Q&A | with a potato bowl theme

I had a bunch of questions come in about the potato/sausage/veggie bowl I made the other night while Zoe was at work; I often make variations of this type of thing when I’m feeding just me. 🙂

So, let’s start with that, and we’ll also squeeze in a few other reader questions.

What kind of sausage did you use in your mashed potato bowl?

Lots of you asked this!

It was just part of a one-pound block of Italian sausage; I broke it up and browned it in a hot cast-iron skillet, and that is probably more key than choosing a particular type of sausage.

Brown things thoroughly in a hot pan with some fat, and they will usually taste good. 😉

How do you make mashed potatoes for one?

Zoe doesn’t really like mashed potatoes, so if I want them, I have to make them for one!

I just peel a few potatoes, cut them into chunks, boil them until they’re tender, and then add eyeballed amounts of butter, salt, pepper, and cream/milk/half and half (whatever I have on hand.)

I generally end up with several servings, so I eat one serving fresh, and then I eat the rest leftover.

Like, sometimes I will eat mashed potatoes for breakfast, topped with an egg or two, with a side of veggies.

Or sometimes I get a little fancier. 😉

I also sometimes like to eat mashed sweet potatoes; this is super easy if I have roasted a bunch of sweet potatoes; I just mash up a few, add butter, salt, and pepper, heat them up, and I’m good to go.

Do you prep veggies ahead of time for your bowls? This seems like a lot of work for one person.

I don’t generally prep ahead. Sometimes I do bake a bunch of sweet potatoes at one time (as mentioned above), but usually I’m making my egg/potato/veggie bowls on the fly.

This lets me do a quick fridge scan to see what’s most urgently needing to be used and then I work around that.

My skillet meals really don’t seem like that much work to me; eggs cook fast, and it doesn’t take long to slice up some veggies and brown them.

Even potatoes are pretty quick; getting a few servings worth of potatoes cut up for mashed potatoes goes fast, and cutting up a few potatoes to make wedges doesn’t take long.

(Here’s my secret for making fast potato cubes/wedges that don’t burn.)

That mashed potato bowl I made was probably a 20-30 minute endeavor start to finish, which is on the longer side of things. If it’s just sauteed veggies and eggs, that’s maybe 5-10 minutes of effort.

If we’re comparing this to takeout, I keep in mind that picking up takeout doesn’t take zero minutes; it does take time to place an order and drive there and back.

Plus, most takeout I’d get would probably be a little less nutrient-dense than my potato bowl.

Also, takeout would be far more expensive, and it wouldn’t help me use up my fridge contents.

One other reason I do this: I think feeding myself well is an important form of self-care.

First, it’s an acknowledgment that I matter. Even if it’s just me here, well, I am worth cooking for.

And secondly, feeding my cells well is gonna make me feel at least as good as other things we typically think of as self-care.

I’m not against massages or pedicures, obviously; I just think that cooking a nutrient-dense, tasty meal for yourself should also be considered a form of self-care. 🙂

(I also put sleep prioritization and regular exercise in this category!)

A roasted carrot modification

I posted a recipe for roasted carrots years ago, using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. Those carrots are super good, but I have seriously streamlined the process since then.

First, I don’t use any foil or parchment paper at all now (cheaper! More green!)

Secondly, I don’t mix anything in a bowl first.

I put some butter on the sheet pan, stick it in the hot oven for a few minutes to melt the butter, and then I take it out, add the carrots, season with salt and pepper, mix it all up, and put the pan in the oven.

Less mess, fewer dishes, faster carrots.

I edited the original recipe with these changes, but I thought I should also tell you here. 🙂

I recently made pizza crust using your recipe, and I want to know if the crust can be frozen prior to cooking, preferably in the ball stage. If so, at which point of prep would I do it?

-LW

I would make the dough and freeze it right after I finished kneading it.

Then I’d let it thaw at room temperature (during this time, the yeast should have sufficient time to multiply, thus compensating for the lack of a first rise), and once it’s thawed and is fully at room temperature, you should be able to proceed with the recipe.

It will take a while for the dough to thaw if it’s in a ball shape, so be sure to give yourself plenty of time until you figure out how long the thawing process takes at your house.

One note: I learned by trial and error that yeast dough does not keep forever; if it’s in the freezer for more than a few months, you risk having dough that won’t rise, and that makes for an extremely dense pizza crust.

Inedible, actually. Ha.

Here’s the pizza crust recipe that I use.

In case you don’t click the above link: for really awesome homemade pizza, I highly recommend getting a pizza stone and heating it up super hot for an hour before sliding your pizza in the oven to bake. It makes a crazy difference in how good your homemade pizza is.

Trust me. 🙂

Also, here are 5 reasons that your homemade pizza is terrible (plus how to fix it!)

I reread your post on how to sell books on eBay and was wondering if you know where to buy the book mailers in bulk or where they are cheapest? I want to start selling my books and know you’ll steer me in the most frugal direction;)

 

-Vicki

Readers, what do you have to add to my answers?