not so unusual as to make my kids balk. It also is made with potatoes that end up ultra buttery and ultra crispy. Crispy potatoes ftw!!

How did I get this recipe, you say? I was asked by a dear friend if I wanted to be part of a facebook based blogger group called Blogger C.L.U.E. Society (ok, so she actually said I had no choice so I may as well just gracefully accept) where, every month, we feature a recipe from a fellow blogger in the group. The twist is that we don’t know who has who until the day the blog posts go live and, the challenging part for me, as is obvious to anyone who has been reading here for a while, is that we can’t really modify the recipe. We are to keep it the way it was written. Do you have ANY idea how hard that was for me?!  We search the blog we are given for a recipe fitting that months theme- this months is “Food that you’d love to have on your Thanksgiving table”. I was all over that theme. You all know how much I love the foods this time of the year. This month I was tickled to get the blog Lawyer Loves Lunch. Azmina was a new blogger to me; I’m not sure how I had missed her! I love her dry wit and writing style and I absolutely LOVE these potatoes Crispy, buttery and they made my house smell fantastic. I will still have to make regular mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving or my family will lynch me, but I also plan on making a batch of these.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Crispy Tandoori Smashed Potatoes

  • 1 lb mini Yukon Gold potatoes
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • salt and pepper
  1. Boil potatoes in a large pot in salted water until they are easily pierced but not falling apart.
  2. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with oil (I also lined mine with foil to make cleanup quicker). Line up the potatoes on the sheet with about 2 inches between each one.
  3. Use a potato masher to smash each potato. You want more or less flat potatoes with nice ridges on them, to help hold all the buttery goodness.
  4. In a small bowl, microwave the butter and spices. Brush each potato with some of the spiced butter.
  5. Bake at 450 for 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are nice and crispy and browned around the edges.

What did we think- we loved them! Like I said up there, buttery, crispy potatoes with a ton of flavor. What’s not to love?

What would I maybe change up next time?-  I think I might add a bit more of the spices, plus maybe add some curry powder or garam masala.  Otherwise, not a thing. These are delicious!

There are some other bloggers in this group who you really need to check out. I have a list for you of everyone who is participating. Go and give them a look and see who they got and what delicious recipe THEY chose to make! Somewhere in there you’ll find the person who got my blog *bites nails nervously* I don’t know who it is, just know that I hope they liked whatever they created!

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