Homemade Potato Chips

Homemade Potato Chips

Oven Baked Dill Pickle Chips

I'm a potato freak...I can't believe it's taken me this long to make homemade potato chips as it's something I've always wanted to do.  I actually attempted to do it way back in grade 8 or 9 when I lived in Regina, SK but  I hadn't discovered parchment paper and it ended up with me scraping inedible potato crisps from the baking sheet all night...actually, maybe that failed attempt is why it has taken me so long to try again...it was incredibly disappointing (hey it was a lot of work slicing up those potatoes for a lazy teenager!).  Anyways...if you don't believe me on the being a potato freak statement earlier, when I was younger, I used to tell me family that when I grew up and got married I was going to live on a potato farm in Idaho with a cow for milk (used to be a milkaholic as well) and then I would have everything I need (except chocolate). (way to dream big Candace...lol)

Well, it's been on my mind to make some potato chips for forever since it's my favorite snack (I LOVE anything kettle brand esp. the cracked black pepper, and LAYS Dill Pickle.)  Growing up in Canada, my favorite flavors were Old Dutch's Dill Pickle Chips and All Dressed.  When I was in college and LAYS finally came out with Dill Pickle, I pretty much forced everyone to try them because I was SO happy to have that flavor in my life again and wanted to make everyone else like them so they would buy them too to prevent them from being discontinued.

So....I made Oven Baked Dill Pickle Chips.  I know the homemade potato chips have been done all over the place...but being a potato freak, my blog wouldn't be complete without a blog post about it. (reference is Pinterest search oven baked potato chips, there are tons and pretty much all the same).

Preheat oven to 400 (I did 425 but I will do 400 next time)

Thinly slice russet potatoes and soak in salt water
drain potatoes and pat dry

toss in bowl with olive oil to coat

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
spread out potato slices in a single layer

Generously season with Archer Farms Sea Salt and Vinegar popcorn topping (from super target in the popcorn section) and Dill Weed. (or with whatever seasoning you choose-Kosher Salt, Black Pepper, Seasoning Salt, Garlic Salt, Onion Powder and Salt...etc.)

Place in oven for 15 minutes, then flip the potato chips over and bake 7-10 more minutes or until crisp.

Remove chips to paper towel or cooling rack to cool off



Enjoy!

Gluten Free "KFC" Popcorn Chicken

Gluten Free "KFC" Popcorn Chicken

aka  gluten free Chicken Nuggets

No there isn't really gluten free fried chicken at KFC (not that I know of!) but I have this recipe for mock "KFC" chicken seasoning in my family cookbook that my aunt put together one year for our family reunion so here it is, but made into gluten free chicken nuggets.  My daughter was very happy to have chicken nuggets once again, the first time in months.

Gluten Free "KFC" Chicken Seasoning Mix

1 Tbsp salt (I like kosher)

1 Cup gluten free all-purpose flour blend (like silvana's or gluten free cooking school or bob's red mill)

1 Tbsp pepper

2 Tbsp paprika

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 Tbsp mustard powder

1/2 Tbsp fresh thyme

1/2 Tbps basil 

1/2 tsp oregano 1/3 Tbsp ginger

(I don't always have every single ingredient, that's fine, just use this as a base)

Take 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts and cut into bite size pieces

In a large frying pan, add about 1/2 inch oil and heat over medium-high.

Mix all ingredients together in medium size bowl.

In another medium size bowl, break two eggs and slightly beat them.

Place chicken pieces into bowl with slightly beaten eggs and toss to coat.

Using a fork, transfer chicken pieces to flour mixture and toss/stir to coat pieces evenly with seasoning.

Space the gluten free chicken nuggets around the frying pan/sauce pan in a single layer and cook till golden crisp on one side, then flip over...about 5-7 minutes total.  Adjust your temperature if you notice chicken nuggets are browning too fast or not cooking fast enough.  When you think they look done, pick out the largest one and cut open with a knife to make sure it is cooked all the way through (no pink!).  Work in batches.

Remove chicken nuggets from heat and place on paper towel lined cooling racks.

ENJOY!

Serve with russet potatoes cut up into french fries, coated lightly with oil and baked on parchment paper at 450 til crispy, then sprinkled with kosher salt and paprika.

Ps- These chicken nuggets make great left-overs...hubby loves to eat them cold out of the fridge the next day

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Yummy Roasted Veggies

Roasted Potatoes, Onions and Peppers

So this is my new favorite side dish this summer!  Anytime I can eat potatoes at dinner and not have my husband tease me about how "a bunch of french fries are not a real meal" (he also says this about popcorn and cereal! Seriously??!!! lol)  So anyways, these are really good and are definitely part of a "real meal".  Just slice up some potatoes between 1/4-1/2 inch thick, slice up some vidalia onions (love Walla Wallas) and some red bell peppers.  Place in a large bowl and toss with olive oil.  Cover your baking sheet with parchment paper (no trying to scrape up the food and having it rip apart!) and spread out your veggies then sprinkle with kosher salt.  Bake at 450 until crisp and roasted.  I made these again at my moms house for everyone during out visit this past month using fresh potatoes out of her garden and it was amazing!  This dish is easy and just makes me happy :) I like to serve this with grilled honey dijon lemon chicken! 

Exploring Omaha with Mom

Wow, I can't believe how fast the past month has gone by!  Since my last post we have been gone visiting family and friends, attending weddings, camping, baby showers, and then having mom mom visit us at our new home for the first time and exploring Omaha with her.  She was our first guest and it was SO nice to finally be able to accommodate her better than we have been able to with friends and family visiting in the past.  Being in a house 3.5 times bigger than our old apartment makes a pretty big difference!  I am still so excited about having a garage after years of giant apartment complex parking lots! Anyways, I have lots of blogging catching up to do but most recently...

Here are some of the things we did with my mom...

First we went to the World of Mexican Pottery which is located on S 24th Street between M and O streets in Omaha which is a cool little historic district.   Renowned for its cultural influences, including the historic location of Omaha's Greek, Russian, Polish and Czech immigrant communities, as well as the city's current growing Latino community, including Mexicans* 
World of Mexican Pottery is a unique store, tons of real clay chimneys, planters, urns and other decor that is really really well priced!  You can get a pretty clay fireplace/chimney for under $100 and they are gorgeous!  My mom wants to get one but will have to plan a trip to drive out here to be be able to take it back home.

 After walking through the rest of that historic district, we had enough time to drive up to the Mormon Trail Winter Quarters for a free tour.  It was really interesting and didn't take too long (which was good with the kids).  They had a little sod house/cabin set up with 2 beds inside and a little loft above both, a tiny eating area and fireplace.  It was so tiny and apparently 2 families/~15 people would share one of those little houses.

That night we got my mom to play pool with us on our pool table that came with the house.  At first she seemed a little reluctant but then once she got going she wasn't too bad and was having fun, she is so cute!  My mom and I played a game and it was going so slow! lol! I asked Tyler "I wonder what's the longest game of pool every played"... his reply was "We're finding out right now!" lol!  My mom beat me but it was close!

We took her to the spray park and fed the geese...

We played in the sink to cool off with this big heat wave that has been going on....

We went to the zoo when it was 96 degrees with 88% humidity!  We were totally drenched the whole time it was so hot!  When we got near the end, just before the butterfly exhibit and aquarium, I saw a frozen lemonade stand and boy was that heaven in a cup!  The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha is the coolest zoo I have even been too! The habitats are seriously amazing, I've never seen anything like it!  It was HUGE and next time I think we are getting a yearly family pass so we can just go and see parts of the zoo on multiple occasions instead of trying to do it all in one day...we were there for hours and still didn't see everything...

 Budgie Encounter at the Henry Doorly Zoo

bring cash, $1 per feeding stick

And of course we took my mom to Nebraska Furniture Mart....that is an attraction on it's own!  It's not just a furniture store, it's a complex of huge buildings with the biggest furniture store, electronics store and clearance stores ever!  We spent quite a bit of time looking at everything, they have all kinds of styles and it doesn't just all look like some typical out of the box furniture, they have everything and all kinds of unique, awesome things in all styles and I found my dream dining table...although it's $10,000 so good thing they have nice things in all price ranges!  It's so exciting to just envision the different possibilities!  I've got my eye on a couple of the dining room sets and bedroom sets.  My mom was such a sweetheart and got us this cute bistro set for our deck as a housewarming gift! I LOVE IT!  We found this at Mrs.B's clearance center, just what we needed out there...it's perfect...

 And of course we did lots of baking and relaxing, she showed me how she makes gluten free bread and I got her hooked on my gluten free dark chocolate covered peanut butter cookies, and we went to Hobby Lobby at least twice, where my mom also picked out this awesome wall clock for us and just our luck all wall decor was 50% off...I freaking love that store.

 Starting to get a little less bare in the dining room....

Greased out from the heat wave...what's the point of putting on makeup, it'll sweat off in 2 minutes!

Her flight got delayed so we got to keep her for an extra night (I couldn't have been  more excited about a flight delay!) so I drove her through downtown on the way back from the airport to see the big bronze pioneer sculptures at First National's Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness and Pioneer Courage Park

photo credit:Mike Kleveter

and drove through the Old Market just  for a peek...we'll go back and walk around next visit, it was just too hot and after the zoo day we were done with sweating our pants off!

Omaha Old Market

photo courtesy Marriot

old market passageway 

photo courtesy omahanightlife.com

We'll go back at night when the lighted horse drawn carriages are going around on the cobblestone streets.  And to finish it off, we left the kids with Tyler and had a girls dinner out at the Farmhouse Cafe!  The perfect place for potato lovers like us! :) The last 2 nights we stayed up and watched Food Matters and then that extra bonus night we watched Emma What a CUTE funny movie! We loved it! It's been forever since watching a really good movie like that!  I recommend both Food Matters and Emma for your list of things to watch!  I'm still chuckling over some of the dialog in Emma.

Farmhouse Potatoes

Hello friends!  I've been busy this week working on some stuff that I'm excited to share, but none of the projects are ready yet so stay tuned!  In the mean time, today was one of those stormy, stay in your PJs and watch home videos all day days...and when dinner time rolled around...this really hit the spot...

Farmhouse Potatoes

So, if I haven't emphasized it or if it hasn't been obvious to anyone, I'm a potato head!  My favorite food is potatoes...must be the Irish blood!  So when we came to Omaha to house hunt, we found this wonderful cafe called Farmhouse Cafe, the only bad part is they have an amazing bakery when you walk in and J and I can't have any of the amazing looking goods behind the glass cases!  We went for brunch and J and I got the only thing we can get when eating out for breakfast/brunch...bacon, eggs and potatoes.  Farmhouse cafe did not have your typical home-fries or hash browns, they had "Farmhouse Potatoes" and after we left, the rest of the day I was craving more. So when we made the long drive again from Dallas to Omaha for the actual move 3 weeks later, our first stop in town was the Farmhouse Cafe!  It was afternoon but we wanted that awesome breakfast again, and this time, I got TWO orders of the Farmhouse Potatoes!  Well, I've started making them at home too, and adding vidalia onion!  These are soooo good and I think baby B got more of my Irish genes than J did, he eats these up faster than I can keep replenishing his tray!  J-girl is like daddy, she's a fiend for Bacon, Taylor Ham (anyone from NJ know what I'm talking about?) and pizza (gluten free only now).  

Anyways, my farmhouse potatoes aren't exactly like the ones at the cafe, those ones are sliced a bit thicker and taste a bit richer, and it's always nice when someone else makes it!

Next time you want some comfort food, whip up some of these (I just made these for my dinner!).  Don't be deterred by having to slice up the potatoes!  You can do it! :)

Farmhouse Potatoes

Thinly slice up some russet or yukon potatoes.  I use the slicing blade on my hand held cheese grater.  Place slices in a bowl of cold water as you work.  Then drain and rinse with water. Shake off excess water and then spread potatoe slices over a paper towel.  Take another paper towel and pat them dry, removing as much water as you can.

Put a blend of 50/50 oil in the skillet (vegetable oil/olive oil) and heat over med-high, then toss in sweet onions.

Spread the potato slices around the pan, and mix up with the onions a bit so they are layered together.  Cover with a lid to help potatoes cook through faster.  

When the bottom layer of potatoes starts to get golden and crisp, flip the potatoes over, cover with lid and cook till golden and crisp on other side.

Sprinkle with coarse salt and paprika...

 ENJOY!

Note- some of the onions look rather black, but they didn't taste burnt or scorched...nope...tasted great!


Here is where I'm Hoppin'