potatoes – Fervent Foodie

Eating Columbus: Breakfast Edition

May 14, 2018 12 Comments

Greetings friends! I’ve been bouncing around Columbus knocking places off my to-try list, and wanted to share some of my recent favorite breakfast spots! (For even more Columbus restaurant recommendations, check out the first post in this series here.)

Dough Mama is an adorable, cozy cafe in South Clintonville that serves modernized comfort food. Everything they serve is scratch made, even the ketchup. Their avocado biscuit is one of my favorite breakfasts in all of Columbus. It has greens, tomato, pickled onions, avocado, and an egg smashed between a cheddar scallion biscuit. I’d definitely recommend their steak-fry-cut roasted potatoes and the lemon poppy seed muffin, which happens to be gluten free and has the texture of a doughnut. They also have a vegan lentil-loaf sandwich (served on Dan The Baker bread) that I need to try ASAP.

Skillet, another favorite Columbus breakfast spot, is located in a cozy building in Merion Village (near German Village). Their steadfast commitment to local sourcing is reflected in the ever-changing menu. Each morning, the day’s menu is posted to their website for your viewing pleasure. Last summer, I had an incredible tomato salad at Skillet that I still think about. It was so very simple, but the TOMATOES. The tomatoes. Skillet’s food, including the egg scrambles and omelets, are cooked with more care and precision than you’d see at a typical daytime cafe. Recently, I tried the fingerling potatoes with cheese curds. The potatoes were crusty and salty on the outside and the skin sort of popped in your mouth when you bit into it, releasing a tiny explosion of creamy potato. Divine. There is usually a wait to get a table at Skillet, but you can call ahead to put your name on the list. Plus they have free coffee outside while you wait. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 8am to 2pm.

Trism. Continuing this breakfast trend, I found a great weekday deal at Trism in the University area. From 9-11am, you can get a breakfast sandwich on local ciabatta for only $5, plus you can throw in a coffee for $1 more! Pictured below is the Numero Uno, with local eggs, jalapeno-jack cheese, zesty black bean spread, and sriracha aioli.

Recipes

Broccoli, Leek, & Potato Soup {vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, whole30 recipe}

January 6, 2016 2 Comments

I wrote this Broccoli, Leek, & Potato Soup post as part of a series for Tasteful Selections Potatoes, which is sponsoring Katie’s Krops, an awesome hunger-focused nonprofit fueled by kid-run gardens, through January 2016 (details below).

This January, I’ve committed to refocusing on healthy living. Just like the rest of humanity. Sure it’s cliché, but in my mind New Year’s Day is like hitting the “reset” button on the Nintendo. While I’m normally pretty health-focused, things got a little crazy last year (as they do every year), and I’m thankful for this month to refresh. At this time last year, I was timidly beginning my first Whole30–a nutritional reset program focused on super clean eating for thirty days–and I’m doing the same this year. When I mention the Whole30 in conversation, I often get concerned looks and questions of “wait… what the heck do you eat?” In a nutshell, the Whole30 rules out grains, sugar, beans, soy, dairy, unnatural ingredients, and booze. Which leaves us with protein, fats, and veggies. Lots and lots of veggies.

Broccoli, Leek, & Potato Soup Recipe {vegan, gluten free, whole30}

(bowls by JMNPottery)

The secret to a successful Whole30 (or any clean-eating program, for that matter) is planning, and my plan includes batch cooking tons of vegetables each week. This week, for example, I sautéed an entire head cabbage, roasted three pounds of brussels sprouts, sautéed three bell peppers and two onions, bought a giant container of baby spinach to toss in EVERYTHING, and made this hearty Broccoli, Leek, and Potato Soup. More vegetables than a vegetarian, as they say.

Recipes

Easy as Potato Pie {vegetarian & gluten free recipe}

December 9, 2015 1 Comment

I wrote this Potato Pie post as part of a series for Tasteful Selections Potatoes, which is sponsoring Katie’s Krops, an awesome hunger-focused nonprofit fueled by kid-run gardens, through January 2016 (details below).

There’s something simultaneously romantic and nostalgic about gathering for a meal while you’re still in your PJ’s. And with all the eggs, potatoes, cheese, and bread, breakfast is the clearcut best meal of the day. The problem with breakfast, though, is that most of us are too tired or too hungry to throw together a hearty meal first thing in the morning. Oftentimes, I circumvent this issue by having a pre-breakfast snack. Which, since I’m already starving, ends up being the equivalent of a normal-sized breakfast, and ultimately results in me eating two meals worth of food. And then I have to go for a run when I really just want to curl up on the couch and drink my coffee dangit.

Kale & Onion Potato Pie

Easy breakfasts are key. I call this easy recipe “Potato Pie” because it has lots of potatoes and it’s shaped like… a pie. The concept here is simple: thinly sliced potatoes, eggs, and whatever vegetables or leftovers you have on hand. Use of a food processor makes quick work of the potato slicing, and using thin-skinned baby potatoes means no peeling is required. I prepared this version of potato pie with kale, but there are lots of options. Broccoli, squash, or mushrooms? Perfect. Cheese is always welcome. To keep things light, I used a mix of whole eggs and egg whites, but if you aren’t on the egg white train, just use a dozen eggs.

The key to making a good potato pie is making sure the fillings taste great on their own. Season them until they’re good enough to eat solo. Then be sure to season the eggs before you combine them with the potato mixture.

potato pie {gluten free vegetarian breakfast recipe via FerventFoodie.com}

Few things beat sharing breakfast with your loved ones, buy you can add a little more love to your meal by purchasing Tasteful Selections potatoes. Through January 2016, Tasteful Selections is sponsoring Katie’s Krops, a non-profit organization that donates crops from youth-run gardens to help feed people in need by donating a portion of the profits from specially marked bags of Tasteful Selections’ Ruby Sensation and Honey Gold Potatoes. So pick up a sack of their potatoes and give this Kale and Onion Potato Pie recipe a try! If you’re interested in learning more about Katie’s Krops, check out this video.

Recipes

German Potato Salad {vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free recipe}

November 27, 2015 3 Comments

I wrote this post as part of a series for Tasteful Selections Potatoes, which is sponsoring Katie’s Krops through January 2016 (details below). Thanks, Tasteful Selections, for sponsoring this post and for growing the adorable baby potatoes I used in this German Potato Salad recipe.

In my family, potato salad is a big freaking deal. My Grandma June has been making her family-famous potato salad since before I was born–it’s been at every family dinner or cookout I can remember, just a bowling-ball-sized mountain of potatoes, green pepper, celery seed, and Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Last Thanksgiving, I asked Grandma June where she originally found the recipe, but she couldn’t remember—she said she made it once back in the seventies, and it tasted good, so she just kept on making it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how legends are born. One time, my stepmom made Grandma’s recipe using Miracle Whip instead of Hellman’s, and the family was absolutely horrified. NO ONE ate it, and she never attempted Grandma’s potato salad again. Then, a few years ago, Grandma June passed the torch and transitioned potato salad making duty to my sister, Jenny. Lucky girl.

Food Memories, My Favs, Ramblings, What I ate

Topical Taters {IFBC 2013}

October 25, 2013 2 Comments

I remember eating mashed potatoes on the sunporch at my friend Allison’s house. We were sitting cross-legged on the floor, huddled around a wicker coffee table, our plates just inches from our mouths. There was other food, I’m sure, chicken or maybe meatloaf or some other forgotten piece of protein I’d pushed to the side to make room for the Halasa family mashed potatoes. I’d started with a mountain of them, yellow from the excessive butter content and so dense they required I carry the paper plate two-handed to our roost at the kids’ table.

Sitting there on the floor with my girlfriends, I momentarily admired the mass on my plate, eager and anxious, before bringing one mounding forkful of those creamy, lumpless potatoes to my mouth. I delicately slid the fork between my lips, twitterpated as my eyes squeezed closed and the warmth of the potatoes coated my tongue and throat. After each bite, I’d drag the edge of my fork over the potatoes, smoothing out the craters, like a Zamboni methodically perfecting the surface of an ice rink.

Moderation was a mystery to me, and each swallow brought me simultaneous pleasure and nausea; I was powerless to the potatoes. Forget meat sweats, I was fighting carb-induced hysteria. As I battled my inner ever-present demons of gluttony, I placed my fork on the table, letting my fingers linger on the warm metal while the internal turmoil waged on. Abruptly, I jerked my fingers away from the fork and scooped up the remaining mashed potatoes with a cupped right hand. I brought them to my mouth, hesitating for just a moment at my lips, questioning and confused, when a brash flash of clarity zapped through my mind and I quickly and swiftly smeared the mashed potatoes across my right cheek, followed immediately by a scoopful slathered across the left. It was fast, like an impatient father slapping sunscreen on a squirming toddler, and when I lifted my potato-masked face I found two silent, slightly horrified teenage girls staring at me.

Unlike most people, when I say something is so good, I want to smear it all over my face, I’m speaking from hands-on experience. I know exactly what it takes to trigger that sort of primal action. I know the complete lack of self-control delicious food can cause. I know what potatoes can do to a girl.

Of all the sessions at the 2013 International Food Blogger Conference, my favorite was Kim O’Donnel’s interactive writing workshop, which focused on breaking through writer’s block by reminding us that we all have something to write about, the trick is starting small-scale. We started with “I remember” and then rapidly jotted down as many memories as we could conjure over the course of three minutes. “I remember eating mashed potatoes on the sunporch at my friend Allison’s house” was one of many memories on my list, and I’m so happy to finally have this specific memory written on the blog.

I would like to send one last HUGE thank you to Truly Good Foods for sponsoring my attendance at the IFBC! Truly Good Foods specializes in premium snack mixes, raw and freshly roasted nuts and seeds, dried fruit, and hundreds of bulk and packaged candies, spices, grains and specialty foods. Truly Good Foods has an extensive line of retail branded products, including Grabeez®, Buffalo Nuts® and Dip & Devour Dipping Chocolates.

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