How To Make Best Potatoes Ever

Remember, I'm cooking on a glorified 2 burner hotplate.  If you have a normal stove, medium heat is probably OK.

First take two potats, slice long ways down the middle, Rotate 90 deg. and do it again, then cut cut cut into small pieces--not too thick.   I hate those places that offer french fries which are like half a potato each.  Lots of people have no clue what to do with spuds.

I don't bother peeling because I'm lazy.  I wash them and hope it gets most of the pesticide off.  Hell, in this state anything that keeps pests away from plants and humans is illegal anyway.

OK, pile the cut up potatoes on a plate, nuke it in the microwave for 2 minutes while the big frying pan is heating up.   But first, sprinkle some La Chinata--that hot paprika---on them.

Put some oil in the pan, just to cover the bottom.  Throw some regular paprika in there, along with a sparing amount of the Good Hawaiian salt--the red clay stuff.  Just a pinch or two.  And a cafeteria size pad of butter.  Not the size of a cafeteria, the size used in cafeterias.

The pan is hot--I always have a lid on it.  Remove the lid so you can now dump in the potatoes.   Failure to do so will result in junk all over the lid, and bad karma.

Now, pour in some half and half.  Put the lid on and thinly slice cheese of choice. I like cheddar.  Lay the very thin slices on the potatoes.   Do I have to remind you to remove and replace the lid every time?  Good, didn't think so.

Go boot up the computer and pull up your email.  Go back and put in some more half and half after scooping the mess up with a spatula and turning it over.  It will have a brown skin on the bottom  Got to get under that.  It is not to stay there.

You may be cooking other things at the same time--peas, salmon, who knows.  I never cook salmon so whatever.

Throw in a bit more paprika and chinata, if the stuff doesn't already look plenty reddish.    Don't overdo the chinata.  Be sparing. The regular paprika can be added very generously.  Maybe a little more half and half if needed.  Normally one dose at the beginning,  and one when you flip/stir the stuff is sufficient.

At the end of the process, there is little or no evidence of the half and half.  It becomes one with the potatoes.

Delete all the email that you don't feel like reading--ever.  These things take a few minutes.  Unless you have the burner way too hot, it is unlikely you will overcook.

Again, use spatula to lift that brown skin-on-the-bottom part and dump the potato extravaganza on your plate, leaving nothing in the pan.

It is better than any comparable potato dish you'll find at Chef Ramsay's or anywhere else.

You will thank me later if you do this right.   Don't know what kind of spuds I used.  I think it said russet.  Whatever ones are the best bargain, I say.

You say potato and I say whoknowswhat.

Another public service because I care.

It is for the children, our future, to support the troops, to give back to the community...etc.

Please help me pat myself on the back for my selfless generosity--it's all the rage, and has been forever.

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Out and About

Had to cruise around to reset my mojo.

This is about 30 min NE of home.  Mt Laguna area.  I went in from the Lake Cuyamaca side.  I think that is correct spelling.

For some reason, I remembered the time when I came to believe that evil exists.  I mean exists almost like a independent force.  It was there like the wind is there.

Lately I've become less and less inclined to buy into the sort of biblical talk I see here and there.  Some of those people get quite wound up.

Most Catholics I know are fine people, but the scariest, most evil feeling presence I've ever experienced  emanated from a S. Florida holy man at the immigration hearings the senate was conducting around the country around 1990, give or take.  He was higher than a priest, a bishop I think.  I'm not up on the chain of command.

Just remembering it gives me chills and a queazy stomach.  We did not exchange words.  I was part of the furniture, setting up tape recorders in the room.

I did get to hear what people had to say at that time. He wanted all the money that went into dealing with all the Haitians and others that land on Florida beaches to go through his outfit.  He had reasons, but it was very transparent--his play for power and control.  There were several powerful people there--if being a senator ad the like makes one powerful.

Governmental power and privilege I guess.  I could see how it can be addictive and seductive.

That wave of pure evil that followed him around struck me long before I heard a word from him.  It seriously took me by surprised.

I felt it before I turned to see where it was coming from.  I doubt I'll ever forget it.  I've known people who've done horrible things, but I never felt anything from them to compare to this guy's presence.

I know it sounds kooky, ad I suppose it is, but I assure you, it was real.  Not that it matters what you or I think of the issue.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, so they say.  They are right, although the big picture is complex in that regard.  So, no simple pronouncement on churches and holy men would be just or true. It just doesn't quite work that way.

It has left me convinced that there is more to being than meets the eye.  Not sure what brought it to mind.

Life goes on.

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