Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Fine Line Between Pretend and Reality

O.K., so don’t be mad… but I did not use all your lovely potato recipes. I was going to, until I stumbled across a really yummy-sounding recipe on Epicurious.com, and oh! I had to try it. It had feta. I am a sucker for feta. And it was wonderful.

Here I go, pretending I have stacks of these recipes, now. My new favorite potato recipe:

Red Potatoes with Olives, Feta, and Mint
(serves 6)

Ingredients:
1 3/4 lbs small red-skinned potatoes, cut into quarters
1 bunch fresh mint, chopped
8 oz feta, crumbled
3/4 brine-cured black olives (like Kalamata) pitted, chopped
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Preperation:
Place potatoes and 3 Tablespoons mint in large pot of salted water.
Bring water to boil, reduce hear and simmer until potatoes are tender. (About 12 min.)
Drain potatoes, transfer to large bowl.
Set aside 2 Tablespoons mint, 2 Tbs cheese, 2 Tbs olives.
Add remaining mint, cheese, olives to warm potatoes, along with oil.
Season with salt and pepper. (I used no salt, the cheese and olives made it plenty salty.)
Garnish with reserved mint, cheese, olives.
Serve warm.

The whole thing went together really quickly, and it was really good. It was very feta-y. I would recommend maybe going somewhere between 7-8 oz.

So, so good.

But I promise to try out all your yummy suggestions this summer, because I like sea salt, too!

Meanwhile, it snowed again today. And while a few flurries hardly compare to the devastating cyclones and earthquakes going on around the rest of the world, I’m kind of ready for some warm spring weather, already. The grass IS liking the moisture, though. I can’t figure out how to turn on our sprinklers (I know it’s insanely easy, I just don’t want the thing-y to start leaking in our front hall closet if it’s not pointing the right way) so our itty-bitty foot of lawn is rather brown compared to all of our neighbors. And I thought I wanted a garden. Ha ha and ho ho.

Also, to all of you who were like, “Changing a dryer hose is soooooo easy!” to you I say: FUCK OFF.

Because it while it LOOKS easy enough, it really isn’t, and there is lots of metal and swear words and trips to home depot for more hose that isn’t utterly destroyed involved. There’s THREE HOURS of our lives that The Funasaurus and I will never get back. Next time we’re calling a repair man. And also maybe a cleaning service. Lint is nasty, nasty stuff.

So keep the comments coming on doing a cleanse. I am fascinated by the replies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would happily do a cleanse if it involved eating potatoes like those...

Unfortunately, I think I would probably pass out and/or rip someone's head off by the end of day 2.

Heather said...

This sounds paradoxically divine, yet sinful! Mmmmm....I would be able to keep it all to myself too, as my fam does not do the yummy variety of brined olives (technically I suppose black olives ARE brined given the obscene amounts of salt in them, but you know, right?) OR feta. But I do!!

As for cleanses......

I do periodically do detox teas, but ya know, a gentle laxative (or adequate water and ambulatory exercise) will probably give the same effect...I tend to drink my teas when I'm on the retentive side, iykwim ;)

Thanks for the props on the header - it did turn out sweet didn't it? It is a combination of Paint + PowerPoint 2007 graphic designs + sepia overlays and text boxes. It was not a sophisticated process at all, let me tell you. But enough trial and error and voila!

As for Saturday night....I had a bit of a mental break... Combination of unbloggables, bratty behavior from the kiddos, and culmination of emotions re: marital stuff. And my unstable mental health. I've not completely processed it yet either...workin' on it.