potatoes

50+ Thanksgiving Potato Recipes

November 22, 2013 by Erica

50+ Thanksgiving Potato Recipes

…alternately titled, 50+ Thanksgiving Potato Recipes That Are More Exciting Than The Same Mashed Potatoes You Made Last Year.

Yes, your Same Old Mashed Potatoes are good. They are traditional. But why not embrace your inner culinary genius on this food holiday of all food holidays and wow your family with something new and improved? Here are 50 super exciting, mouthwatering, unbelievably delicious potato recipes for your Thanksgiving table. From soup to nuts, as they say! Because it’s Thanksgiving, and you gotta have some potatoes.

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Potato-Cheese Soup with Pumpernickel Croutons

October 25, 2013 by Erica

Potato-Cheese Soup with Pumpernickel Croutons

It’s time for another Foulser family soup recipe!

Like Mexican zucchini soup, I grew up slurping potato-cheese soup. And crunching these croutons along with it. Allllways with croutons.

To me, this is the most amazing soup in the world. It may not seem all that exciting, but trust me, these flavors are meant to be together. Potatoes, onions, carrots? Dill? Cheddar? Um, yes. Just add the pumpernickel croutons with their crunch and caraway, and you have my all-time favorite belly-warming fall soup. I guess I shouldn’t underestimate the sway that childhood memories hold over my taste buds, but I think you’ll be sold on this soup the moment you try it, too.

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German Potato Salad (Kartoffelsalat)

August 28, 2013 by Erica

German Potato Salad (Kartoffelsalat)

The time has come to tell you about my job at Karl’s Sausage Kitchen.

Yes, during summers and holidays all throughout college, I worked at a store called Karl’s Sausage Kitchen. It wasn’t some raunchy late-night gig, as my guy friends liked to rib me about, but a little family-owned German sausage shop (Metzgerei). Karl’s son owned it during my time there and made all the sausages in the gleaming kitchen that took up the entire back of the building. In the kitschy storefront, a few older German ladies and I wrapped up those sausages, sliced up bacon and bologna, and rang them up for customers along with imported German goodies like Haribo and Ritter Sport.

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Thai Green Curry with Turnips and Summer Squash

July 24, 2013 by Erica

Thai Green Curry with Turnips and Summer Squash

Remember my CSA bounty I told you about on Monday?

Thai Green Curry with Turnips and Summer Squash

Well, hidden in there were also some adorable summer squash.

Lebanese squash (I think?), pattypan squash, green zucchini, and yellow zucchini.

Thai Green Curry with Turnips and Summer Squash

I only ever really buy zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, so I was really excited about the prospect of trying some new kinds. I mean, they all tasted the same, but I loved the colors. And that little pattypan squash is just too cute to be allowed!

Admission: I’ve been afraid to buy pattypan squash, despite their cuteness, because I didn’t know how to cut them up. This forced me to try, and it was super easy: just slice off the stem on top and bottom and chop into wedges. Duh.

Thai Green Curry with Turnips and Summer Squash

So I got a multitude of squash, but no turnips. I actually planned this meal before I picked up the box, assuming we’d get turnips again. Then, when we didn’t, I just bought some anyway. (Buying turnips… who am I?) They are definitely trying to give us a variety in our CSA box – cherries one week, apricots the next, etc. – which is nice, except when you’re learning how to cook with something new. I’m like, helloooo, now I’m brimming with turnip recipes! Bring on the turnips! Then nothing. But that’s OK, because I’m sure I’ll get my fair share of turnips and squash during the rest of the summer, and now I know the perfect dish to use them all up.

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Roasted Veggie Lentil Bowl with Charred Red Pepper Sauce

April 12, 2013 by Erica

Roasted Veggie Lentil Bowl with Charred Red Pepper Sauce

Well, I think I can say that I’m a changed woman.

After just a brief period of cooking with strictly what I have in the house, my creative juices are starting to flow. It really wasn’t that difficult, either. Granted my “pantry cleanse” has turned into more of a fridge cleanse, but that’s OK. I’m realizing that both are a great source of inspiration for new recipes, and I’m getting more comfortable throwing things together without knowing how they’ll turn out. Not everything is blog worthy, that’s for sure, but nothing has turned out too badly, either. I know it comes as second nature to some, but for this type A planner, this is a light bulb moment!

So I’ll chalk up a win in the creativity column, but unfortunately, my cabinets still merit hoarder status. While I’ve used a lot of pantry items that had been languishing for a while, I haven’t necessarily used up any of them. And so it continues…

Roasted Veggie Lentil Bowl with Charred Red Pepper Sauce

My go-to dish during this effort has been a big bowl of roasted veggie goodness, like Wednesday’s sushi bowls: Some sort of grain + roasted veggies + sauce or dressing + a little extra flavor on top. Here I picked lentils instead of a grain for some extra protein, especially because I was already using starchy potatoes. Also, you saw in Monday’s post that I have a ton of legumes, so I had to use at least one kind this week! I realized afterwards that this dish is actually pretty close to my cauliflower steaks with lentils and this same sauce. This time, though, I only had half a pepper to use in the sauce, and successfully resisted the urge to run to the grocery store to grab another one. I also had most of a big can of tomato puree that I wanted to use up, so I just threw it all in. Despite those changes, the sauce was just as good as I remembered; I honestly couldn’t even tell the difference with less pepper and more tomato. Veeeeery flexible – I like it.

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