I love potatoes.  They are my favourite vegetable.  I could live without chocolate.  I could live without cake.  I could live without cookies . . . I could not ever live without potatoes.  Oh sure, I've tried low carb . . . but the potato is my downfall every time.  I just can't get on for very long without them!

I like em steamed.  I like em mashed.  I like em fried.  I like em roasted.  I like em hot.  I like em cold.  I even like em raw . . . but the way that I like em most of all . . . is baked!





You just can't beat a good baked potato.  Rough on the outside, crisp even . . . and explodingly fluffy on the insides.  Big and fat and round . . .  and eaten so hot that you have to blow on every forkful you bring to your mouth . . . you just can't wait for them to cool down . . . you have to eat them NOW!

Not just any potato will do.  You don't want a waxy potato.  (A waxy potato is perfect for potato salad because it holds up it's shape in cooking.)  You want a nice fluffy potato, big and round . . . like a King Edward or Maris Piper, or in North America . . .  a Russet.



You can't hurry a baked potato.  It's not something you can rush.  The perfect baked potato takes a long slow roasting in a hot oven.  Some people like to wrap them in foil.  Foil wrapped baked potato = soggy icky baked potato.  Some people like to wet them and roll them in salt.  That works quite well I suppose.    Some people like them rubbed with oil, or with butter before they are baked.

Me???  I just wash em, and prick them all over (a necessity unless you want to be clearing off exploded bits of baked potato from all over the insides of your oven) and then I lay them in the hot oven right on the rack.  No pan.  No foil.  Just hot air wrapping itself around that potato and baking it until it is crispy and nutty on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  In short perfect!



Don't cut into your baked potato . . . that only mashes the potato together and compacts it.  Nigel Slater swears by the Karate Chop!  (And you know how much I love Nigel Slater!)  He recommends just a llight sharp tap on the side of the potato, like a karate chop . . . not so hard that you smash the potato to smithereens . . . just hard enough to slightly crack open the potato and let all the air out in a whoosh, leaving behind a tasty fluffy pile of snowy potato, just begging for a big pat of butter and your fork!

A steak is not a steak without a baked potato on the side, but a good baked potato deserves so much more than to be merely an accessory to the main course . . . a good baked potato is like having a blank canvas that you can paint a most beautiful picture on.  It can be the whole meal and for me it often is.

• With tasty Baked Beans ladled on top and lotsa lotsa cheese. 
• Topped with scrummy coleslaw, or tuna salad, or both!
• Lotsa cheddar cheese and lashings of crispy bacon
• a bit slab of goats cheese, or even better . . . some tasty Brie!
• With a Meaty Bolognaise Sauce ladled over top, or the best . . . Chili And Cheese!
• Bits of steamed broccoli and cauliflower and then a tasty cheese sauce ladled over top
• Leeks braised in butter with lots of grated Fontina cheese

To get the perfect baked potato, just follow these basic rules.  Pick a floury potato (Maris Piper, King Edward, Russet).  Wash and prick all over with a fork.  Bake right on the rack of a hot oven, 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6, for about an hour or so depending on the size of your potato.  Give it a light karate chop before eating.  Spoon on the butter and eat up right away!



Baked Potatoes with Rocket, Broad Beans and Blue Cheese.



Jacket Potatoes with Chili and Cheese



Rarebit Jacket Potatoes



Baked Potato Pizza



Jacket Potatoes with Cream and Walnuts

So what are you waiting for???  Grab a potato and start baking!!





Note:  If you click on the recipe name at the bottom of each photo, it will take you to a link for that recipe, which will open in a new window!  (Ahh, the beauty of modern technology . . . just wonderful!)

Hooray for the warmer weather and salad season.   Salad cream is an ingredient which is used frequently over here in the UK, and quite traditional when it comes to salads.  You can buy it in jars and bottles at the shops.

 More often than not if you eat out in a medium priced restaurant, salad cream will be the only salad dressing on offer.  It also comes in little packets like the ketchup and vinegar and brown sauces. 



I often use it in Potato Salads, and coleslaw types of salads.  It is a lot tangier than mayonnaise and adds a really special touch.

It can be somewhat difficult to find in North America however and so today I am showing you how you can very easily make your own. In all  truth, I like the homemade salad cream much better than the storebought variety, but that is often the case with most things.



Its very simple to make actually.  I am betting you most likely have everything in your house right now that you need to use to make some for yourself.

It uses very simple ingredients. A bit of flour, white sugar, dry mustard powder, eggs and white wine vinegar,  whisked together and cooked over simmering water.



You might be surprise to know that there is actually real cream in it.  There is nothing artificial here!  It gets whisked into the thickened mixture after cooling it. A bit of lemon juice and some seasoning and Bob's your Uncle!  


You have the perfect mixture for all of your summer salad needs!  It will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator and makes about 1 1/4 cups.  So no waste here either.




Whisk the flour, sugar, mustard powder and a healthy pinch of salt together in a glass bowl.  Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.  Whisk in the vinegar.  Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. (Alternately you can put it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water.)  Don't allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water.  Cook over the simmering water, stirring constantly until thickened and warmed.  This will take 5 to 6 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.  Whisk in the cream and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Taste and adjust seasoning with salt as required.  Scrape into a jar and cover tightly.  Keep in the refrigerator.  Will keep from between one and two weeks.




And just to whet your whistle and let you know that it won't be a waste once you have it made, here are some of my recipes which use it. 

All of them are delicious and will serve to help you use up some of that delicous salad cream you have made.



Creamy Macaroni Salad 

As an adult I have come to love pasta salads, and none better than plain old macaroni salad.  There is so much you can do with it.  Macaroni is the perfect canvas on which to play with your favourite flavour combinations.

This salad is a combination of what I think are the best elements of any macaroni salad I have ever eaten.   Simple and delicious.




Mom's Potato Salad 

Some people add too much to their potato salad  . . .  it's like a free-for-all of potato and colour.  I don't think chopped peppers and the like add anything much to it . . .  nor do olives.  

When it comes to a great potato salad  . . .  simple is the best of all.  Just like mom's. And sorry folks, my mom's was the best potato salad ever. Oh how I miss her.

 


Baked Potato Salad   

Baked Potato salad has always been one of my favourite types of potato salad. I have a tried and true recipe that I have been making for years and years. It's very good and everyone I make it for just loves it. 

It's quite, quite delicious . . . but then you would expect a salad loaded with mayo, sour cream, cheese and bacon to be rather scrummy wouldn't you!  This is a lightened up version. You can find my original full fat recipe here.




Creamy Potato Gnocchi Salad. 

I am of the opinion that you can treat gnocchi in just about the same way as you would treat a boiled potato, or any other type of pasta. I love to stretch boundaries of cooking. 

I thought I would try turning it into a type of potato salad, except it would be a gnocchi salad, a creamy Potato Gnocchi Salad. It totally worked!

Enjoy!

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I have to say that these are my all time favourite cookie/bar/square/slices!  I haven't made them in a very long time, and I don't know why.  I used to bake these quite often when my children were growing up.   They are absolutely gorgeous and therein lies the clue.  When the children were around I had lots of hungry mouths to help me eat them . . .  with only two people in the house now, it's a huge temptation that I don't need to indulge in overly frequently!  They are THAT good! 











 

I was recently sent some new products from Bacofoil to try out.   A box of their new Foil Lined Parchment Paper and one of their new Non-stick Kitchen Foil.   I thought the parchment lined foil would be perfect for these squares!  











BacoFoil Lined Parchment is the perfect combination of BacoFoil on one side to insulate and promote even heating and non-stick baking parchment on the other to help protect your food from sticking.  How often have you started to bake something, only to discover that you don't have the required size of pan in the cupboard?  Happens to me a lot. I normally take a risk, cross my fingers and bake it in another size pan, but with this new parchment BacoFoil Lined Parchment that will no longer be a problem . . .



You can fold this special foil to create the right sized pan you need!  It was really easy to do!  I did lay it onto a baking sheet to give it support, just like you would with a silicone baking pan.

 

The results were fabulous!  Not only did my Walnut Slices bake up beautifully, but they did not stick (this can be a problem with meringue toppings) and they were the perfect size.



Once they were cooled, I was quickly able to just pull the foil from beneath them as I lay them on top of a cutting board and then I was able to cut them into lovely perfect slices.  I was well impressed with the performancof the BacoFoil Lined Parchment.  I would buy this.  10 out of 10!  And there is no pan to wash up afterwards.  A real bonus!



These are a beautiful slice to serve as a teatime, coffee break or elevensies treat!  With their buttery cookie like base . . .

 

And their chewy, almost butter-tart like topping, they just cannot fail to please!  I replaced some of the brown sugar this time with some maple sugar that my sister had sent me, for a bit of a maple walnut flavour.  We are nuts about the flavour of Maple and Walnuts together in our house!



If you love walnuts, then you will quite simply adore these delicious bars!  They are incredibly moreish, that's the only danger . . . very difficult to resist.  I hope you will give them a go.  Then you'll see exactly why they are my all time favourite slice!  Perfect with that break-time cuppa, or a nice cold glass of milk.  ☺




*Marie's Favourite Walnut Meringue Slice*
















BacoFoil, non-stick kitchen foil is a smart and simple solution for when you are cooking a meal that had a tendancy to stick to the pan.  Nothing sticks to it.  It's great for grilling, baking, roasting and even freezing.  There is less mess.  (Don't you just HATE HATE having to clean a pan that food has stuck on to.  Especially sticky barbeque sauces, etc.)  It saves on the washing up and it is food safe and hygenic.  It also aids in controling the calories as there is no need to add oil or butter.



I did us simple Hobo Dinners.   There is no recipe really.  You just simply take as many large squares of foil as there are people you are wanting to feed.  Layer on sliced potatoes and onions into the middle of the square.  I used a mix of new and sweet potatoes.   I topped with a mixture of onions and shallots.   Seasoned with some salt, black pepper and a few dollops of harissa paste.  I placed a frozen burger patty on top of each pile of veg and then I sealed it all shut in the foil, like a little pressie, waiting to be opened.

 

After that you can place them onto a tray and bang them into a 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4 oven, or onto the barbecue grill to roast/grill.  About 35 to 40 minutes later . . . open the foil a bit and top with some cheese, bang them back in to melt the cheese and this is what you end up with . . .



A delicious compact meal for one, or two, or three, or four  . . .  with no washing up required.  That is unless you are a Toddster.  His sensabilities would not allow him to eat out of the foil.  (Isn't that the best part of camping???)

  

He had his on a plate with some coleslaw on the side.  What a wuss!  ☺ 

My mixture did stick a bit so I wasn't 100% impressed with this foil.   Just so you know. 

Many thanks to  Chloe and the people at BacoFoil for sending me these new products to try.

Visit BacoFoil for more information.
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Although I was sent these poducts to try for free, any and all opinions are completely my own and unbiased.