Today was a cooking extravaganza (at least by my standards). It started last week when I had a hankerin' for for home fries. This was a hankerin' time could not satiate so they carried over to today. But searching the www reveals quite a controversy over the best way to prepare home fries. For example, Rachel Ray says to do them in the oven, Emeril Lagasse says they should be parboiled, and Bobby Flay just throws them straight into a skillet.
So in light of all this debate, I turned to a Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
that Melissa has. The great thing about this book is that they try recipes a bunch of different ways and explain the pros and cons of each until they settle on the best. We've cooked several things out of this and each of been very good. They agree with Emeril, so I would parboil them first, then throw them in the skillet for finishing.
The home fries are a side dish. For the main course Melissa wanted pancakes. Like home fries, everyone has their own "the best pancakes ever" recipe. Melissa wanted to try one that her parents have been making using whole wheat flour, oatmeal and oat bran (good thing the plumber confirmed the toilets are in working order early this week).
Pancakes are quick, but boiling potatoes is going to take some time, so I needed an appetizer. We bought a pineapple earlier this week and I thought grilling them would be tasty. I kind of combined a bunch of recipes from around the web and ended up slathering them with a 2-to-1 honey and lemon juice mix with a dash of hot sauce. I put them on the George Foreman Grill rather than the real grill. The lack of grill marks made them less attractive than I wanted, but no less tasty. They would make a good dessert with some ice cream and angel food cake too.
Here's where the real cooking started. I had four things to make at the same time: The potatoes, pancakes, a blueberry-lemon syrup and bacon. Why bacon? Why
not bacon?!?! It makes everything better. Specifically it serves two purposes here: first, I needed some protein (no, I don't think that's a stretch. Meat protein, right?). Second, I was trying to think of a way to jazz up the potatoes a bit. My solution was to substitute the bacon drippings for the potatoes recipe's canola oil. Hhhhmmmm, bacon grease.
I was a little concerned about managing so many dishes. To help, I jotted down some recipe notes on a piece of paper and taped it to the cabinet right in front of me. It provided the measurements, key instructions and itinerary right there so I didn't have to leave my station. As a result, I think it all went pretty good. The only problem was the potatoes. Despite all the testing at Cook's Illustrated kitchens, the potatoes weren't nearly ready when they should have been. Melissa came to the rescue, telling me to add a little water to the skillet and cover it for a few minutes. That saved the potatoes and allowed me to serve everything at the same time.
Melissa said it was my best breakfast yet. With bacon and potatoes, how could it not be? The final tally:
- Sweet and Spicy Grilled Pineapple - 4 stars
- Bacon Fried Home Fries* - 5 stars
- Plain and Simple Bacon - 4.5 stars (doing bacon in the oven takes a lot longer than the microwave, but its worth it)
- Oats and Bran Pancakes* - 5 stars
- Blueberry Citrus Syrup* - 4.5 starts
Was she being a little generous? Who cares! I'm taking what I can get.
A quick note about the rest of the weekend - I finished part one of the latest home repair project and will being
working on the video.
* These recipes are not available on the web. To protect against copyright infringement,
let me know if you'd like me to email you the recipes.
