schwenty 4

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I have a surprise for my probably 1 reader (maybe 2).


I woke up around 1, and just got done making homefries and mashed potatoes.

Homefries:

1 yukon gold, peeled
3 Red potatoes, unpeeled (also, smallish)


Parboiled in salted water. Frying pan. salt. pepper. oil. high heat. more pepper. more pepper. cover. (did I mention more pepper?)

1/4 a white onion, roughly chopped. 1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped. some green pepper (new ingredient!!!) roughly diced.

After a time, lower heat, uncover and throw those bad boys in. with more salt. and pepper. and pepper. and pepper.

cook. I added a little (well accidentally kinda a lot) of pickle juice.

They're still pretty good. I cooked them a little too long, I can tell by the color of the green pepper.


The mashed potatoes turned out good too. Yummy way to start the day.



(phone camera photograph. dedicated to gary granger <3)

so

10/30/09

Did not make homefries. again. I was busy. I had them at amy's place though. that should be enough for you people! besides, I'm exhausted. I'd make them now, but it is saturday so they wouldn't count. okay bye.

XXIII (XXIIV?)

Day 23 of homefries. I'm currently eating them.

first, my bounty from yesterday:
Russet
Purple
Red Creamer
Red
Yukon Gold

I gotted those varieties.


A bunch of local garlic ($1.99 a lb, you seriously cannot go wrong. I used to get the organic $5.99 a lb crap but then I realized, why should I support California organic farmers when God knows NYS farmers have such a hard time getting anything done...damn our laws)

A green pepper, 2 shallots, 2 yellow onions & a red onion.

oh and a pomegranate but that's not for you.


So I woke up late & after analytical came home (where I am now) to shower & eat some food. I am currently missing spanish. oh well.

anyways, 2 yukon gold potatoes, par boiled. Fried, covered, then uncovered & added some roughly chopped garlic, onion, & ginger mint. Cooked. Added a sprinkle of cinnamon & some Fine Herbes (read about Fine Herbes here). Then a little pickle juice.

I served them with leftovers from Amy's Place (YUM!). It's half of the "full" lentil-berry sandwich (which I HIGHLY reccommend).

Anyways, not too bad, but not really as flavorful as I was hoping. I have to go herb shopping today or tomorrow.

Oh I've been listening to this over and over whilst I have cooked/eaten them, it's really beautiful:

22

I went shopping today.
I got like a million kinds of potatoes and so many of them.

I have a lot to do tonight.

1 potato, some onion, and a clove of garlic & a scoop of salsa.

they were too dry.

sorry I gotta go.
& sorry about last night. I ran out of tatoes.

5 day forecast brings black tar rains & hellfire

So I didn't make homefries last night. I had a large dinner at amy's place. also I'm out of potatoes. so yeah.

I am going shopping tonight for taters & spices & stuff.


leave me more suggestions!

Comments are open to everyone!!!

21

Homefries & MAshed potatoes again tonight!


Melted butter and added garlic, basil, salt, pepper. Cooked on high for a few minutes. Added straight to my potatoes I was mashing.


Used the frying pan (without washing) & threw in the par boiled taters. Salt pepper olive oil.

Cookcookcookcookcook shakeshake cookcookcookcook shakeshake cookcookcookcookcook shakeshake.

Added onions & garlic.

Is there really such a thing as too much garlic? I don't think so. I went through 2 cloves tonight. um.


Oh I added some pickle juice too. it was really delicious.

Suggestions

I'd like to hear your voice, whoever you are.

Comment this post with flavors/items/possible pairings that you would like me to use in my homefries!

Let me know cos I have to go shopping.


okay yeah.

20

TOnight I had homefries and mashed potatoes.

yum!

homefries:

Par boil a cubed potato.

Salt. Pepper. Oil. High heat. Lid.


Shake em up every once in a while.

Garlic and a little roughly chopped onion.

A spoonful of salsa. heat a little more yum yum.


Also, put mozerella cheese into your mashed potatoes. it's so good.

And: yesterday I made so many homefries and everyone loved them so yeah that made me happy.

Happy Birthday Brian

Today we made a breakfast birthday (reverse those..I'm tired) for Brian. With brian. I have gotten 40 minutes of sleep the past 36 hours. tired.


home fries. everyone liked them. don't use so much curry nxt time.
the end.


sleepy.

XVIII

I've discovered something.

Quick, good homefries.

They lack the nuances of flavor found usually in my homefries, but they require no more chopping than the potatoes.


Ready?

I used one potato.

cubed (not too large, they cook faster this way). Put in a hot pan, add some salt pepper & oil. Cover.
High heat.
*time passes*

two minutes later shake em up baby (twist & shout?) Give em about 5 more minutes, shaking maybe two or three times.

Salsa. I use about a spoonful. Add to taste & depending on the amount of your potatoes! Mix it in and cook for 1-3 more minutes.

Not too bad, to be honest. I'm leaving for Fredonia soon so I had to make them quick and this worked surprisingly well. Under 10 minutes of cooking!!

kbye

XVII

A few announcements:
I've opened up comments to everyone so even if you don't have a blogger account or whatever you can just comment.
That's the only announcement.

I would like to dedicate tonight's post to my new friend Tara.

so. 4 small potatoes tonight. I've been experimenting with cube sizes. I used to do pretty big hunks but now I'm kinda liking a smaller size.

I put some water over to boil (salted) while I peeled. I diced. Waited. Water boiled. I threw them in.

While the water was boiling I went to get a clove of garlic. I accidentally got a massive clove (the size of 2 cloves) but whatever. chopchopchopchop I love garlic. (Side note: I consume at least a clove of garlic a day. I am starting to smell like it all the time.)

So this is about 2 minutes later and the water is back to a full boil. so I drained them and threw them in a frying pan. Salt and pepper (I went heavy on the pepper) and poured a little olive oil over them. (I don't stir it all up or anything...just leave the salt pepper on top and the oil will spread out).

So I chopped some onion. I am learning that more onion is not necessarily better (same goes with garlic)! The point of homefries is really to showcase the potato and too much onion just kinda ruins it. So go light on it (you can go a little heavier with garlic..I would never go more than 2 cloves probably though....actually 3). Well at this point my onion is chopped and they've been going on high heat about 5 minutes. So I shake them around and stuff.

cover.

I went to chop a thai hot pepper up too (50K-100K on the Scoville scale). I chopped the top off and then ran it under water and just squished it around in my hands to force maybe half the seeds out. Then I roughly chopped it. Some dill too.

Uncover and add everything...garlic onions dill pepper. I mixed it all around.

Went in my fridge to get my jam and saw salsa. Mild. I thought, hey, why the hell not? So I threw in about a spoonful and just mixed and heated so the cold salsa wouldn't be cold and it was well mixed.


The texture is really good tonight, and I like them with the salsa too actually. Quite good. I'm def gonna experiment with this again.

SPECIAL EVENT

Just saw Andrew Bird & St. Vincent.


St. Vincent first:

She is tiny. She is pale. She is beautiful. She is the angel of death. They were really awesome (her + the band). No one (sans Brian and I) moved. The guy next to me yelled at me :( Stupid hipsters. Except he was a dad. Anyways when she was playing "The Marrow" I totally pictured her in body worlds surrounded by cross sectioned bodies. It was really awesome. She makes such scary music. Also, it almost seemed like she wanted no one to dance (like on of those "artsy bands") BUT I think she was really just waiting for Brian and I to H-E-L-P her and Save her, save her from what she wants. blah blah she's hot.

Andrew Bird:

Setlist:
Cannonade
Water Jet Cliche
Sweet Breads (original "Dark Matter)
Why?
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left
The Giant of Illinois
Effigy
Tenuous
Masterfade
Anonanimal
Natural Disaster
Trimmed+Burning
Happy Birthday Song
Lusitania (NEW SONG! He played it with Annie. So beautiful)
MARRY ME (Andrew & Annie..I want them to make babies)
Sycthian Empires (full band, absolutely amazing)
Tables & Chairs (also full band & so incredible)
*everyone leaves stage*
Andrew & Annie return

Oh Sister (Bob Dylan Cover)
*Annie leaves*

WEATHER SYSTEMS (so basically this is my favorite Andy B song and I was like so sure he wasn't gonna play it and shit and I wanted to request it but didn't want to ruin the show and basically then he just played it and I died. Amazing way to close the show)

So he played about 2 hours and the material really came from everywhere. it was so excellent. he is amazing. Really just beautiful. I took I think 2 30 second videos that I'll link here eventually.



OH ALSO WTF HE'S BEEN HERE FOR TWO DAYS BIKING AROUND. SHIT I WISH I HAD SEEN HIM. FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
ps this is unrelated to homefries.

I am calm and resposed, I'll let my beauty unfold.

They were pretty good tonight.

I added a little pickle juice. gave them nice flavor. thanks to andy for the pickles+juice.



I am keeping calm right now, getting ready for Andrew and Annie tonight.

On the inside about a billion bells and whistles are exploding.


:D

They were good tonight.


didn't make them last night.


studying for orgo.


ANDREW BIRD AND ST. VINCENT TOMORROW. FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

day 14

Tonight I made mashed potatoes.

I am so sick of homefries.

Day 13

Yesterday I didn't get home until midnight. I was out all day. Homefries were impossible.


tonight they were good. tried a little dill, garlic, basil, ginger mint, salt and pepper.

had veggie burgers on homemade english muffins.

and on those burgers, some of andy's homemade pickles.
soooooooo good.


does anyone even read this?

Day 12: Califone

Going to see Califone shortly. Excited.


The fries were good tonight. I feel pretty confident with cooking them that now all I really want to do is start experimenting with flavor combos and different varieties of potatoes.

2 small potatoes par boiled. Hot pan + potatoes. Oil. salt. pepper. cover.



disturbance.

disturbance.

uncovered and added a clove of garlic. disturb disturb disturb. plate with 2 veggie burgers served on home made english muffins.

Tonight

Tonight, even though I am utterly exhausted (and it's only 10:15 AM), I am going to see Califone. I am really digging their myspace tracks. Apparently they are playing a live soundtrack they wrote around a movie which is very cool. I think I am going to miss the bus though.

I probably owe some explanations for the past two nights:

Tuesday I was in a really bad/sad stay in bed all day mood. So I just didn't feel like making homefries.
Yesterday I walked into my kitchen to find my Pat shaving his brother's head. in my kitchen. Did I mention it was my kitchen? So I was in a bad mood so I made them downstairs and in my anger I cut my finger and set of the smoke alarm.

k.

oh I got an 88 on my analytical test!

day 11: anger fries.

I only made them cos I had to. I'm in a really bad mood. I set off the smoke alarm. and cut the tip of my thumb.

ouch.


I though I used too much salt. and burned them.

they actually turned out okay. I was going to talk about the rest of my day but I'm pretty tired and miserable.

A Notice

Today there will be no home fries.

diez

today i made english muffins from scratch. fun experience.


dinner:
1 russet potato, diced and fried. herbes paprika and cinnamon w/salt and pepper.

served over two morning star chickpea burger thingies with some ketchup on the side.

undercooked cos I was busy doing other shit. oh well.

and to answer dan:

yes, they are def improving ('cept fer today). I am going to begin exploring different potatoes and different seasonings/themes (what would a theme be? have you heard about my asian failure fries?) in the next few weeks.

I think once I perfect the homefries based on potato and seasoning, the final operation will be to find the perfect item to pair it with.

IX

Today I decided to stop going against God's Will.

I made homefries. as a side dish. with. breakfast.

Yes I stopped fighting gravity.

2 "white" potatoes (I should look up if that's a legit variety I suppose. I used them cos they're small) peeled. No par boiling cos I'm lazy and hate dishes. salt pepper herbes vegetable oil heated until the herbes simmer. Potatoes, 10 minutes covered. Minimal disturbances of them.

Uncovered. About 1.5 cloves of garlic (the one was really small). I feel like it's July again I'm going through garlic so fast. It's really nice I love garlic.
About 5ish minutes uncovered at a pretty good heat.

Oatmeal with cinnamon, dark brown sugar, blueberries.

Cinnamon roll baked fresh yesterday.

Life is good my friends, life is good.


(now I have to work my 6 hours/week at work because my manager is an asshole and won't give me more hours.)

VIII

Well. It's 11:54 PM via my computer clock time. I just finished the home fries and had a bite. not too bad I guess.

1 russet potato, peeled, cubed, parboiled.
vegetable oil. salt. pepper. a sprinkle of the "fine herbes".

threw in the potatoes, cooked covered about 8 minutes. I only flipped them around twice. I find a laissez-faire approach better when they are covered.

Two cloves garlic chopped. Threw in with some McCormick "Montreal Chicken Grill Seasoning" ( I wanted to do cayanne but couldn't find any).

Cooked for about 5 minutes with more salt and pepper. eating them now.

they're okay. I like that the garlic is not even browned so the flavor is still very BAM GARLIC.


oh I baked cinnamon rolls today which are amazing. and I saw katie veress!

Well it's 11:58 now. Homefries just finished in time for october the 10th.

Day 7

Today was a very odd day. It was a flipflopper today.

Breakfast at amy's place with margery stewart baxter was delicious. had lentils con broccoli, homefries and wheat toast. oh and 4-5 cups of coffee. I lost count.

Organic was awesome, physics boring. Went bike shopping. Found a touring bike at Rick's. It's new, and $1100. Kind of expensive. Add on the other costs (I want a front rack, saddle bags, some other stuff...) it's gonna be around $1700. I want a good bike for biking to Texas though.

Analytical. hm. quiz was so-so. I only lost 4 points on the part 2's of the test. don't know my grade yet though.

OH YEAH I LOST MY BUS PASS. fuck fuck fuck.

anyways, started my home fries at 8:30 PM.

three potatoes (variety? "white" as the bag said...I got them from my mom's downstairs so they're just a sack of like Tops brand potatoes) cubed. Threw them in boiling water and waited for it to come back to a full boil (about 2 minutes). Drained them. 1-2 TBSP butter, melted. Threw in the potatoes. cooked covered with some salt and pepper. One clove garlic and one sweet purple onion chopped. Salted and peppered right on the cutting board (I have this weird idea in my head that the salt starts drawing the water towards the surface if you salt them first before throwing them in...).

After the potatoes cooked about 10-15ish minutes (pretty brown) I threw in the onion and garlic with some paprika and "Fine Herbes"...It's a jar of herbs that's been around our house for like forever. It has rosemary basil oregano marjoram...basically you should be throwing it into pasta sauce. So anyways cooked it all up for about 5ish minutes, threw in a squirt of franks and plated.


I liked the texture...they were cooked perfectly I think. Anyways, not much flavor. at all. smelled like taco seasoning (paprika for ya...)
Also that type of potato is just very bland so yeah...wasn't expecting too much. I'm still kinda hungry so I might make some miso soup. I got a jar of miso today. yeahhhh.

Day 6: Quasi-Asian Homefries

Today was a discouraging day in the Homefry Trials.

The last potato from the farm. market. Huge. Cut in chunks, boiled for a few minutes.


Butter, melted. Threw the chunks in. cooked covered about ten minutes. Heavy on the salt and pepper.


2 cloves of garlic and a little ginger and some mint all chopped together. Took the cover off and threw it in with more salt and pepper and a little oil. Soy sauce.


Terrible.

What is?

Quoted from my facebook note:

The homefry trials do not refer to judicial trials, but rather experimental trials. The purpose of these trials: perfect my homefries.

Why?

Many reasons: I love them; they are delicious; one day if I ever have a REALLY awkward sexual encounter at least I can make a good breakfast the next day.


The plan? Eat homefries for or with dinner every night until they are amazing.

I will update here with techniques I find useful and observations.