Yeah I know I already cooked potatoes yesterday, but when my mom wants to get potatoes at the supermarket she gets a lot. I barely managed to get these finished before they started sprouting actually. Did you know you could actually live off potatoes and butter? It's a pretty funny thing knowing you can limit yourself to that extent. Anyways I thought I would just sorta wing this today. I'm not really sure what classifies a dish as potato skins but I guess you can say that's what I made today. 

I started with 3 tiny russet potatoes, rice, spinach, shredded cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, olive oil. So otherwise this didn't cost much to make at all. You should start by pre-heating your oven to 400 degrees and halving your potatoes. Remember these are small potatoes. While the oven pre-heats you can start making your filling. I wilted some spinach (about 2 packed cups)with olive oil and put that in a large bowl, adding about 2 cups of rice, a small cup of sour cream, teaspoon of salt and pepper, and a cup of grated mixed cheeses. Mixed that all together and by that time the oven was at 400 so I got a baking sheet, put a bit of olive oil, placed the potatoes, drizzled them with olive oil on the top, and left them in the oven for about half an hour. I had awkward potatoes so I took a few out 5 minutes early! 

At this time you should have your stuffing made and potatoes cooked. You should get a fairly large spoon and spoon out the potato from each half, not all of it though it's fine to have some lining the skin. Mix the potato with your stuffing and place a large spoonful in every potato, add more if you want it does not really matter to much. I topped them with some Parmesan cheese and placed them in the oven for 5 more minutes. Overall a pretty easy thing to do! If your potatoes are small enough they make for a good finger food at parties. 

Now I was able to whip this up from just things I had lying around, a good thing to practice is using leftovers and working your dishes to what you have in the fridge and whats going to rot. A good chef should not be throwing lots of food away! 

I think potatoes should be in every proper breakfast. It just makes sense to have a seasoned potato on the side of your eggs and bacon that's crisp on the outside and warm on the inside. I personally prefer home fries to hash browns but its mostly a texture difference and they are easier too!

In the pan I have assorted paprika, ground pepper, salt, potatoes (of course), minced garlic, and our good old friend butter. For most of these you can wing pretty easily and adjust to your pallet but for you guys who wanna be copy-cats I put in a teaspoon and a half of paprika, 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 very very small russet potatoes, teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper, and about a tablespoon of minced garlic. 

You should start by mixing them all together on medium heat and cover them with a lid for 5 minutes, keep checking on them about every 3 minutes and stir them around also after those first 5 since it's really easy to burn these! If you like them crisp however, I suggest adding a bit more butter and letting them burn very slightly and they'll come out looking like mine. 

As good as they look and taste, that butter is some heavy stuff so I would save these for special occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas but they are the perfect way to apologize to your boss at work for being late or persuading your mother into letting you go to a party. 

It seems like many Italian dishes play off one another but they all have their own texture, taste, and appearance. Lasagna is a good example. It has a lot of elements from pasta but it has its own as well. That's what I made last night, and I think it turned out atrociously bad but I'm probably a perfectionist. I mean look at it.

It tasted pretty good too but I think it could of been a lot better if I did not run out of sauce half way through assembly. You should start out with...

• 2 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley 
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 a cup of water
• 9 lasagna noodles (depending on size of the noodles feel free to increase!)
• 2 1/2 cups of ricotta cheese
• 1 pound of ground beef (you can use turkey or chicken like I did)
• 1 (32 ounce) jar of spaghetti sauce ( I'd get 2 just to be safe)
• A 9x13 inch baking dish
• You can add spinach in-between the layers if you want

You can salt and pepper to taste but I think it's fine without it. 

Now you wanna start by pre-heating your oven to 350. In a frying pan put your ground meat in and let it brown on medium heat, drain the grease then put in 1 jar of spaghetti sauce and let them cook with each-other for around 7 minutes. This is your basic meat sauce. In a semi-larger bowl mix together 2 cups of ricotta, 2 cups of mozzarella, 2 eggs, 1 cup Parmesan, all of the dried parsley, and salt and pepper if you please.

Now we are going to assemble it, in your 9x13 inch baking dish pour 3/4 cup of your meat sauce and spread it evenly. Lay down 3 lasagna noodles, 1 3/4 of a cup of your cheese mixture and 1/4 cup of sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top off with 3 noodles and lay out the rest of your sauce, then cheese. Now this is an important part! Pour your 1/2 a cup of water along the edges of the lasagna, it'll help the noodles. Spray your aluminum foil with Pam or something similar and cover the lasagna with it, place it in the oven you pre-heated for 45 minutes. After, uncover and keep it in there for another 10, and once your finished that take it out and let it sit for another 10. Now it should be ready to serve! 

Mine needed more sauce as I explained but it wasn't bad. 

I haven't had to much time this weekend to post anything due to many BBQ's but I did have to bring something to one of them and it's really my go-to finger food for parties. I believe they are called mozzarella bites and you don't need anything special to make these, just money to buy the ingredients.

I have some basil, marinated mushrooms, and my assembly line. What I did was chop the basil up fairly finely, stuck a mushroom mozzarella ball and tomato on my skewers and sprinkled it with the basil. Really simple stuff here. I got all of the stuff at Trader Joe's but I'm sure you can find all of it at other super-markets,  and the mozzarella may be labeled as bocconcini. I'll show you how to make guacamole tomorrow, and again apologize for the short post.

Almost everything I've made has been pretty simple and something everyone should be able to do. So today I wanted to try something a bit more "fancy". I went for some crab cakes with a mango and cilantro base aioli which is a pretty basic way to add a kick to the cakes. You can go to the grocery store and pick up some crab legs if you wanted to spend a lot of money on it but canned crab usually works just fine. If you go with canned crab be sure to drain the extra juice out of the can, you need to be sure to get it all out otherwise the cakes can be a bit soggy when your molding them. If you wanted to spice it up a bit you can add some hot sauce or ginger root but this is the basic grind.

What your seeing here is...

• 1 egg
• 1/2 a cup of mayonnaise
• 1 lemon (which you will juice into the mix)
• 3 tablespoons of grape seed oil
• 1 pound of crab meat
• 1/4 of a cup breadcrumbs 
• 2 teaspoons seafood seasoning (I'm using old-bay for these ones)

Now once you have all these together you should get a mixing bowl and combine them all together!

Now you should be able to see that mine has a lot of liquid at the bottom and that's because I did not get out all the crab juice that I should of, but now I know to do better for next time. Now you should start making the aioli and of course you could of made it before this but it does not really matter.

• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
• 1/2 of a mango

You should blend it until it looks a bit like this and has not chunks of mango in it.

I added a bit more mango to it at the end so it would be a bit thicker. Also if you try this sauce and you think it is off, don't be alarmed because this is one of those sauces that don't taste all that good by itself. Once your done this you should be forming the crab cakes into patties and get a frying pan out, put some olive oil in it or grape seed and wait for that to get really hot so you can get a sear on the patties. You should also dust them with some all purpose flour on the outside since it helps with the shape.

You should put it on medium to low heat so they can cook all the way through. Once they have a nice crust on the bottom you should flip them, once they crust on both sides they are ready to be served!

Your crab cakes most likely won't keep their shape and that's fine since it does not affect the flavor. Crab cakes are a good way to impress your company or just try something a bit more difficult for the night but all together they are a pretty savory entree and go well together with this sweet aioli. 

Pancakes are a comfort food, you can't deny that. I mean, would you like to have your normal grainy cereal with a banana cut on-top? Or would you rather have a hot fluffy pancake drizzled with syrup and glazed with butter. I think it's pretty obvious, now pancakes are not really a good choice if your on a diet for easy to see reasons. If your going to make pancakes you shouldn't use a sugar filled thick and cheap syrup. The best maple syrups are pretty thin and a little goes a long way, I would recommend Highland Sugarworks Grade A Dark Amber. I used a pretty simple recipe for the pancakes I made today. 

 You will need....

• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, I used whole wheat
• 1 1/4 cups of milk
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3 tablespoons of melted butter
• 1 tablespoon white sugar (Splenda works to if you don't have any white sugar)

You then want to mix until smooth.

I had to add a bit more milk to get them at the consistency I prefer but now they should be ready to cook!

Put your stove on medium heat and oil it with a bit of Pam or butter if you don't mind the extra fat. Now anyone who has cooked a pancake before probably knows you want to flip it when bubbles start forming on the top, if you add fruits like me then it will be a bit difficult to tell when. When you add fruits to your pancake you should check them on the bottom, move your spatula under the cake and if it glides under easily, if it does then it's probably ready to turn. I it doesn't then it is still cooking (or you didn't oil the pan enough).

 This is a good example of when you should flip, you see the little holes on the top? That means it's ready. It was a bit overcooked though because of the fruit in it. If you overcook a pancake, it does not really matter to much. It mostly affects the presentation then the flavor. 

These pancakes turned out pretty well, although I did not get any since I made them for my company but whether you want to do something nice or it's a special occasion, it's difficult to go wrong with pancakes.

How many sauces have we gotten from Italy? It seems like the majority of great pasta sauces originate from there. It's not surprising either considering pasta is to the Italians like noodles are to China. Lets list a few, we got Ragù, Gremalota that's normally sever with braised veal, Carbonara, Marinara, and one of my favorites. Pesto. It came from a northern Italian village called Genoa and it has become one of the most popular sauces for pasta, chicken, pizza, or frankly just about anything you think it would work with; it does. It traditionally consists of basil, crushed garlic, European pine nuts, and you blend all of that with olive oil. A pretty simple concoction is you ask me. I made this today actually.

It's pesto chicken sitting atop a pile of mashed potatoes mixed with cauliflower. I cooked it in a crock-pot overnight for lunch and I think it turned out pretty well. I put the chicken in at about 9:30 PM with the pesto and a quarter cup of water, I set it on high for half an hour and left it on low for the rest of the night. I got up early to turn it off and from there I let it just sit it's own juices and the pesto. It tasted pretty great with easy it was to make. Personally I think pesto is a great sauce to use for a dinner when you don't have much time or can't take the time to make something more "fancy" and it's not the usual tomato sauce with meatballs. It give your a gourmet taste with a small amount of effort and that's why pesto is one of my favorite sauces. 

1. Get about 8 cups of packed pesto, it cant be leaves stacked on top of each-other in a cup I'm sure you know that.
2. A cup of olive oil.
3. About 1/2 a cup of roasted pine nuts
4. 2-4 garlic cloves
5. Half a teaspoon of salt.
6. Put all those in a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth
7. Stir in 1/2 a cup of Parmesan cheese.