TheGoodLife: Got the Bug

Today I woke up late, (as is a new tradition on my Tuesdays "off", which I assure you is not laziness, but instead my one day weekend - work and school take up my real weekends) and was immediately hit with the foodie bug. Laying in bed I thought to myself about what ingredients I had in the pantry. What came to mind was the large bag of red potatoes Eric and I bought about a week and a half ago.

As some of you might remember I decided to make potato chips as part of my spread for a get-together Brittni and I hosted this past New Year's Eve - a part of my attempt to legitimize the mandolin slicer that I bought myself as a Christmas gift. What a great idea for a massive amount of potatoes just getting bored on the shelf, desperately trying to avoid growing sprouts and walking off.

Deciding to take a slightly different approach to this session of chip making I got out the necessary ingredients, this time including much more olive oil than last since I would be frying instead of baking.

Collect:
Potatoes (I used large red)
Olive Oil
Salt
Black Pepper
Smoked Paprika
Chipotle Chili Powder

I heated the oil in my fry pan to medium high heat on our range. Then I carefully dropped slices of potato between 1/8" and 1/16" that I had cut using the mandolin kitchen slicer into the golden liquid that I had already prepared with S&P along with the paprika and chili powder. Then came the tricky part (one I have not yet completely mastered), evenly cooking the chips
to a crisp but not burned texture.

When they have reached the point where they both appear and feel a stiff, they go onto a paper towel lined plate. Batch after batch of chips starts to get boring. Trust me. Really boring.

After I yielded a large bowl of chips I decided to switch to another flavor - balsamic vinegar. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT ever add balsamic to hot olive oil (something tells me my common sense should have seen this coming). The result is a very violent reaction, which I imagine would be very similar to adding cold water to the oil. Luckily I quickly turned the gas off.

Somewhat disheartened I returned to my previous method of baking the chips in the oven, however after burning the first batch, I decided that the rest of the massive pile of sliced potatoes I had accrued would be better in a cheesy, scalloped & baked format.

So later in the day after a little homework and a much longer StumbleUpon session, I visited my preferred culinary website Epicurious (visit!) for a cheesy scalloped recipe: Scalloped Potatoes with Three Cheeses.

This recipe includes cheddar, Bleu and Parmesan cheeses. I added a little bit of cubed ham on top. The result was a long awaited, but thoroughly appetizing late dinner, complementing the end of the Twins game.

I am also enjoying a new (to me) beer in honor of the new baseball season (GO TWINS!, I can't believe they came back for a win!) and as a complement to my meal: Breckenridge brewery of Denver, CO's Small 471 Batch Double Hopped India Pale Ale. This was a much stronger beer than I anticipated.

It brings a hefty amount of hops, beautiful caramel color and a strong punch.