Hand pies, pasties, whatever you want to call them are a great alternative to making a sandwich when you’re headed out on a mini-picnic (in March!), so I made these Potato Leek and Cheddar ones before heading out. Bacon would have been a lovely addition but I didn’t have any in the fridge. So yummy. So easy too — just remember to take the puff pastry out of the fridge the night before. And I am off on my mini-adventure!
While we’re wrapping up “Bread Week” here at CSPS, here is another bread-like recipe — Bacon Cheddar Chive Biscuits. OMG are these good. Absolutely phenomenal. I think the the trick to making them so flaky is to freeze the butter ahead of grating and then adding to the dough. It’s a little crumbly when you go to roll it out, but trust me, it will work. These are, hands down, the best biscuits that I have ever had. Here they are pictures as my breakfast,but they would also go great with soup or salad or as a dinner roll. Trust me, you’ll want to make them. Besides: Bacon. Cheddar. What could go wrong there!
Chicken soup is always a hearty, nourishing, “makes yah feel good” type of food and that was just what I wanted today. I was also lazy, so I went the “lazy person route” and just bought a rotisserie chicken at Whole Foods. And instead of noodles, this time I went for rice — Himalayan Red Rice, in fact. It lends itself to soup as the rice stays firm for a pretty long time and have a nice nutty flavor. If you can’t find Himalayan Red Rice, any long grain “wild” rice will do (just don’t use white rice because you have mush instead of rice after a very short time).
Last Tuesday was Mardi Gras, so I was thinking about New Orleans, and thinking about New Orleans usually has me thinking of food, so here is an updated version of my Gumbo, this time adding shrimp/prawns as well. Super delicious, not overly spicy (that sort of depends on your andouille sausage) and makes a whole lot so be prepared for leftovers (freezes well as well).
The Superbowl is this weekend, and like I often remind people this time of year, I am not an American Football fan, so I don’t have a specific team to follow, but I do watch. And it’s always a good excuse to make party snacks. Here I made some Bacon Cheddar Potato Skins …. oh so good. When I make these, I always try to find the smallest Russet potatoes that I can — like about the size of my palm. Often they are so big that you could make a boat out of them. Definitely aim for the smallest potatoes you can find here, but don’t sub out other smaller varieties like yukon gold or red potatoes; waxy potatoes won’t work here.
These are a little time consuming (the making the baked potatoes first) but they are very much worth the effort. Yummy!