Sounds good, doesn’t it? And it was!
But first, when I was at Whole Foods, they had the most beautiful orchids. When Hannah was little her baby-sitter used to grown them, and I had no idea how difficult it was to keep them alive – they are very high maintenance! If I bought this one I wouldn’t give it a week in my house!
And then I got the gift cards for Mel and Meghann – the gift cards come in really tiny paper bags – too cute!
I brought to work a baked potato and leftover chili, but with my cough, I didn’t really feel like it. I ended up getting a cup of broccoli cheddar soup and garlic pita chips and garlic hummus. Good thing I am not kissing Tony because of my cold because all he would smell was garlic!
So I made a 7 ounce burger for Tony with American cheese, and mine was 3 ounces with .75 ounce of herbed goat cheese. I just grilled some jarred roasted red peppers on my pan along with the burgers. You can’t see Hannah’s burger because it is so tiny. Literally, if it is more than 1/8 of an inch thick and ANY sign of pink, she won’t eat it. Where did I go wrong with this child not loving meat?
Although she has a theory. I shunned meat the whole time I was pregnant with her, and had stirfry about 3 times a week. Now she doesn’t like meat and loves stirfry!
Then I sliced up some potatoes, sprinkled them with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and salt and pepper. I baked them at 450 for like 30 minutes, and while they were cooked, they weren’t crispy. I even tried to finish them off under the broiler, but that didn’t work either. If anyone has any suggestions on a crispy oven fry, I am all ears!
Sinec my burger was smaller, I used my biscuit cutter to cut my bun. So the bun was 1.5 ounces, I had three ounces of potatoes, probably about 1/2 ounce of American cheese on the fries and .75 ounce of goat cheese. The combo of the goat cheese and red pepper was delish!
It was kind of tall, so I smushed it at the table – it was a gooey delicious mess!
So Tuesday night is BizTV night. Biggest Loser is on, American Idol is on and Chopped on FoodTV is on at 9:00. Although we do DVR Biggest Loser – a lot of that show can be fast forwarded:
Contestant: “Bob, what do I do when someone brings donuts to the office and I am craving them?”
Bob: “Easy, just carry around gum with you and you’ll never be tempted again!”
Uugghh. Off to relax, see you tomorrow!
For your crispy fries, I second the reader who said to soak them in cool water. I soak my potatoes after they are cut up for about 30-45 minutes. Drain the water once or twice during this time, and you will see the starch that is being drawn out of the potatoes. Make sure they are well dried before you season them. Also, I like to use russet potatoes when I do oven fried potatoes and I bake them on a Silpat so they can get really crispy without sticking and without an excessive amount of oil.
Hope that helps!
The burger looks awesome!!!
There’s a great local bar around here where you can get a burger (suitably rare, and the only place I’d want to eat a rare burger too!) with roasted pepper and goat cheese. You’ll pay a good amount for it too! These look delicious and so much better for being home cooked.
Jen, congrats on the no drinking!! I wish I could say the same! 😀
Thanks for all the fries ideas!
In their world gum fixes everything. Of course the product placement and mini-in-show-commericals are just great too. You ever noticed that they never show the full diet? You know, what did they have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess you just have to buy the book. 🙂
ok, totally not post related but thought I’d share. I haven’t drank wine since January 10th. YEP, I decided to just go the rest of the month with no added liquid calories from the wine. Thanks for the encouragement…but don’t check my blog on Feb 1st. There will be no updates because I can’t type and hold a wine glass at the same time. HA!
I love how gum is always the answer on The Biggest Loser! And by love I actually mean HATE! lol
That burger looks super good!I The roasted red peppers and goat cheese must have been fantastic!
As for the fries, I always use my pampered chef stone to bake them and they always come out crispy.
Pretty flowers and LOVE the looks of that lunch 🙂
As always, dinner looks delicious!
I should of had dinner at your house last night! YUMMY!!! I kind of like my fries mushy, so I’m no help there. 🙂
SO excited about my BSI winnings!! The whole foods salad bar is calling my name!
WOW that looks absolutely incredible!!!
For crispy oven fries: pre-cook the potato a little first, then bake at a HIGH heat on an oven-safe rack.
My baked fries don’t crisp, either 🙁
Cute story about Hannah–my mom always says the same thing about my love for Chinese food. Hey, there are worst things for her to love than stir-fry, right? I’m ALL for the stir-fry 😀
Oh wow, tasty tasty eats!
The orchid looks beautiful!
So much cheese…I love cheese. Excellent meal!
Love the orchid. I’d give you some tips, but the only plan i can keep alive is one that only needs to be watered once ever 2 weeks or whenever the leaves start to droop. It’s lasted over 9 years so far =) Can you hear the proudness in my voice. I’ve tried other kinds of plants, and they don’t last a month =)
that is definitely an orchid. It’s Beautiful! I am in love with them. They’re are so many varieties. Gosh. If I had a backyard, they’d be filled with all the varieties. tehehe. They are super hard to take care of though. They need lots of heat. Very temperature sensitive. I have one, and it hasn’t bloomed in years. 🙁
this is how I make my fries crispy:
while cutting the potatoes, I soak them in cold water. This takes about 10-15 minutes sometimes less.
Then I pat them all dry with a kitchen towel. Pop them into the oven at 420 for about 30-40 minutes (depending on the thickness). I make sure not to crowd the pan though ’cause if they sit on top of each other they produce steam, which causes soggy fries.
Hope this helps!
Hmm. AnAppleADay – not sure what you mean. All I have is the foodbuzz banner – I do go onto foodbuzz to find other foodies in my area – it seems perfectly safe to me!
I think all the foodbuzz does is attract other people to your blog. Let me know if I didn’t answer that right!
i have a question about foodbuzz. I’ve joined foodbuzz recently and I’m not sure if it’s “safe” to join the foodnetworking. what do you think? i’ve noticed that you have since you have the foodbuzz sign on you blog.
i LOVE goat cheese + red peppers. how does all your food always look so good???
beautiful orchids, btw. feel better soon!
Your meals always look so, so good. The garlic will cure you and what better time to eat it then when you are not kissing!
Those little gift bags are ADORABLE!!!!!
Maybe blanch the potatoes first, and then crisp them in the oven, versus cooking them entirely in the oven?
Funny theory about Hannah and the pregnancy! I’ve always been sickened by the leftover/cold smell of spaghetti sauce. I have all I can do to wash the pot, it almost makes me gag. When I told this to my mom a few years ago, she told me that her entire pregnancy w/ me she’d get nauseas every Sunday spaghetti dinner w/ the family and had to skip it altogether her third trimester.
that burger looks like heaven!
Did you make sure the fries weren’t too crowded? I always make sure they’re spread out on the tray otherwise they stay mushy.
That dinner looks absolutely amazing- seriously I was stuffed from dinner + dessert just minutes ago but those pictures made me hungry again!
you owe me one computer monitor now! how am I going to explain these bite marks to the manufacturer!
Oh my, I am salivating. Absolutely delish!