Spuds - - Page 11

by gansie

Empty Nest

My parents have lived in the very same house all my life. I love it. It’s really the definition of home.

I now live in D.C., my brother just moved back home post-college but is planning on moving out in the fall, and my sister is currently home for the summer until she goes back to school. So it’s really just Mom, Dad and Slugger, our lhasa apso.

Well, that clearly leads to needing a brand new, gourmet kitchen and a game room filled with a bar, poker table, pool table that turns into a ping pong table, shuffle board table and a flat screen HDTV, right? I told my parents, if they spring for the Kegerater, I’m moving home.

Regardless, after months of deciding on granite counter tops and back splashes and light fixtures and bar stools, we were finally able to use the kitchen and make a big family dinner in time for my dad’s birthday. With a new Wegmans up the street, my brother and I browsed the enormous super market and decided on mahi mahi (steak for my fish hating mom,) mashed potatoes and an assortment of veggies. I credit the whole fam for making this meal such a success.

Recipes and Game Room pics post-jump

I Swear,They’re Real

So you know how all the food writers go on and on about the majestic farmer’s markets and you think to yourself, shut up already with your heirloom tomatoes and your free range-organic-grass fed-brown eggs, because hey, I’m usually too hung over on a Saturday morning to make it out of bed by noon, let alone to some market across town. Well, they may have a point. I found purple potatoes and I was pumped. And no, they’re not dyed – they’re real!

They also had a bunch of other types of potatoes I’ve never heard, and maybe next time I won’t be so star-struck that I’ll be able to take notes. Sorry ES readers!

I used these purple wonders and a bunch of others to make my go-to weekend breakfast – scrambled eggs, skillet potatoes and a half of an everything begal with cream cheese.

Find out more about the breakfast potatoes after the jump.

ES Trend Alert: “No Mayo” is the New Mayo

Maybe Shania was on to something in I Heart Huckabees when she kept telling Jude Law “NO MAYO.” I am not one to hate on gooey, mayo-loaded traditional side salads – simple, tasty and unhealthy – I can’t think of anything more American. But inspired by gansie’s previous posts about mayo-free pasta salad and tuna salad, I decided to try my hand at Kim OD’s recommendation, which gansie pointed us towards, for mayo-free potato salad. I brought my very lemony version to my cousin Moira’s family BBQ last night. In a perfect twist, the host made a more traditional mayo potato salad as well, which ignited much discussion on the great mayo debate of 2007 (Moira did use fingerlings, so she still gets some edgy points.) My recipe after the jump.