Chorizo Potatoes (Chorizo con Papas): An Easy Alternative to Everyday Potatoes

Is there anything better than potatoes? These lovely, starchy vegetables are great for every meal, and I intend to eat them with every meal (Much to my mother’s chagrin. I do what I want, MOM.).  

This morning, Matt was hungry for sausage and toast, and I had already started to make pancakes. We only had enough sausage for 1 person, and since I was already going to make potatoes, I decided to go with a more Mexican route, inspired by this recipe.

Chorizo potatoes aren’t just for breakfast. They can be eaten with refried beans, cheddar, and sour cream and be wolfed down for lunch. They can be served with carne asada and nopales. They can be eaten late at night when no one is looking. Regardless to when the urge hits, you can eat this spicy, savory and simply delicious meal at any time, knowing that it’s not particularly expensive or difficult to make. Enjoy!

Chorizo Potatoes

  Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
10 ounces Mexican pork chorizo (This is soft sausage, and will goop out of its casing)
1/4 small onion, diced
1 pound potatoes of your preference, cut into small (1/4-inch) dice, and boiled
Salt

Black pepper

Cajun seasoning

Directions

• Put your diced potatoes into a pot with enough water to cover them, and boil for about 6-8 minutes. You want the potatoes to almost be barely cooked, and still have a bite. This will keep them from dissolving when you’re cooking them with the chorizo. Drain, then set aside.

• Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook, breaking up the clumps, until almost dry and crisp, about 10 minutes. Chorizo is oily, so don’t be surprised if you have pockets of oil in the corners. That’s ok. It’ll keep the potatoes from sticking.

• In the pan you cooked your chorizo, add the onions and boiled potatoes. Stir occasionally, and allow them to brown, which will take about 12 minutes.

• Stir in the cooked chorizo onto the mixture, blending well and covering all of the potatoes evenly. Season with the salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning to taste.

•  Enjoy with your favorite meal, like I did here with a fried egg, cheddar and pancakes. MM.

Fabulously Fluffy French Toast

Happy Father’s Day to all those Papas out there! I hope you’re being spoiled with love, affection, gifts and great food today.

While my husband and I aren’t having children any time soon, that does not mean that we can’t eat in celebratory style today. For me, that means making something fluffy, sweet and filling. While pancakes typically play a huge part in our breakfast repertoire, I wanted something a little different. Why not French toast?

My grandma used to make French toast for her grandkids practically every time that we slept over. Not that we complained; hers was the best French toast, beating out our mothers’ attempts.

Now, I’m happy to have found a recipe that marries her sweet recipe with something that you’d expect to find at a restaurant. I hope you enjoy!

Fabulously Fluffy French Toast

Ingredients

 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

 1 cup milk

 1 pinch salt

 3 eggs

 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or a scant ¼ teaspoon allspice)

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 1 tablespoon white sugar

 12 thick slices bread

butter or butter spread, for cooking

Directions

• Measure flour into a large mixing bowl that is deep enough to dredge your bread in. Slowly whisk in the milk. 

• Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth.

• Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat. While it gets to the right temperature, soak your bread slices in the mixture until saturated. You may need to flip the bread once in order to soak it completely.

•  Cook bread on each side until golden brown with a pat of butter or cooking oil. 

• Serve hot.

Don't forget to add your favorite toppings, like butter, syrup, fruit and powdered sugar!

Super Simple Cast Iron Flat Bread

This week has been crazily busy for us. We have been trying to adjust to the summer schedule, which includes my driving an hour and a half every morning and afternoon, on top of preparing for summer school students. Matt still has his nightly schedule, and has to deal with odd hours. Needless to say, it's been exhausting, and I still need to feed us.

This weekend, I really didn't feel like cooking at all, but still wanted to eat something delicious. When I was single, I'd go to a gastropub called the Flying Pig nearby that makes a wonderful grilled flatbread with tons of toppings, including prosciutto, salami, ricotta, tomato sauce, and garlic confit.

Matt had never had anything like the sort (surprise), so I wanted to create a home version. I found a great flatbread recipe online to be my base. I don't have a grill on hand, so I decided to use the next best thing: a cast iron grill. 

Once the dough is ready to cook, it really isn't too much longer before you're wolfing down a great, but simple to make, meal. Bon appetit!

Super Simple Cast Iron Flat Bread

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 7 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream (feel free to use greek yogurt)
• Vegetable oil (for cooking)

Instructions

• Dissolve yeast in 3 cups warm water in a large bowl. 

• Add the all-purpose flour to the bowl one cup at a time, and mix with your fingertips until a shaggy dough forms. 

• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle the two tablespoons of salt over the dough, then add sour cream. 

• Knead in the salt and sour cream until it is incorporated. You will know when the dough is well mixed because the dough will pull away from sides of bowl and holds together in a loose, wet ball. To mix the dough without it sticking to your hands, make sure they are nice and moist. 

• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Knead dough an additional 4–5 times to remove the bubbles. If you have prepared the dough before you need it, it can keep in the fridge for for up to 2 days. The dough will develop in flavor and continue to rise slowly in refrigerator.
• If you are planning to use the dough immediately, let the dough stand at room temperature until doubled in volume, which will take anywhere from 3–4 hours. To make the cooking process easier, chill for one hour before cooking.

• Divide your dough into 8 equal portions. Press out the dough with your hands until it is 1/4-inch-thick. It doesn't have to be perfectly round.
• Preheat a dry cast iron or non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Place the flatbread in the hot pan and spread it out as much as you can. Allow it to cook for one minute, or until small air bubbles appear. 

• Flip over and cook for another minute, and then finish by flipping over one last time for another minute. During the third minute the bread may puff up, and small charred spots will form on the surface. Those parts taste the best.

Remove to cool slightly. Once all are finished, the flatbread is ready to eat. If you’re like me, you’ll want to eat the bread with that mixture of garlic confit, arugula, spicy tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, and prosciutto combo I was talking about at the beginning. Enjoy! 

Quick Dessert: Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cobbler

Don’t you hate it when you’ve signed up to cook something and completely forget about it until the last possible moment?

I can’t tell you how many times that has happened to me. It’s probably a shameful amount, and I’m working on that. However, it’s probably because of my poor planning that I’ve become really good at whipping up dishes in a short amount of time.

This time, I signed up for dessert at growth group. I thought I was ready to go. I had gotten my homemade Oreos ready to go, and I took them… a week early. SIGH.

The next week, I was scratching my head, looking for a fun and effortless dessert that would leave everyone satisfied, and I found this lovely chocolate cobbler recipe. I normally love lots of steps so I can watch the dessert grow or come together, but I appreciated how this all came together so quickly and was perfect. 

You can eat it warm, with some ice cream on top, or you can eat it by spoonfuls from the dish, without any judgment from me. Enjoy.

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cobbler

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1-3/4 cups hot water

Instructions

• To start, Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
• In a bowl, combine your flour, salt, baking powder sugar and 2 tablespoons of the cocoa powder with a fork. 

• Pour the milk and oil into your dry ingredients, stirring it slowly to keep any dry pockets from forming. 

• Pour into a baking dish (mine is a 9x9-inch square). 
• Combine the brown sugar and remaining cocoa. This will serve as the "crumble" for your dessert. I truly wasn't sure what this would look like, but it is delish. Sprinkle your mixture over the batter. 

• Now, for the odd part. Pour hot water over the top of your dessert. Don't stir it. Just leave it.  

This WILL be beautiful in the end, I promise. 

• Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Told you!

What I like about this particular dessert is that it comes with its own gooey syrup to swirl around. You'll be fighting to see who eats the last spoonful.