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Crispy sticky mashed potatoes

I'm not usually a fan of mashed potatoes, but when you fry them in a very hot oven in butter and oil then I start to like them. This is based on a Nigella Lawson recipe that she calls Sticky Garlic Potatoes. I really didn't change too much - just slightly reduced the garlic and used regular potatoes. Oh, and added some butter so I could live up to my 'ChefMoreButter' nickname. I served these with a roasted chicken and I used the garlic 'scented' potato water to make the gravy. It was delicious! Something to think about if you decide to make these potatoes. They're a little time consuming but well worth the effort. Besides - what else do we housewives/single parents have to do? (yes, I'm joking)

Leftover Tuesdays Pantry Challenge

 

It's Leftover Tuesdays again this month, after a little summer vacation in July. This month's event is being hosted by Pam at Project Foodie. Pam has come up with a great leftovers theme - the Pantry Challenge. This month we are to dig deep and use up whatever we can find, either in the pantry, the fridge or the freezer. My recipe is a casserole creation. I can't really say that there is a recipe for this, but I could re-create it pretty easily so I'll write down the 'formula'. In it is leftover macaroni and cheese from the fridge, the last little bit of penne from the pantry, the bottom of a bag of peas from the freezer, and the last little bit of cheese that I think was starting to go from the cheese drawer. And good thing I looked at the picture again because I just remembered the leftover frozen cooked chicken and some cooked bacon I added in. All together it actually turned out pretty good.

Baked Breaded Chicken Breast

 

Baked breaded chicken breasts were really good. Bone-in skin on chicken breasts were on sale at the grocery store, so I needed something fairly easy to do with them. There is a long cooking time, but it was great for me - time enough to get the chicken in, go play at the park, and come home to a great supper. My bread crumbs were made from frozen slices of homemade whole wheat bread. You can use purchased dry bread crumbs, but you can dry out some bread while you're preheating your oven, and just 'crumb' them in the food processor. Any leftovers can be stored in the freezer, or dried out completely and stored in your pantry.