I developed this salad because I’m not a big fan of mayonnaise-based potato salad. This is really the simplest thing: just potatoes in a regular vinaigrette. You can add all kinds of extras to it to make it more festive, but people always rave about the salad as is. The secret is that potatoes actually have really nice flavor— all you have to do is season them properly. Let potatoes be potatoes, no need to hide ’em!
If you have leftover roasted potatoes or other root vegetables, the same idea works great. Just skip the cooking part and go straight to the dressing.
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Beef stroganoff is one of my husband’s favorites, so I make it as a treat for him—and one of my early readers, Dave, says his mother made it for him growing up. It’s a classic winter meal from Eastern Europe that warms up a cold house and fills the air with rich aroma. You can use any cut of beef; just adjust the cooking time based on the toughness. Dave’s mom made it with red pepper instead of carrot, so feel free to do the same if you can get red peppers at a good price.
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Po’ Boys, the delicious Louisiana sandwiches, are a craving I get surprisingly often and fried shrimp po’ boys are the best of them all. There are many toppings for po’boys but I am most partial to the fried shrimp, catfish, crawfish, or oysters kind. Although there are many perfectly decent places to grab a po’ boy in NYC, I still just don’t have a go-to spot that I love. And the last time the craving hit and we tried a new place I ended up with food poisoning. So this time when I couldn’t get the idea of a pile of fried shrimp with pickles and hot sauce out of my head I figured I might as well make it myself and see what happens. The results were a super crunchy, spicy fried shrimp sandwich — stuff falling out of the sides of my roll, needing two or three napkins to clean up. Total success.
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Still looking to maximize friend and family time in this zone between Christmas and New Years? Cooking and baking together can be so much fun, and perogy-making is the perfect project to do in groups! And hearty, cheesy, starchy, satisfying perogies are just what your body craves during the cold months. In my hometown, Edmonton there is a big Ukrainian population and Ukrainian grandmothers often gather in church basements to make the most delicious perogies together. So let’s be inspired by them and have a perogy-making party! The best part is that everyone can leave with a bag or two of these delicious cheddar and potato perogies for the freezer.
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