French Fry Diary 454: Fries Seasoning

I found these on Amazon, believe it or not. Gourmet Fries Seasoning from Chef's Fun Foods come in four varieties - Cheesy Cheddar, Garlic Parmesan, Salt & Garlic Pepper, and Flame Grilled BBQ. Or at least those are the flavors I got. There are also Wild Buffalo, Sour Cream & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, and Ketchup - all eight terrific flavoring to add to the favorite fried food.

I got mine about six months ago, have used them quite a bit, and these thirteen ounce jars are still not only mostly full, but also very fresh. All have no fat and no MSG, and contain at least five or less calories per serving. They do require frequent shaking though as the contents tend to clump.

The labels suggest their use for potatoes, veggies, burgers, chicken, or pasta, and urged the consumer to 'be creative!' And I have been creative. A sucker for BBQ, I put that one on almost everything, well, everything except pasta, and garlic bread for which the Garlic flavors are great. I have found the Cheddar particularly good on popcorn. And of course, they are all quite good on fries. Recommended.



And just in case you've ever wanted to make tornado fries at home, Chef's Fun Foods also sells all your supplies, except for the potatoes, for that too!

French Fry Diary 242: Carrabba's Italian Grill

I know, Carrabba's Italian Grill is not the usual kind of place for French Fry Diary, but I found potatoes anyway. I'm good like that. Wonderful atmosphere and great customer service made what is usually not my kind of place into somewhere I might return to.

For appetizers they had hot Italian bread along with a dipping plate of olive oil and various seasonings including Rosemary and red pepper, delicious. We had had something similar to this at a favorite restaurant of friends in Maryland. We have since tried to reproduce it at home with some success, but I'm glad we have found it again so close to home.

Adventurous sort I am, and pasta being far too exotic for this catastrophically picky eater, I ordered the ribeye steak and garlic mashed potatoes. Carrabba's has an open air grill so the steak looked and tasted like it had been on the barbeque. Yum, barbeque steak is just what the doctor ordered for a Father's Day when not actually barbecuing. This was indeed the best steak I have had in quite a while. Perfect.

The mashed potatoes were a bit too watery and creamy for me but had chunks of garlic, turnip and bacon (I think). I couldn't finish, and I think I would gave preferred a thicker mash. Still it was a good pairing for the ribeye. All in all, mashed potatoes aside, this was a wonderful experience, and even though they don't seem to actually have French fries (short of a kids plate), we will return.