.daring cooks challenge: april.

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

Since I am, so predictably, late on this month's challenge I'm not eligible for voting. But, hopefully I will be for the Daring Bakers challenge. Y'all know I'll let you know. Ha.

On to the challenge though. Edible containers. WOW. This was a really fun challenge. The first thing I thought of was the obvious bread bowl. This would have been delicious, fun, and truly a challenge for me but I didn't feel like it was "thinking outside the plate," so I nixed it and thought harder. One of the few things I remember my father cooking when I was a child were potato pancakes. They were kind of his "thing," and man are they delicious. I decided to try to make potato pancake cups and fill them with sausage and eggs.

I started with a grated potato and an egg. I was going to use two potatoes but, I'm not going to lie, I hate grating potatoes and I got sick of it after one so, there you have it. I preheated the oven to 350, sprayed a muffin tin with some pam, and put the potato and egg mixture into as many muffin slots as I could. I probably used roughly 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of potato mixture per muffin cup. I baked this for 22 minutes.

What came out was.... well.... not exactly what I was going for. Ha. They were more like small potato pancake discs. After placing very little sausage and egg mixture into them and taking the top picture, the man and I just loaded up our plate and chowed down. The meal itself was very tasty, but the potato cups were not as "container-ey" as I wanted them to be. You live, you learn, n'est pas?

XO

.side dish of the week.

So, while hiking with the Man yesterday I decided it would be nice to have a little consistency in my posts. And thus became Side Dish of the Week. Very official sounding, no? Let me know what y'all think over the next few weeks and we'll see what becomes of this idea.

Tonight I made a very easy dish of oven-roasted potatoes and paired them with leftover roast and gravy I made this weekend. Upon perusing a local farmer's market I found these potatoes and they looked far too good to pass up.

I learned how to make this potato recipe quite a few years ago from my then roommate Hope. They are super tender out of the oven and provide a great carb to go with meat, fish, or salad. When Hope makes them she uses a Lipton Recipe Secrets spice mix, which always turns out delicious. I usually just use whatever spices I see fit that I have on hand. Tonight was just a simple sprinkling of salt, pepper and garlic powder. I would say though that you could easily add chili powder to make it spicier, fresh herbs to liven it up, or even cheese after it's out of the oven if that's what you're into. 

 Oven-Roasted Potatoes makes 2 servings
4-6 small potatoes, or 2-3 large potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper and garlic powder for taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Clean the potatoes with some sort of scrubbing brush. Cut them into small sections, bite size or a tad bit larger. Place them on a baking sheet or shallow baking pan. Drizzle the olive oil over them then add the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Mix lightly and bake until tender. Usually 35-40 minutes depending on how thick the pieces are.

And that's it. One of the easiest, albeit time-consuming, side dishes ever. Enjoy!

Cook on!