Vegetables

By Gwen Ashley Walters | JUNE 25, 2011 | APPETIZERS

Sometimes you’re just in the mood for potato skins.

This recipe is from my Par Fork! The Golf Resort Cookbook, but I have to warn you, they’re spa potato skins — meaning they’re made with low fat cheddar cheese and low fat sour cream.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to trim a few calories here and there.

There’s also nothing wrong with replacing the low fat ingredients in this recipe with the real stuff, and topping the skins with crumbled bacon.

Either way, it’s an easy recipe that hits the spot when you’re craving potato skins.

Spa (or not) Potato Skins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 baking potatoes (about 1-1/4 pounds)
1/4 cup shredded low fat (or not) cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons low fat (or not) sour cream
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions (cut on the diagonal)
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 slices thick bacon, fried crisp and crumbled (optional…or not)

Method:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Prick potatoes with a fork a few times. Bake until almost done, about 40 minutes. Cool potatoes.

2. Slice potatoes lengthwise and scoop out flesh, leaving about 1/4-inch flesh on skins. Reserve potato flesh for another recipe (such as hash browns).

3. Cut each skin in half crosswise, to yield 4 pieces per potato.

4. Reheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet (or spray with nonstick spray). Place skins on baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Remove skins from oven and top each skin with 1 tablespoon of cheese. Return to oven to melt cheese, about 2 to 3 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and top each skin with 1-1/2 teaspoons sour cream and sprinkle with smoked paprika, green onions and bacon (if using) and serve immediately.

 

By Gwen Ashley Walters | JUNE 15, 2011 | TRAVEL EATS

This post started out as a celebration of a rocking taco joint near downtown Austin, Texas.

I fell for the buttercup-cute bungalow house with creaky wooden floors, and after chowing down on a couple of above-average breakfast tacos, I made a mental note to return for the “drowning” flautas — corn tortillas stuffed with meat, rolled tight and deep-fried, and then smothered in chile broth.

As far as I can tell, flautas are the same thing as taquitos, dorados (see Austin’s El Naranjo dorados mentioned here) and also referred to as “El Paso-style” tacos. I’ve also seen them called “rolled tacos” in Phoenix.

But between writing words and posting pictures, I saw a tweet from Kay Marley-Dilworth (@ATXFoodnews on Twitter). She said The Screaming Goat and another independent Austin eatery, Lift Cafe, had closed.

So now this post is a eulogy.

I don’t know why The Goat closed but it wasn’t busy when we visited. I chalked it up to timing — a mid-week, mid-morning breakfast taco run.

Crazy, really, because the breakfast tacos were just as munch-worthy as those from other Austin bellwether establishments like Torchy’s Tacos and Taco Deli. The salsas were even better.

Two layers of moist corn tortillas, generously piled with a choice of two fillings (eggs, potatoes, cheese, beans, bacon or spicy chorizo) for only a buck seventy?

Hard to beat — or so I thought.

So what happened?

Was it the location? Was the food inconsistent? Later I saw comments on Twitter and Facebook that said “Austin is a tough restaurant town.”

Isn’t every town?

It reminded me of a cool little Mexican spot near downtown Phoenix I reviewed for PHOENIX Magazine called Verde.

Verde seemed to have lots going for it. Two talented, dedicated owners, some tasty Mexican food, and a urban-esque hip setting.

Like The Screaming Goat, the only thing that seemed to be missing was a steady stream of customers.

By Gwen Ashley Walters | JUNE 08, 2011 | BEVERAGES

Seacat Gardens Charentais

Summer in the desert is not for the faint of heart.

Temperatures typically stay north of triple digits from early June through mid-September.

One way to weather the eternal inferno is to slice open a cool, sweet melon — undeniably one of summer’s greatest gifts.

Last summer I discovered Charentais, a French melon grown by Phoenix grower Carl Seacat of Seacat Gardens.

By mid-June, continuing through July and hopefully August, too, Seacat will have these beautiful, honeyed melons at the Scottsdale Stadium Summer Market (that is if restaurant chefs don’t gobble them all up first).

Here’s the original post and a recipe for a Charentais Frappé (the smoothie’s haut monde cousin). Find out what Seacat told me that contradicted everything I knew about cantaloupes.

In West Texas, July brought a windfall of Pecos cantaloupes, surely the sweetest melons I’ve ever tasted.

Until now… Read more and get the recipe …

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