Easy Diner-Style Breakfast Hashbrowns

I love hashbrowns! And surprisingly, around where I live, most breakfast joints serve homefries, and the ones that do serve hashbrowns, they almost never come out right. What is right, you ask? It is when the top and bottom are both golden and crunchy, while the insides are moist, soft, and meaty. It is heaven to me when I know that as soon as I crack open the golden shell, steam will come rushing out, and what awaits me is the generous juicy portion of shred potatoes that are perfectly cooked...

Anyway, enough about my daydream! I have learned years ago to make my own. After many trials and errors, I would like to say that I can actually make decent hashbrowns at home! The basic recipe is very simple, it's the process that one has to pay attention to. So I would like to share with you here how I make my easy diner-style hashbrowns! Read on for the tutorial!

The Winner of the Poll is...

Ketchup! What a surprise! :) The poll was for your favorite dipping sauce for french fries and the runner-up is mayonnaise. Some other sauces that some of you have picked included the following: ranch, 1000 island, aioli, honey mustard, cheese sauce, and ice cream. I also had a fill-in vote for chocolate frosty from Wendy's! :)

Thank you all for participating in the poll! I personally don't like ketchup that much, but I would love to try and make my own. I found this very easy recipe for homemade ketchup and would like to share with you! I might even make this tomorrow...

How To Make Ketchup on Howcast

I Know it's Strange...

If you're visiting my blog, I highly encourage you to vote! It seems like a silly thing to do, but I enjoy posting many fun facts and information about anything about potatoes. :) I went to culinary school, and I still have tons to learn! Thanks again!

The Winner of the Poll is...

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Waffle fries! I'm quite surprised by the results, even though I'm also a big fan of them. The poll was for "What's your favorite French fry shape?", with the following choices: skinny fries, steak fries, crinkle-cut fries, curly fries, and waffle fries. I honestly thought that skinny fries would beat out all of them, but it came in at a close second place. Oh well.

Anyway, have you ever wondered how waffle fries are made? You would need a mandolin with a serrated blade, and just slice away! I would like to share with you this video I found on YouTube that demonstrate this special cut (also called Gaufrettes in French).

One last fun tidbit! I found a Facebook Fan page for waffle fries, and it has over 80,000s fans! I think I'm going to mosey over there and check it out...

Giant Baked Potato

So I finally baked off the giant potato I had, and you know? It's not as big as I thought for some reason. It was still really yummy and fulfilling though. On a day when I'm busy with lots of chores around the house, and it's cold outside, I love to just turn on the oven and bake something. In my case, potatoes are the easiest thing to bake, since they require next to no preparation at all. Surprisingly, I originally thought that it would take longer to completely cook this bad boy, it actually only took 1 hour and 10 minutes! It was great, because I was getting really hungry smelling the aroma from the kitchen!

Read on to find out how I baked my potato and how to fluff it up real good!

Dairy-Free Potato Puree Soup

Many, many years ago, I worked at an upscale cafe that served amazing sandwiches, salads, and soups. One of my favorite thing there was their potato puree soup. Since they put their soups on rotation through the week, I usually get to have it at least once a week. In fact, I was so crazy about this soup that, if they were serving it on my day off, I asked all the cooks in the kitchen to call me at home, and I would loppity-lop down to the cafe and take home a little container of the potato soup.

Since then, I have often tried to re-create it at home, sometimes with success, sometimes...well, it becomes something entirely different. Anyway, I made this version of this potato puree soup today, and would like to share with you. It was extremely yummy, and my boyfriend and I devoured the entire pot in no time!

Read on if you love potato soups as much as me, and would like to know how to make it!

Potato Tacos!

When I lived and worked in Los Angeles a little more than a decade ago, my co-workers and I used to go to this Mexican restaurant called Senor Fish for lunch. They had really good fish tacos and a rather large and inexpensive menu. One of my favorite things they served were potato tacos. I had never had one before, and after trying it for the first time, I was addicted! The taco shell was crispy, while the mash potato was hot and creamy. What more can you ask for?

So when I was looking around my kitchen tonight, I found some white corn tortillas and potatoes (of course!), and decided to make some potato tacos for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised at the results! It may not be the potato tacos at Senor Fish, but it was pretty delicious. Even my boyfriend who swore up and down that he won't like potatoes in tacos or pizza (that's another story), he declared it was a success!

Anyway, I'm just happy we have left-over mashed potato now. Read on to see how I made them...

Cheesy Ham and Broccoli Potato Casserole

I've been on a panko kick lately, and anything I can think of to put panko on, I do. Panko is a Japanese-style breadcrumb that is made without the crust, thus it's airier and creates a crunchier coating. I have been using it for all my homemade mac and cheese, fried foods,...basically anything you would put breadcrumbs on. Anyway, I used some for my potato casserole the other night, and Yum! The crust was golden, crunchy, and delicious! In fact, I was supposed to share it with my boyfriend, but I ate most of it...oops!

If you enjoy the photo of the dish before I devoured it, please read on for the recipe:

Ham and Eggs Hash

It's been awhile since I've had eggs and potatoes for breakfast (weird!), so I decided to make some this morning. Since I just woke up, I'm pretty lazy about lingering in the kitchen for too long to cook, so my version of this ham and eggs hash pretty much cook itself, well, kind of. Anyway, here it is:

1 medium-size potato, diced 1/4"

1/4 cup of diced ham

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 Eggs

salt and pepper to taste

parsley to garnish

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a pan, add diced potatoes in one even layer, season with salt, then cover with lid.

2. Every 5 minutes or so, shake the pan and flip the potatoes, make sure all sides are cooked evenly.

3. After 10-12 minutes, add the diced ham, mix well with potatoes, and continue to cook with the lid on.

4. After a couple of minutes, make a well in the ham and potato mixture, and crack the eggs into the well, then replace the lid.

5. At this point, it depends on how you would like to have your eggs, just keep an eye on it until it's cooked to your liking.

6. Lastly, garnish with a little parsley, season with salt and pepper, and voila! Easy and delicious breakfast!

I Love Potatoes!

I have no idea when it has started, but I have this crazy passion for potatoes and all potato products. I do not claim to be an expert, but I get very happy when I find a recipe or find a restaurant with an amazing potato dish! So I would like this blog to be a chronicle of all things potatoes, recipes, facts, fun stuff...etc.

I am not discriminate of where the potato product comes from, whether they're fries from McDonald's or gourmet steak fries from a fine dining restaurant, all spuds are created equal! I only judge them on how they taste.

I don't care anything about diet, I think life's too short to not eat food you want to eat!

Please feel free to comment or supply recipes of new ways to cook potatoes! Let me know!!

I think I'm gonna make some garlic mash now...