Potato Latkes for Channukah

I'm a lapsed Episcopalian married into a Jewish family. I know my share of the Jewish religion, have attended services on numerous occasions and was even married by a Rabbi. I'm not converting, but I know my way around the Torah. Imagine my shock when I learned after nearly two decades of exposure that there was a holiday that heavily involved the potato! I might have married earlier had I known.

For the first night of Channukah, here’s a recipe for potato latkes (also known as the thinly disguised hash brown) from All Recipes:

Potato Latkes

"A classic potato latke, you can't go wrong with these crispy hot cakes. Serve with applesauce, sour cream and chopped green onions! Happy Hanukkah!"

Original Recipe Yield 10 to 12 latkes

Ingredients

2 cups peeled and shredded potatoes
1 tablespoon grated onion
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup peanut oil for frying

Directions

1. Place the potatoes in a cheesecloth and wring, extracting as much moisture as possible.
2. In a medium bowl stir the potatoes, onion, eggs, flour and salt together.
3. In a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until hot. Place large spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot oil, pressing down on them to form 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick patties. Brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Let drain on paper towels. Serve hot!

French Fry Diary 68: Room Service, Disney Magic

This is an amazing thing, and it just doesn’t happen on cruise ships, but mostly at finer hotels. It’s called ‘room service,’ and it’s truly a magical thing. You pick up the phone and then after a few moments, people come right to your door, right to your table by your bed… and they bring you French fries. Yeah, seriously. I told you it was magic.

In the case of the Disney Magic cruise ship, we got a case of the munchies one night on our cruise and made the magic call. In a matter of minutes I was greeted by steak fries, similar to the ones I had at Animator’s Palate. Hot, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The only thing that could have made them better would have been more fries.

And you know, there could have been, they were only a phone call away. Like I told ya, magic.

I’m gonna see if the same thing happens with chocolate, and then bacon, and if it does... I ain’t leaving...

French Fry Diary 67: Animator’s Palate, Disney Magic

The Animator’s Palate on both the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder is a thing of both magic and wonder. It’s a restaurant that gives you the sensation of experiencing a Disney animated feature from start to finish, from sketches to full animation – literally from black and white to color.

In fact when you enter Animator’s Palate the entire restaurant is in black and white and set up with props like giant paint brushes holding up a ceiling of artist’s palattes and walls filled with black and white preliminary sketches of various Disney characters and movie scenes. Even the wait staff are wearing black and white.

As you order your meal and enjoy the company of your companions and eventually eat, some of the wall fixtures come to both color and animated life. Finally in a blaze of color the entire restaurant is transformed, including the wait staff, vibrant colors soak every corner of the room as an animated video and music show transpires around you. When it ends, you can enjoy your dessert in the vibrancy of the new atmosphere. It’s a truly wonderful experience.

The themed menu at Animator’s Palate has some great stuff on it, including some penne pasta, veal and salmon, but as anyone who has traveled on the Disney Cruise Line knows – ask and you shall receive. I asked for fries and I got fries. These were steak fries, general variety, probably frozen from a bag, but they were so tasty. Obviously the chefs here on the Magic know their stuff even when it comes to the easy stuff.

And of course, the best thing about eating on the Disney Cruise is that your wait staff follows you from restaurant to restaurant. They get to know what you like, what you don’t like, and how to specialize a meal to you. This is only the first night of the cruise. I suspect by tomorrow, I’ll be happily getting fries with every meal. Vacation is good.

Steak fries, mmmm. Ask and ye shall receive.

French Fry Diary 66: Lumiere’s, Disney Magic

On my last trip on the Disney Cruise, on board the Disney Wonder, I found some amazing French fries, English chip style, along with a lunch burger at Triton’s. This trip, on board the Disney Magic, I figured I would try the fries at Lumiere’s – the Magic version of Triton’s.

The obvious choice for lunch at Lumiere’s is, duh, the Lumiere Burger. This came with, and was even labeled on the menu as, steak fries. No biggie. Actually I had kinda expected this. Upon request at dinner the night before, I was also brought steak fries. Like I said, no big deal, cuz these were really good steak fries.

Presentation counts. Here I was in a French restaurant, surrounded by French bread, French onion soup, French escargot, and I was having French fries. It works. There’s an old saying that you can’t dress up a pig – you still have a pig in a dress. Sometimes, just sometimes though, you can dress up French fries. Such is the case with Lumiere’s steak fries. And the burger was damned good too.

Do You Want Fries with That?

"Do You Want Fries with That?" by Tim McGraw, a humorous musical interlude as a send off as I leave for vacation on the Disney Cruise. I’ll be back in a week with more French fry adventures - from the cruise ship the Disney Magic.

See you then, and until then, don’t forget the fries. Mmmm... fries...

French Fry Diary 65: The Cannibals of the Cherry Hill Chick-Fil-A

The Chick-Fil-A across from the Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey does a crazy lunch business. It’s crowded inside and the drive-thru usually wraps around the restaurant.

The place also has a rather large parking lot, with a rear that backs up against a thin strip of trees, dividing the restaurant from the houses beyond. Because so many folks at lunch time just pull up there to eat their lunch, it has become home to a flock of very brave and scary seagulls.

These are no ordinary seagulls though. They sort through the litter and trash that some folks throw out there, obviously too lazy to walk the ten or twenty feet to the trashcan. Regardless of the laziness and ignorance of some people, the seagulls seem to make due with the food they find. Some folks even toss their waffle fries to the birds, which they seem to love (who can blame them?), and try to catch them in their beaks in the air.

The part that kinda freaks me out is that the seagulls also seem to enjoy chicken as well. Brrr... Don’t they know that stuff comes from other birds? These aren’t just carnivorous birds… they’re cannibals too. Come on, I don’t care how good Chick-Fil-A is – that’s just damned creepy!

French Fry Diary 64: Memories of Mashed Potatoes

Potatoes have always been a huge part of Thanksgiving, and for a potato connoisseur like me, especially so. There are various casseroles, and sweet potato variations (even pies) and of course yams, but what I’ll be talking about today are mashed potatoes.

Many times during the year, as a time saver, or if she just wasn’t feeling up to it, my mom would do the easy thing – instant mashed potatoes. Usually these were the Idahoan variety. They weren’t bad, but you could tell when they weren’t home made. Also, those now-long-gone gigantic cans always bring back good memories. I can remember both wooden blocks and Tinker Toys being kept in those huge cans.

My mom’s home made mashed potatoes started with white potatoes skinned and boiled, then mashed with a fork before being sent to the mixer for a good whipping. Somewhere along the way equally mashed and mixed turnips would be added as well as butter. These smooth tasty mashed potatoes were a treat at many a dinner throughout the year and especially Thanksgiving.

Happy Holidays, folks!

How to Buy Potatoes for Thanksgiving

Grocery School gives us a lesson in buying potatoes just in time for Thanksgiving. Good luck buying them, enjoy the potatoes and have a Happy Holiday!

French Fry Diary 63: Nodding Head

I had the chance recently to go to the Nodding Head on Sansom Street in Philadelphia when celebrating a friend’s birthday. This brewery/bar/restaurant has quite a reputation and I’ve wanted to go for a while. The birthday gave me a chance to finally try their famous Spanish fries.

For the uninitiated, Spanish fries are fries that are specifically deep-fried using olive oil, always an interesting touch. Those at the Nodding Head were very good. Hot crispy versions of Five Guys fries, they were natural regular cuts tossed with parsley and served with a honey mustard dipping sauce. These were crispy good with soft hot potato-ey goodness inside and a spicy kick outside. It was a big helping and hard to finish, and this is a good thing.

The Bride ordered a steak salad, basically a salad with hot peppercorn steak strips over top – and a side of fries. That’s right, a salad that came with fries. Does it get much better than that? Thumbs up for Nodding Head, and Happy Birthday, Andrea!

French Potatoes

Ahem. Not the kind of French potatoes we usually talk about around here – these are missing that all-important word “fried” in the middle. Still, it’s a great recipe, this one, another from the Just-Potatoes group:

French Potatoes

2 large or 3 medium baking potatoes
1 large onion
1/2 cup parsley sprigs minus stems
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground white pepper
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter

Pare potatoes and slice very thin. Peel onion and slice paper thin. Separate into rings. Mince parsley.

In a buttered 10 x 6 x 2 inch baking dish arrange 1/2 of the potatoes. Layer with onion and parsley. Cover with remaining potatoes. Sprinkle each layer with salt and pepper.

Heat together the water and butter until water boils and butter melts and pour over the potatoes. Bake in a preheated 450F oven until potatoes are tender about 40 minutes. Top layer of potatoes will be dry. Serve hot. Makes 4 small servings.