Mini Bento Baked Potato

I have a lot of picture on my computer of food that I've made and I couldn't help but notice how many of them had potatoes in them. I think I eat a lot of potatoes, I think I've just been taking more pictures of foods with potatoes. But anyway, when I'm in rehearsals for shows I try to bring my lunch and sometimes dinner to work. A couple of months ago I bought some Bento boxes in China Town (Toronto's China Town). I really like them. Apart from the fact that they are really cute and pretty, they are quite portable. I came across a picture of a baked potato in a bento box. I think I took it when I was making a couple of days worth of meals to take to work. What I did was separate all the parts that make up my baked potato. When I got to work I put all the parts together and heated it up. This recipe can be made for as many people as you like. But this just serves one.

You will need:
Cookie Sheet- you can line it with foil for easy clean up if you like
Cutting Board
Knife
Saute pan
Wooden spoon
Foil- enough to wrap your potato

1 Potato
3-4 Mushroom, sliced
1 clove garlic minced
as much Cheddar cheese as you like
1 tbs butter
Salt to taste

1)Wrap the potato in foil and place on a cookie sheet.Put into a 350 degree oven.
2)Heat saute pan with butter
3)Add minced garlic and mushrooms to saute pan and cook until mushrooms are golden brown.
4)When potato is cooked take out of oven and unwrap foil.Be very careful because the potato is very hot.
5)Cut the potato in four but do not separate from the bottom skin.
6)Put a little bit of butter onto the potato
7)Add sauteed mushroom and cheese. If you want to take it out with you, you can assemble it or separate it into it's parts.
8)Enjoy

Homemade Perogies

Alright so making perogies isn't as hard as you might think. It just takes a while. There are a lot of steps to this recipe. But the good thing is that it make a bunch and it is freezable!

You will need:
Lots of time
Cutting board
Pot
Knife
Vegetable peeler
Bowl
Strainer
Rolling pin or bottle with plastic wrap or pasta maker
Round cookie cutter
Plastic wrap
Potato masher

4-6 potatoes
3 cups Sauerkrat
4 cups flour
3 egg
Water- to cook perogies
butter

1)Peel and dice potatoes
2)Cook potatoes in boiling water
3)While potatoes are cooking put the flour on a flat surface. Make a well in the center. Crack eggs in center,slowly using your hand incorporate the flour and eggs together. Kneed the dough for 3-4 minutes, you may need to add extra flour if the dough is to sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
4)Drain the potatoes
5)Put the potatoes back in the pot and mash.
6)Add sauerkraut and combined
7)Set aside
8)Take the dough out of the fridge and cut into quarters
9)Using a rolling pin, bottle or pasta maker roll out dough. Until it is about 1/16 of an inch.
10)Take the cookie cutter and make as many circles as possible out of the dough.
11)Spoon some filling onto the center of the circle.
12)Damp around the edge of the dough.
13)Fold the circle in half width ways, make sure you press out all the air. If there is air inside the it may puff up when cooked.
14)Repeat until all the dough and filling is used.
15)Bring water to a boil, add salt
16)Put some perogies into the boiling water, do not overcrowd the pot.
17)In a saute pan, melt butter
18)When the perogies are cooked they will rise to the top. Put cooked perogies in saute pan with butter. Cook for several minutes.
19) Done!!!

Fruit Salad

This is a super simple and really good fruit salad. For the most part this can be made all year round.

You will need:
Cutting Board
Knife
Bowl
Spoon

1 Banana sliced
1 cup watermelon diced
1 cup oranges peeled
1/4 cup dried cranberries

Add the above ingredients and enjoy!

Poorman's meal

I made this after watching a video on youtube made by Depressioncooking. Clara and her grandson make videos of the foods that Clara and her family ate during the depression.Clara also has a cookbook that came out last October that is amazing. I've made a few of her recipes but I think this one is my favorite.

The original recipe calls for hot dogs but I used veggie dogs instead. But you can use any kind of hot dog that you want, meat or not. I haven't tried it but I think if you cut up sausages and used them like hot dogs that might be nice as well.

You will need:

Cutting board
Knife
Pan
Wooden Spoon
vegetable peeler (optional)

1 medium size potato
1/2 cooking onion
1-2 Veggie dogs or Hot dogs
1 tbs tomato sauce or tomato paste or ketchup
1/4 cup water
1tbs Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Serves 1

1) Peel and dice the potato.If you prefer you can leave the skin on the potato. When dicing the potatoes make sure that they are about the same size. This will allow to be done at the same time. There is nothing worse then eating a meal with some cooked pieces and some raw pieces.
2) Peel and dice the onion. If you like you can use the whole onion, it really depends on your taste and the size of the onion.
3) Pre-heat the pan with the oil.
4) Add the potatoes to the pan and cook for about 4-5 minutes. Stir the potatoes often.
5) Add the onions to the pan and saute for another 4-5 minutes.
6) Add the water to the pan. This will ensure that the potatoes are fully cooked.
7) Add the tomato sauce and stir. I prefer using tomato paste because if has such a condensed flavor, but tomato sauce and ketchup also work.
8) Once the water is evaporated season with salt and pepper to taste.
Done!

Additions:
If you like you can add some minced garlic when you add the onions. You can also add some of Dana's sauteed mushrooms.

Long time no Blog

I'm not really sure if a lot of people are following my blog. I assume not because I haven't updated since July. But I am going to be updating more now. I haven't really had the time recently because I've been working a lot. I work in theatre so I go contract to contract. In about a week I'm going to have a month off, so I made myself a list of things to do while I'm off. One of which is updating my blog. I have tons of pictures that I've taken and that I want to blog about. So be prepaired for lots of updates over the next little while.

Enjoy!