A Quantum Leap in Potato Technology

 

Work sucks, and I've bitched about the dehumanizing corporate bullshit before. Food brings me cheer. I had buckets of fun cooking for my sister and my brother-in-law a couple of weeks ago when they visited here. Lindz and I, in turn, enjoyed continual feasting while we were up in Michigan (we enjoyed the hospitality of both my sister's and my brother's households, much to the distress of my waistband). Food is central to our merrymaking.

Fast-forward to today:

The object in the picture is the only potato left by the time I grabbed the camera. I'm pretty pleased with the meal we put together here. Here's a brief synopsis of the day:

Breakfast: I made coffee, fluffy biscuits and scrambled eggs for Lindz, her parents and myself. I made the biscuits on the cast iron pizza pan which was given to us by my sister as a housewarming gift. Afterwards, the four of us went to Home Depot. In addition to PVC cement for fixing a bathroom leak (my father-in-law has often lent his practical knowledge as well as some moral support to my grappling with home ownership) we got some herbs and pots - big, healthy sage and thyme plants.

Lunch: While the girls were out and about together, I made Hub and myself a couple of tuna melts. I used my 6:1 Bread flour/Rye flour sandwich bread and a tuna salad made of albacore tuna, minced onion, minced pickled okra, dill and Texas Pete hotsauce. The cheese was American. We ate in the sunshine on the deck, and I washed it down with a Redhook ESB. Hub glued the offending pipe back into submission while I cleaned up.

The afternoon: The in-laws had to head home at about 2 pm, and Lindz and I spent some time outside. She planted some flowers, and I potted the herbs. I went to the grocery store and got some sundries, which included some liquor from the ABC store. When I got home, I made gin & tonics for us. A truly fine cocktail on a sunny day, I tell you. At this point, I began making ice cream. My old Starbucks colleague Fridge had sent me some Tahitian vanilla beans from his honeymoon. Lindz's brother gave us an ice cream maker for our wedding. We executed the vanilla ice cream recipe from The Best Recipe, which is a full-bore frozen custard. The smell is divine. It's hardening in the freezer now.

Dinner: I made a sauce of peach preserves, aromatics and mustard (yellow mustard as well as some Dean & Deluca mustard seeds I ground in the mortar and pestle). Honey, brown sugar, vinegar and cayenne also found their way into this. It ended up being a thick, flavorful goo. This sauce went on top of grilled, boneless pork chops. Lindz made a salad of romaine lettuce, grapes, feta and balsamic vinaigrette. I heated up the iron pizza pan and halved a bunch of golf-ball sized red potatoes. With a bit of oil and salt, I put them, cut side down, on the hot iron (Schifferdecker style, as it is known in my family. I roasted them in a 400-degree oven for just over 30 minutes. I took them out of the oven and tossed them with a bit of oil, paprika, salt and pepper, and chopped snippings from my rosemary, sage and thyme plants. They are, I think, the best potatoes I've ever cooked.

I've cooked a lot of potatoes. These tasted more like potatoes than any of them. Earthy, yielding yet firm, herbal. Perhaps I have attained a new level of palate Zen when I'm fascinated by potatoes that taste like potatoes. I don't know what else to say. That damned cast iron pizza pan is the shit.