(Just Another) Melange Monday

Smoked chicken and avocado grilled cheese
on left; smashed potatoes on right.
The potatoes still need work.

Hello everyone - I do hope a good weekend was had by all! It's Monday ... and time for melange.

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As I wrote last Monday, I'm determined to use my Pinterest food board to broaden my culinary repertoire. Up this week: smoked chicken and avocado grilled cheese from The Unorthodox Epicure and crispy smashed potatoes from Love Grows Wild. 

These two were my Saturday night dinner menu; while I hope you'll pardon my night-time-with-fluorescent-lighting photo, I can heartily recommend the sandwich. And I mean heartily. This is far more than mere grilled cheese: chunks of white meat chicken (mine wasn't smoked) and cured sun-dried tomatoes (I switched out the red peppers) sit atop two types of cheese, topped with fresh avocado and lime (I omitted the cilantro and added tarragon), all grilled on mayonnaise-buttered sourdough bread. Now clearly I do not have mad grilling skillz, nevertheless this combination is a winner. Oh.My.Bob.Yes.Indeed. And very filling. These sourdough slices were small, yet I could not eat more than two halves.

The crispy smashed potatoes weren't quite as successful, but I think I need to give them another try with fingerling yukon golds instead of just the smallest foraged regular yukon golds. I found that mine wouldn't really smash - they just crumbled either in half or many pieces, and I think it's because they were too big and needed more boiling time. The one in the photo above was probably the best I could reproduce from the recipe. I will say that these were still tender, I still completed them in the oven with olive oil and kosher salt and they were fairly tasty. I found them a far better bed for poached eggs on Sunday and, along with a few sun-dried tomatoes, sourdough toast with orange marmalade and freshly brewed coffee, they made a tasty recovery.

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Abby Glassenberg of While She Naps recently blogged about why she doesn't monetize her site, that is, engage in affiliate marketing. You can certainly buy her products from the site, but otherwise it's free and clear of any professional conflicts. While she wrote it more succinctly that I may have I, too, fall into the non-monetized site camp for pretty much the same reasons. While Abbey's site is more fully developed than mine (I do not yet have my own domain), I also write book reviews and go on (sometimes ad nauseum) about yarn producers and dyers. I want to do that from a place unfettered by any potential conflict of interest. That doesn't mean I won't like the people whose yarn or book I may review or mention; it does mean that you can be certain I'm not earning one penny from anyone anywhere from the copy. I do provide many links to other sites, but that's for the reader's reference as well as providing appropriate links for copyright, nothing more. 

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Finally, I leave you with yarn from yet another design I've finished for future publication. I love, love, love this stuff. Alpaca and silk are a great combination, and this yarn really works up well. I've also started an Etched Ice Cowl as a model thank-you in this same fiber (different colorway). I let the model handle a bunch of my old swatches in order to let her choose what yarn she wanted me to use for her cowl, and she pretty instantly chose the Baby Alpaca Silk. A good use of swatches, I thought. 

See you in April!