I didn’t know you were coming Ore-Ida made you some potatoes!

Image courtesy of Scott Costello

I honestly know only one person who doesn’t like french fries. Of course, that sacrilegious person would have to be the Murse! Oh, he’ll eat them — and he does like them if they’re well seasoned or covered with chili or cheese or something like that. But he doesn’t really experience or understand the absolute elation and comfort that some people get from eating plain old french fries. As it happens, he’s more of a tot man. I, however, love all things french fries. Even just typing about them makes me slightly salivate. I love the crisp exterior yielding to the pillowy center. I love them topped with BBQ sauce, ketchup, honey mustard, ranch dressing and other sauces, depending on my mood. I love them beside a burger or on top of a salad. I love them on a plate as the meal themselves, on occasion. I love them dipped in a milkshake (sinful combination of salty and sweet).

I must say, I’m like a child when it comes to fries. I crave, anticipate and delight in them. If I order a meal at a restaurant, nine times out of ten, I’m not substituting my french fries for another side. No way. But you can’t always go out to get your fry fix. Well … maybe some people can, but I have a budget. I have to cook at home a lot more often than I can indulge in having someone else cook and clean up.

Johnsonville Sausage – October Noms

This month, the Allrecipes Allstars teamed up with Johnsonville sausage. I have to tell you, I love their brand all the way around. Beyond the fact that they make sausage that I routinely buy anyway, they are ridiculously generous with both swag and feedback. So allow me to gush about it for a few hundred words.

Johnsonville sent coupons for ground Italian sausage. I discovered after I bought sweet Italian links (my store didn’t have ground) that my coupons could probably have been used for bratwurst or something else, but I kind of wanted to push the Murse into eating the Italian anyway. I mean, we’re huge fans of brat, so it’s not like we really need to try it, you know? Not to sound like a low-brow jerk, but I’m not going to take a brat and make it into something different. It’s going to get simmered in beer and thrown on the grill. When it’s nice and charred, it’s going to be topped with Bavarian sauerkraut and mustard on a potato bun, and it’s going in my face. Period. No fancy bratwurst recipes for us, thanks.

Snack Time with Sargento

This month, I was selected to participate in an Influenster campaign with Sargento cheese. YUM!

We LOVE cheese around here, and Sargento is certainly a treat when put side by side with the store brand, which is what we usually buy. Kaeloo will happily eat a half pound of cheese by herself in a week, so we usually buy a big block and it’s gone before I head back to the grocery store. This week, I bought two because I want to make Panera Bread copycat broccoli cheese soup (gosh, this recipe really is so close!), but we also got to get some Sargento Snacks!

Happy Grilling Post

We went to Hershey Park today, taking advantage of our dual season passes that are good there and at Dutch Wonderland. I decided that it was too chilly to take our swimsuits, but I think it might have been nice to cool off. In retrospect, though, we wouldn’t have gotten that far. We arrived around 13:00:00, and we immediately hit the carousel for Kaeloo. We did some kiddie rides around the Founder’s Circle, and then we headed to the Reese’s Extreme Cup Challenge. The first few times that we rode it, Kae had no interest in participating. You use a little laser gun to shoot at targets, and you play against the group in the next car. Today, she got two hits, which I have to say is pretty good for a three-year-old tot. Archoo is getting progressively better, and we usually beat whatever poor family or group of friends is pitted against us.

We continued along the path of kiddie rides, but were rudely interrupted in our adventure. Archoo decided to unbuckle his seat belt and stand up while the Mini Pirate was still in motion. The ride operator was in hysterics (OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG), but we planned to give him a little lecture and continue our day. However, as Archer does, he was checking out everything around him instead of listening to said lecture. We left, and I reminded him that season tickets mean we don’t have to feel bad about taking him home after only 2 hours in the park.

Simple & Crisp: Part Two / Chococlate Cherry Snow Cookies

After yesterday’s delicious orange-gingerbread adventure, I really couldn’t wait to open another packet of Simple & Crisp products. Today, I selected the apple slices. A few of them were broken, so I ate a piece by itself. The flavor was so delicious, and I knew that I had made the right choices at the supermarket yesterday. Let me just tell you ahead of time that I completely forgot to take a closeup of this recipe — because I was too busy eating it to remember. The Murse didn’t quite like this one as much as yesterday’s, but it meant more for me, and I was totally fine with that.

I thinly sliced a red onion and sautéed it in butter over medium heat until it was nice and caramelized.  As this cooled slightly, I took the apple crisps and added a little schmear of neufchâtel cheese on top of each one. I didn’t bother trying to make the cheese look nice because the beautiful onion was going to be piled on top. I added a tiny basil leaf to each one to finish it.