Potato Pancakes

What defines "Comfort Food" to you?  For me, they are the dishes that my mom, grandma Babchi or my Auntie MaryAnn made.  These amazing homecooks always incorporating our ethnic cuisine into traditional American meals.  My heritage is German, with a bit of Ukrainian and Polish mixed in.  Maybe I am a little biased, but boy does this part of the world know how to cook!

One of my absolute most favorite side dishes of my childhood are potato pancakes.  While I was in college and would frequent a wonderful Jewish Deli, I discovered these are also known as latkes- a term I had never heard before.  Oh was I a happy girl when I found I could get a little taste of home whenever a touch of homesickness kicked in.  Whenever I see potato pancakes on the menu at restaurants I always have to try them.  Sometimes they are wonderful; crunchy, creamy inside a with even a touch of sweetness.  Other times they just taste and look more like either an onion flavored hash brown or even worse, an actual pancake with shredded potato mixed in the batter.

This is my mom's recipe, and the other night it was the first time I ever attempted making them on my own.  You know when you think back to a favorite recipe; you have a very specific memory of the way it should smell and taste.  While frying up these guys I was so nervous that they wouldn't come out like my Mom's.  But guess what- they were perfect.  Now I am kicking myself for waiting this long to make them!

Potato Pancakes
4 large russet potatoes, peeled
1 small white onion, finely grated
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon coarse salt
vegetable oil for frying

Grate the potatoes into a large bowl of cold water (the water helps keep the potatoes from oxidizing). Drain potatoes well, squeezing with paper towels or cheese cloth, removing as much liquid as possible. Add grated onion, eggs, flour, and salt and combine well.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line an oven safe plate with paper towels and set aside.

In a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, heat a half and inch of oil until hot. Place 1/4 cup of the potato mixture into the hot oil, pressing down on them to form 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick patties. Be careful not to let the pancakes run into each other. Brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Let drain and keep warm in oven on prepared paper towel lined plate.

Serve warm with applesauce, jelly, sour cream or my personal favorite, sprinkled with sugar. Scott loves them with ketchup, just proves how everyone has their own favorite topping!

The Crab Rangoonies

One of my favorite guilty pleasures when it comes to food is easily Chinese Take-Out, most specifically all of the wonderfully delicious appetizers.  The potstickers, egg rolls, shrimp toasts, and my most favorite- Crab Rangoon.  Ok, I know that none of these items fall under the remotely healthy menu.  But I can't help it, they are GOOD!  So in my attempt to have them be something I could eat more often, I have decided to start trying to make this stuff myself.  I can cross the potstickers off my list and now after Friday night, I can add crab rangoons.  This was another Hungry Girl recipe, so the nutritional stats are amazing.  Plus they were not only super healthy, but they were incredibly easy to make. Awesome!  Now I can eat wayyyyy more of them at one time.....right??

The Crab Rangoonies
Ingredients:
1/4 cup fat-free cream cheese, room temperature
2 wedges The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss cheese
4 oz. imitation crabmeat, flaked
1 tsp. low-sodium/lite soy sauce
1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
2 scallions, finely chopped
16 small square wonton wrappers (often stocked near the tofu in the fridge section of the market)
Optional: sweet & sour sauce or Chinese-style hot mustard, for dipping

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To make your filling, combine all ingredients except wonton wrappers in a bowl, breaking up the cheese wedges as you add them. Mix until uniform. Set aside. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray and set that aside as well.

Lay two wrappers flat on a clean, dry surface. Spoon a heaping 1/2 tbsp. of filling into the center of each wrapper. Moisten all four edges of each wrapper by dabbing your fingers in water and going over the edges smoothly. Fold the bottom left corner of each wrapper to meet the top right corner, forming a triangle and enclosing the filling. Press firmly on the edges to seal. Repeat with all remaining wrappers and filling, gently placing each rangoon flat on the baking sheet.

Spray the tops of the wontons with nonstick spray. Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes, carefully flipping halfway through, until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly.

If you like, dip your rangoonies in some sweet & sour sauce or hot mustard!

MAKES 4 SERVINGS
PER SERVING (4 "crab rangoonies"): 140 calories, 1.5g fat, 618mg sodium, 20g carbs, 1g fiber, 2g sugars, 9g protein -- POINTS® value 3*

Egg Noodles with a Roasted Tomato and Onion Marinara, Garden Leeks, Chicken and Sausage

As many of you probably do as well, I had a large supply of ripe garden tomatoes lining my kitchen counters, waiting to be eaten.  I had been meaning to make a nice marinara sauce with them to freeze for later use. But my numbers were slowly dwindling down until I didn't have quite enough to make a batch large enough to freeze.  The other night, it was as though one of my favorite cooking blogs, For the Love of Cooking, was reading my mind. She mentioned making a marinara sauce for some pasta by roasting the tomatoes first. This is a wonderful idea, for it brings an amazing richness to the tomatoes, that is unlike eating them any other way.  I didn't have all of the ingredients that she listed for her recipe, so I played around with what I had in my own fridge/pantry and came up with this.  Scott and I really loved it and it is a sauce I will return to again and again. Thank you Pam!!

Egg Noodles with a Roasted Tomato and Onion Marinara, Garden Leeks, Chicken and Sausage 

About 6-10 tomatoes, quartered (this amount is depending on the size of your tomatoes of course.  I had huge garden tomatoes so I only needed about 6)
1 head of garlic, unpeeled
1 onion, halved and then sliced into large wedges
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
Dried basil, to taste
2 leeks, light green and white parts only, rinsed well and sliced into 1/2" chunks
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
2 Italian sausages, cooked then sliced into chunks
The meat from half of a roasted chicken, chopped into chunks
8 oz wide egg noodles, prepared as instructed on box
Fresh basil, chopped
Fresh Parsley, chopped
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line your baking sheet with foil and spray with Nonstick Cooking Spray. Place all of your tomatoes, onion and the garlic on the baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and season with dried basil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft, juicy and have "deflated" a bit.

While waiting for your tomatoes and onion to roast, saute prepared leeks in 1 Tablespoon butter and 1 Tablespoon olive oil over medium-low heat until soft but still vibrant in color.

Remove tomatoes and onions from the oven and allow to cool slightly (you don't want to burn your fingers!) Once cooled some, carefully remove the skins of the tomatoes and discard. Many of them will probably have already slid off, and the others should slide off easily with a little assistance. Slip the garlic cloves out of their skins.  Add the tomatoes, onions, garlic and all the wonderful juices to the sautéed leeks.  Bring your heat up to medium/medium high and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add your cooked sausage and chicken to the pot, combine well.

Add the cooked, drained pasta to your marinara and toss to coat.  Garnish with chopped fresh basil, parsley and parmesan cheese.  Serve immediately.