Hot Dog Casserole

I (Becky) was flipping through my recipe box and decided to pull out all the old Harry family recipes I have and get them on here. We made this one a while back. My kids liked it as much as we used to. Josh is looking at the pictures now saying "We need to make that again!" He's always trying to squeeze his favorites in between hospital stays. : )

Here it is: classy eating at its best!

Mashed potatoes for 8-12
3/4 c sweet pickle relish drained (I used dill)
6 T salad dressing/mayo
3 T onion flakes
2 T mustard
2 lbs hot dogs

Stir everything but the dogs into the mashed potatoes. Spoon into a casserole dish (I used a 9x13). Cut dogs in half lengthwise, and then again width-wise. Stand upright around the edge of the dish, in the potatoes. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes (my shallow dish baked faster). Serve with dog toppings. Yum! : )

Oven Steak Fries

This was part of our supper last night. They are DE-licious and very simple. They went great with the bbq chicken, and to be truthful they were more popular than the chicken. If only someone had done a more complete job of defeathering the chickens... OK, really I have major respect for some one who has the nerve to butcher chickens. I just...am anti-feather. : ) Anyway, we now have another great way to eat potatoes! Potatoes are one of God's best inventions!

This will serve about 4 (not starving) people. I doubled it for my family.

4 decent sized potatoes
2 T butter
3 T oil
salt, pepper
paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, Slap Ya Mama, etc.

Scrub potatoes and cut each into 8 wedges. In a frying pan melt butter and oil. Dump in potatoes and toss to coat. Fry for 10-15 minutes. Add seasonings (I used salt, pepper, paprika,and garlic) to taste (don't skimp on the salt, potatoes need it!), toss to coat. Pour everything onto a cookie sheet/baking pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Crash Potatoes

I have to thank Pioneer Woman again for another recipe that we love. We've been making these for quite a while now, and they still bring jumping up and down happiness to my kids. : )

When I buy a bag of potatoes I almost always sort out the little ones for "crashing". The original recipe suggests redskins but I can usually buy 2-5 times as much Idaho or white potatoes so guess what I usually buy/use in this recipe? (Hint: not the expensive ones!)

This is also another recipe that kids love helping with. One of Kenton's chief joys in life is to "crash" the crash potatoes. It goes faster without help, but funner and more peaceful with help, and in a while I'll be able to pass the whole job over to my well practiced helpers, right? Right! (We hope.)

I'm going more for an ingredients and techniques than exact amounts approach, so I'm going to list those and tell you how I do it, but here's PW's recipe so you can see what I'm talking about. OK? OK. It is also very easy to eliminate all dairy as I found when I made this for Jon and Katie's family. I used coconut oil instead of butter, and left out the optional Parmesan. PW makes it with only olive oil, but that tastes SO olive oily to me and olive oil also helps with weight gain. As in causes it. It's a healthy fat, but since I'm not trying to gain weight, I use more butter and coconut oil which amazingly (according to my sources), do not contribute largely (haha!) to that issue. Yum! Good stuff however you make it!

Potatoes: enough to feed your crowd (if they're big, I do 1 per person, if they're small I do 2, if tiny 3 or so per person), red, yellow, white: use what you have.
Olive oil (I may try switching to coconut oil as it has a higher smoke point, and I have smoked up a house on several occasions when the bare oil patches burned: yuck. Abby's house was my most recent smoke job: embarrassing!)
Butter 1-2 T per person, can use more olive oil, coconut oil, ect in place of this
Salt
Seasonings: I use a garlic/salt/onion/paprika/bell pepper blend I grabbed at Sam's (Canadian Chicken Seasoning if you really wanna know.), but plain old garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder and so on would be great. If it tastes good on a potato, it will most likely work. I also often sprinkle Parmesan cheese on before baking.

1. Scrub your potatoes and boil until you can stab a fork into them. If they are crunchy, they don't crash. This step can be done ahead of time. You could do it a day or two ahead if you were so inclined.
2. Spread olive oil in a baking pan. I use a metal pan with sides because I don't want oil and butter in the bottom of my oven, and metal because it helps the potatoes crisp up. You don't want to go too light on the oil here, the potatoes will stick, and won't get as as crispy.
3. Lay the potatoes on the pan and smash them out into pancakes with the bottom of a drinking glass, a potato masher, or anything else handy. I do them about 1/2 -3/4 inch thick.
4. Melt butter, brush over potatoes. Sprinkle with seasonings and salt. Potatoes need salt. They need plenty of salt. Don't go all skimpy here. Unless you like blah-crisp potatoes.
5. Bake at 450 degrees for 25-40 min, or until they are browning and crispy. This is going to depend on how big your potaotes are. If I only have big ones to work with, I cut them into smaller potato sized pieces-halves, quarters, whatever works for you.

The Fries that Changed Our World

Josh wanted fries for his birthday. Fries are work. And they don't improve with time, so you HAVE to work fast. A new technique was needed here, and www.ourbestbites.com once again stepped into the gap. Their french fry recipe is the best.

Potatoes (we do 1 per eater, but they were good sized mediums)
Frying oil (we like coconut [coacoanut anyone? You did all read Two Heads Are Better Than One, right?])
Salt

Alright nasty part first: scrub the potatoes. I

DO NOT

like scrubbing potatoes. I supose you could peel them. But I kinda like fries with skins. The potatoes are so much more real. Cut into 1/4 inch strips (If you've got a good mother-in-law, and she'll help you with this step, all the better). Alrighty then, we want to heat our oil to 325 degrees. This is where if you found an electric frying pan at a garage sale it's going to be a little easier, but a thermometer in a stove top pan works fine too. I do both so as to get enough before breakfast the next day. I need my sleep. When the oil is hot enough, gently dump in a layer of future fries. Cook for 5-6 minutes. Remove from oil and place on a plate. At this point I don't bother to line the plate or anything. Put the next batch in when the temp is back up to 325, and continue until all strips have been half cooked.
Now raise the oil temperature to 375 degrees. And, now replace the first batch of fries in the oil. Cook for 1-3 minutes, or until browning. OBB says they continue browning after being removed, so don't over do it. I say, yeah, somewhat. Now fish them out, and place on paper towels (or an environmentally responsible substitute) to drain, and salt while blazing hot. Repeat with remaining limp, pale, half cooked potato strips.
Now, grab a big burger with all the toppings, or in Josh's case, a slab of Stromboli, and dig in! On second thought, if you don't grab that burger, you'll have more room for more fries.