Potato Salad and Tailgating

 

We went to the Braves game last night and at the last minute I decided that we should tailgate.   We have not done that in years.  I did nothing fancy.  I sliced garden fresh tomatoes with a little Italian dressing.  Sliced fresh peaches that GI Joe brought back from the English Farm in Zebulon.  They are great!  I picked up my favorite fried chicken.  The best part is that I made homemade potato salad. 

Potato salad is one of my favorite foods.  I LOVE it!  I am sharing with you my mother’s recipe.  She was such a great cook.  We like it hot with dill pickles, but you can use sweet pickles and serve it chilled.

Rule of thumb:  When making potato salad or mashed potatoes use 1 potato for each person.  What kind of potatoes do you use?  I use baking potatoes.  They have more starch so when cooked will tend to fall apart making a soft potato salad.  If you like more firm potatoes use new potatoes.  They have less starch ,less calories but they stay firm after cooking.  Choose what you like. 

Steps for making salad:

1.  Cube potatoes and cover with water in a saucepan.  I do not use salt because the olives I put in the salad are salty. 

2.  Cook until tender. About 15 – 20 min.  Check by using a fork and check for desired tenderness.

3.  Drain in a colander.  

4.  Return to pan and put your choice of condiments in such as sliced olives, dill pickle relish, a little mustard and mayonnaise. Stir lightly.

Enjoy!

Happy Cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

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Yogurt Fruit Parfaits

This is the first full  week of school.  I am so excited.  That is just crazy!    After 30 years- Did I  just type that? – It will  be just another day, but NO.     56 high school students are walking  through my classroom door every day hoping that it will be a fun class.  Most days it will  but after all it is school.  We will use a textbook and take tests.  They will have fun though,  they will learn how to COOK!!!  Better yet they are going to EAT.   SOOO  I have a captive audience, they will eat ANYTHING that I put before them .  Most of them do not eat breakfast.  They are  starving. 

Just so you will  know I am no culinary expert.  I am just a Nutrition and Wellness teacher that loves to teach and loves to cook.  With that said let’s start with something easy for breakfast.   

 

Yogurt Fruit Parfaits –   YUMMY

 

My first experience with these cute little things was in PC (Panama City, Fla).  GI Joe and I were attending a destination wedding for one of my best friend’s daughter’s wedding.  The morning of the wedding we had breakfast at the Bay Point Marriott restaurant where we were staying .  The Parfait was a feast for your eyes as well as scrumptious to eat.  As most hotels, the cost was HIGH.  I am so cheap in some ways.   As a Family and Consumer Science Teacher aka. Home Economics teacher anything that you can

 

make at home and buy elsewhere is HIGH!!   When we returned home  I started making some of those high priced PARFAITS.  They are sooo easy and sooo good.  Here ya go. 

Use any fruits that are in season ( or Frozen) for example blueberries and peaches or strawberries and bananas

Add nuts

Granola

Nonfat yogurt

Layer in a pretty glass.  PAY ATTENTION TO SERVING SIZE   Read the labels and do not use your eyes as a guide. Until you get a feel for serving sizes USE measuring cups.  You will be surprised.

That’s it for today!

Happy Cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

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Hello world!

Welcome to my new blog about teaching and cooking. In future blogs you will find out some interesting things about teaching a nutrition and wellness class to high school students as well as knowledge about food preparation from the ground up. I am not a fancy cook that’s been trained in France. I’m just a Southern cook trained in a Southern home. I will be sharing with you recipes that I use with students and ones that I feed GI Joe (my husband) and The Athlete (my son). With that said I am off and running to get my classes started and to keep my family fed.

Happy Cooking,
The Teacher Cooks

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Filed under Cooking