Recipe: Potato Fan

Recipe: Potato Fan
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I have seen this recipe on multiple websites under a variety of names. This Potato Fan recipe is a great recipe for kids, both because it is a simple recipe that most kids can do with a minimum of supervision, but also because it is something kids will eat. I know I have a toddler that loves them.

From my research into this recipe, I have come to the conclusion that the proper name is probably Hasselback potatoes, since this recipe has most likely originated at A Swedish inn named the Hasselbacken.

Since this nothing more than a fancy baked potato, the best potatoes to use are Russet or Idaho potatoes. I have tried others, but I always get the best result from baking varieties.

Once you get the basic variety down, feel free to add any additional like herbs, crusts, or cheese toppings during the baking process.

Ingredients:

  • 4 (8 ounce) baking potatoes
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 Tablespoons Oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated cheese

Procedure:

  • Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
  • Wash Potatoes
  • Cut a thin slice off off bottom of potatoes so they will stand firmly on table
  • Place potatoes next to a large wooden or metal spoon.
  • Using a sharp knife, make slices across the potato the short way about 1/8 to 1/4 inch apart, making sure to cut down to the lip of the spoon, not all the way through the potato.
    • The slices should stay connected at the bottom, and the spoon helps keep the depth even.
  • When all of the potatoes are cut, place them cut side up in a shallow baking dish or small roasting pan.
  • Drizzle with half of the butter/oil mix
  • Season with salt and pepper.
  • Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven.
  • Remove from the oven, and drizzle with the remaining butter/oil mix
  • Sprinkle cheese onto the tops of the potatoes, and season with a little more salt and pepper.
  • Return to the oven, and bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until done

Kitchen DIY: Neat Oreo Cookie Trick

Kitchen DIY: Neat Oreo Cookie Trick
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So this is not a prepper/gun/DIY post – but man can’t like on preps alone – sometimes you just have to have fun with your kids, and I love sharing cookies and milk with my boy.

Unfortunately, my bride does not understand that messes can be cleaned up, but kids are only kids once, so she does not appreciate when I act like a kid and get WT to spread cookies and milk across 3 rooms of the house.

To keep the house clean AND still share the fun of dipping Oreo cookies in milk I found a solution.  This neat Oreo cookie trick uses a fork to keep the mess down.

It works best with double stuffed, but I have used normal ones, as wall as cheaper generic cookies.  Simply press the tines of a fork into the white stuffing and use it as a handle to dip the cookies in milk.

It keeps grubby fingers out of the milk, it allows the entire cookie to be dipped, and it cuts down on the mess.

Its not as free spirited as a double dipping, dirty fingers, broken cookies adventure that is hand dipping, but it keeps my more sensible and cultured wife happy so I think that this is a good thing to share.

My Toddler Cooking Pancakes

My Toddler Cooking Pancakes

WT Makes Pancakes
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Today’s post is just a playful thing, it doesn’t teach anything, or show anything new – just me and my boy messing around.  All I am doing is watching as my son WT  makes pancakes.

I don’t eat a lot of pancakes, after I had the lap band, they make me throw up is I eat more than one.  However, William likes them, and I enjoy watching him play in the kitchen.

I think that cooking is not only a valuable skill, but it teaches many valuable lessons.  My wife tends to agree and uses cooking in her special education class to help teach her autistic and special need students many of the same lessons.

A few of the the many things cooking teaches children are:

  • Cause and Effect
  • Basic Math
  • Attention to detail
  • Self Discipline
  • Creativity

But today, as I watched WT making pancakes, all I was really doing was spending time with my favorite little boy.

He sure made a mess eating those things, I don’t think I have ever seen syrup spread so far.  However, he had a great time.  My boy still asks to make pancakes, but he smashes them up more than he eats them.  I think that may because of the fancy ketchup bottle art pancakes.

I do know that this is a fun family activity, and its a pretty simple thing to do.  Its really fun to do this while mommy sleeps in.  As long as WT and I clean up the kitchen before she gets up I get extra patience from her throughout the rest of the day.

How to Make Coffee Without a Coffee Maker

 

Kitchen DIY: Coffee Brewing Hack
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I don’t drink a lot of coffee, so maybe I don’t fully appreciate this coffee brewing hack, but since I love DIY solutions to problems, I wanted to show an awesome hack James from survivalpunk.com thought of in order to brew coffee using nothing but a glass carafe, a filter, and a cut off top of a soda bottle.

If you cut the bottom off of a 20 ounce soda bottle you can insert it into the top of a glass carafe (or bottle with a large neck).  Put a coffee filter into the top of the soda bottle and fill with he appropriate amount of coffee and you can pour water into the filter and have coffee drip into your glass.

I am more of a tea drinker so I am more likely to do this with loose tea, but the idea is the same.

Hope this is useful to you.

After this post went live, I had a lot of requests to review french presses for coffee making.  I don’t know why because I said I don’t drink coffee, but I did get one.  I used it to make tea.  It did a good job and I liked it, but it took too long for something I drink by the gallon.

How to Dry Peppers Using a Ristra

 

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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Ristras are now normally expensive decorative items bought at overpriced stores selling cheap crap.  Traditionally they were used to both dry and store peppers in the southwest.

A ristra is simple a heavy thread that has been run through the end of multiple peppers and then left out to dry.

Last years peppers are hanging in a corner of my kitchen waiting for a batch of chili or fajitas to be made.

Watch the video to see how some tips on drying peppers using a Ristra.

I use this as an easy way to store my peppers each year.  I find that hot peppers are about the only plant I actually do well with growing so I always have a surpluse.

What does not go into the fermenter for making pepper mash goes on a Ristra.

At first the boy liked playing with it.  That was because I keep mine over in a corner that he likes to hide and play in.  However, after he got a little pepper in his eyes one he stopped messing with it.  The hot part of a pepper is in the membranes.  So he only got a small exposure from breaking one up.  However, that was enough to keep him away from my peppers in the future.