I’m such a sucker for seasons. Each fall, I revel in the last blasts of colorful leaves before they fall to the ground and the first brisk morning that requires a jacket and boots. When winter arrives, the first snowfall leaves me breathless at its beauty. Then, as the days lengthen and spring erupts out of every bulb and tree bud, I wonder how I ever functioned without it. I swear, as appealing as climates like San Diego sometimes feel, I really don’t know what I’d do without the anticipation and satisfaction provided by shifting seasons.

At the moment, I’m clamoring for summer. For late evening walks in short-sleeved tees and sunlight after 8pm and COOKOUTS and mini golf. This weekend, after several days of positively gorgeous weather that hinted at the season to come, I quite simply couldn’t take it anymore and I pretended it had arrived right in my own kitchen by whipping up a batch of barbecue pulled pork and a simple, delightful potato salad that tastes just like summer.

I freakin’ love potato salad, and this one checks all the boxes I look for in a ideal scoop. Smooth chunks of potato still in their skins, a tangy assortment of crunchy mix-ins, cool and crisp, and most importantly, LIGHTLY DRESSED. I’m not interested in swimming through an ocean of mustard-flavored mayonnaise to uncover the 2-3 pieces of potato that may be hidden within, thank you very much. Most importantly, this salad is composed of pretty basic ingredients that I almost always have on hand and comes together fairly quickly.

My favorite part of the light dressing This salad doesn’t get soggy. In fact, I feel like the flavor only improves the longer it chills in the fridge fully mixed.

If you have a picnic or a potluck to attend soon, I highly recommend bringing this along. Or, if you just want to have a fake picnic in your apartment in late April and then eat the leftovers for a few days at lunch since you didn’t have a giant group of people to share it with, I highly recommend it for that, too.

(Summer’s coming!)

Potluck Potato Salad
Adapted from Better Homes & Garden and Smitten Kitchen

Makes 8-10 side dish servings

Note: We have a celery-hater in our house, so I don’t include it despite the fact that it’s a pretty classic ingredient in potato salad. If you want some celery in your salad, dice up a 1/2 cup and mix it in with the onions, eggs, and pickles.

2 pounds of red potatoes, scrubbed clean
3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1/2 c diced red onion
1/2 c diced dill pickle
1/2 c diced celery (optional)
1/2 c mayonnaise
1 T brown mustard
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Scrub potatoes clean but keep the peels on. Cover with 2-3 inches of water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Cover and cook at a rolling boil for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.

While the potatoes are boiling, chop the eggs, onions, and pickles and place in a large mixing bowl. In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, dill, salt, and pepper. Keep in the refrigerator until you are ready to mix the salad.

Drain and cool the potatoes until they can be comfortably handled with bare hands. Cut the potatoes into cubes, discarding any large strips of skin that come off easily.

Add the potatoes and dressing to the large mixing bowl with the other ingredients and mix well. Chill the salad for 2-3 hours or until you are ready to serve.

And it’s not just for dinner! I’ve now become quite obsessed with using corn in breakfast. In this particular one, it joints a few other mid-summer veggies (also bacon) as a really, really good hash.

The corn, green onions, and bacon provide a nice crunch against tender new potatoes, and a soft-cooked egg truly make this a meal worth eating.

So pretty, so tasty, and so much excellent summer flavor!

Le sigh. I just want every morning to be a slow summer morning that starts with this.

Corn & Bacon Hash
Adapted, just a smidge, from Smitten Kitchen

6 slices of thick-cut bacon, diced
1 pound red potatoes, cut into small cubes
2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the corn
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Cook bacon in a large frying pan over medium heat until the fat is rendered. Once it is crisp, use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. Leave the fat in the pan and add the potatoes.

Increase the heat to medium-high. Sprinkle potatoes with half of the salt and pepper. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes can easily be pierced with a fork and are golden-brown on the the outside.

Add the corn to the skillet and bump the heat up just a bit. Cook the potatoes and corn together for 5-6 minutes, stirring frequently, until the corn browns a bit.

Heat a small frying pan over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of butter and crack an egg into the skillet, taking care not to break the yolk. Allow to cook for 1-2 minutes, then flip the egg to cook the other side. Cook for a minute more for an over-medium egg. Remove to a small plate and repeat with the second egg.

While the eggs finish cooking, add the drained bacon and the green onions to the corn and potatoes and mix well. Turn off the heat and season to taste with the remaining salt and pepper.

Serve a couple scoops of hash and top with one of the eggs.

A couple months ago, while trying to develop some easy, fairly-healthy meal options that also allowed me to keep the oven on for an hour in an effort to ward off Midwestern winter, I made baked potatoes for dinner one night. Not as a side, but as the whole damn meal. And you know what It was AMAZING. Why was this not part of my regular meal routine It is now, by the way: I’ve repeated this tasty dinner several times since the inaugural attempt, and I’ve learned a lot about baking a delightful potato in the meantime.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Scrub as many Russet potatoes as you want to bake and pat dry. Russets make the best baking potatoes because of their low moisture content. Those light and fluffy insides can’t be light and fluffy if they are full of water, like Yukon Gold or a red potato. Use yellow and red for mashed potatoes, use russets for baking and french fries.

Also, you may notice that I’m baking six potatoes, WAY more than two people need to eat for dinner. I’ve found that I love using leftover baked potatoes later in the week, either reheated just as they are, or chopped into coins and pan-fried (recipe coming later), or even cubed and transformed into home fries. It’s a great way to consolidate the work of multiple meals into one evening of cooking.

2. Pierce each potato with a fork 6-8 times to allow steam to escape as the potatoes bake.

3. Lightly rub all potatoes with olive oil, then sprinkle generously with flaky or coarse salt on all sides. This will help the jacket stay crispy and flavorful. We’re not going to wrap them in foil, as that would create a soft and soggy jacket.

4. Place potatoes directly on the oven rack. You can also place them on a baking sheet if you prefer, though you might lose some of the crunchiness of the skin on the bottom of the potato. I love that crunchiness, so I put them right on the racks.

5. Bake for 55-65 minutes. While the potatoes bake, you can prepare your toppings or any other components of dinner you have in mind. Or just sit on the couch and wait for them do finish, your call!

6. Remove potatoes from the oven. Potatoes should be somewhat springy when you squeeze them and a fork should pierce them without resistance. Larger potatoes or a large quantity of potatoes may take longer to bake.

7. Add toppings as you like, and enjoy! My favorite combo of late is thick-cut bacon, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and green onions. Chili is divine. I also love them with simply butter, salt, and pepper.

How do you dress up your potatoes?

Happy December, friends! I feel like the super-late date of Thanksgiving has caused December to sneak up on me even more rapidly than usual. For me, December usually equates to a significant uptick in baking, candy-making, and gift-crafting that keeps me in the kitchen late into the night breaking up toffee and tying ribbon around pretty little boxes of mulling spices before packing them gently in bubble wrap and shipping them to friends and family across the continent.

And as much as I might like to convince myself that I can survive on party mix, mini cheesecakes, and pomegranate salsa, I work really hard to make sure I also have some real food in my fridge to sustain me. Something, warm, easy to prepare after late nights of baking, and filling enough to get through the busy days. To keep cooking to a minimum, I often turn to soups.

I had a bit of a soup explosion last fall and posted A LOT of them on the site: Butternut Squash Soup, my Favorite Chili, Sweet Potato Soup, Colorado Cape Cod Chowder, and more. This year I’ve been repeating many of those soups, but I did discover a simple potato leek soup recipe that I HAD to share with you.

Like so many soups, this one has fairly humble components: potatoes, leeks, and an onion make up the base, and a little butter, salt, pepper, and cream bring it all together.

The potatoes and onions get a rough chop, and the leeks should be cut in slivered rounds, then rinsed to remove any dirt hiding between the layers. If you’ve not cooked with leeks before — I hadn’t until a year or so ago — I highly recommend them. They are sweet and bright, rather like a green onion in flavor, and the play so nicely with the potatoes and onions that I didn’t even use chicken stock at risk of masking their flavor.

Once everything is chopped, it all heaps into a pot for a little less than an hour to cook to softness.

Then, in keeping with my favorite soup tradition, it’s all whirled together with an immersion blender. You can also work in batches using a food processor if you don’t have an immersion blender.

Once it is seasoned to taste, the soup is very thick: you may feel the need to add more water or even some milk to loosen it up a bit. But I rather like it thick, as it is almost almost like eating mashed potatoes for lunch every day for a week. Not a bad thing, in my book.

Potato Leek Soup
Adapted from The Pleasures of Cooking for One

Makes 4-6 meal servings, 8-10 sides

2 T butter
3-4 leeks
1 medium onion
about 3 pounds yellow potatoes
6 cups water
1 tsp black pepper
1 T kosher salt
1/4 c heavy cream
sour cream to garnish
green onions to garnish

Trim the dark green tops off the leeks. Chop up the white and light green parts of the leeks and place them in a bowl of water. This will allow any dirt to fall to the bottom; the leeks will float at the top. Remove the leeks to colander and set aside. Peel and chop the onion and potatoes.

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and sauté for about 5 minutes until they have softened. Add the leeks and potatoes and allow them to sweat for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the water, the pepper, and about half of the salt and bring to a boil. Cook at a low boil for about 40 minutes, covered with a lid that is slightly askew. Once the potatoes are very tender, remove from the heat. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. You can also transfer in batches to a food processor if you don’t have an immersion blender. If the soup is too thick for your liking, add a bit more hot water.

Stir in the cream and taste, add more salt as needed. Serve hot, garnished with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of chopped green onion.

This soup reheats very well and makes excellent leftovers.

For most people in the US of A, myself included, french fries are the primary way that we consume potatoes. Sure, we eat mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving and heaped atop shepherd’s pies, and certainly a fair number of potatoes turn into potato chips. But mostly, we eat fries. I even figured out how to make my own a few months ago, and boy oh boy are they delicious.

But I’d like to propose that we overthrow King French Fry from its mighty throne over potatoes everywhere. I don’t want to kick ’em out, just bring them back down on an equal plane with other potatoes.

And in the vacuum, let’s make THESE instead.

Despite the fact that I grew up enjoying new potatoes from my grandparents’ garden every summer, I had never once before this spring considered buying a batch of teeny little potatoes to make at home. My dad was in town to visit so I decided to try out a recipe I’d been eying in the beautiful Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. The author herself (eeeee! I met her!) said that her Flat Roasted Chicken with Tiny Potatoes seems to be one of the more popular among her readers, so with an excellent excuse like company in the house, I gave it a shot. The chicken was delicious, but it was the potatoes that stole my heart.

Tiny and tender, they literally burst in your mouth with warm, fresh flavor. Because they are so small, you can roast them whole, which keeps them moist inside with a slightly crispy skin outside. They make the most excellent side dish to, well, everything: chicken, pork chops, vegetables, burgers, steaks… I couldn’t possibly wait until I had another whole chicken to make these potatoes again.

Though the flavor is not identical, you don’t need a chicken draped across these potatoes to make them really, really delightful. In a small baking dish, all you need to add is a little olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper.

Now the truth is that these are not fast food: these little guys need a 45 minute ride in the oven to reach crispy, roasted perfection. They could probably even stand to stay in there a bit longer, if you have the time. But really, it’s just about right: pop these in the oven before you begin cooking whatever else you’re making in your meal, and by the time you’re done, you’ll have a simple but utterly delightful side dish for whatever is on your menu.

Repeat. Often.

Roasted Tiny Potatoes
Inspired by The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

1 – 1 1/2 pounds tiny potatoes (new potatoes, pee wee creamers, fingerlings, or similar)
2 T olive oil
1 tsp flaky sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F. Thoroughly wash potatoes and lightly pat dry to remove excess water. Dump potatoes into a medium, oven-safe dish so that potatoes are spread no more than two deep. Lightly drizzle 1 T of olive oil over the potatoes. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the potatoes and mix with a spoon to spread the seasoning evenly.

Roast uncovered for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes and adding the remaining olive oil halfway through. Skins should begin to wrinkle and brown slightly.

Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before serving. Serve with EVERYTHING.

Every once in a while, I come across a recipe for a homemade version of a dish that I’ve previously classified as “will-never-be-made-as-well-at-home” that blows my mind. It’s the culinary equivalent of an explorer uncovering an ancient temple, a researcher finding stunning results, an eager learner having their first philosophical epiphany. I’ve felt this on a number of things I’ve shared with you here: yogurt, fresh mozzarella, handmade pasta, beef jerky… all products that, a few years ago, I never would have considered being possible.

Such was my opinion with french fries. I always heard other people talk about making them, but I was firmly convinced that they couldn’t possibly be as good as fries I could get from my local burger joint. I’d learned that the best fries are cooked twice: once to actually cook the potato so the inside of the fry is light and smooth, and again to give that light-and-smoothness a crisp outer shell. There was no way I could be bothered to hand-cut my own fries, purchase large quantities of oil, possibly a deep-frier, and then cook TWICE a side dish that I could have exactly perfect in 10 minutes from a dozen restaurants near by.

Folks, I have never been so wrong.

This method, which I’ve repeated already and plan to again, is SO easy and SO satisfying. No special equipment is required beyond what I’ll wager you already have in your kitchen. The ingredients are simple and few. And let me repeat: it is breathtakingly easy.

It starts, of course, with the humble but mighty potato. Russet potatoes are generally considered the best fry-making potatoes due to their high-starch, low-sugar content that yields a very fluffy baked potato or, in this case, a very fluffy inner-fry. Now that I know how to make these fries, I may invest in a fry-slicer, but it didn’t take long to chop these potatoes into sheets and then strips.

You can see I’ve left my potatoes unpeeled. I like a more rustic fry. Plus, potato skin is packed with fiber. Plus it makes more interesting pictures. But you can certainly peel your potatoes before slicing them if you prefer.

Once the fries are cut, they are added to a cold pot. I use a 6-quart Dutch oven, but any wide, heavy pot will do. Then oil is added to cover the fries by about an inch.

Then to the stove! As I mentioned earlier, many fries are cooked twice. These ones are not: they are simply cooked slowly. The oil is added cold, but as it heats over medium, it gently poaches the fries to give them that fluffy center we’re after.

Then, once the fries are so tender you can pierce them with a fork with no effort at all, the heat gets cranked up for the “second cooking”, which will give our fries the crisp outer shell we want.

You’ll be able to feel the difference with your spatula as the fries begin to crisp. They will be easier to move around the pot and will clank against one another as hard objects rather than soft ones. It’s only a matter of minutes after that before their color changes to golden brown and they are ready to remove from the oil.

Out of the oil, I seasoned these fries with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. It took all my willpower not to eat them all before I finished photographing them.

These fries are truly splendid. They’re not instant, but they can be ready in less than an hour, and the slow-cooking allows you to work on other dishes at the same time.

I will never doubt again. (Ha.)

Also!

30 Pounds of Apples has been nominated for The Homies,  a series of blog awards from Apartment Therapy and The Kitchn!

My site has been nominated in TWO categories: Best Recipe Blog & Best Food Photography on a Blog. First round of voting is this week, and you can vote once in each category. If I stay in the top six, I move on to round two!

If you like what you read here, please go vote! If you don’t already have an Apartment Therapy account you have to make one, but it’s easy and they don’t spam you, the account is their way of preventing spam comments on their own sites. I’d love your support!

Really Awesome Homemade French Fries
Adapted from Bon Appétit

2 pounds Russet potatoes
2 quarts vegetable oil (may need slightly more or less, depending on the size of your pot)
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Vigorously scrub potatoes to remove any dirt particles and remove any eyes with a knife. Pat dry. Cut potatoes into long strips, about 3/8″ inch on each side. If you are using a knife, you can slice each potato into 3/8″ sheets, then slice each sheet to form the strips. Spread the strips evenly in the bottom of a large, wide-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, stacking them no more than two or three deep. Pour the vegetable oil over the strips until they are covered by about an inch.

Line a cookie sheet with paper towels, or my preference, one side of a brown grocery bag, and set aside.

Place the pot over medium heat. Once the oil begins to bubble, continue to cook, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes. Use a heat-safe spatula to occasionally loosen the strips from the bottom of the pot and turn them, taking care not to splash hot oil on yourself. Once the potatoes are very tender and can be pierced effortlessly with a fork, increase the heat to medium-high. Cook the fries for another 10-15 minutes, turning often with the heat-safe spatula, until they are golden-brown and crisp. Working quickly to avoid burning them, lift the fries from the oil with a slotted spatula or spoon and dump them on the paper-lined cookie sheet. Once all fries are out of the oil, turn off the heat and allow the oil to cool.

Keeping the fries on the cookie sheet, season lightly with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss fries to evenly distribute the seasoning and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Serve immediately, or, if  you have a bit to wait until dinner, place the cookie sheet in the oven. Heat the oven to 200°F and then turn it off so that the fries stay warm but do not continue to cook. Remove from the oven immediately before serving.

Let me begin by saying that I realize the title of this post doesn’t make sense. Colorado is home to neither capes nor cod. I know.

I also know that I cooked this meal in North Carolina and cooked this meal using East Coast cod.

In addition, I have no idea what chowder from Cape Cod actual tastes like. No idea what the recipe is. So despite the fact that both my mom and grandma have been making “Cape Cod Chowder” (as is written in my grandma’s hand on a splattered recipe card) to ward off the chill of January in Colorado for my entire life, I couldn’t really call it that for fear of the wrath of proper Cape Cod residents with their own opinions on what is or is not Cape Cod Chowder.

It’s rather dizzying.

But I adore this soup. I look forward, each winter, to the stick-to-your-bones warmth provided by this hearty meal composed of relatively simple ingredients.

As most good soups do, this one starts with an onion, chopped up and sautéed in a bit of butter. The onion is followed by a pile of potatoes, some seasoning, and water.

After the potatoes have simmered and softened for a few minutes, a filet of fresh cod is added to the pot to steam atop the hot potatoes and onions before adding corn and evaporated milk.

Now for full disclosure, I must confess: I don’t particularly care for fish. In fact the first few times I flexed my post-adolescent cooking muscles in my tiny apartment kitchen, I defiantly excluded the cod from this chowder and added extra potatoes. However, in an effort to try to eat more fish and to give you a recipe with some semblance of balance, I gave it a shot again. Do I still guiltily prefer this soup without cod You bet. But I feel like I’m doing a good thing for my body by keeping it in the recipe.

This meal can be done, start to finish, in less than an hour. It makes fabulous leftovers and freezes pretty well, so a large batch can last you for quite some time. And if you’re like me, you can leave the fish out. If you like fish, you can add more.

And even if you live on Cape Cod, you can still make this and protect your chowder heritage. Because this is Colorado Cape Cod Chowder from a North Carolina food blogger.

Make sense?

Colorado Cape Cod Chowder
Adapted slightly from a family recipe

3 T unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced (should yield about 2 cups)
2 lbs potatoes, peeled cut into 1″ cubes
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
2 bay leaves
2 c water
12 oz fresh or frozen cod, cut into 1″ cubes
two 15-oz cans corn with liquid
one 12-0z can evaporated milk (I used 2%, but you can use regular as well)

Dice onion and peel potatoes. Melt butter over medium heat in a large pot. Add onions and sauté for about 5 minutes until onions are soft. While the onions are cooking, cut potatoes into one-inch cubes. After the onions have softened, add potatoes, salt, pepper, basil, bay leaves, and water to the pot and stir well. Cover the pot and increase heat to medium-high. Cook for about 15 minutes.

While the potatoes cook, cut the cod into one-inch cubes. After 15 minutes, you should be able to easily stab the potatoes with fork, but they should not be totally soft. Place cod on top of the potatoes, not stirring, and re-cover the pot. Cook for an additional 10 minutes until the cod flakes easily with a fork. Add the corn and evaporated milk and stir well. Cover and bring just to boiling.

Remove from heat and remove lid. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

Yes, those are beach umbrellas.

Yes, that’s a coffee table on a tenth-floor oceanfront balcony.

Yes, that’s homemade breakfast.

We just got back from a fabulous weekend at the beach, a weekend filled with sand and sun and all other manner of beach-y fun. But I also couldn’t resist the opportunity to utilize the full kitchen in our room. Unsure of what this little kitchen might keep in its cupboards, I packed, um, one or two essentials and tossed them in the car with my swimsuit and flip flops.

And to cook I didn’t really have any meals in mind, but I filled a cooler with a smattering of ingredients anyway and put them in the car along with my box-o-kitchen-gear.

It turned out that breakfast on our first morning there was a great time to cook (Brad sleeps in like a champ). Based on the ingredients I had, I found two tasty latke recipes, which sounded so good I decided to combine them. I love a good potato pancake, and adding zucchini (first of the season!) seemed like an excellent idea.  After I had set my heart on these little cakes of joy, I discovered one flaw in my plan: I had forgotten the box grater.

No grater! I know I unloaded it from the dishwasher, how did it not make it into the box!?! After maniacally opening every drawer and cupboard in the kitchen in search of cooking utensils (and finding only a spatula, a can opener, and a corkscrew), I tried to regain control. This was no big deal. Surely I could figure out how to fry some dang vegetables into a patty without the comfort and ease of my trusty grater.

Luckily I had not forgotten a big sharp knife. After much, much, much chopping, breakfast was near! Without long shreds of potato and zucchini, I was a little nervous about the patties holding together. How could these little chunks of vegetable adhere to one another strongly enough to become a latke But miracle of miracles! Eggs and flour came to the rescue (as usual), and with some careful, two-spatula flipping, these little pancakes came out golden-brown, crispy, and full of flavor.

I’ve enjoyed latkes before with a little sour cream, but I did not have any in my tiny arsenal of ingredients. I did have cream, though, and after a few minutes of vigorous whipping and a dash of salt, I had just the dollop I was looking for. Thank goodness I didn’t forget a whisk.

And then breakfast! Enjoyed in the warm May sunshine and a salty breeze.

And with one hell of a view.

Makeshift Zucchini Latkes & Savory Cream
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, both here and here

For the Latkes
1 1/2 c zucchini, finely chopped or grated
2 c potatoes, finely chopped or grated
3/4 c onion, finely chopped or grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 c flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
canola oil for frying

Slice zucchini in half length-wise and scoop out seeds with a spoon before chopping or grating. Finely chop or grate zucchini, potatoes, and onion and combine in a strainer. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can through the strainer. Pour vegetables into a large bowl and add garlic, egg, flour, salt, black pepper, and lemon juice. Stir until thoroughly combined.

In a large frying pan, add canola oil until the bottom is coated and heat over medium until oil glistens. Once oil is hot, carefully scoop a heaping tablespoon of the vegetable mixture into the pan and flatten with the back of the spoon. Use spoon to tuck stray pieces of potato or zucchini up against the latke if needed. Add three or four spoonfuls to your pan, depending on the size, to cook multiple latkes at once. Allow latke to cook for 2-3 minutes. Use a flat spatula to carefully lift latke from the pan. Then, have another spatula on hand to flip the latke onto, then returning it to the pan to allow the other side to cook. I found I had fewer tragedies using this method rather than flipping the latke with one spatula. Once both sides are golden brown and crisp, remove latkes to a plate lined with paper towels.

Serve hot with a dollop of savory cream (see below) for dipping.

For the Savory Cream

1/4 c heavy cream
dash of salt

Pour cream into a bowl and whisk/beat until cream has thickened to the point where it holds a soft peak. I found that returning the cream to the fridge every few minutes (mostly when I had latkes to flip) helped to keep the cream cold enough to hold shape.

Once cream has thickened, add just a little bit of salt to taste.

Yesterday was dreary. And lazy. I got up at 11:30 and did approximately nothing until 4:30. Nothing. It. Was. Glorious. Lazy days like this come rarely. I can normally talk myself into doing something moderately productive, even on the weekends: errands, cooking projects, editing photos, planting seeds, writing posts. But yesterday, for five surprising hours, nothing.

I crave soup on days like yesterday. Something warm, something filling, something that simmer and bubbles on the stove while the gray sky presses down outside. I have some old standbys, yes, but my friend Sara brought this one to my attention a while back, and let me tell you: it’s perfect for a dreary, lazy day because it’s super easy and comfort food to the max.

There’s really not much to it. Potatoes, some nice sharp cheddar, milk, chicken broth (which could easily be swapped out for vegetable broth, I imagine), a little onion, some seasoning, and pretty little scallions for a garnish.

Soooo comfort food Check. Now how does it help with the lazy part Well, once the potatoes and onion are chopped and the cheese is grated, this is so fast and so low maintenance.

In fact it’s so easy, I just really don’t think there’s anything more to say about it.

Today, it’s back to work, but I’m daydreaming of the next lazy day that finds it’s way into my schedule.

Potato Cheddar Soup
Adapted from Cooking Light

Makes about 5 cups

1 T butter
1 c onion, diced
2 1/2 T all-purpose flour
3 c red potato, cubed into 1/2″ inch pieces
1 1/4 c milk
1 1/4 c chicken broth
1/2 c water
1/8 tsp salt (more to taste if you’re using low-sodium broth)
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 c sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2-3 scallions (greens only), chopped as a garnish

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and saute until tender. Add flour and stir until evenly combined. Add potato, milk, chicken broth, water, salt, and pepper and mix well. Bring pot to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Remove pan from heat and immediately add cayenne, garlic, and cheddar. Stir briskly until cheese is melted. Adjust seasoning as desired.

When serving, top with a sprinkle of scallions.

Once upon a time, in a time not so long ago, a boy and a girl dreamed of eating hot, homemade breakfast every day. They did not hate the yummy but mundane breakfasts they had grown accustomed to, but as the season grew colder, the yogurt and oatmeal of summer days excited them less and less.

One day, while replenishing their stores at ye olde supermarket, the boy decided to see what treasures were held in the depths of the frozen breakfast aisle.

“Alas!” said the boy, upon gazing at the scroll of ingredients, “Even the scribes don’t know these words!” Indeed, the script upon the package seemed to suggest the meal was more chemical than food.

Suddenly, the girl had an idea.

“What if, instead of wasting all this packaging and filling our bellies with low quality food, we make our own frozen breakfasts#8221;

The boy’s eyes lit up at the thought, and they escaped the chilly aisles before succumbing to the tempting packages within.

The first step, they knew, was to procure some containers that were just the right size. So they rode their chariot to the Pyrex outlet to round up a dozen 1-cup containers, each one made of glass and accompanied by an airtight lid. They were safe for the freezer, the microwave, and their incredible dish-washing machine. A perfect find!

Next, the girl made a trip to the weekly gathering of farmers to collect onions, potatoes, sausage, and eggs so that they might create the perfect breakfast. This way, their breakfast could not only be hot and homemade, but also would support the produce of local farmers and ranchers. Except for the boy’s preference of Egg Beaters, which she used in his half of the breakfasts, she succeeded in finding everything else she needed and began the trek home.

Finally, it was time to cook. The girl pulled out her trusty frying pans, cutting board, and chefs knife and set to building the feast.

Each container was tenderly constructed, and it was just a short time later that the cups were complete.

The girl carefully stacked the cups in their own frozen chamber. And with just a couple of hours every couple of weeks, their stock could be replenished easily to match their every breakfast wish! Bacon instead of sausage Crumbled biscuit instead of potatoes Extra eggs The possibilities were endless.

The boy and the girl could now satisfy their every craving for a warm and filling breakfast without having to tolerate myriad preservatives and chemicals unknown.

And they ate breakfast happily ever after.

Breakfast Cups

Makes 12 portions, each about 3/4 cup of breakfast-y goodness

1 batch Breakfast Potatoes
1 lb ground sausage
6 eggs (or 3 eggs & 1/2 bottle of egg beaters if you’re at my house)
1 c medium cheddar cheese, grated
3 T salsa
black pepper and seasoned salt

Set out 12 small, freezer safe containers, each one about 1 cup in size. Prepare a batch of Breakfast potatoes and set aside. In a medium frying pan, cook sausage until cooked through and lightly browned, being sure to crumble the sausage into small bits. Drain off grease and pour sausage into a colander over paper towels to drain further. Set aside. Scramble eggs (or egg beaters) the way you like them! I scramble mine in a bit of butter, seasoned with seasoned salt & black pepper, followed by some medium salsa for a little kick.

Divide potatoes evenly across your containers, followed by sausage, and finally doing the same with the eggs. Top each with a bit of cheddar cheese. Place lids on containers and press out as much air as possible.

Store in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for a couple of months (not that they’ll last that long). If frozen, remove lid and microwave for 60-90 seconds to reheat. Refrigerated cups will need about 30 seconds.