Potatoes are always a crowd pleaser. Here are two easy recipes…
Mashed Potatoes
(serves 8)
Use a potato peeler and peel away the skin of all your potatoes. Doing this under a running tap will make the process easier. If the potatoes are on the larger size cut in half as they will cook faster if they are in smaller pieces. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil until you can easily pierce through each potato with a knife. They should not be hard in the center.
Drain away all water and start mashing with a potato masher. Whilst mashing, add butter and half & half. Continue mashing and add salt & pepper. If I were to guess an amount I would say 2 teaspoons of each, but really this is up to you. At this point taste your potatoes and see if you need anything more of anything. Sometimes I will add a bit more half & half to make them creamier.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Chop potatoes into small pieces. Cut onions in half, remove skin, and slice lengthwise into half rings. Toss and potatoes together in a large bowl with olive oil, 1 teaspoon each of salt & pepper and spread out over a baking sheet. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes until crispy and serve hot out of the oven.
Note: You can also use cold leftover baked potatoes for these – I did this recently for ‘breakfast potatoes’ (see photo above) and they were incredible… a great way to use up any leftovers!
(nerdy, but so useful!) and headed down to Fort Mason to lay down some blankets and save some space for our friends who were meeting up with us later. Well, at 10 am, we just a teensy bit premature as we were the only people there! But not to worry, the sun was out and the fog was clearing, and we did end up with the best viewing spot on the field! Soon enough the air was filled with fighter jets and prop planes showing us their tricks overhead. And our picnic wasn’t half bad either! The six Blue Angels finished up the show with an insanely awesome performance (see the video above). I’m pretty sad that we have to wait a full year till we get to see them again.
