Triple Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes

Ah the pleasures of the flesh. No silly, not that kind of flesh. Potatoes. Come on, this is a food blog, the only porn you’ll ever see on here is food porn (unless a sneaky spam bot successfully gets itself into my comments…). Yesterday mid morning, I was struck by an intense desire to eat (another) something I haven’t had for a seriously long time. In fact, the last time I ate it, my sister cooked it for me, which is saying something since she doesn’t much like to cook, but this is one of the things she does and can do. Twice Baked Potatoes. Our mom use to make them for us. They were routinely our requested food for birthdays and holidays. They are my favorite comfort food. I would like to be able to spin it and find a way to make this more healthy or even more tasty, but frankly my mom had it right from the start. Some people might find the combination of potato, cheese and sour cream the anti-health, but if you pair this with a nice fresh salad and indulge in moderation, then you are good to go. I think that is one thing people need to remember, if you are cooking with good, organic, fresh ingredients, like I am, you should feel free to indulge once in a while, again in moderation. There is a place for organic chocolate cake in our lives just as there is a place for a delicious kale carrot salad. Ironically, that is exactly what I was craving this morning, along with twice baked potatoes. Since I wasn’t able to have my twice baked potatoes yesterday, I decided to make them this morning. I paired the triple cheese twice baked potatoes in an east meets west pairing and made a Spicy Asian Kale Carrot Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing. Frankly, the salad was so delicious and healthy, I didn’t have any desire to overindulge or stuff myself on the potatoes. In fact, I only at 1 half and was satisfied. As I mentioned in a previous post, breakfast has been a quandary for me and despite this being a funny thing to eat for breakfast, it was phenomenal. It is a perfect rounded dinner and you can feel free to indulge anytime of the day or night, supposing you can wait that long. And another reminder, it is never a bad time to remind your family how much you love, value and appreciate your family for how much they influence you and even your day to day life. My family rocks thank you (and them) very much.

Crisp and delicious combination of carrots, kale and broccoli sprouts

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 large baking potato
2 tablespoons shredded gouda
⅓ cup shredded extra sharp cheddar
2 tablespoons parmiganio reggiano
¼ cup organic cultured sour cream
1 tsp. salt
pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Prick baking potato with a fork, rub with olive oil and wrap in foil. Bake for an hour to hour thirty depending on the size of the potato.

Remove from the oven and very carefully cut in half. You want to keep the skins in tact so that you can refill them. Scoop the flesh out of the skin and into a bowl. Combine the potato flesh with the gouda and cheddar cheese and sour cream, mashing until creamed together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon mixture back into potato skins and place on a baking sheet or foil. Sprinkle Parmigiano Reggiano over the top. Bake at 375 for another 15 minutes to heat through. Then open the oven door a crack and turn the oven up to broil and brown the cheese.

Serve hot. Optional Garnish include chopped parsley, chervil or scallions.

Spicy Asian Carrot Kale Salad

Ingredients:
½ bunch kale, chiffonade
1 carrot, shredded
1 scallion, diced
½ cup broccoli sprouts
1 tbsp. gomashio
Optional: 3 ounces baked tofu, chopped

Directions:
In a large bowl combine salad ingredients and toss together. Dress with 2 TBSP of Ginger Peanut Dressing.

Ginger Peanut Dressing

Ingredients:

1 ½ tsp. chopped garlic
1 tsp. ginger, minced
5 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
1 tsp. brown rice syrup
1 tsp. wheat free tamari
1 ½ tablespoons brown miso
¼ cup peanut oil

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients except the oil in a bowl or blender. Stir or blend to combine. While whisking (or with motor running) slowly drizzle in peanut oil to emulsify.

To dress, pour 2 tbsp over salad.

The perfect pair

So good it deserves a second, third or fourth look

Tapering can be fun if you are able to distract yourself from the various aches and pains that show up and occupy the time you usually spend running. I have done a good job of not having too much “tapering madness” as well as not over or under tapering. Tapering for a 100k race can be tricky. You can’t back off too much, but you can’t keep the mileage too high. Howard put me on a good schedule that balances keeping quality up and quantity down. I have spent my time working too much, sleeping alot, developing a new obsession with the show House and cooking lots of new recipes.

Before I get on to the recipes and food, I have to share two cool things I saw on my run today and wished I had had my camera on and recording video for. The first was a young boy, probably 7 or 8, in his front yard practicing gymnastics. I am not talking about somersaults and cartwheels, I am talking round of with a half twist type craziness. And he was sticking the landing too and throwing his hands in the air in the way they do in competition. It is no the first time I have seen him and frankly, I have never seen him miss a landing or chicken out on a difficult looking move. The second thing was when I took Frog out for her little 3 mile run. I always encourage her to be interested in squirrels and will even assist her in a chase if the squirrel is close enough. I have to keep her on the leash, so if the pursuit won’t cause me injury, what the heck. Gotta give the little one some entertainment. Well, we were crossing the street and a squirrel didn’t see us, so she got a good run up on the squirrel. It dashed up the nearest phone pole with Froggie’s teeth inches from her but Froggie didn’t lose a beat, from a full sprint she launched herself vertically in the air and jump to literally twice her extended height if she were on her hind legs. If it were a basketball hoop, she would have nearly gotten rim. It was crazy. But also a good lesson in why fences need to be pretty damn high for greyhounds.

Now on to the food. I have been trying out different flavors and pushing myself to try new things. It has been fun and I have had some delicious results. I made Jamaican Jerk Lamb Tenderloin and West Indian Vegetable Curry one night for Dad and Fran, Dijon Roast Vegetable Wrap with Garlic Hummus, Avocado and Roast Bell Peppers another. Yesterday, I made my Pumpkin Corn Bread and then made it into an Egg Sandwich with Avocado and Parm Reggiano. For dinner, I made a Jamie Oliver recipe of Jacket Potatoes w/ cottage cheese, beets and fresh horseradish. Everything was delicious and it was fun to get in the kitchen alot again.
Jamaican Jerk Lamb Tenderloin and West Indian Vegetable Curry

For the lamb tenderloin, I made a marinade of extra virgin olive oil (about a tbsp), dried Jamaican Jerk Seasoning (3 1/2 tbsp), balsamic vinegar (1 1/2 tbsp), bay leaves (4, crumbled finely) and minced garlic (the more the merrier). I only got to marinate the lamb tenderloin (which comes in long thin strips, I had 5) for a few hours, but obviously the longer the better.

After you marinate, cook the lamb to your liking, you can grill it or pan sear it. I pan seared it. And whatever you do, DON’T get rid of the marinade. No, make it into a nice spicy sauce for your meat. Once you take the meat out of the pan, put the marinade in there, add a tbsp or two of flour (I used buckwheat flour) to thicken into a roux and then start adding vegetable stock in to make it into a nice sauce. When you plate, put the vegetable curry on the bottom of a nice platter, top with meat and then put the sauce over top. In theory, you could make a very nice Jamaican Jerk Tofu instead of lamb.

The curry comes from this recipe. The only thing I changed was the cooking spray thing. I don’t use stinking cooking spray, I use evoo. It has great spice and could easily stand on its own or be paired with rice. I had been planning on making grilled plantains with this meal but couldn’t find them anywhere, bummer.
Dijon Roast Vegetable Wrap with Garlic Hummus, Avocado and Roast Bell Peppers

Ingredients:
For veg:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp evoo
double pinch of herbs de Provence
1/2 eggplant, sliced medium
1 med. yellow squash cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 zucchini, same as squash
1/3 cup chopped red onion

For dijon sauce:
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Wrap (for each serving):
1 rice tortilla (unless of course you can eat wheat then get something that stays together better!)
1/2 avocado
2 tbsp garlic hummus
1 roast bell pepper (from a jar)

Directions:

Combine the veg ingredients and toss well. Place veg in a roasting pan and roast on 350 until the veg are beginning to get tender. Meanwhile mix the dijon and balsamic vinegar together. When the veg is nearly done, pour the mix together and continue cooking. I think the veggies being super tender worked well in the wrap, but it is a matter of personal preference too.

To assembled, spread the avocado (mashed up) on the tortilla and the hummus on top, place the slice roast bell pepper on top. Spoon the roast veggies down the middle and roll the wrap up. I find rolling it over on the folded side secures a full wrap. Put on some foil on a backing sheet and put back in the oven (still on 350). Cook until the wrap has a bit of crunch to it. You can feel free to skip this step (or pre warm your tortillas and then wrap). I liked it this way, but will most certainly try other ways too.

Egg Sandwich with Avocado and Parm Reggiano
This was a delicious combination of salty and sweet. I also could envision replacing the parm reggiano with a nice pepper jack cheese and adding bacon for the salty kick. I don’t know what fake bacon tastes like, but if it is salty, I would say that vegans could use that. I never partook in that faux bacon, chicken nugget thing, I think they are as over processed and chemically as a bag of cheetos, but if you are into that…by all means, try it out. But it does need something salty in it, which is why I used the parm reggiano. The corn bread will not hold together thoroughly so be ready with fork and knife.

For assembly:
1 egg, fried
2-3tbsp of grated parm reggiano
1/2 avocado
sliced tomato
1 slice pumpkin corn bread, sliced in two and toasted under the broiler

Slather the avocado on the corn bread and pile egg and tomato on top. Sprinkle cheese on both halves of the bread and broil until the cheese melts. Put the top on and dive in!

Jacket Potatoes w/ cottage cheese, beets and fresh horseradish.

Ingredients:

2 baked potatoes (bake on 375 for 1-1:20), halved
cottage cheese
cooked beets marinated in 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar. I got some cooked beets from WF
chervil
fresh horseradish root (cut off the outside bark and then use a microplane to grate)
sea salt

Assemble:

On the halved potatoes put a knob of Earth Balance or butter if you do butter. I like Earth Balance. Then spoon cottage cheese down in there, beets next with a little juice but not to much. Top with a sprinkle of fresh chervil and then go to town with the fresh horseradish root. I mean really, we all went crazy, it really brings out all the flavors. Sprinkle salt on top. Enjoy.

All this food writing is making me hungry….off to make the next creation.