New Gadgets and Potato Recipe

Good grief I didn't realize I've been MIA until I signed on tonight and realized I haven't posted all week. Truth be told I haven't visited many blogs and went two days without even turning on the computer. I guess I'll be busy this weekend catching up or at least trying.

I was shopping for a new mattress and having it delivered. I had to clean my room and vacuum really well. Didn't want the delivery men to think I was a slob!! I don't sleep well because of my back and hopefully this new wonderful mattress is going to help. It has extra support for my lumbar which is wonderful. I slept until 3:30 last night. I'm usually up by 1:00 or 2:00 and then toss and turn all night.

I've been playing with my new gadgets this week too. This potato recipe is from the Two Fat Ladies. Does anyone remember them? They used to have a show on the Food Network. I didn't watch them very often but they were so funny and always made me laugh. I think one of them died several years ago and I'm not sure if the other one is living or not. I think I'll try to find out now.

The recipe is so easy and it was very good. I put ribs in the crock pot and made these to go with. The ribs were a no brainer...brown ribs, put in crock pot pour barbecue sauce over and cook all day. I didn't even make my sauce, just poured it from a bottle. Like I said EASY!!!

Potatoes a la Two Fat Ladies
2-3 medium potatoes
2 T each chopped fresh parsley
basil, rosemary, thyme and chives
5 cloves garlic (it is really garlicky so if you aren't a garlic fan I'd cut it)
salt/pepper
2-3 T olive oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
Peel and thinly slice potatoes. Finely chop garlic and herbs. Layer potatoes, sprinkle with herbs, a bit of garlic, salt/pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil. Repeat layers. Pour stock over all, cover with foil and bake at 400 for 30 minutes, uncover and bake another 30 minutes until brown and crisp.

This is one of my new gadgets. It was the Williams Sonoma gadget of the month. It works really well and it's fun too. You put the food in the bowl and pull that green ring on top several times. Below is the garlic that took a few seconds to mince.
These are the herbs that took no time at all. See my cute little spatula? It's tiny so it's nice for small bowls or jars. It even has a little snowflake.
This is my dough whisk. I've only used it a couple of times but I was sold the first time I used it. I use the dough hook on my Kitchen Aide for bread but for a small batch this works really well. I used it for other batters and it works well too. I ordered it from King Arthur Flour after reading about it at Chocolate and Zucchini.
Isn't it adorable? I love gadgets.
And now for the finale. I had leftovers for dinner and made a lovely salad. I used leaf lettuce, pears, toasted walnut and a little sliced shallot. I made a dressing using sherry vinegar, Dijon and olive oil. Everything was yummy and now I'm going to watch the presidential debate. Are you watching? And then I'm going to see if I can talk Bailey into letting me lay on my new mattress. He thinks I bought it for him. If he disappears I can find him sprawled out in the middle of my bed. Anna on the other hand doesn't like it.