Delicious Side Dish

Garlic Herb Accordion Potatoes 

Side dishes, not the main star of the meal, but the part of the meal that completes it. Like meat and potatoes, the meat is what would be considered the main dish, but pairing it with potatoes fills up your stomach and puts a smile on your face. Which is exactly what I did one night for dinner, my mom was going to make chicken so I volunteered to make the side dish of garlic herb accordion potatoes. The title pretty much describes the whole dish and it sounded really good. I had never really made potatoes of any kind, unless you count microwave mashed potatoes. So I figured it would be a good learning experience for me. The author talks about trying new things in the book. She mentions that the more you try new things because you have a reason to, like this blog assignment, the more likely you are to continue trying new things, even when you don't have a reason. (Hollis, 8). So I took Rachel's advice and attempted to make these accordion potatoes.

The potatoes actually ended up turning out really pretty.  The recipe had me sprinkle cheese on after the dish was done cooking and it was a really nice touch that I thought brought the appearance of the potatoes together. In the book, Rachel Hollis was talking about the word chic and what she thought it meant.  She said "Some days that might mean something small, like putting the takeout on a real plate before you eat it" (Hollis, 6). I thought that this quote related to the dish I made because doing simple things like sprinkling the cheese and cutting the potatoes accordion style elevated the dish's look and allowed the potatoes to cook faster. So all in all this new experience showed me how the little things count in cooking.

What could I have added or changed to elevate this recipe even more?

Hollis, Rachel. Upscale Downhome: Family Recipes, All Gussied Up. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Griffin, 2016.                                                   

Baked Potatoes

For my fourth blog I decided to venture out and try to make one of my favorite side dishes, a baked potato. My recipe book had a great recipe for baked potatoes paired with a yogurt and sour cream mixture.

The ingredients include:

• 4 large potatoes
• ½ cup Greek yogurt
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The second step is to “Wash the potatoes and place them directly on the oven baking rack. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until very tender when pierced with a skewer” (Garten, 166).  I did exactly what Garten had said to do, I baked the potatoes first for 45 minutes then checked them to see if they were cooked, they weren’t fully baked so I baked them for 10 minutes more then checked them again by piercing the potatoes, they were finally fully baked and tender so I pulled them out.

Then combine the yogurt, sour cream, chives, salt, and pepper to make the chives dressing (Garten, 166). In the recipe it didn’t specify exactly how they wanted you to combine all the ingredients, so what I did was I put all the ingredients into a bowl and mixed everything with a spoon until all of it was thoroughly combined.

When the potatoes are done, cut them down the middle, and squeeze the ends. Then sprinkle them with some salt and pepper and then serve the hot potatoes with the cold chive and sour cream mixture.

The baked potatoes turned out great, and the chives dressing was really good as well, it tasted delicious with the baked potatoes.

What’s your favorite potato dish; mashed potatoes, French fires, hash browns, potato salad, etc.?

Garten, Ina. Barefoot Contessa Back to the Basics. New York, Clarkson Potter, 2008. Print.