Garlic and Thyme Fingerling Potatoes

Good Potatoes!

Ingredients:
2 pounds fingerling potatoes
8 sprigs of fresh thyme
6 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup water
Directions:

1)Wash and cut potatoes in half length wise. Place in a medium sized bowl.

2)Do not remove the thyme leaves from the stems. With the back of your chopping knife whack the sprigs of time. This is also called bruising, this will help release the flavor of the thyme. Add to the potatoes.

3) Add the 1/2 cup olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. Mix until the potatoes are well coated.

4)Let the potatoes sit for 20 minutes.

5)Heat a deep skillet then add the potatoes. Saute for 5 minutes and then add the water. Turn heat on high and cover your pan.

6)Cook for 10 minutes, check potatoes to ensure done-ness. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Remove all of the thyme twigs and enjoy hot or at room temp.

Parsley Noodles

I really like this noodle dish because it is so easy! My mom would make this to accompany sausage and kraut. The cream and butter of the noodles helped cut the salt and sour of the sausage and kraut. This has got to be hands down one of my favorite childhood dishes! It makes me smile just thinking about it :)

Ingredients:
4 cups dry Wide Egg Noodles(2 ounces of dry noodles = 1 cup cooked, so this will make 4 servings)

1 stick Salted/Unsalted Butter room temp

1/2 cup Sour Cream

1 tablespoon Fresh or Dried Parsley

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Bring a pot of water to boil.

2) Add noodles and cook until done.

3) Once the noodles are cooked and drained add the butter, parsley, salt, and pepper.

4) Mix until the butter is completely melted and the add the sour cream. Mix well and serve.

Loaded Baked Potato Salad

A couple of my siblings were raving about this "potato salad" they had had. They even claimed that it rivaled our mother's, which if you have had my mother's potato salad you would know that that is virtually impossible! So I tried the infamous tater salad and they were right it was good BUT mom's is still so much better. So I've been thinking about this sinister salad and have decided to give it a go. I think that I could possibly get this salad up to snuff with mom's, with a little tweaking here and there :) I will have a recipe to follow if all goes well!

Ok, so I made the potato salad and I must say that I wasn't very happy with it. I had a mom moment and forgot what I was doing and then added the wrong type of onion (I wanted to add chives, instead I put yellow onion and green onion). The other thing that I did and should have left alone was the amount of bacon. I started with a little under a 1/2 pound of bacon and then I got greedy and put the whole pound in. This made the salad TO SALTY..... The next thing that went wrong was that I ran out of sour cream for the dressing so there wasn't enough dressing to help cut through the salt. The final kicker was that I under cooked the potatoes and there is nothing worse than crunchy potatoes in a potato salad......
So attempt number one was a flop, but I will get this right and then you all can give it a go for yourselves!

Cajun Tilapia Sandwiches

At a restaurant I worked in, one of my favorite things to make (and eat) were Cajun Tilapia sandwiches. I am pretty sure those sandwiches were the root of my gaining 60lbs while I was pregnant with my first born. A wonderfully blackened filet of fish, on a toasted garlic buttered sub roll, smeared in cajun spiced mayo, layered with sliced tomatoes and crisp romain lettuce. Yes I am definitely sure this was the cause of my weight gain..... it was so worth it!

Ingredients: For 4 sandwiches

* 4 large filets of fresh or frozen tilapia
* Turano sub rolls
* 1 stick of butter
* 5 cloves of crushed garlic
* 1 head of romain lettuce
* 1 large tomato
* Cajun seasoning for fish
* 1 tablespoon of cajun seasoning for mayo
* 1 cup of mayonnaise


Garlic Butter Directions:

In a small pot place on stick of butter and the 5 crushed garlic cloves on a low heat. Let the butter melt and the garlic will release all of its flavor into the butter. Do not boil the butter and you don't want it to simmer either, you are basically just keeping it warm/slightly hot.(I know that sounds stupid but that's all I can say about it)

Once the butter and garlic have been happy in the pot for about 5-10 minutes, you can go ahead and butter the insides of your sub roles. Turn your oven broiler on or use a toaster oven and toast your bread until golden brown.


Cajun Mayo:
Mix the 1 cup of mayo with the 1 tablespoon of cajun seasoning.

Fish Directions:
1) Season both sides of the fish well with the cajun seasoning.

2) In a hot skillet place about 2 tablespoons of butter and when it is good and hot place the fish in the pan.

3) The fish should take about 7 minutes to cook, 3 1/2 minutes on both sides.

Sandwich Assembling:
Give both side of the toasted roles a good smear of the cajun mayo. Line with lettuce and sliced tomato and Of Course don't forget the fish. Serve it hot and enjoy!

For those who don't like fish you can use boneless skinless chicken breasts instead. Also for the calorie counters you can most definitely use olive oil in place of the butter for both the bread and the fish!