Home-Made Home Fries

I didn't know that these were called 'home fries.'  May be my time in America or my American movie-watchin' have somehow dodged this term when referring to breakfast potatoes.  Glad I got that sorted.  I came across this recipe as I was perusing through pinterest for a solution for my leftover potatoes.  I guess boiling the potatoes before you cook them is a thing now as I've come across quite a few potato recipes that do that.  These were pretty awesome though and I would proudly serve this to brunch guests.  With the additional ingredients I added to the recipe, the potatoes had a burst of great flavors working together.  They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  

Ingredient Variations:

• I added mushrooms, garlic (about two teaspoons of minced garlic), and half a medium-sized yellow onion (diced).
• For spices I used:  (all approximate)
• 4 teaspoons of paprika (divided)
• 4 teaspoons of chili powder (divided)
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper (divided)
• 2 teaspoons of salt (divided)
• 2 teaspoons of dried mixed Italian herbs

What I did: 

• I cooked the garlic and diced onions for about 2 minutes in olive oil before adding the potatoes and mushrooms to the pan.  
• I cooked it for 20 minutes, turning it after every five minutes
• I added the spice mixture (half of it) at the beginning and then the rest + the Italian herbs before the final 'flipping'

Note to self:

• I would turn the potatoes more strategically next time so the potatoes crisp evenly.  So no aimless stirring but sectioned turning with a spatula.  ;) 

Apple Bake

Ah..the fun of enduring the fickle weather of this great metropolis. To be warm or not to be...to bucket down on thee or to shine down on thee...

Nevertheless, nothing's gonna snuff out my burning fire for baking yummy goodies. Not the cold nor the rain. No sirree~

And so, I present to you, my first apple bake. It all started with me buying a whole bunch of scrumptious lookin' apples. I had been enjoying the beautiful NZ apples the last month and was looking forward to these to be just as beautiful. But the batch I bought this time weren't nearly as sweet or scrumptious as its predecessors. So they've been sitting in my fridge for a couple of weeks and finally I found a fabulous recipe to rescue my apples: Smitten Kitchen's Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp.

As you can see in my pix that I skipped the granola because this was another spur of the moment baking. It was a 'let's use what I have' baking. So, I used orange mango lemonade instead of lemon juice and flour instead of cornstarch. They still turned out fabulous. I did use only half of the apples suggested by Smitten Kitchen (because that's what I had) but I didn't change the portions of any of the other ingredients.

These will be fantastic with yogurt for breakfast or just for snacking between meals. :)






















Apple BakeAdapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 1.8lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into medium chunks
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (I used mango orange lemonade)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (I used granulated)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (I used a Korean brand flour which is used for coating tempuras - these are slightly seasoned flours with a bit of breadcrumbs)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (or 200 degrees C).
2. Mix apple chunks with all the ingredients in a 8X8 inch baking dish until evenly coated.
3. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the apples are softened and bubbly.