Deviled potatoes

Hi everyone.  Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend.  I did a lot of eating this weekend, with posts to soon come.  Meanwhile, here is a quick post for potatoes I made for a Labor Day weekend bbq.  I was very happy with how the potatoes came out.  The idea was inspired from Dianasaur Dishes. I loved how beautiful her deviled potatoes were and have been wanting to make them ever since.  A Labor Day bbq seemed the be the perfect occasion to try them out.

I didn't follow her recipe exactly, but kept with the theme of using beautiful blue and red potatoes skins (though my red ones didn't stay red once boiled).  I boiled the potatoes and then cut them in half and scooped out the inside.  I kept the red potatoes and blue potatoes in separate bowls.  I then decided to treat the potato insides like egg yolks.  I mashed them up a little and used a recipe for deviled eggs that I had made a long time ago with a friend (I'm not sure where my friend got the recipe from).  Then I put the white mash from the red potatoes inside the blue potatoes.  And I put the blue potato mash (which turned a light purple) into the red potato skins.  I then sprinkled some dried parsley flakes on top because I didn't have any paprika.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 small potatoes ( 2 red, 2 blue)
• 1/2 tsp mustard (x 2)
• 1 tsp ranch dressing (x 2)
• 1 tsp mayonnaise (x 2)

Directions

1. Boil potatoes in pot until soft.  Cut potatoes in half.

2. Remove insides of potatoes with spoon.  Separate the inside of the blue potatoes and insides of the red potatoes in small bowls.  Mash the potatoes in each bowl.

3. Mix mustard, ranch dressing, and mayonnaise with each small bowl of potatoes.

4. Put mashed potato mixture back into the potato skins.  Place blue potato mix inside red skins and place the red potato mix into blue potato skins.

5. Garnish with dry parsley flakes.

One Ingredient Banana Ice Cream

A few weeks ago, I read an article on Serious Eats for a one ingredient banana ice cream recipe.  The recipe caught my eye of course.  How could one ingredient turn into ice cream?  The one ingredient, is of course, frozen bananas.  Apparently once frozen, and then put in a food processor, bananas have a texture and taste of ice cream. 

The recipe is so easy, I couldn't resist testing it out.  I immediately bought some bananas, stuck them in the freezer, and then this past weekend, popped them into my food processor.  I was amazed.  It did taste like ice cream! Once blended, the bananas take on a creamy texture, so the taste is like a banana ice cream.  Very rich in banana flavor.  And so healthy!  Who would have thought there is such thing as a guilt free ice cream treat? Perfect to make one such a hot day too.

After blending it in the food processor, I stuck it in the freezer for about an hour so that it would firm up.  I recommend using a food processor instead of a blender to mix the frozen banana.  The blender makes it too liquidy- at least mine does.

Yellow watermelon

I picked up some yellow watermelon while grocery shopping the other day.  The yellow color looked so pretty that I decided to take out my camera and take some pictures before the slices were quickly devoured.  Cold, juicy watermelon is the perfect thirst quencher on a hot day.  Labor day is right around the corner but the weather in San Diego feels like summer is just arriving. 

For those of you who haven't had yellow watermelon before, it tastes a lot like regular red watermelon, but usually the flesh is sweeter.  I usually see these in Japanese supermarkets, and sometimes in Chinese supermarkets.  I love trying out different variations of the more common versions of the fruits: gold kiwis, white peaches, gold pluots, etc.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the watermelon before cutting it open.  The outside shell has a slightly different pattern/color than a red watermelon, so that you can usually tell the difference between the two even without a grocery store label.  

By the way, do you know how to choose a watermelon to ensure you will have a juicy, crunchy sweet one rather than a mushy, unsweet, dry one?  I used to watch my mom hitting watermelons in the grocery store and people would come up to her asking what she was doing.  But sure enough, the watermelon she brought home were always good.  Sometimes she would show another customer how to do it; most of the time she would just choose one out for them.  It took me a few years of shopping on my own before I got the hang out of it, but now I find myself patting watermelon when I buy them too.  When you pat them, you'll hear a sound and the sound varies.  Sometimes the watermelon makes a hollow, crisp sound.  Sometimes it makes a dull thud.  You want to hear a sound that is crisp, and at the same time you want to be able to "hear" the liquid inside.  So it should sound crisp, but with a liquid swishing sound.  If you don't already have a great method for choosing watermelon, you should try it out sometime.