WEEKLY MENU 07.09.23
National French Fry Day falls on Thursday during the Weekly Menu 07.09.23 and it opens up a whole host of happy menu additions~
The Weekly Menu 07.09.23 could have had multiple potato inclusions regardless of National French Fry Day, but the day makes it even easier to celebrate my all time favorite item: the potato. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like.
There are some that are higher up the list than others though, and French Fries, when well done, are absolutely number one. There are multiple books about potatoes and when they got where, naturally, because they are a very important crop. (Affiliate links follow – see Disclaimer Page for details.)
Here are a few of my favorite tidbits about spuds:
Montana.edu
- 35% of the potato crop is turned into french fries, 28% is used for fresh, and 13% goes to chips!
- On average, US residents consume 110 pounds of potatoes per year. Europeans consume twice that much!
- Potato is the 4th most important crop worldwide (but 1st in our book!)
- On average, US residents consume 110 pounds of potatoes per year. Europeans consume twice that much!
- A potato has more potassium than a banana!
August 19th is actually National Potato Day this year, so the menu that week will be potato heavy too. YAY!
You might notice that the percentage breakdowns above are about 24% short of an even 100. Where does the rest go? I’m guessing vodka.
As many as 40 potatoes (seven pounds/three kilograms) are required to make one 750ml bottle of vodka. Cleaned and left unpeeled, the potatoes are pressure-cooked to create a “mash,” which is fermented for three days. The fermented mash is distilled four times, creating a spirit that is almost 100% alcohol.
Potomac Wine and Spirits
Let’s make us all hungry, eh?
If you need another reason to visit beautiful Ireland, the lowly potato is it. The absolute best fries I’ve ever had were in a pub setting. They were perfectly cut, large and meaty yet crispy and salty. And piping hot! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Don’t get me started on “crisps”. We ordered some Irish Chips from Amazon, at a pretty steep appreciation, to try and duplicate the dinner we had in Waterford. Yep – I said it: the dinner we had. We were late to our hotel/castle, and the restaurant was closed. We got some Irish crisps from the bar and absolutely feasted.
Some of my favorite recipes for the mighty spud:
These cook in the oven, usually alongside a meatloaf, and come with a chefs treat: nothing like a little smear of butter and a drizzle of salt to make those potato skins sing!
Weekly Menu 07.09.23
So how are we incorporating spuds this week? Well, we’re not starting on Sunday, because it’s Italian night, but we’re keeping the kitchen cool on Monday with a grilled pork tenderloin paired with an easy, crockpot cooked scalloped potato. Easy peasy and super creamy.
Mexican night is Mexican Picadillo, which features ground beef, and, you guessed it, cubed potatoes. We’ll serve that with tortillas so everyone can make it into tacos, since it’s Tuesday and all.
CrissCross Potatoes go perfectly with our meatless burgers on Wednesday, and we’ll pull out the Dutch oven and fill it with vegetable oil to fry a bag of fries to top our salad on Thursday. Easy sausage sandwiches get paired with CHIPS! on Friday. Nothing goes better.
Let’s circle back (isn’t that one of the most annoying phrases in the English language?) to Sunday Italian night. You might think we’d have Penne a la Vodka (HA!) to stay in theme, but no. A few weeks ago we had large shells in a saucy sausage concoction that was served on whipped ricotta. It was wonderful – the creamy ricotta paired unbelievably well with the shells and elevated them to company worthy. We talked about how good the cool, creamy concoction would be with super spicy Chicken Fra Diavolo – so we’re giving that a shot. All that I did to the ricotta was give it a spin in my little hand-held blender bowl and drizzled in a little olive oil and hot pepper flakes. {Chef’s kiss!}
WEEKLY MENU 07.09.23
