Fresh Ginger

Menu of the week: Potatoes!

I love potatoes! I grew up on a potato farm (cherries and apples too) in Leelanau County MI. We ate a lot of potatoes. My dad married a southern gal who liked to cook the occasional rice dish. While we were happy for the variation my dad would usually throw on a pot of boiled potatoes when he saw rice. Now I think, how cheeky! Somebody else made you dinner and you want potatoes? Every once in a while I have to remind him of his wayward ways. When I think back, it seems like there was a pot of boiled potatoes most nights. I am sure that isn’t correct, but kid memories you know. At any rate - I still can’t look a plain boiled potato in the eye. I actually gave up eating potatoes for the most part while in college as I was tired of them. French fries too. Then I started cooking them my way and haven’t looked back. I have 6 recipes for potato salad in my head at any given moment. Same with potato gratins. Love me my tators. For the record, my dad has since broadened his horizons (and remarried) and will eat rice now, pasta too. Now, my boyfriend doesn’t like cold potato salads or any cold veg except salads, but I will trade that off for the fact that he will eat tofu.

This weeks menu of the week host is Jacki at Cooking, Illustrated. Pop on over to see what all the other GF bloggers are whipping up this week. I am sure you will drool. I can’t wait to check out their potato recipes. Our menu this week features potatoes three times: a hot potato salad, herb roasted potatoes and a potato gratin. Really I could have made a new potato dish every night, but decided to hold back on the gnocchi, smashed potatoes and bakers. And I didn’t bring an Indian potato dish to the table this week, even though potatoes and tomatoes are not indigenous to India, they have embraced them both with as much excitement as I have.

It is potato planting season. We have several crazy varieties we plan to experiment with in the backyard, starting this week. If you would have told me when I was 15 that I would be planting potatoes in my own backyard garden, I would have starred at you in utter disbelief. My how we change!

volunteer potatoes, volunteer squash? and tomato

Saturday: Indian, company in town so we went to the local Indian restaurant. I had no pots and pans to wash - yippee!

Sunday:

Lunch:Tex Mex: Grass fed beef enchiladas (in a red chile sauce) and goat cheese enchiladas made with Friday night’s carne asada leftover steak cooked down until it fell apart and then added a burst of new spices. We used leftover goat cheese from our cheese platter appetizer and mixed it with a bit of Monterrey jack and green onion. Creamy and tangy.

Dinner Thai: Lard Nah with crispy tofu and kale - I have been jonesin’ for some tofu and it is being squeezed right now between two plates to make it firmer. I made a fresh batch of frozen (sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it?) spring rolls with rice paper. This time they are stuffed with crab and pork. We have been watching Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch and it makes me crave crab. I made up a batch this week and then froze them in packages of 6 for Thai nights. They actually fry up better after a little freezer time as it dehydrates the rice paper a bit. Can’t wait to try this batch! Dipping sauce: 1/3 tamari, 1/3 rice vinegar, 1/3 dark toasted sesame oil and topped with slivered green onions.

Monday: Caribbean cook out or possibly walk to our local pub and get bun less burgers and potato soup.
Jerk pork chops (with my homemade jerk paste) on the grill and grilled potato salad with green onions and vinaigrette dressing.

Tuesday: Italian
P enne with tomato cream sauce and Pancetta This looks like a great recipe to use those canned garden tomatoes up.

Wednesday: Korean fusion
Salmon bulgogi with Bok choy from this month’s Bon Appetit and crispy sesame rice.

Thursday: Birthday boy wish meal: Meatloaf, broccoli casserole with swiss and bacon, herb roasted potatoes. Dessert to be decided yet.

Friday: American MidWest
Rotisserie chicken from the local market and potato gratin with swiss and tarragon, roasted asparagus. (leftover chicken to be used next day in a curried chicken salad with dried cherries and almonds- that is the plan anyway)

i’m out