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.

It’s funny how some foods are portrayed in pop culture. Spinach will make you strong, like Popeye. Thanksgiving turkey is always cut on the table. Cakes are always dripping with pink icing and a cherry on top, which is a look I’ve rarely (if ever) seen on an actual cake. Broccoli is frowned upon by kids who eat it only when forced to do so by their parents.

And Brussels sprouts I grew up knowing, from some ubiquitous source I can’t identify, that Brussels sprouts were just the worst. A vegetable that no one enjoyed. This seeming fact was so ingrained that for years, I avoided them.

Oof. SO much time wasted.

Fortunately, like sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts have been rescued from the soggy casseroles of old that may have contributed to their bad rap and have been resurrected as trendy, tasty sides and appetizers at millennial-bait restaurants around the country. And I couldn’t be happier! After a few tremendous restaurant experiences, I began to notice these green little balls of goodness everywhere and can rarely resist tossing a pound or two into my grocery bag.

Now there are lots of ways to prepare sprouts, and I’m sure that as my relationship with them progresses, I’ll expand my repertoire to include more interesting methods. But for now, I’m still obsessed with them seasoned simply and roasted to crispy, brown perfection.

With only olive oil, salt, pepper, and half an hour in a hot oven, these little vegetables hold their own against chips, popcorn, and French fries.

Now be careful: I’ve burned the ever-loving crap out of sprouts more times that I haven’t. Check them frequently after the 20-minute mark, they can go from a pale gold to smokin’ black in no time.

But if you do succeed, you’re in for a treat! These are great as an appetizer, side dish, or if we’re being perfectly honest, as an after-dinner movie snack that some of us may or may not eat with our fingers like popcorn.

Crispy Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Adapted from Ina Garten

Serves 2-4 (Remember, these will cook down A LOT in size. You may feel overwhelmed by their bulk when you first put them in the oven, but I urge you not to skimp.)

1 pound fresh Brussels sprouts
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher or flaky sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut off the ends of the sprouts and then cut the sprouts in half. Remove yellow or loose outer leaves and discard. Spread sprouts out on a large baking sheet in a single layer and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with half of the salt and pepper and toss well. Add the remaining salt and pepper.

Roast the sprouts for 25-40 minutes, tossing every 10-15 minutes, until the sprouts have browned and are crispy on the outside. Remove from oven and add more salt if desired.

Serve immediately.

But above all else, ’tis the season of local produce, each week appearing in more abundance and variety at farmers markets around the city. And though leafy greens tend to be the very first fresh items available, the truest harbinger of the coming summer bounty is the mighty asparagus spear.

These tender shoots are the rock stars on the local produce stage, producing a short-lived but iconic album every year to their adoring fans. For a brief moment, there is a glut of asparagus, piled high on market tables for eager customers to sort through, seeking the perfect stems. And then, just as suddenly, the harvest is over. This year, during these short lovely weeks of asparagus, I stumbled across this simple recipe that has quickly become my favorite.

Ready You need asparagus. And parmesan cheese. A pan, olive oil, and some pepper. And 10 minutes. That’s it!

The asparagus is cooked whole, in long spears, for just a few minutes until it’s bright green and slightly blistered on all sides. The parmesan cheese lends a salty and tangy flavor to the crisp spears. It’s a quick and easy side dish that really is that simple and pairs well with, well, just about everything.

It even stands well on its own, which I suppose is to be expected from the vegetable that marches at the front of the summer produce parade!

Parmesan Asparagus Spears
Adapted from Simply Recipes

1 T olive oil
a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound asparagus spears
1/2 c freshly grated parmesan cheese

Heat a medium to large frying pan over medium heat. Wash the asparagus, pat it dry, and trim the ends if they are scraggly. Add the olive oil to the frying pan and tilt the pan to coat the bottom. After a few seconds, the oil will begin to glisten. Add the asparagus in a single layer, and shake the pan slightly so the spears roll and become coated in oil. Sprinkle lightly with freshly ground black pepper.

Cook the asparagus for about 8 minutes (a bit longer if you’re using really thick asparagus) tossing frequently to cook it evenly on all sides.

Turn off the heat and lightly sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the asparagus. Without tossing the asparagus, allow the cheese to melt. Carefully lift the asparagus onto a serving platter or directly onto dinner plates, keeping the parmesan side facing up if possible.

My grandmother, who I’ve talked about quite a lot on this site, passed away this week just a few days before her 97th birthday. She was an inspiration to me in almost every way that affects this blog: canning, gardening, cooking, and even just appreciating the delight of fresh, homegrown food. She always insisted that the best recipes were the simplest ones, and that “modern recipes” just had too many unnecessary ingredients. I frequently watched her shake her head and scoff at magazine recipes bedazzled with so many obscure herbs and spices that you’d hardly be able to taste the feature of the dish (let alone afford to make it). Since she was renowned for what she could do with food from seed to table, I usually find it’s best to heed the advice she seemed to live by: grow food, buy fresh, cook simply, and savor the resulting meal.

To honor my grandmother, I want to share with you some of the simple, basic recipes that I rely upon heavily in my daily cooking. I admit, I feel both ridiculous for sharing them and also ridiculous for keeping them from you for so long. Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to share here in this space, and I often think, “nah, they don’t wanna hear about this, it’s nothing fancy.”

But then I remember that many of these dishes have entered my kitchen in only the last few years: why should I assume that they are already in yours It seems unfair to keep them to myself. Plus, while I’m sure we all love the idea of elaborate culinary projects resulting in surprising and impressive dishes, my guess is that most of you (like me) are ultimately just trying to put dinner on the table every night without relying on a microwave dinner or a frozen pizza. For me, having an repertoire composed of simple, savory dishes is the key to making this happen.

This is one of my favorite side dishes both in flavor and style, it goes well with just about anything, and it starts and ends with a bunch of carrots. Though many of us get our carrots mostly in the form of stripped-down nubbins that appear on veggie platters at office parties, this dish uses the whole thing. For this particular dish, I like to use the thinnest carrots I can find.

In fact, I don’t even peel my carrots anymore. Like a potato or an apple, the skin of a carrot contains a higher concentration of nutrients than the rest of the flesh. A bit of strong scrubbing is usually all I need to get nice, clean carrots, and by not peeling, less food is wasted.

Aside from the carrots, you’ll only need two other ingredients: a bit of butter for cooking, and a tablespoon of brown sugar for glazing. A little goes a long way: the sweetness of the carrots will emerge as they cook, and the brown sugar bumps it up just enough to lend a truly remarkable flavor. As usual, I favor dark brown sugar, which contains more molasses and a darker, deeper flavor.

The carrots cook in melted butter for about 20 minutes, and as they cook, they will begin to blister and char. Toss and turn them to make that deliciousness go all the way around!

At the very last minute, when the other elements of your meal are ready, add the sugar. If you cook it too long, the sugar will burn and your carrots will taste, well, burned. I usually toss the carrots around in the sugar just enough to let it dissolve before removing the carrots to a serving platter or straight onto dinner plates.

These carrots go with well with just about anything. I’ve cooked them alongside steak, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and my personal favorite, pork chops. I make them often for just the two of us, but I’d stand proudly behind them at a dinner party, as well. They are best enjoyed while they are still hot, but trust me, they won’t last on your plate long enough to get cold.

Glazed Whole Carrots

Makes 2-3 side dish servings

10-12 whole carrots, the thinnest ones you can find
1 1/2 T unsalted butter
1 T dark brown sugar

Thoroughly scrub the carrots and chop off the stem end and the spindly root. If you can, avoid peeling the carrots. Heat a large flying pan over medium heat and add butter. Once the butter has melted and is bubbling, add the carrots. Cook for about 20 minutes, turning the carrots every few minutes so they cook on all sides. The carrots will begin to blister and char slightly.

Turn off the heat and add the brown sugar. Toss the carrots around in the sugar until they are evenly and lightly coated and the sugar has dissolved in the pan. Don’t keep them in the pan for too long at this point or the sugar may begin to burn and will give your carrots a bitter flavor. Remove carrots from the pan and place on a serving dish or directly onto dinner plates.

Serve immediately.

I’m just gonna come right out and say it. When discussing cheese and pasta, sometimes one must be blunt.

I like stove-top macaroni and cheese more than baked macaroni and cheese.

This is the truth, straight from me to you.

I mean, that’s not to say I won’t consume a mound of baked mac rapidly if it’s served at a potluck, a cookout, or a picnic. And I won’t say no to a fancy mac, like this one I made last year. But the macaroni of my dreams is prepared on the stove-top: al denté, piping hot, and swimming in thin, just-a-little-bit-spicy, orange cheddar cheese sauce.

Is this a product of being raised on the blue box Perhaps. Is this a product of wanting my pasta so firm that it nearly crunches between the teeth, a state that is nearly impossible to achieve when baking pasta That’s probably reading too deeply into the whole thing. Maybe I don’t like the breadcrumbs that typically accompany a baked mac Maybe I don’t like the waiting?

One significant downside of loving so much a mysteriously created product of food science is that it can be incredibly difficult to replicate at home. What the hell is that orange powder anyway I theorize it must be fairy dust, for I have searched for years for a mac and cheese recipe that, if not identical, could at least be a satisfactory homemade replacement to the mac and cheese of my childhood.

Friends, I HAVE FOUND IT.

I beg, beg you to try this mac and cheese. It’s pretty dang easy, fast, and delicious. Like many good sauces, it starts off with a roux, which is a mixture of butter and flour used as a base for many different sauces. Don’t be scared of that fancy-sounding word though! You need not be a trained chef to create a roux. In fact, this was only my second or third time making one, and now I wonder why on Earth I’ve been avoiding them all these years.

In addition to the flour, this roux will involve some spices. Salt, pepper, ground mustard, and paprika accompany the flour, giving not only a little zip to the cheese sauce, but a little bit of extra color. You can add even more if you like your mac spicy!

To make a roux, melt the butter in a large frying pan and then add the flour mixture. You’ll mix it together to form a thick liquid. You can use a fork for this, but I adore my roux whisk. It’s a flat whisk designed exactly for roux-making, and they are easily available. This mixture will form a base for your sauce that will help it thicken once the milk and cheese are added.

Speaking of cheese, I wanted to make my classic mac with classic mac cheese, so I used half a pound of sharp, orange cheddar. I haven’t yet tried this recipe out with a mixture of other cheeses, but I imagine you could use just about whatever you want: white cheddar for sophistication, cheddar and parmesan for something punchy, gouda for something smoky and rich…

Now the noodles. Elbows aren’t actually my favorite shape of pasta, but they really do set the stage for a classic macaroni and cheese dinner, don’t they Like I said, I like my noodles fairly firm, so I cook them just barely to al denté, usually the shortest amount of time recommended by the box. No harm in nibbling on some of the noodles to check their firmness before you finish cooking.

Once the noodles are done and the sauce is complete, the two are joined in one of the greatest arranged marriages of the culinary universe. And it doesn’t even require mysterious orange fairy dust.

Classic Stovetop Mac & Cheese
Adapted from Amanda’s Cookin’

You can use whatever variety – or varieties – of cheese that you like.

1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground yellow mustard
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 c unsalted butter
2 c milk (I used 1%)
8 oz cheddar cheese
1 lb elbow pasta

In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, ground mustard, paprika, and black pepper. Mix well with a fork and set aside. Measure out milk and grate the cheese and set aside.

Add butter to a large skillet or frying pan and heat over medium-low. While the butter melts, begin heating a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.

Once butter has melted, add the flour mixture to the butter. Use a roux whisk or a large fork to mix, whisking constantly. The mixture will begin to smooth out. Once it has cooked for about three minutes, slowly add the milk, whisking the entire time. At some point, the water in the other pot will come to a boil. Add the pasta and cook to al dente.

Once all of the milk has been added to the roux, increase the heat slightly to just below medium. Whisking constantly, the mixture will begin to thicken to a consistency closer to cream than to milk. It should never come to a boil.

When the pasta is cooked to al dente, drain into a colander but do not rinse. The starch from the cooking water will help the cheese sauce to stick to the noodles. Return noodles to the pot and cover until the cheese sauce is ready.

Turn off the heat under the sauce mixture and add the cheese. Whisk for another minute or two until cheese has melted completely and the sauce is smooth. Pour over the drained noodles and mix well.

For most of my life, I’ve eaten corn one of two ways: from a can or on the cob. (And I’m talking about kernels of corn here, not the corn syrup, corn meal, corn starch, and other corn products that certainly make up most of the “corn” in the average American diet.) In the summer, there was no greater thrill than Dad bringing home a bag full of fresh Colorado sweet corn, and I still look forward to the arrival of corn on the cob every time the season rolls around.

But it’s really only in the last few years that I’ve started appreciating fresh corn as an ingredient, as something more than just a cob of kernels slathered with butter. Fresh corn has flavor and texture that give everything from pizza to fajitas a little something extra.

In this dish, corn is not just an ingredient, it’s the star of the show. With two of my other favorite veggies to support it.

A fresh zucchini, half an onion, and two ears of corn. Plus a little seasoning, and that’s all there is to it. And don’t be scared of the corn on the cob, just slice it off with a nice, sharp knife.

None of these veggies take a long time to cook, but all of them are improved with a little bit of searing. Tossed in a frying pan or cast iron skillet for a few minutes is just enough to do the trick.

The result is a warm, crunchy dish that makes a great side and even a great main course. I like taking the leftovers for lunch, which is a great way to get a whole bunch of vegetable action without having to eat a cold salad.

So quick! Before the last weeks of summer and the last ears of sweet corn disappear to make room for the fall harvest, get thee to a farmers market!

Skillet Corn with Zucchini & Onions

2 ears of corn
1 medium zucchini
1 medium white or yellow onion
1 T oil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp seasoned salt

Shuck the ears of corn and remove as many silks as possible. Use a sharp knife to cut the kernels off the cobs. Slice the zucchini in half length-wise, then slice into long strips, then chop into small pieces. Dice the onion.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or frying pan over medium. Once it’s hot, add the corn, onions, zucchini, black pepper, and seasoned salt to the pan and mix well. Cook for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook for about 10 more minutes, turning and stirring occasionally but allowing the mixture to char a bit.

Carefully pour the mixture into a serving bowl. This dish is excellent when served immediately, but it also reheats wonderfully for 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.

I told you on Thursday, when I posted this Ginger Apple Chutney, that I would have a recipe utilizing it that would blow your dang socks off. This, my friends, is it.

I must be honest: until about one year ago, I never so much as ordered potstickers or Chinese dumplings as take-out. I thought they looked, frankly, kind of gross. So sad and pekid compared to the seemingly superior fried wontons farther down the menu.

Oh, how times have changed.

Suddenly, I’ve become obsessed with these tiny pouches of savory filling. I order them whenever I find them on a menu and often abandon any pretense of planning to order an entree, simply doubling up on potstickers. As someone who loves ravioli, finger food, and anything dippable, I really can’t say why it took me 25 years to see the salty, potsticker-y light.

And what better way to truly embrace the potsticker than to make them from scratch Having found this fantastic recipe for filling, I also wanted to try my hand at making homemade wonton/potsticker wrappers. That’s just sort of what I do here.

While it is a bit time-consuming and I totally understand if you want to buy yours from the store, I urge you to try it at least once from scratch, especially if you have a pasta crank. These homemade wrappers are soft, not at all rubbery, and can be made in any size that you want (though I found a 3-inch diameter to be absolutely perfect).

Like most doughs, homemade wonton wrappers start with a sifter full of flour, some warm water, and a fork.

Once the dough is mixed, barely pliable due to its low moisture content, it needs to sit for a while. Just cover the bowl with a damp cloth so the little moisture that IS in this dough doesn’t escape.

After an hour or so, the dough is kneaded for a few minutes until it’s fairly smooth. From here, you have a few options to turn this mound of wheat flour into paper thin wonton wrappers. The source recipe I used for these recommends rolling the dough into a log, slicing the log into discs, and rolling each disc to the desired thickness that will hopefully yield a 3-inch circle.

I decided to scrap those suggestions and take advantage of two of my favorite kitchen gadgets: my pasta crank and a 3-inch Tartmaster (whose full talents weren’t utilized today but that I’ve used on other projects).

Let me once again bestow praise upon my pasta crank. No, it’s not something you absolutely need in your kitchen. But if you have any of the DIY pasta impluses that I do, I highly recommend the investment. I bought a pretty cheap one for about $35 a couple years ago, and for my purposes, it serves me incredibly well. I daydream about those beautiful, fandangled KitchenAid pasta attachments, but I’m gonna need to wait for a wealthier day than this to add those to my arsenal.

But in the meantime, I still used this cheap little crank to form about 50 perfectly round, uniform wonton wraps.

With my tidy little stack of wonton wraps ready to go, it was time to start the filling. I’d already made a batch of ginger apple chutney, so the rest of the filling came together rather quickly. Don’t worry: if you don’t can and don’t want to make the full-size batch, I’ve included a proportional recipe below that will give you just the right amount to make this filling. So you have no excuse.

The chutney is added to a pound of ground pork, which is seasoned with a bit of soy sauce and studded with some fresh, green scallions. It took all of my willpower not to shovel spoons full of it before a single potsticker was made.

But I resisted. And soon, my little potsticker factory was a-churnin’.

To cook them, the key is to have a flat-bottomed pan with a lid. A sauté pan is perfect, but a lidded frying pan or even a wide, lidded pot will work in a pinch. The potstickers are first pan-fried on one side in a bit of oil and then blasted with a little chicken stock to steam. They cook very quickly, so make sure you don’t start cooking them until right before you are ready to eat.

Because trust me: once you do have them cooked, you will absolutely not be able to resist eating every single potsticker in sight.

Homemade Wonton Wrappers
Adapted from La Fuji Mama

Makes 40-55 wrappers

2 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
about 3/4 c very hot water
additional flour for rolling

Sift flour and salt together into a large, wide bowl. Add water a little at a time until you have about 1/4 c of water remaining. Mix flour and water with a fork or chopsticks to form a dough, switching to your fingers when it becomes too difficult to mix with a fork. Add as much of the remaining water as you need to gather all dry ingredients into the dough. Dough should be very stiff and not sticky. Form dough into a ball and leave it in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and allow dough to rest for one hour.

Once dough has rested, remove it from the bowl and knead for 5-10 minutes until dough is fairly smooth. Break off a small chunk of the dough and return the rest to the cloth-covered bowl. If you have a pasta crank, run the small piece of dough through the machine several times, starting on the largest setting and running the dough through at least one time on each setting all the way to “1”. The result should be a long, very thin piece of dough about 4-5 inches wide. If you do not have a pasta crank, roll the dough as thin as you can with a rolling pin on a floured surface.

Use a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter about 3″ in diameter to cut out your wrappers. Dust each side generously with flour until the whole wrapper feels dusty and slightly gritty. This will allow you to stack the wrappers without them sticking together. Continue this process until all dough has been utilized, recombining the scraps to prevent wasting any.

Wrap stack of wrappers tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to add the filling.

Pork & Ginger Apple Potstickers
Adapted from Katie at the Kitchen Door and Alton Brown

Makes 40-45 potstickers

NOTE: I thought it would be a brilliant idea to cook half of these & save the rest for the next day in the fridge. It was not. They all stuck together and tore as I tried to separate them. If you don’t want to cook them all at once, I recommend either keeping the filling separate and making the potstickers right before you cook them, or, you can freeze the constructed potstickers on a cookie sheet and then bag them up for storage. Then, thaw them out for a couple of hours before cooking.

For the Filling
40-50 wonton wrappers (see recipe above or use store-bought, round if you can find them)
1 pound ground pork
1/4 tsp black pepper
2/3 c scallions, chopped into 1/4″ pieces (whites & greens)
3 T soy sauce
1 c ginger apple chutney
OR
Combine the following ingredients according to the instructions listed here to make a batch of chutney proportioned for the potstickers.
1/3 c onion, diced
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 medium crisp apples, peeled & diced into 1/4″ pieces
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp canola oil
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 c apple cider
1/4 c apple cider vinegar

If you are making the small-portion batch of chutney, prepare that recipe first and set chutney aside.

Cook pork until lightly browned using a spatula to break chunks into small pieces. Drain off the excess grease and place pork in a large bowl. Add the black pepper, scallions, soy sauce, and chutney and mix well. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Place 12 wonton wrappers out on a cutting board. Scoop 1-2 tablespoons of filling onto the center of each wonton wrapper. It may take you a few attempts to determine the right amount: the potsticker, when sealed, should be full but not so full that it cannot be sealed closed. Dip the tip of your finger into water and lightly moisten the edge of the wonton wrapper all the way around. Fold the edges together to form a half-moon shape and squeeze the edges to form a seal. For added seal and decoration, you can fold the corners in slightly and make small folds in the edging. Place filled potstickers on another board and cover with a cloth to prevent them from drying out. Continue until all filling has been used.

Cooking the Potstickers
canola or vegetable oil
chicken stock, about 1 cup
chopped fresh chives (for garnishing)

Heat a sauté pan that has a lid (though the lid should not be on it right now) over medium heat. Measure out 1/4 cup of chicken stock and set aside. Brush a bit of oil onto the surface of the pin to form a very thin layer. Place potstickers on their sides into the pan, adding as many to the pan as will fit with a bit of space separating them (I was able to fit 12 in at a time). Allow potstickers to cook WITHOUT MOVING THEM for 2-3 minutes. Holding the 1/4 cup of chicken stock in one hand and the lid of the pan in the other, quickly pour the stock into the pan and immediately place the lid onto the pan. Allow potstickers to steam, undisturbed, for an additional 3 minutes.

Remove lid and remove potstickers to a serving plate. Deglaze the pan with water and repeat the cooking process for the remaining potstickers.

Serve potstickers immediately, garnished with chopped chives and served with dipping sauce if desired.

For the Dipping Sauce
3 T soy sauce
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Combine ingredients in a small dish. Stir well. Dip potstickers very lightly into the sauce, a little goes a long way!

As a junior in college, I moved out of the dorms and into my first apartment. I was thrilled to flex my baby culinary muscles beyond what they could make in a microwave or a contraband toaster, so my friend and I marched to the grocery store to see what there was to see. And what there was to see was Jiffy corn muffin mix, for twenty cents a box. We bought about a dozen boxes and a 2-pack of cheap muffin tins so that each of us could make cornbread at any hour of any day with our new-found kitchens.

Several years have passed, and my kitchen has come a long way since those first cornbread-baking days (though I still have that very same muffin tin). I still make this tasty treat quite a lot, though I haven’t bought a box of the Jiffy for years. Why Because I discovered it’s just as simple to make it from scratch as it is from a mix. Seriously.

This cornbread is a dump-and-stir-and-pour situation. It’s composed of the most basic kitchen ingredients and can bake happily in pans of almost any shape or size. You can make it in a muffin tin, in individual ramekins, in mini loaf pans, or in an 8″x8″ casserole. The prep is simple: toss the ingredients in a bowl and stir them. Then pour them into a pan. Then cook it.

THEN EAT IT.

Sometimes, I long for the simple, carefree days of college. Much of life has become vastly more complicated since my undergraduate days.

But not cornbread. This golden, crumbly bread will always be warm, simple, and nothing but goodness.

Perhaps we should all take a lesson from cornbread.

Quick & Easy Cornbread
Adapted from All Recipes

Makes one 8″x8″ pan or 12-15 corn muffins

1 c all-purpose flour
1 c corn meal
1/4 c granulated white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 c milk
1/4 c canola oil
1 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease an 8″x8″ pan or place liners in a muffin tin. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and whisk together. Pour into the greased pan. If making muffins, fill each muffin cup just over halfway.

Bake 25-30 minutes until top of cornbread is golden brown or until toothpick comes out clean. (For muffins, check at 20 minutes.)

Serve with butter or drizzled with honey.