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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)

String Beans - the U-pick variety

 

Here's the thing about living and eating frugal - you can save the environment at the same time. So how do I figure that? Well, the lightbulb went off while picking green and yellow (wax) beans the other day - it was a dim bulb, but it flashed nonetheless. My first priority for food right now is that it's healthy, second is that it's cheap. Luckily for me one of our local 'U-Pick' farms is happy to fill both of those requirements, with a little work from me. A half grocery bag of string beans (green and yellow or wax beans) cost me $2.20 and took a little less than 10 minutes to pick. The more I pick, the cheaper it gets - in fact, if I had picked a half bushel it would have cost roughly a dollar more. Lesson number two for the day - ask the prices before you pick. How does this save the environment? Eating locally grown produce is a fantastic way to reduce fuels used in trucking, commercial canning or freezing, and you support local farmers - all great ways to do a little part for our community.

Pasta Salad with Salmon

Pasta salad with Salmon is one of my favourite summer salads. The salmon flavour is not overpowering, but is well balanced with the other ingredients. There are a few 'tricks of the trade', or 'tricks of the mother' that I use with this salad. One of these is a bit of olive oil added either before or after cooling the pasta, and the other is to boil some of the onions with the pasta. The oil helps keep the pasta in this salad from absorbing all the mayo in the recipe, and boiling the onions softens both the flavour and texture of them.

Baked Potatoes

This is pretty basic, and more of a technique than an actual recipe. This is the way my mother makes her baked potatoes, and a variation on my husband's baked potatoes. Now, if you don't like the skin on your baked potato (the best part, in my opinion, and you really should try it), then you will want to take a few strips of peel off before adding the seasoning and butter.