That's What Bob's Cooking: potluck

Showing posts with label potluck. Show all posts

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

We all grew up eating corn. Usually boiled in salty water, smothered in margarine and liberty sprinkled with Morton’s iodized.

As we matured and realized that margarine wasn’t the diet alternative to butter, that there was another seasoning component missing, black pepper and wait….corn can be grilled! These are just a few of the food evolutions I have had in my corn eating life.

Then came Mexican Street Corn! Life changing. Smother that cob with a mayo/lime/chili slather and roll it in Queso Fresco? When did so much love happen to our beloved yellow kernels? Not to mention, when I was growing up, corn was yellow. There wasn’t white or bi-colored., unless it was fall and your teacher had Indian corn on her desk! Then there popcorn.....but that’s a whole other blog....

So this brings me to this recipe.....

Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

INGREDIENTS

For the Dressing:

3/4 cup mayonnaise

juice and zest of one lime

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon hot sauce

pepper, to taste

For the Pasta Salad:

8 oz. farfalle pasta

4 ears of fresh corn

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced finely

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

4 oz. crumbled queso fresco (or cotija cheese), plus more for garnish

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix all ingredients for dressing in a large bowl. Set aside.

Cook pasta according to directions in salted water. Drain and rinse with cold water until completely cool.

Shake off as much excess water as possible.

Meanwhile, grill corn until lightly charred. Allow to cool and remove from cobs.

Add the cooked and cooled pasta, corn, jalapeño pepper, green onions, queso fresco, and cilantro to the large bowl with the dressing. Stir to combine.

Serve garnished with extra cheese, cilantro, and a little bit more chili powder, if desired.

Friday, March 3, 2017

Patio Potatoes

Now every family has a version of this potato casserole. I've heard it called funeral potatoes, Aunt Betty's potatoes, party potatoes, cheesy potatoes, Potatoes Romanoff and my family's version, patio potatoes. Now where this recipe originates is beyond me, but I remember it fondly at my Cousin and her husbands house. Then a few years later, my cousin put together a book of family recipes, called Relatively Cooking. In this was my very own copy of this delectable dish.

After digging a little, I found some history of this beloved dish:

Funeral potatoes, also known as Mormon funeral potatoes is a traditional hot potato dish or casserole that originated in the Mountain region of the United States. Both Mormon and Southern people call this dish "funeral potatoes" because the casserole is commonly served as a side dish during traditional after funeral dinners. The dish is also served at other social gatherings such as potlucks. So there you have it....

The one thing that makes this dish great is that you can personalize it, or make it directly as the recipe states. Tired of cream of chicken soup? Use cream of celery, cream of broccoli, cream of asparagus, whatever you think would taste great. Switch up the cheese from cheddar, to Swiss, havarti, gryuere or even hot pepper. Add onions. For the potatoes, instead of diced, try shredded.....and for the topping, I've seen, better cheddars, gold fish, corn flakes, potato chips, fried onions or even saltines.

Here's our family's version of his classic:

Patio Potatoes

2 cups, shredded cheddar cheese

12 oz sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 lbs frozen hash browns

2 cups Better Cheddars crackers, crushed

Melt first 6 ingredients together in a sauce pan. Mix together with frozen hash browns and place into a greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle crackers on top and bake at 350°F for 1 hour of until golden and bubbly.

In the version above, I added red peppers and onions, and used Southern style hash browns.

I also used Ritz.

My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!