i'm not being needlessly decadent, both the beer and the potatoes were leftover. started the new job in earnest today, and while it's not my absolute favorite type of job in the world, there are perks; i'm not confined to a chair and a four foot by four foot space for eight hours a stretch, tethered to a telephone (eek! the horrors!) and my mind completely on loan to someone i don't even like very much. and, i got off today rather early. early enough to stop by a clothing resale (somewhere between a lowbrow vintage shop and higher end thrift shop) and try on a couple of things that didn't fit "just right" and then come home and shoot some pics for my etsy shop and enjoy some of last night's potatoes with the hub. and a 1554 "enlightened black ale" from new belgium. in reverse order, now.
the new belgium beer was one of a twelve pack, purchased the other night for our weekly family dinner/lan party. being done in by sinus illness, ill partner and week-long school break kid, i was not into cooking. i'd tried wooing both of my darling housemates with tasty treats throughout the week: valentine's day, we had heart shaped, faintly sweet scones sprinkled with big grains of colored sugar and sweet yogurt (brown sugar and almond extract in plain yogurt- a versatile dip/sauce) with some rhubarb and strawberry jelly from last summer; individual cherry pies, tortilla soup, eggs and fried potatoes & bacon amongst other delights. but exhaustion and jaded palates led us to a chinese buffet. i am so traumatized by the experience that i may never visit another again. i tried to convince everyone else that the best chinese food is not to be found beneath a sneeze guard and on a steam table. but none of us could pin down one item from a conventional restaurant that we could settle on so it seemed a good idea. i'll not fault that certain unnamed buffet for its lack of variety, but for the execution thereof. it was close enough to being pretty good that its failure to do so led it to be completely awful.
feeling sorry for ourselves, we agreed that our beer for the gaming festivities should be good, something that we enjoyed. we've picked up a folly pack on occasion and that evening it fit the bill. there are three of us, so the three bottles of four varieties is perfect, and towards the end of the evening we're usually amenable to trading. the ones we've gotten included fat tire, of course (the chocolate milk of beers), mothership wit (a belgian-style white/wheat beer, which i almost always love), 1554 (a tasty and dark brown ale) and the wildcard, which has been an interesting concoction new belgium calls giddy up.
giddy up is billed as beer, espresso and a hint of lemony citrus. rewind back to my college days; the first coffeeshop i really frequented (r.i.p. brickhaus) featured a proprietress versed in coffee and a menu item that included espresso and lemon. i never tried it, as i was in a mocha shake (the porsche cherry was the best, off-menu and named after our friend bobby's "porn name" - based on his childhood pet's name + the name of the street he grew up on) phase, if not availing myself of the 2.00 bottomless cup of coffee w/ lots of sugar. those were the days. anyway, i should have tried it, regretted not, and therefore was excited to taste that beer. i've drank a lot of beer, tried lots of kinds, but don't really claim to know much about it beyond what i like, what i dislike and what i've not tried yet. it's like most new belgium beers, quite refreshing. a good start to an evening of gaming and beer sipping, the espresso taste kind of gives a (psychosomatic) energy lift, and the rich dark beery flavor and lemon kind of spiral together. delicious, to me.
so the 1554 was left over from a couple nights ago and i enjoyed it. a moment of leisure and a pint is a lovely moment.
the potatoes, nommed in a hurry, are the only recipe i really remember gran cooking when i was young. she went all out and did eggnog french toast on xmas morning, and would do the occasional thing here and there, but really is not one for cooking. this, i remember eating along with something that required ketchup and mustard type condiments as i used the same to cover over the green onion flavor in the potatoes. but when i was making them up last night, they didn't smell right, then i rescued some old green onions and once they were added, it was all correct.
so. the sort of recipe. i'm not going to bother with strict measurements, just use what you have, use your nose and judge based on your crowd's hunger and needs. we ate this as a main course, but it could have been a side, too.
boil enough russet potatoes. i didn't use russets at all for a while there, and have recently gone back. they're delicious. buy them organic, scrub the skins and don't peel them. that's wasting food.
while potatoes boil, get out some yogurt (sourcream), cheddar cheese (sharp if you fancy it), green onions (if the outsides look wilty, pull them off. there might be some good onion shoot there in the middle), a little butter, salt and pepper and a couple slices of nice thick bacon- i buy some good ends and pieces at an independent grocery here in town, for flavoring use, so i cut a couple of slices off that. (bacon's tasty, but optional. i made this without when i was hard core vegetarian, and with margarine too, and it was a-ok.)
if bacon, put it in a cold pan and turn on the burner, removing when it is nice and browned and crispy. let it rest on a paper towel to drain a little grease and crisp up. save your pan of bacon fat for browning onions or something in, throwing it away is wasting food.
while bacon cooks and potatoes boil, cut off a tbs or two of butter and set aside. cut off a good knob of cheese, and slice.small cube, and save a nub for grating over the top of the potatoes. slice some green onions, and put butter and cheese back in the fridge. after the bacon's done and drained, dice it up into nice-sized pieces
one-a these days, your potatoes will be done- test them with a fork, when they're soft enough for pretty easy mashing, they're done. get out a baking dish (i used a glass bowlish shaped thing) and put the potatoes in. mash them up, add the butter so it melts. add enough yogurt/sour cream to make things pretty creamy. russets are mealy, so we want to bind that together. add in the cubed cheese and part of the bacon while stirring, then the green onions. add some salt and pepper, and stir. smell. you want to smell everything in a nice balance, but the parts that will stick out to your nose will be the bacon and green onions. use this smell to let you know if you need more green onions or not- they cut the richness of the dish, but we all have differing tolerances for them.
once that's all done, use a spoon and make the top nice and smooth. sprinkle on the bacon and cheese. it can sit for a little while at this point, or you can bake it immediately. stick it in the oven, covered, at 350 until the cheese starts to melt, then take the cover off so the cheese can brown a little. it takes 20-30 minutes all told.
ingredients: potatoes, butter, cheese, yogurt/sour cream, salt & pepper, bacon and green onions.
it's good stuff and a food/flavor memory for me.
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i have several projects going right now, in various stages of completion. they all reproach me when i walk past them; there are yarn balls giving me baleful looks, and purses that need buttons heaving meaningful sighs. beads twitter and giggle to one another under their breath, and patterns to find or devise playing ring around the rosy in the back of my mind. a folder of photos to edit and posts on etsy to space out and create. hopefully, it all leads to more.
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