Cooking for Friends

Before I get into this weekend, I forgot to mention in my last post  that I am a complete egg roll snob. I never order them in Chinese restaurants because I am always disappointed. I am not sure if there is some flavoring in them I don't enjoy. Perhaps it is partially the crispiness (or lack there of) of the wrappers. Nothing can live up to how that ultra thin wrapper fries up light and crispy. That being said, I have one guilty confession. I will eat (and sometimes may crave) egg rolls from...I don't know if I can say it....Jack in the Box. I know, I know, I can't believe it either.  Maybe it is "something" they put in them - like whatever they put in their greasy, chewy tacos that make some people go crazy for them.

Sorry for that diversion. I just felt like I had to address my snobbery.

Our weekend got off to a slow start and I didn't mind that a bit. It has been a crazy stressful work week, with another one on the way. Saturday morning, Millie was giving her best pathetic look.

To cheer Millie up (and to buy apples for me and peaches for my husband) we took her to the farmers' market. I hadn't been in a couple of weeks. The Beet Box is a mobile market. They travel around the county between market days selling fresh veggies.

 So many pretty flowers still in bloom.

You can tell fall is upon us with the wide variety of squash at the market. I am not sure how I feel about the warty pumpkin...does it have a disease? barnacles?

Millie was offered a doggie snow cone made from chicken broth. I think the heat got the best of the snow cones. It was just a bowl of cool broth.

 Millie was not impressed...she took a little taste and then tried to make her not-so polite getaway.

Turns market day was also an adoption event for several rescue groups. I was careful not to make direct eye contact with puppies. I am not quite ready to be a two dog household again. 

This past winter we had a fun trip to Baton Rouge visiting friends over New Year's. While we were there we made a delicious discovery. At our friends' New Year's Day/college football feast, we were introduced to the most delicious potato salad from a local restaurant, Rice and Roux. In their salad, the potatoes are mashed instead of the usual chunks. We loved the mashed potato texture and how the flavors were distributed evenly throughout the potatoes. Since we are some 800 miles from Rice and Roux, I had to find a way to make it at home. I made my first attempt this weekend. 

I scoured the internet for a knock off recipe, but came up empty. However, there were several generic "mashed potato" salad recipes. I settled on this one from Just a Pinch. My husband had friends over Sunday and it seemed like a good occasion to try it. I prepped all the ingredients while the potatoes cooked. The recipe recommended mixing it together while potatoes were still warm...and even eating it warm or cold.

 I mashed the drained potatoes and then transferred them to the mixer bowl.

I knew the potatoes had to be creamy and the best way to do that is with Super Mixer. The first mix included celery, onion and relish.

 I have never done this step for a potato salad - dissolve sugar in white vinegar.

The sugar/vinegar is then whisked into the mayo. Then into the mixer bowl for a second mix. Finally the chopped eggs were added for a final mix. 

The salad ended up having a really nice "mashed potato' texture. The eggs, celery, and onion made it a little lumpy, but not in a bad way.

Later in the day my friend messaged me the two pictures below - she was having the Rice and Roux original for an LSU football party.

 Looks like they had tamales too :)  Thank you for sharing the pictures.

First, I was envious and secondly, I could tell from the pictures they don't use green things in their potato salad. I am not sure about the onion and eggs. Surely, they add more than mayo to their potatoes. Guess I will need to do some more research. In the meantime, we did enjoy this recipe. For me the biggest takeaway is the mashed potatoes allow for the flavors to get evenly distributed. I am pretty sure we have all had that disappointing moment biting into a hunk of bland potato just dripping with over mayo-ed sauce??

My husband's game gathering had me busy in the kitchen. My husband loves sugar cookies. Since he realized he also likes my chocolate chip cookies (he's not the biggest chocolate fan), I haven't made sugar cookies. The sugar cookies are a little more labor intensive since I created a lime glaze for them...and why stop at lime when there are lemons and oranges in the world. I started by zesting each fruit. I combined the juice from half of each fruit with powdered sugar until my glaze reached the right consistency.

 Orange 
 Lemon

I took some of the lime cookies a step further, by topping them with a little bit of flaked salt to give them a margarita vibe. I am certain they will happen again. 

The guys has decided they wanted BLTs for lunch. They supplied the bacon and I was tasked with cooking it all. On the recommendation of friends, I cooked it in the oven - my first time. I put the bacon in a cold oven and let it start cooking as the oven got to temperature (400 degrees). I think the advantage is supposed to be more even cooking. And it did cook very evenly. However, it seemed to take forever to cook. To be fair, that was probably due to the two double stacked pans of bacon in the oven at one time. (I put a rack on top of these pans and laid out another layer of bacon.)  Everyone seemed happy with the baked bacon. Well, almost everyone....my husband is still solidly in the stove top frying camp.

 Nothing beats a BLT with garden fresh tomatoes!

My tomatoes have been slow this year, but have exploded the last week or two. They aren't the prettiest tomatoes I have grown, but I picked a bunch Saturday morning. I had two big bowls that needed attention.

I know some people go through a whole process of blanching and peeling the tomatoes, but I don't mind the skins. I simply washed and quartered them, cutting out any bad spots. I ended up with three quarts for the freezer. They will be the base of several batches of chili this winter. 

 I am not sure what to do about this guy.....