thrice baked potato skins

I absolutely adore potato skins. After all the talk about Super Bowl food, I decided to make some.

First I baked the potatoes for at 400F for about 45 min.

baking potatoes

I cut them in half and hollowed them. I rubbed the pan and the skins with a little vegatble oil so they would crisp up.

hollowed potatoes

Back into the oven they went for about 15 min until they were crisp. I spooned a little ricotta cheese into each one and topped them with cheddar cheese and a little bacon.

potatoes with toppings ready to melt

Back into the oven they went for a few minutes until the cheese melted.

thrice baked potato skins

Delicious. Good enough for me to become a football fan for a little while.

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Top Chef-Thur Point Recap

I have 41 pts and am ranked 9595. I am awful at this game. My team for the last episode was Jeff, Stefan, and Jamie.

Jeff got sent home. I think he’s a good chef that needs editing.

I can’t believe Stefan lost. Pat was saying he kind of hoped he lost just because he tried to pick someone he thought he could easily beat while I was screaming no that he was on my team. Stefan is a jerk but at least he said he didn’t become overly defensive.

Jamie did well of course. She didn’t win unfortunately.

I like Fabio but I really thought he was going home since his venison was overcooked.

I choose Carla as a replacement. I like her attitude and her gumbo was great. I thought about Hosea since he’s had some great moments. Carla’s got such great energy so I am hoping she will do well.

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Super Bowl Foods

Serious Eats has some great looking Super Bowl Party recipes.

I am definitely thinking about the loaded baked potato chip nachos.

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Spinach Pasta

I told Pat I was making pasta with spinach and cream cheese and he said how about not doing that.

defrosted spinach

I kept telling him it was wonderful as I defrosted the spinach, and whirled it and the cream cheese in the food processor.

quick spinach and cream cheese pasta sauce

He reluctantly tried it. After taking a small bite, he began raving about how much he liked it.

It’s a great, quick meal and I think the taste is a little unexpected.

I saw Giada De Laurentis make this a few years ago and over time I have changed it up. Sometimes I throw in a little goat cheese. Sometimes it’s frozen spinach, sometimes fresh.

unexpectedly delicious

Spinach and Cream Cheese Pasta

adapted from Giada De Laurentis

6 oz whole wheat pasta cooked al dente

1/2 cup pasta water reserved

2 oz cream cheese

10 oz spinach, defrosted and drained well

Place cream cheese and spinach with  a few tbsp of reserved water in food processor and blend well. Add pasta and cream cheese mixture into pan over low flame. Mix well. Remove from heat after 1-2 min and serve.

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Chocolate

I read David Lebovitz’s post on visiting Fouquet, a confection shop in Paris. In the comments he suggested a few places that make and sell chocolates including Vosges.

I looked up their locations in Chicago and one of them is just off the brown line! I live by the brown line! I hopped on the train and made my way over there.

The store is cute and the staff were nice. I picked out a library of chocolate bars to buy and ate a sample chocolate with curry powder that was amazing.

At the check-out they gave me a 4 piece box of their caramels which was nice.

chocolate covered carmels...

I came home and tried the caramels. I loved the red salt caramel. The ones with anise myrtle and Brazil nuts were good but not my favorite. The last one has a licorice taste and it is the best licorice flavored thing I’ve ever eaten but I just am not that into licorice.

I still have to try the chocolate library. There are new year’s resolutions to keep, so I put it away for another day.

delicious chocolate covered caramels...

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